Random Reds Rumblings

[CincyRedsFan30]

Here is the article on Gates from the Enquirer:

"Withrow standout headed to UC
BY BILL KOCH | BKOCH@ENQUIRER.COM

Forget the win over Xavier last year or the Big East victory over West Virginia.

The biggest moment for the University of Cincinnati basketball program under first-year coach Mick Cronin occurred Sunday night when Withrow High School junior Yancy Gates announced that he will attend UC in 2008-09.

Gates will make the formal announcement at a news conference Monday afternoon.


One of the top players in the country, Gates joins La Salle sophomore Danny McElroy, who committed last year for the class of 2009, as highly rated local players who have cast their lot with Cronin since he was hired last year.

“He likes Coach Cronin and (UC assistant coach Tony) Stubblefield,” Tony Dees, Gates’ guardian, said Sunday night. “UC has a bunch of history and tradition. Also, they’re in the Big East.

“He was leaning toward Ohio State. He liked Georgetown. But Cincinnati was always in his top five. He had a few meetings with coach Stubblefield and Cronin and they told him how he would fit into their plans. That really helped.”

For Cronin and the UC program, landing Gates sends a message that the program not only can compete again on a national recruiting level, but that it intends to keep the best local players at home.

“Every college coach in the country will tell you how important it is to protect your own borders,” said Dave Telep of the recruiting web site, Scout.com. “To have a national-level player of Yancy Gates’ caliber within your city limits and to get him locked down, it works out to be a key recruit for Mick Cronin’s tenure. This is a big deal for the Cincinnati program.”

The 6-foot-8, 255-pound Gates averaged 19.4 points and 7.0 rebounds last season as a junior at Withrow. He was second-team all-state, first-team all-district, and was the player of the year in the Southwest Ohio Public League last season.

He’s ranked No. 17 nationally in his class by the recruiting Web site Rivals.com and No. 28 by Scout.com.

“To keep someone of his caliber in the city I think is an accomplishment,” said Withrow coach Walt McBride. “It says a lot for the UC program and where it wants to go. He is an extraordinary player with great athleticism.

“I’ve seen him do some things in practice that I haven’t seen done on the professional level from my years of playing overseas. Someone that size, with that finesse and grace, he has a bright future ahead of him. I think he’ll be exceptional for them.”

McBride said Gates still has room for improvement.

“He’s still a high school kid,” McBride said. “He has to learn to let the game flow and come to him. Some games he does it and some games he doesn’t. But he will learn that. He’s a junior. He’s only 17 years old.”

For years, UC routinely landed the top high school basketball players in Greater Cincinnati under Bob Huggins - from Lakota High School’s Keith Gregor to Moeller’s Bobby Brannen to Roger Bacon’s Eugene Land - but that pool dried up after Land signed with the Bearcats in 1998.

Gates is the highest-ranked local recruit to sign with UC since Woodward High School’s Damon Flint, who committed to the Bearcats in 1993. But Flint first signed with Ohio State, then switched to UC after NCAA violations were found to have occurred during his recruitment by the Buckeyes.

The list of local standouts who were either not recruited by UC or chose not to play there since 1998 include: Moeller’s Matt Sylvester (Ohio State), Andrew Brackman (North Carolina State), Josh Duncan (Xavier) and Mike Monserez (Notre Dame); Withrow’s Brandon Hunter (Ohio), Winton Woods’ Robert Hite (Miami, Fla.), Princeton’s Erik Daniels (Kentucky), Lakota East’s James Dews (Miami, Fla.), St. Xavier’s Johnny Wolf (Xavier) and Purcell Marian’s Keith Jackson (Xavier).

Gates is the second player to commit to UC for the class of 2008, joining Darnell Wilkes, a 6-oot-8, 205-pound forward from Nashville (Tenn.) Christian Academy. Wilkes, who’s ranked 63rd in his class by Rivals.com, committed to UC last year."

[CincyRedsFan30]

A couple of trusted locations are indicating that Anthony McClain is likely to sign with UC either tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday.

For a refresher; he is the No. 6 rated Center in the Class of 2007.

[CincyRedsFan30]

A reliable location has indicated that McClain has signed with UC.

[brewersfan19]

Hey Reds fans, CONGRATS on your win last night!!! Nice comeback. Your bats pummeled us good last night. We still have a ways to go, but I definitely see a light at the end of the tunnel. Same goes for your team as well. See you later in the year Reds fans. Stay positive, I know I am for my BrewCrew. It is going to be a fun year the way things are starting off in all of baseball, that is for sure. Pop in to the Brewers forum and say hey, and I will do the same.

[CincyRedsFan30]

UC adds recruit
BY BILL KOCH | BKOCH@ENQUIRER.COM
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The University of Cincinnati basketball team that went 11-19 last season had so many weaknesses that its inability to block shots was often overlooked.

The Bearcats blocked only 58 shots in 2006-07, down from 193 the year before. During the previous three years, they averaged 196 blocks.

That missing defensive dimension could be on its way back next season with the addition of 6-foot-11, 220-pound center Anthony McClain, who committed to UC and head coach Mick Cronin today.


“That’s what he does,” Rivals.com recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer said of McClain. “That’s what he hangs his hat on is his defensive presence in the paint. That’s why he’s so valuable. His offense is raw. He may never be a big scorer, but it doesn’t matter. From day one, he will be a presence in the paint defensively.”

To make room for McClain on the UC roster, junior guard Timmy Crowell will transfer at the end of spring quarter, the school announced today.

Crowell played in 30 games last year, two of which he started. He averaged 1.5 points in 9.7 minutes per game.

