Tony Bennett continues to haunt us: Harris picks Virginia
by Jeff Nusser on Aug 4, 2009 1:08 PM PDT
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Howie Stalwick had a nice little story today on Taylor Rochestie signing with a German professional team ("It’s in the middle of nowhere," Rochestie said. "It’ll be perfect for me -- just like Washington State. My parents thought it was tough to get to Washington State …" Neato!).
However, you've got to read to the bottom to get the real news:
IN OTHER BASKETBALL news, 6-5 Chelan High senior-to-be Joe Harris announced Monday that he has verbally committed to Tony Bennett and Virginia.
AAAAAAAAAAAERRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! CURSE YOU TONY BENNETT!!!!!!! Why do you insist on continuing to torture us?
Stalwick says this is especially curious because Harris told Cougfan on Sunday that UVa and WSU were deadlocked, and in that same conversation indicated he might not make a decision until after officially visiting both schools in the fall.
That might make you think this verbal might be on the "soft" side. But if you read this story in the Wenatchee World, he sounds pretty set:
"It was my gut feeling," the soon-to-be high school senior said of his decision. "I had an unofficial visit at a mid-June camp, and I just liked the facilities and the school. It was an opportunity I couldn’t really pass up. ... It was definitely a pretty tough decision, but I’m 100 percent sure I made the right one."
The tipping point appeared to be Virginia's academic reputation.
There's really no way to sugarcoat this one: This is a big loss for Ken Bone. Harris is precisely his kind of player, a tall guard who can get his shot off anywhere on the perimeter and is long enough to play Bone's pressure and deny defense.
You can bet Ken Bone isn't going to give up on recruiting Harris until he puts his name on the dotted line in November -- especially when a kid is making a decision based on a "gut" feeling -- but after months of unadulterated success, it appears we have the first swing and a miss of the Bone era.
That the loss came to Tony Bennett and Virginia -- for one of the reasons Bennett left WSU in the first place -- makes it that much more painful
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Go figure
The guy finally recruits the state of Washington outside of Spokane and he does it after he leaves. I loved him as our coach and I respect what he did for the program, but this just feels like a low blow.
Meh.
I’m less offended by this then I thought I’d be. Tony has always recruited nationally and internationally. We’ve taken local products from other states like Texas, Wisconsin, Hawai’i, etc, etc. The only surprise, like cougdude said, is that now he actually has the guts to recruit Washington.
I’ll keep Patrick Simon, who by many accounts is a better player.
Now if Tony keeps coming over here, I’m going to start getting pissed. But he can have this one.
"I’ll keep Patrick Simon, who by many accounts is a better player."
Certainly, he has higher upside. Harris was kind of an under-the-radar kid — the kind Bennett made a living off of here. However, I wonder how well a recruit like this is going to go over in Virginia? Seems like they’ll be wanting higher-profile recruits out there. They’re going to have far less patience with him than WSU fans did, and this is going to have to be considered a sufficiently underwhelming signing (from their perspective).
Their message boards are clamoring for “top 100 recruits,” who they say you can’t consistently win in the ACC without.
This certainly stings, but...
…it didn’t surprise me. TB had been working this for a long time. And we all know TB loves to sign caucasian kids with good grades. He’s a perfect fit for Bennett. BTW, Tony recently got a verbal from a big white guy with good grades from upstate NY.
I wonder how well he’ll feel that he fits in at a school that- from what I understand- attracts upper middle class and upper class kids? That could be an interesting adjustment…although we have had guys come from overseas to WSU, which is also a big adjustment that has worked fine.
These are the types of guys Bone needs to get though. Too bad he lost out on JH.
by westsidecougar1 on Aug 8, 2009 1:20 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Bone had been working on Harris from his days at PSU
He was considered a midmajor guy just about a year ago.
While I was hoping he would sign with WSU
it may be better that he didn’t. There really aren’t any schollies available and he is basically the same player as Patrick Simon. It sucks losing out on a local player, but having two guys coming in the same class that basically fit the same role, may not be a good thing. Signing Bjornstad with that schollie was probably a better idea, getting the height. Still, having Simon and Harris lighting it up on opposite sides of the wing, both being small school eastern Washington products would have been cool.
http://wsufoundation.wsu.edu/giving/enteramount.asp?Fund=Martin%20Stadium%20Project
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