Allen Payne - Visiting on 9/26 & VCU leads his recruiting

Larry and Eric's roads to the NBA are totally different.
As mentioned before, E didn't get the exposure he needed in his junior year PLUS PG's have to have either freakish skills (Brandon Jennings/Chris Paul/etc) or Floor Generalship ability (Brevin Knight/earl boykins)...My guess is the floor general types usually need the seasoning to get the attention and respect of NBA scouts. Eric falls in the latter category.

Larry, on the other hand, falls into the Freakish category...that'll give him the juice to go waaaaay higher then Eric did purely based on potential. His growth the past 4 years (an absurd notion....I mean dude's been playing for real for 4 FREAKIN' years :shock: ) has been exponential. If he ends up on the right team with the right situation for him...he's gonna be a beast in a couple years.

Unless something extremely unexpected happens to Larry (Injury type thing-god forbid)...he's so gone

Also...I think WolfPack and VCUBeatsDuke are right in assuming some of these kids are waiting to see how the NBA draft wind blows.....but wait too long at your peril....'cause as my dear old mom says...."you better Sh#T or get off the pot"
 
Half-baked Mcbride said:
Larry and Eric's roads to the NBA are totally different.
As mentioned before, E didn't get the exposure he needed in his junior year PLUS PG's have to have either freakish skills (Brandon Jennings/Chris Paul/etc) or Floor Generalship ability (Brevin Knight/earl boykins)...My guess is the floor general types usually need the seasoning to get the attention and respect of NBA scouts. Eric falls in the latter category.

Larry, on the other hand, falls into the Freakish category...that'll give him the juice to go waaaaay higher then Eric did purely based on potential. His growth the past 4 years (an absurd notion....I mean dude's been playing for real for 4 FREAKIN' years :shock: ) has been exponential. If he ends up on the right team with the right situation for him...he's gonna be a beast in a couple years.

Unless something extremely unexpected happens to Larry (Injury type thing-god forbid)...he's so gone

Also...I think WolfPack and VCUBeatsDuke are right in assuming some of these kids are waiting to see how the NBA draft wind blows.....but wait too long at your peril....'cause as my dear old mom says...."you better Sh#T or get off the pot"
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Bake:

You are so on the money - a terrific opportunity could pass these guys up and they may end up at a school that would not serve them or their skills. That truly is the peril of waiting...

Of course, for a VCU, the waiting may actually end of serving us well - we may end up with a recruit that could not find a home at a ACC or Big East school...

VCUBeatsduke
 
If we put up a good season and get to the post season again...Shaka proves himself as a coach...and the NBA wind blows taking Larry with it, we'll get a quality big come spring. Some of the remaining high school kids will have great seasons and blow up come spring time and if Larry goes we'll have a spot.
 
also this comparison of E and Larry is flawed in a simpler way because E was never projected as a 1st rounder until his senior year while larry on the monday update of nbadraft.net's 2010 mock is number 9. ready to play in the nba or not tough to expect him to pass that up.
 
mwalvlior said:
also this comparison of E and Larry is flawed in a simpler way because E was never projected as a 1st rounder until his senior year while larry on the monday update of nbadraft.net's 2010 mock is number 9. ready to play in the nba or not tough to expect him to pass that up.
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It is probably too early to start thinking about this, but did any one else notice that the Utah Jazz are listed with the #3 and #8 picks on nbadraft.net. Could be interesting.
 
mwalvlior said:
also this comparison of E and Larry is flawed in a simpler way because E was never projected as a 1st rounder until his senior year while larry on the monday update of nbadraft.net's 2010 mock is number 9. ready to play in the nba or not tough to expect him to pass that up.
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Wow...if Larry progresses like we the he will....he could be a top 5 by the end of Spring, 2010...

VCUBeatsduke
 
VCU Finance 2008 said:
mwalvlior said:
also this comparison of E and Larry is flawed in a simpler way because E was never projected as a 1st rounder until his senior year while larry on the monday update of nbadraft.net's 2010 mock is number 9. ready to play in the nba or not tough to expect him to pass that up.
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It is probably too early to start thinking about this, but did any one else notice that the Utah Jazz are listed with the #3 and #8 picks on nbadraft.net. Could be interesting.
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One of those will stay there and one wont. The Jazz wont get the 8th pick with their selection as they will get better and some other teams will fall down, but the other is the Knicks pick which they own, so they will definitely have an early lottery pick. Not sure Larry is "fundamental" enough for Sloan, but maybe E being there will help that image and we all know they could use some shot blocking.
 
Payne has decided to sign with Auburn. No real surprise here as he is very similiar to Reco just not as talented.

VCU needs a quality young big. The staff has done quite well for the early signing period and it may not be over!
 
I just confirmed this with Allen. He committed to play with Auburn a couple of hours ago and will sign at the school next week. Mike Dyer at the Cincinnati Enquirer talked to Allen and was told he would wait until January to sign and apparently had a change of heart. Good for Allen. While it would have been nice to have another high quality player, Reco is a clone of him and seems to be more highly regarded overall.

