I tweeted at the Loyola atheltics account asking about Smart figuring I wouldn't get a response but they messaged me saying they are not able to comment on recruits. Since they posted about the other two who have signed letters I guess that is confirmation that he has not signed yet.

Not sure where the Wichita State/Gregg Marshall hate came from in this thread. Sunrise sends a lot of kids to D1 and a lot of college coaches are familiar with the school. We have only ever signed one kid out of Sunrise that we didn't place there so I'm not sure where some of these cheap conspiracy theories have come from.

Current Freshman Zach Brown signed with us previously and spent a summer on campus playing/practicing with the team before attending Sunrise. He knew before hand that he would go to SCA and gave up playing AAU that summer to spend time in Wichita. Eric Hamilton is much the same. He signed last year and knew that a prep year may be needed. After spending the summer at WSU, he elected to go to SCA where he could spend more time working on and developing his skills rather than play limited minutes at WSU behind current players.

The one guy we didn't place there is FR Rauno Nurger. He was committed to Ole Miss, but after some coaching changes there he opted to go elsewhere and was released from his commitment. He did happen to be roommates at SCA with WSU commit Zach Brown. But there have been zero allegations of any wrong doing or tampering. To my knowledge, the only accusations about anything involving Gregg Marshall or WSU have come from fans pissed that they lost out on a recruit to us that they felt they were entitled to. Mostly that comes from VCU fans who have lost out on two recruits to 3G that they felt belonged to them in former Shocker Carl Hall and current Shocker Rashard Kelly.

I know WSU is hated in the Valley because our fans are insanely confident and proud. We always have been, even when we were going through our dark times of the 90s. But if you want to dislike us for being obnoxious are because our team is currently dominating the conference that's fine. It's expected from certain fans in the conference like Illinois State and even Missouri State. If you want to join that group that's perfectly fine. But I do have problems when baseless accusations get thrown around for no reason other than paranoia and have zero facts or even rumors to back them up. WSU is already loaded at guard and has no need for another in the upcoming class.

I would guess that as a recent post suggests, Smart knows that Moser is on a very short leash and is waiting to see what happens there. I don't think anyone will be surprised if Moser is fired by the time the MVC tournament ends or within a day or two of it. As much as we hate it sometimes, kids commit to coaches as much or more than they commit to the actual school. But these coaches do end up taking a father like role in their lives so I can't fault the kids for that.

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"It is 4.7 miles between Sunrise Christian Academy and Koch Arena and that distance is shrinking as Wichita State basketball extends its sphere of influence."

Read the recent linked article, which begins with the above quote, and tell me it's not reasonable to suspect that WSU may have influenced Smart's apparent decision to decommit from Loyola. Heck, I don't think it's much a stretch to believe that WSU had something to do with Smart going to Sunshine Academy in the first place.

It's been reported that WSU came on strong to Smart late in the recruiting process, so there was obviously interest there before he verballed to Loyola. (There is even a thread on Shockernet about WSU's interest in Smart that dates all the way back to last January.)

I don't have any first hand sources to tell me what's going on in Smart's head, or who has his ear, but I look to see who has the means, motive and opportunity to woo Smart away from Loyola, and WSU fits the bill.

One last quote from the article from Sunshine's coach, referring to Gregg Marshall: “I think we’re figuring out how to help each other.”






http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wi ... 41989.html

Roy Schmidt @prepbullseye · Nov 14
6'2 2015 2G Roosevelt Smart has not signed his LOI w/ Loyola-Chicago & could be looking to reopen his recruitment. Can't say I'm surprised.

He is possibly the most annoying presence on Twitter, and that's saying something. Claims to never be surprised, claims to have predicted things he never predicted.

That said, he suggested in a later tweet that Smart is not a full qualifier. Who knows.

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I agree that Schmidt is incredibly annoying, his writing style in particular. Every other sentence starts with "Simply put" or "There is no question but..."

I went so far a couple years ago to write him an email pointing this out, but got no response.

There's a parody twitter account for the Schmidt Bros called Donut Brothers that's pretty funny.


https://twitter.com/ilprepbullseye

My favorite is the, "Unlike some 'analysts' who saw him play for 10 minutes.." routine. #donuts

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How much of that choice was Hamilton "electing" to go to a prep school or WSU being a scholarship over the limit? I think it's incredibly naive to think that was the plan all along; otherwise, why wouldn't Hamilton reclassify right away? Why sign the letter of intent last year? And what coach was changed at Ole Miss? Kennedy is in his 9th season there.

I don't know Roosevelt Smart, never talked to him, and have zero insight as to what he's thinking. Maybe he has some completely valid points about PM's job security, which I don't fault him for. Maybe he's liking Wichita so much that he doesn't want to go back every season as a conference foe. I'm not saying WSU definitively cheated or tampered with Smart. Even if they wanted him, WSU is still 2 scholarships over the limit with maybe one player who will leave early for the draft (btw, if they're still over in the summer, what are the odds one of those incoming freshmen preps a year at Sunrise Christian?). I'm just saying this whole setup between WSU and Sunrise Christian looks fishy from the outside.

That's my point in a nutshell.

Sunrise Christian is becoming a sort of satellite junior varsity for WSU. They even run the same offense. Their coach and Marshall are admittedly chummy and "looking for ways to help each other out".

It's a place for WSU to park recruits for a year (or two) without them using up any eligibility. And it is certainly a geographically convenient place from which WSU can poach other schools' recruits

In Smart's case, I'm guessing somebody from WSU talked him into enrolling at Sunrise. In September, for whatever reason, he verballed to Loyola, but something happened between late September and Nov.12 to make him change his mind. SubGod proposes that Smart all of a sudden realized that Moser might be gone next year. I proposed that his change of heart was a result of WSU influence, maybe not from Marshall directly but from Sunshine's coach or one of the WSU commits there. Of these two possibilities, I think mine is more probable. But who knows.

I don't know what Smart is going to do, but I'm pretty sure Loyola is out of the picture. If Smart does decide to sign with WSU, he probably would do a second, post-graduate year at Sunshine, like Hamilton is doing.

Hamilton had mentioned the possibility of prepping even before we ended up over the limit. Zach Brown signed with us the previous year and stated he would go to prep school at that time. Kids in these cases sign to show their commitment. It happens a lot actually. The change at Ole Miss was the coach that actually recruiting Nurger left for a Florida school. There may have been another assistant leave as well. I can't remember.

And most of that article was written about Hamilton, being that he's the WSU recruit. Us placing kids at Sunrise helps them on a national level. Sunrise running a similar style and having their strength coach be a former player helps get kids D1 ready and closer to WSU standards than if they were at another school. Some of you are really stretching things to fit your narrative. And there's nothing fishy. Lots of schools place kids in prep schools. We just happen to have a prep school in a neighboring town and it happens to be one of the better prep schools in the country. Other schools use Hargrave or Oak Hill or Findley Prep or whoever. Hell, there are other kids at Sunrise who have been placed there by SEC schools in the past. Nobody was crying foul then and they shouldn't be now.

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