The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

Recruiting Concludes

In early April we got our last 2 recruits:

SF Jason Archie, 6-5, HS Sr, Oakfield, WI, 15.1 ppg, 3.4 apg, 6.0 rpg, 2.1 spg, 2.1 bpg; He’s a good scorer who shoots well both inside and outside, a strong rebounder, very good athleticism, hard worker. #101 ranked recruit.

PF Marcus Paulding, 6-8, HS Sr, Culbertson, MT, 15.6 ppg, 2.6 apg, 5.2 rpg, 1.9 spg, 1.8 bpg; He’s a good scorer with excellent inside shooting skills, strong defender, not a leader but doesn’t cause problems, doesn’t have many problems with injuries. #116 ranked recruit.
These 2 go along with the 3 recruits we signed earlier this season:

Lamar Kapono is a 6-8 PF from Houston, TX. He averaged 13.7 ppg, 5.3 apg, 15.2 rpg, 4.0 spg, and 4.9 bpg. He’s a beast on the boards and a great shot blocker and gets a lot of steals. Lamar is a very good defender and is an excellent scorer, particularly inside. He was in the top 10 at the Indy Elite Camp and then was MVP at the Houston Classic Camp. He’s the 32nd highest ranked recruit in the nation.

Malik Howard is a 6-4 SG from Phoenix, AZ who averaged 16.9 ppg, 6.8 apg, and 11.3 rpg, 0.4 spg. He’s an excellent shooter from outside. He also is a very strong rebounder and a good defender. He needs to work on his shot blocking and stealing, but is very athletic. He’s a hard worker and doesn’t have many problems with injuries. He’s ranked #42 in the nation.

Bret Cross is a 6-1 PG from Calhan, CO and will be transferring to just after playing JC ball. He scored 19.2 ppg and had 4.2 apg, 5.0 rpg, 2.3 spg, and 0.8 bpg. He has strong passing and ball handling skills and is an excellent scorer from outside. He’s very good defensively and is very athletic and is a hard worker. He’s ranked #88 in the nation.

These recruits will replace 5 seniors who are graduating:

PG Matt Conley
SG Steve Jackson
SG Camah Griffin
SF Charles Maors
PF Primoz Pohek

[PointGuard]

Assistant Coaches

3rd assistant Marquise Archibald had told me he wants to move up the coaching ladder, so I let him out of his contract so he could fully explore gaining a better position.

1st assistant coach Bryant Marshack’s contract was expiring. He’s now 67 and said he would like to continue coaching but wants to step back a bit, taking it a little easier in the future. After a lengthy discussion, he said he’d take the 3rd assistant job and continue to be the practice coach but with less ancillary duties. We agreed on a contract and he signed.

I then offered 48-year old Charles Malone (who had been at Georgia State as 2nd assistant for 8 seasons and then 1st assistant) our 1st assistant job with a focus on scouting for which he is very talented. He accepted.

52-year old Roby Jordan will remain as our 2nd assistant coach and shift to handling recruiting. He performed that at UAB before coming to Colorado a year ago and did extremely well as a recruiter. So I’m pleased he will take over that role here.

Marquise Archibald was hired as 1st assistant for Valparaiso, so that’s good step up for him.

[Wayne23]

I find that when I demote an assistant he turns to crap and leaves at the earliest possible opportunity.

[PointGuard]

Actually this was a rather weird situation within the game. My 1st asst coach's contract expired so he went into the available assistants to hire list. I offered the 1st asst position to another guy who accepted. I then offered the 3rd asst to my previous 1st asst and was surprised that he accepted. So I made up the story about him wanting to take it easy. His ratings are the same as previously. The guy is 67 so he may retire on his own at some point in the near future...who knows.

Wayne: How were you able to determine that an asst performed at a lower level than he previously did??? I find it difficult to know really how a specific asst is performing.

[PointGuard]

Meeting with AD:

We met all our goals (qualify for NIT, finish in top half in conference, win 15+ games, improve prestige (went up from 47 to 48). Since I decided to remain at Colorado after looking at available jobs, I figured our improvement this last season justified my request for an increase in our budget. The request was denied making me none too happy. Our budget is still far below most of our other Pac-12 competitors.

[PointGuard]

2027-2028 SEASON

A new season has begun. I’m hopeful our upward trend will continue. I believe we have the ingredients to make that happen, but things still need to go right.

Recruiting

We were pleased to learn that our recruiting class was ranked as the 15th best in the nation. Had we not lost the #25 ranked recruit due to his SAT score being too low, we would have even been higher ranked. The only Pac-12 teams that had higher ranked recruiting classes were Utah at #9 and UCLA at #14. The only others in the top 100 were Stanford at #33, Washington State at #60, and Oregon State at #64.

This coming season we have just 2 scholarships to fill. At this point, before evaluating recruits this year, we probably will focus on landing a SG and a SF.

[PointGuard]

Transfers:

Somewhat surprisingly, PF Brian Ross, who just completed his freshman season, decided to transfer away from us. His relationship with the team and coaches last year wasn’t strong, but wasn’t terrible either. But I believe he was disappointed by not getting more playing time. He likely would still have been a substitute for us this coming season although he would have gotten more minutes than last season. Brian has good potential so should be a good addition for some program.

Because of his transfer, we will look over available transfer players, but likely won’t go that route unless we can pull in a high flyer. Otherwise, we will then have 3 rather than 2 scholarships to offer this season.

Update:

During the transfer season we evaluated several players but none really excited us. Brian Ross got picked up by Ohio State. A year from now (after sitting out the present season), he’ll be competing with 3 PF’s who are freshmen this season for the Buckeyes. If he works hard to refine his skills while he’s ineligible to play this season, I think he could compete strongly for a starting job next season.

[PointGuard]

Pro Draft

SG Lucas Broering, a player that I recruited for Youngstown State, was selected late in the 2nd round in the pro draft. Hopefully he has a successful pro career.

[PointGuard]

Recruiting

As planned, our main focus is on SG’s and SF’s but with PF Brian Ross’ transfer that opens a secondary emphasis on big men. As in previous years we focus on our own Great Plains region but this year expand to the West as well and also add quite a few top 100 ranked recruits to our list.

Initial calling and campus visits are a little more productive than in previous years at building some initial interest in a number of the recruits on our list. Our attendance at the Elite Camp, Las Vegas Revue, and Houston Classic yield some good information about many of the players on our list.

[Wayne23]

Actually this was a rather weird situation within the game. My 1st asst coach's contract expired so he went into the available assistants to hire list. I offered the 1st asst position to another guy who accepted. I then offered the 3rd asst to my previous 1st asst and was surprised that he accepted. So I made up the story about him wanting to take it easy. His ratings are the same as previously. The guy is 67 so he may retire on his own at some point in the near future...who knows.

Wayne: How were you able to determine that an asst performed at a lower level than he previously did??? I find it difficult to know really how a specific asst is performing.

Actually, I misspoke. They quit on me immediately in that situation.