I agree with Ramification...we need a big in a bad way, especially if Larry is leaving. I think we may be better served waiting til the late period for a late bloomer. We may just make some noise this year with the Landlord blossoming the way he has, and March success can only help us nab a good big in the late signing period. Coach Smart has already shown he can recruit in a short time frame with great success with the late signing's of Troy, Issiah (who were both 3 stars) and Theus (who is likely the best of them all). We are in very good hands. This is one of the best coaching staffs in the mid-major ranks that we have here right now.
 
i have been up and down on the whole idea of payne because of reco and maybe because we had missed on all the guys this board has been focused on for the last couple weeks/months that i had gone back up on hoping he would come and also as a statement that we are actually beating out some of these programs for players. I am happy Allen is going where he wants and that he made his decision now if it is what is in his heart and wish him well, but let's also be honest as well as Smart did in the offseason right after being hired with our 3 guards, Rob early this year and Reco and an under the radar to some degree star, it is disappointing to lose out to frankly inferior programs on some of these players. Georgia and Auburn are not where we are as a program and if we are not competing and winning out against those levels, then when it comes to places like UConn or Tenn it is tough to believe we have a true chance unless the program rejects the player because it has "better" options. Also as far as Reco is concerned I think we know that if Wake had offered him, he would be at Wake, so we are lucky and Smart has done a good job recruiting to this point, but we do have a glaring need for a post player and in that score we are roughly 0-4 (bradley, harris, basabe, lalanne) at least. Great that we are in these conversations, but as the saying goes close isnt good enough unless you are playing horseshoes and hand grenades.
 
mwalvlior said:
i have been up and down on the whole idea of payne because of reco and maybe because we had missed on all the guys this board has been focused on for the last couple weeks/months that i had gone back up on hoping he would come and also as a statement that we are actually beating out some of these programs for players. I am happy Allen is going where he wants and that he made his decision now if it is what is in his heart and wish him well, but let's also be honest as well as Smart did in the offseason right after being hired with our 3 guards, Rob early this year and Reco and an under the radar to some degree star, it is disappointing to lose out to frankly inferior programs on some of these players. Georgia and Auburn are not where we are as a program and if we are not competing and winning out against those levels, then when it comes to places like UConn or Tenn it is tough to believe we have a true chance unless the program rejects the player because it has "better" options. Also as far as Reco is concerned I think we know that if Wake had offered him, he would be at Wake, so we are lucky and Smart has done a good job recruiting to this point, but we do have a glaring need for a post player and in that score we are roughly 0-4 (bradley, harris, basabe, lalanne) at least. Great that we are in these conversations, but as the saying goes close isnt good enough unless you are playing horseshoes and hand grenades.
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I wouldn't view it as a failure, I view it as very situational this year. IF we had 5 schollies to give I think we would have landed one of those bigs. The irony here is that the only way we seem to have an available schollie is IF Larry leaves for the NBA (which although likely, is still an if...let's face it...we'd all rather watch Larry dominate the CAA for another year than a developing big). However IF he does stay, PT for these bigs would actually be extremely limited. A big IF for talented young players with many good offers out there. I don't think these kids want to here about ifs, they want something defined and tangible. I believe the best thing that can happen for us (as alluded to by DB, and as I stated earlier), is that we have a good year, get to the post season, Larry tears up the CAA and puts up incredible numbers, then goes as an NBA first rounder. At that point the IFs are removed from the equation...we have a defined scholarship to offer...and available BIGs will be salivating to get in here and follow in Larry's footsteps. Look at all the quality guards we recruited during Eric's success and tenure. We will be well served to have some of these bigs like Donte, etc. wait till the late signing period, and if we do well, we'll not only be able to talk the talk, but we can walk the walk...and we will be in a very good position to land a very talented one.
 
I never understood how Payne fits into the puzzle anyway so I'm less bummed about him than the bigs we missed on.

Regarding mwalvlior's comment about getting beat by inferior programs, that's very subjective. However, what is not subjective is their conference affiliation. Payne mentioned wanting to compete against the best night in and night out (http://www.ohshoops.com/). So even if you could say a program may be inferior, players he would compete against aren't and you know just about all of these guys think they're potential NBA prospects.
 
I always live by the rule that everything happens for a reason. Case and point, Ben Eblen recants on coming to VCU and we wind up with Theus and Grayson. Although neither of the three have played in a college game, outside of exihibitions and scrimmages, I really feel good about the talent our newcomers have to offer over Eblen.

We will get a big if Larry leaves and there will be a young talented PF/C available in the spring. Just think of all the coaching changes and what not that will occur and players will become available. heck Calhoun keeps getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar he may get fired from UCONN and someone like Bradley may reopen his commitment.

All I am saying is you never know. But we are too good of a program not to get a quality big before next year if/when Larry leaves.
 
Payne's signing is the lead story on Rivals.com basketball recruiting page.

Three-star prospect Allen Payne was going to wait till the spring before he signed, but a change of heart on the first day of the early signing period has him headed to the SEC.
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