With the Aggies adding a pair of international players this week that join walk on Makhtar Diop from Senegal, Canadians Hernst Laroche and Tyrone Watson, I just wanted to see what you think of going elsewhere for talent?
Menzies has a good point that at a school like NMSU, you have to think outside the box and apparently outside the country. Menzies replaced South African Chris Gabriel with N'Doye from Senegal. Menzies has been doing this a long time and I believe if I'm not mistaken that N'Doye, as well as Gillenwater and Sy all have ties to Stoneridge Prep. Stoneridge has a long history of churning out international players to the Division I level.
I don't know how these players turn out to be on the court, but one thing is for certain. The Aggies will be the most diverse club in the WAC this year, as well as one of the biggest in terms of size.
10 comments:
I like Menzies creativity as a recruiter. He's also kept team chemistry in mind, as I would guess all of the foreign athletes on the team, perhaps with the exception of Watson, are French speaking.
The downside to recruiting foreign athletes is the extra hoops one gets to jump through to clear them with the NCAA, and also the risk that their amateur status may already be compromised.
Basketball has become an international game. It is extremely forward-thinking to recruit international college players
If the international players are decent students, decent ball players, and maybe more importantly decent people, then I don't have a problem with them.
He has no choice but to go the international rout.
The American kids he recruited (McKines & Gillenwater) are academic casualties and take everything for granted.
Personally, i'm not sure why they haven't pull their scholarships. Theyre students before they are athletes, right?!
Also, I honestly believe these two knuckle heads will not be eligible and we will not see them in an Aggie uniform again.
Kids from 3rd world countries are hungry for an opportunity and will put in the time to better themselves/ families.
They are not like American kids who are lazy, dumb and think the world owes them a favor because they are athletes!
Lol@ 4:35
Why are people so pious in Las Cruces? Both kids will be back in December knucklehead.
What's lost in translation? Ok the canadians speak english but how well do Sy, Diop and N'Doye speak english? French is also the official language of Senegal. Will the language barrier hurt them in the classroom and/or in practice? Basketball is a world game now, but there are certain aspects of communication when it comes to team chemistry.
Sy spent a year at Stoneridge Prep in SoCal. Diop has already been here a year, and by all accounts is one of the best students on the team. All will have to pass the TOEFL to even enroll at NMSU, so I don't think communication will be a major issue. If there is a misunderstanding, then having 3-4 teammates fluent in both languages should help clear things up quickly.
@Anon 4:35, lets not kid ourselves, McKines and Gillenwater are here because they have exceptional gifts on the basketball court. Neither NMSU nor the players would gain anything by pulling a scholarship. NMSU would be back in APR hell, and McKines/Gillenwater would be one step closer to a career in fast food service. Let's allow these young men a chance to make a mistake, and make up for it, earning their way back through hard work in the classroom.
FYI, neither France nor Canada really qualify as "3rd world countries".
I wish you would have posted the women's story first. You buried the posts people were going to talk about.
WOW! first of all; why do you have that poll up there? Only one of those players has played here and of course he is the one who needs to step up. How can people cast a vote for a kid we know nothing about, other than what the coach has told us in a release. Second; it is way too early to be worrying about hoops, as we need to all be on top of our football team and get behind them. Create the enthusiasm now and have it carry through the basketball season. Third; It amazes me how perfect people are around here. You act as though you have grown up watching perfect basketball and perfect kids all your life. Geeeze, give it a rest. I just threw away five minutes of my life I will never get back, typing this stupid stuff on this stupid blog. Won't happen again. Go Aggies.
The reality is, anon 12:12, that NMSU football is as bad as it gets. I would love to be passionate and excited about football right now, but until they prove that they belong in D-1, Aggie football is not what people want to discuss. Aggie basketball, on the other hand, has a great tradition of putting competitive teams on the court. We were top ten in wins in the early to mid 90's and have been good since Theus got us back on track a few years ago. So lets just be real for a second. But I do hope that Dwayne Walker puts together a competitive season so we can maybe spend some more time on the football blog.
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