College Basketball - Lorenzo Romar's Washington Husky Recruits Are Among Top 15 Classes

Ed's Sports Corner:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Quietly and without a lot of fanfare, Washington Husky Coach Lorenzo Romar has put together 1 of the Top 15 recruiting classes among Division 1A basketball programs according to Scout.com.

The names of the young recruits—Isaiah Thomas, Scott Suggs, Elston Turner Jr. and Tyreese Breshers—will become more familiar in the next two years, but for now pundits have noticed the windfall of talent.

The Top 15 ranking was significant in that there are 341 Division 1A college basketball programs, which puts Washington in the top 4.4% in the national talent pool.

The biggest offensive catch was the smallest player—5-foot-8 point guard Isaiah Thomas who spent the last two years at South Kent School, a preparatory school in Connecticut, after averaging 32+ points per game as a junior for Curtis High School in Tacoma.

Thomas, a scoring machine, averaged 26+ ppg as a sophomore. He brings offense and will remind fans of another smaller Husky guard, Nate Robinson, who now plays for the New York Knicks.

Good things can come in small packages. Robinson, nicknamed Nate the Great, has a 43.5 inch vertical leap and at 5-foot-9 has dunked over 7-foot-5 Yao Ming in NBA action.

Nate was fearless. Thomas is even further along offensively. Despite his size, Isaiah Thomas is big time. He is rated 9th nationally among all post graduate recruits.

Two shooting guards also signed letters of intent: Scott Suggs from Washington High School in Missouri and Elston Turner Jr. from Roseville High School in California.

Suggs is 6-foot-6 and ranked 10th among shooting guards nationally and 45th among the Top 100 players, and Turner is 6-foot-4 and ranked 12th among shooting guards and 71st among the Top 100.

Suggs is perimeter oriented and brings size for his position. He also had offers from Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Clemson.

Turner shoots well to 22 feet and has the ability to create off the dribble. Because of his strength he may be able to play some small forward. Turner also had offers from USC, Georgetown, Tennessee, Marquette and Arizona State.

Tyreese Breshers is a 6-foot-6, 230-pound power forward from Price High School in Los Angeles. He is small for a power forward but a good area rebounder and very competitive. Breshers has excellent leaping ability and very long arms. He was one of the top shot blockers in the West.

He is ranked 26th among power forwards nationally and 83rd among the Top 100 high school recruits. Breshers also had offers from Miami (FL), Iowa State and Washington State.

Scout.com ranked the Top 25 schools in this order: 1 UCLA, 2 Ohio State, 3 Georgetown, 4 Wake Forest, 5 Louisville, 6 North Carolina, 7 Arizona, 8 Florida, 9 Kansas, 10 Mississippi State, 11 Oregon, 12 Alabama, 13 Florida State, 14 Kentucky, 15 Washington, 16 Michigan State, 17 West Virginia, 18 Duke, 19 Maryland, 20 Louisiana State, 21 Syracuse, 22 Connecticut, 23 Nevada, 24 Southern Cal and a tie for 25 with Clemson, Virginia and Indiana.

Read my 4 articles on the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament detailing Florida's National Championship.

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http://www.edbagleyblog.com
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