Williams: Thoughts on the Staten Situation

[ChrisMWilliams]

Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com is reporting this afternoon that Wesley Staten, a now former Iowa State 2012 basketball commitment out of Sioux City West high school has decided to look elsewhere for his college choice.

This has been a rollercoaster of a day following this story. Let’s look at what we know.

1 – The name Wes has not been kind to Iowa State basketball over the past few years.

2 – Staten is only a sophomore in high school.

3 – Staten is only a sophomore in high school.

This is certainly a blow towards the ever-developing 2012 basketball recruiting class. I won’t lighten this thing up for you guys. Staten is a quality prospect who was very worthy of the early offer. Seeing him in a Cyclone uniform would have made a lot of people happy.

But again, he’s a sophomore in high school. I didn’t’ even know what to eat for dinner when I was a sophomore in high school. I had absolutely no clue where I wanted to go to college. It stinks for Iowa State that Staten will weigh his options, but I don’t think it’s fair to throw darts at and judge the young man.

Who knows…maybe Staten will still be a Cyclone someday.

I do have good news though. The 2012 class appears to be quite deep with guards that Iowa State has a legitimate shot in getting. Linn-Mar’s Marcus Paige comes to mind. What about South Sioux City’s Mike Gesell? Both prospects are high on Iowa State and local.

The 2012 recruiting class won’t step foot on campus for a really long time. By no means should any Cyclone basketball fan be panicking from this news today.

Just my two cents on the topic…

 

[acgclone]

Our BB program is at a tipping point anyway this season. I'm not too worried about 2012 recruits at this point. If we don't show signs of life this year, GMac will be gone, and the ISU recruitment of Wes would have started over again with the new coach anyway.

 

[IcSyU]

If we don't show signs of life this year, GMac will be gone

Unless we have a donor willing to pony up a boat load of cash, wrong.

 

[CyTom]

GMac will not be gone...I think he is signed through 2015 and we don't have money to be firing him.

 

[isuno1fan]

Our BB program is at a tipping point anyway this season. I'm not too worried about 2012 recruits at this point. If we don't show signs of life this year, GMac will be gone, and the ISU recruitment of Wes would have started over again with the new coach anyway.

GMac isn't going anywhere even if we don't show signs of life. The sooner you accept that, the better.

 

[Knownothing]

We either win this year or practically everyone of them kids will go bye bye. No way these kids stay with us if we can't win with what we are about ready to put on the court.
If Brackins, Lucca, Dendy, Colvin, and Gilstrap can't get it done. We are in serious trouble.

 

[akellar]

Chris, you should know by now that logic and reason don't matter to message boards when it comes to recruits.

 

[saf]

Not going to worry about a recruit that far in the future. We need to take care of this season and recruiting will be fine.

 

[Cyrok]

Thank you Chris for the well thought-out post.

I'm sure Wes is following the HB recruiting saga and seeing what a fantastic experience he is having. If I were a sophomore in high school with even a tiny chance of going through the process and meeting Jordan and legendary coaches I would take it.

I hope he gets to see what's out there and then sees a great opportunity at ISU.

 

[CloneIce]

Its pretty obvious that a committment from a 14 or 15 year old doesn't really mean anything anyway. They are so young then, too young to really make a final decision on their college choice, there is so much that can change as they go through high school. I don't think any of Gmac's early commitments have stayed committed.

 

[DaddyMac]

Maybe he's just worried about the whole 2012 Aztec thing?

You guys got me in a panic. Somebody assure me that the sun will come up tomorrow!

 

[bos]

Its pretty obvious that a committment from a 14 or 15 year old doesn't really mean anything anyway. They are so young then, too young to really make a final decision on their college choice, there is so much that can change as they go through high school. I don't think any of Gmac's early commitments have stayed committed.

Maybe he should get a commit from them. All it does is make others take a closer look and then snag em away.

 

[cyclonenum1]

GMac isn't going anywhere even if we don't show signs of life. The sooner you accept that, the better.

This sort of attitude or comment absolutely sickens me.

 

[tejasclone]

Maybe he's just worried about the whole 2012 Maya thing?

You guys got me in a panic. Somebody assure me that the sun will come up tomorrow!

Fixed (my wife is an archaeologist, sorry :GEEK

 

[ISU_phoria]

I know this is completely cliche, but if the kid isn't sure he wants to come to ISU, then let him go where he'll be happy.

I'd much rather have him do it this way instead of the way the "other" Wes did.

At least the coaching staff has the time to replace him with another quality recruit, which definitely wasn't the case when WJ left (as evidenced by our short-comings last year)

Good luck to you Wes, hopefully when its all said and done, ISU will still be the right place for you!

 

[Al_4_State]

This sort of attitude or comment absolutely sickens me.

It's the truth. We could lose every single game this year and Greg McDermott would still be the coach. We basically signed him to a 9 year contract that we can't afford to buy out.

If we don't get to the post season this year, Cyclone basketball is going to rot, and rot badly.

If we get to the post season, we'll be on the right track.

 

[Palmer]

I know this is completely cliche, but if the kid isn't sure he wants to come to ISU, then let him go where he'll be happy.

I'd much rather have him do it this way instead of the way the "other" Wes did.

At least the coaching staff has the time to replace him with another quality recruit, which definitely wasn't the case when WJ left (as evidenced by our short-comings last year)

Good luck to you Wes, hopefully when its all said and done, ISU will still be the right place for you!

+1

 

[cyclonenum1]

" Its pretty obvious that a committment from a 14 or 15 year old doesn't really mean anything anyway. They are so young then, too young to really make a final decision on their college choice, there is so much that can change as they go through high school. I don't think any of Gmac's early commitments have stayed committed. "

Recruiting is basically a crap shoot anyway. Add in recruiting of kids before they even play any HS ball and you really have a tenuous situation.

But make no mistake...this is a two way street. Recruits back away from schools (Staten) and schools back away from recruits (Dykstra).

Just as I think McDermott did what was in the best interests of ISU in backing away from Dykstra, I also think Staten is probably doing what he thinks is in his best interests. If you don't look out for your own best interests, who will?

 

[isuno1fan]

This sort of attitude or comment absolutely sickens me.

Just stating facts.

 

[CloneIce]

" If you don't look out for your own best interests, who will?

Your AAU Coach?