McClain, ranked No. 41 in his class by Scouts.com and No. 51 by Rivals.com, averaged 13 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots per game last season for National Christian Academy in Ft. Washington, Md.

He chose UC over Connecticut, which last year won a recruiting battle against the Bearcats for 7-foot-2 center Hasheem Thabeet.

“He’s pretty athletic,” said National Christian Academy coach Trevor Brown. “He just blocks shots, rebounds and runs the floor well.”

Brown said McClain is a better offensive player than he gets credit for.

“Offensively, he has a little baby hook shot and a nice little turnaround jump shot,” he said. “The biggest problem offensively is when people see him out there on the AAU circuit and camps, he just never gets the ball.”

McClain, who visited the UC campus on Wednesday, chose the Bearcats because “he liked the coaching staff and I know all those guys up there,” Brown said. “I know they’re a good staff and I know they’re going to build a good program. Plus, playing time. He should be able to play right away.”

McClain still has to earn the test scores required to play as a freshman, but if he’s academically eligible he will provide the Bearcats with front-line depth and height that they lacked last year in the rugged Big East Conference.

He’ll join 6-foot-8 Marcus Sikes and 6-foot-7 John Williamson from last year’s team, in addition to 6-foot-10 Adam Hryanciuk, 6-foot-7 Mike Williams and incoming freshmen Kenny Belton and 6-foot-7 Jason Henry.

“They’re going to have a nice front line with Mike Williams,” Meyer said. “He’s another piece to the puzzle and a very good piece.”

Meyer said the addition of McClain to UC’s six-player 2007 recruiting class vaults the class into the Top 25 nationally, maybe as high as No. 20.

Dave Telep of Scout.com said it’s too early to speculate where this UC class will be ranked nationally, but he said “it puts them right up there in terms of some of the elite classes in the Big East. It gives them two guys from our Top 100 (Henry is the other) and a third guy, Alvin Mitchell, who’s expected to come in and be a scorer for them right away.

“He’s one of the big additions for the entire spring season. When you get a guy like that it pretty much speaks for itself. You have to collect top 50 prospects to advance in the NCAA Tournament and this is a big one to get.”

McClain’s commitment to UC comes just a few days after Withrow High School forward Yancy Gates, a Top 25 player for the Class of 2008, committed to UC.

“I think it continues the momentum,” Meyer said. “I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of momentum in recruiting. When you get on a roll, you want to stay on a roll. More and more players want to gravitate to playing with great players. They have a synergy going where great players want to play with great players.”

[brewersfan19]

nice rally tonight Reds fans. Those kinds of wins are usually a start of good things to come.

[Doppelgänger]

Bailey pitched well again tonight, Majewski... not so much. 6 earned runs in 2/3 of an inning.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I'm going to the game tonight with a couple friends.

I will have a "scouting report" later on tonight after the game with my comments, thoughts and observations on each player.

We'll be in the Sun-Moon Deck in RF (near the back this time. I hope we have a chance at a few Reds HR's.)

I hope Hamilton is in the lineup, though I'm somewhat fearful of what Narron could throw out there with Hamels pitching for the Phillies.

Tonight is blanket night, so we'll be getting there early to collect one (since I think only the first 10,000 get one and it looks like this game could be FAIRLY close to a sellout).

I'm just praying that Milton gives us a chance tonight.

[missionhockey21]

Conine is guaranteed to start then, which isn't a bad thing but still. I wouldn't be surprised if Dunn gets a night off as he's looked particularly funky since those back spasms, which his catch last night surely didn't help. And with the lefty with stuff like Hamels, let's just hope Belisle brings it tonight because Hamels dominated us in his first outing.

Have fun.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I wish it were Belisle I get to watch (like last time), but it's Milton this time. Belisle is tomorrow against Freddy Garcia.

So we hope Milton brings it.

[missionhockey21]

Ouch, I just assumed Milton was still taking the 5 spot. If Lieber coming back on limited pitch count held us down like he did, I don't even want to think about what Hamels can do if he's in the zone tonight.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I know.

I guess they "couldn't" skip Milton since they didn't have a day off this week.

I hope he's either really good (definitely my preference) or incredibly bad. At least that way maybe they would remove him from the rotation and give Dumatrait or someone like that a chance at the spot.

If he's going to not be that good anyway tonight, I hope it is a massive disaster instead of a 5 ER in 6 IP type situation (unless of course that line still gives us a chance to win the game tonight).

[brewersfan19]

What happened to Milton? He had such a promising start to his career.

[CincyRedsFan30]

As always...Cards clutch, Reds not.

Looks like below .500 again.

I'm waiting for Castellini's "burning desire to win." He can start by firing this pathetic excuse for a manager.

WHY did everyone except Narron know not to pull Arroyo with under 100 pitches when he was rolling along? It's not like the Reds had runners on. They had Freel leading off in a "situation" situation for the opposing pitcher. Unbelievable. He has Arroyo throw 125 pitches when he doesn't need to and is tiring but not in a game with few Runs scored. Leave him in and give the offense a chance to do it on their own. He could have pitched a CG possibly. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The franchise is SAD.

[missionhockey21]

Guys, unfortunately my Grandpa finally passed away last night so with that and finals next week, my level of posting is going to continue to be low I am sad to say.

But I did watch the last half of the game tonight and I was shocked to see Arroyo pulled. What compounds this managerial mistake (or suicide) is the fact that he does this with Arroyo often and he never learns. Kirk Saarloos is an ok pitcher, good insuarance for starter depth, but he's not a go to guy... why go to him in a 1-1 game just leaves me dumbfounded.