I’ve never seen Rodney McGruder play, but my pal Jeff Goodman has. Goodman is a senior national college basketball writer for Foxsports.com, and during the summer, he can usually be found at those larger summer camps featuring all of the nation’s best young talent.
Here is what Goody had to say (via e-mail) about the 6-foot-4 McGruder, a four-star recruit (according to Rivals.com) from Washington, D.C.’s Archbishop Carroll who gave his 2009 commitment to Kansas State yesterday:
These
two commitments are probably as meaningful as just about any that have
occurred in the last month or so - other than Greg Monroe to Georgetown.
The reason is simple: This means that K-State isn’t going away anytime
soon. Both Judge and McGruder are kids that have a chance to be Top 50
kids in the Class of 2009. Judge is a big-time athlete who could
probably go anywhere he wants in the ACC - other than Duke or North
Carolina. McGruder was terrific in the spring and summer. He’s got size
and gets a lot done. Plus, both of these kids have plenty of toughness.
You’ve got to give Dalonte Hill and Frank Martin a ton of credit
because, frankly, I didn’t think he’d be able to get both of them to
commit to Kansas State despite his DC Assault ties.
And they might not be done. Terrence Boyd, another D.C. Assault kid who visited Manhattan during the "Madness" and was spotted shooting around on the court afterwards with Judge and McGruder, by all accounts wants to be a Wildcat. He told me so that night. Right now, though, it’s a numbers game. This is the world K-State basketball is in right now - Boyd is a highly-regarded three-star guard from Norman, Okla., that plays his AAU ball for — yep, you guessed it — the D.C. Assault. But K-State is holding off right now, trying to sort out the program’s needs as opposed to luxuries. According to gopowercat.com’s Brian Gates, the next target appears to be Topeka Hayden guard Jeff Reid.
9 Comments
Solid info. J-Mart, you are pretty much the man.
Good stuff.
Boyd has played with Assault in the past, but ran with Athletes First out of OKC this summer.
Do you know if Reid can shoot 3’s?
Why take Reid over Boyd?
Best in the biz!
Russell, that would make sense, wouldn’t it? I look at this roster, in its present form and future capacity, and think perimeter shooting is a weakness. But I don’t know much about him. I’ll make some calls and find out. As for taking Reid over Boyd, I don’t know if that is for certain. He’s apparently been offered, which is more than Boyd can say. Maybe it’s the local tie. I don’t know. With the roster shaping up the way it is, it makes sense to specialize at this point. Remember what Dalonte said the day the new staff took over? He said they were looking for “the next Lee Humphrey,” the sharp-shooting guard who helped Florida win back-to-back national titles. Reid might be that guy.
J-Mart: This blog is great!!! I knew Hill and Martin were making some recruiting inroads, but this is good stuff. Thanks for the info and keep up the great work!
Thanks, Jeff.
Could Babb be the next Lee Humphery? Tyree?
will people please get over tyree evans? his list is WVU, Maryland and Florida St. we’re not even in the picture, as far as i have heard. i’d much rather have babb - 17 straight 3’s - yikes!
MMMM…. Jeffro… Stella mon, stella… all this killa info and I dont have to pay a dime. Seems like we have a bunch of slashers on the squad now. The 2008 class interests me. Samuels is in, and we should have 2-4 left. I take it we save one, so that leaves 1-3. I bet we are holding off on offering herrara (sp?) until we see how Beasley and Walker shake out. What if one gets hurt and stays, we need to save a scholly. Can we afford to save two schollies for 2009? You the man.