The difference is that this is the late signing period, the talent pool is limited, Saul left us with oats and Carter transferred out, so this kid is not a project, he is big, he can move and we get to reuse his schollie next year. We could give the schollie to a walk on or a guy who was able to start at Clemson before getting injured. Saul signed the 10th man from a mid major and a 10th man from Indian hills and he was not a new coach with a new staff and two weeks into the late signing period.

Jeesh Jeff...you are kidding right? In his two previous seasons before Ohio, Mickle averaged 2.0 points each year. White averaged 10 points and 9 rebounds per game in his season at Oral Roberts before transferring to Power 5 Clemson. So whether his shoulder was an issue or not, it wasn't a good fit. But Clemson sure as hell believed in him and brought him in.

I'm not even sure how you can compare Mickle and White. Have you watched the videos of White playing? White clearly knows how to work his way in the paint and create shots. Did you ever see Mickle do that? Hell, I don't remember Doug Taylor doing some of the things on these videos that White does in the lane. The only thing I remember about Mickle is that he took 15 foot jumpers and was the best dunker on the team. And it sure looks like White is a hell of a lot better defense presence as well.

You can't even compare the credentials of these two players and what they've accomplished before possibly coming to Ohio. If you can't see that White is a better recruit/prospect than Mickle...well...I can't help you. The fact is that if you stack up White Vs Mickle...I think it's pretty clear that it's advantage White. It's basketball common sense. You don't have to be Dr. James Naismith to see the skillset of White is way better than Mickle.

And this has nothing to do with people being hypocrites. If this were Saul bringing in White for a visit, I would have written the same post when I said...."I like this a lot."

I've really liked how the off-season is going on the board. People seem to be re-energized by what Boals is building. But it's these type of posts that prompt folks on this board to bring out the term "Saulaholics". Time to move on from Saul Ball folks. Let the man find his assistant coaching job this year and continue his career.

allen and his high end eye for talent can't quite get over this deal with Murrell and Indian Hills.

Like I said, I'm not questioning that Javan would be a better inside player than Mickle here....but remember, a lot of people couldn't see any good in Mickle at all when he signed. He ended up having a pretty good year for us.

Read my posts again, Fear. I'm not saying that Mickle was better or equal to Javan White. What I'm saying is that if Phillips had recruited White, people would not be giving him kudos.

I would agree with that, optimally I would not be down with the signing, but we have Springs and BVP as our bigs and BVP is more of a wing and oats is a ways off, we need experience. I would love to get a grad transfer and any combination of Balogun, lawal or mirandeaux, the cupboard is empty, so this is different than any Saul signing, I hope that makes sense.

I said in my post that if Saul were still the Coach and he would have brought White in for a visit this weekend that I would be saying the exact same thing and applauding it. I would not have been hypocritical about this. I'm just saying that White's prior resume is better than Mickle's.

His ability to use both hands was the first thing I noticed. Doug, for as many strides as he made throughout his career, never developed that left hand.

He's not a lefty though, he has a couple jumpers shooting right handed.

Lets just get someone over 6'7" who can rebound and play some D.

Gotta be someone out there?

The suspense is killing me.

I’m not into the personal ratta-tat here but it is hard not to be enthusiastic about the future. Whether we get this guy or not, the caliber of recruits and the methodical building of a well-rounded team that can compete right away is exciting.

Since you asked...yes...I actually did play in the Convo. One day during Larry Hunter's coaching basketball class he let us ball on the Convo court. Gary Trent actually let me score a lay-up against him. We both laughed running back down the court. I thanked him for allowing me to tell folks like Mid70sbobcat one day that I scored over a future first-round NBA draft pick.

Your speculation is baseless. Boals is over delivering in what he needs to do in recruiting so far. If he can land a grad transfer/one year rental big manz from a Power 5 school with one of the remaining scholarships, myself and others are all for it.

This is new era of Ohio University Bobcat basketball. Embrace it.

So far 1 big man commit. I wonder how many of the 4 big guys coming to campus last week will commit and if Foster was 1 of them-I assume he was.