Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › 2013 Recruiting Targets Part 2 › Reply To: 2013 Recruiting Targets Part 2
By no means am I advocating recruiting a guy just because he is big and looks good getting on and off the bus. I agree 100% that it is VERY hard to recruit big men at the mid major level, and also agree that recruiting athletic undersized post players a la Zahir is a good strategy. But I’m pretty sure that is what Reed is doing with Baltimore, Goldsborough, Whitfield, and Chuku. I just think it would make sense to recruit a big body every 2-3 years. Even Maneri and Safstrom who were absolute projects ended up having games and moments in which they really contributed – because they had something no one else on the team did, exceptional size.
I think Gabe is probably the 2nd best post player in the PL behind Muscala, and that is fantastic. Granted we got screwed with the KM injury, but as a comparison Bucknell has six other players 6’7 or above outside Muscala and two of them are listed at 230+. American has 5 players 6’7 and above including 3 who are 230+. Lehigh has 3 players 6’7 or above (HG, GK, and JG) and I doubt any of them weigh more than 215. One of them is woefully unprepared as a freshman (JG has the same number of fouls than points, assists, rebounds, and blocks COMBINED).
If Reed were 100% on his undersized big men recruits and was bringing in 1-2 Zahirs a year, then I would be silent. All I’m saying is that recruiting, and especially recruiting big men is a crapshoot, but I just think it makes immense sense to recruit a widebody 6’10+ guy once every 2-3 years. Maybe he pans out and is a star, or maybe he ends up being a Maneri who gives you 5 fouls, a couple of rebounds, and some toughness in 12 mpg as a senior. I for one would LOVE if Maneri had another year, I think he would be a massive addition to this team.
