Any news on Orukpe?

[top20shock]

Knock Knock

Who's Here?

:poster_eo: ======= EO who========Eye Of-the-tiger

Knock Knock

Who's Here?

Butter! Butter who?

:poster_eo: is butta late than never!!!

Knock Knock

Who's there? Return? Return Who? :poster_eo: will return opponets shots to sender. Address unknown. No such # in EO's zone!!!!!!!

Please back away from the Jim Beam sir......

[Shox21]

I pretty sure I'm going to get flack over this because "this is a message board" and things shouldn't be censored. I am going to preface this with "THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY", however --

Whatever some of you have been sniffing, STOP PLEASE!!! Fun is fun, but Mr. Orukpe can read you know. If he gets on SN and reads all these hyper expectations, he may freak. It's been fun up to now, but don't you think we can tone it down a little now that the worry about whether he will show or not is over. Some posters started off this way with Gal, and it was fun so more posters joined in with the over-the-moon comments and look where that ended up. Orukpe is reported to be a very good talent that hasn't been proven here yet. Let's not let our over exuberance get ahead of us. Let him relax and play ball.

Besides, no one wants our other great recruits (who also can read) to think they are just support players to EO. We have a really good looking class of recruits coming in and I'm excited about this next year too. Will we get to the Dance, we all hope so. Will we be better than last year, absolutely. Last year would not have been so tough barring all the unprecedented injuries.

There is nothing wrong with expectations, so long as they don't get out of control (which we are bordering on right now). I think even Marshall might say "Take a deep breath, step back, and enjoy the prospect of what is to come." I'm really not trying to throw cold water on the party, just saying ----

[SFL]

I pretty sure I'm going to get flack over this because "this is a message board" and things shouldn't be censored. I am going to preface this with "THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY", however --

Whatever some of you have been sniffing, STOP PLEASE!!! Fun is fun, but Mr. Orukpe can read you know. If he gets on SN and reads all these hyper expectations, he may freak. It's been fun up to now, but don't you think we can tone it down a little now that the worry about whether he will show or not is over. Some posters started off this way with Gal, and it was fun so more posters joined in with the over-the-moon comments and look where that ended up. Orukpe is reported to be a very good talent that hasn't been proven here yet. Let's not let our over exuberance get ahead of us. Let him relax and play ball.

Besides, no one wants our other great recruits (who also can read) to think they are just support players to EO. We have a really good looking class of recruits coming in and I'm excited about this next year too. Will we get to the Dance, we all hope so. Will we be better than last year, absolutely. Last year would not have been so tough barring all the unprecedented injuries.

There is nothing wrong with expectations, so long as they don't get out of control (which we are bordering on right now). I think even Marshall might say "Take a deep breath, step back, and enjoy the prospect of what is to come." I'm really not trying to throw cold water on the party, just saying ----

Boo! Quit throwing turds in our punch bowl.

[Snapshot9]

Questions:

1) Does EO get to practice at SCA? If so, with anyone?
2) It was mentioned he gets to play in pickup games at CKA? Is that right, with him not being enrolled at WSU yet?

3) With tuition at SCA at $5300, who is paying for him to be at SCA?
4) Plus, he needs some Shocker gear to wear, and some good ole fashioned American hamburgers down him!!! .... LOL

[newshock1234]

Questions:

2) It was mentioned he gets to play in pickup games at CKA? Is that right, with him not being enrolled at WSU yet?

You dont have to be enrolled at WSU to participate.

[SubGod22]

1) I'm sure he can
2) Yes, I've seen plenty of local HS kids participate in pickup games. Coaches can't work with him though like the other recruits who will be taking classes.
3) No clue. Maybe he's on scholarship there? A lot of prep schools do that.
4) I agree.

[MikeShox]

I pretty sure I'm going to get flack over this because "this is a message board" and things shouldn't be censored. I am going to preface this with "THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY", however --

Whatever some of you have been sniffing, STOP PLEASE!!! Fun is fun, but Mr. Orukpe can read you know. If he gets on SN and reads all these hyper expectations, he may freak. It's been fun up to now, but don't you think we can tone it down a little now that the worry about whether he will show or not is over. Some posters started off this way with Gal, and it was fun so more posters joined in with the over-the-moon comments and look where that ended up. Orukpe is reported to be a very good talent that hasn't been proven here yet. Let's not let our over exuberance get ahead of us. Let him relax and play ball.

Besides, no one wants our other great recruits (who also can read) to think they are just support players to EO. We have a really good looking class of recruits coming in and I'm excited about this next year too. Will we get to the Dance, we all hope so. Will we be better than last year, absolutely. Last year would not have been so tough barring all the unprecedented injuries.

There is nothing wrong with expectations, so long as they don't get out of control (which we are bordering on right now). I think even Marshall might say "Take a deep breath, step back, and enjoy the prospect of what is to come." I'm really not trying to throw cold water on the party, just saying ----

Outstanding post 21. I am the eternal optimist, but much of what I've read on this board is simply over the top.

Believe me, I am extremely excited. I am excited about Clevin Hannah, Reggie Chamberlain, Garrett Stutz, Toure Murry, David Kyles, A.J. Hawkins and Ehimen Orukpe as well as the returners. I am extremely excited about what this coaching staff will bring to the program in the years to come.

However, I really hope that the people who seem to think the program will go crazy immediately will not ride the roller coaster of emotions when the team goes through the growing pains that will surely arise. Yes, there is more athletic talent on the team than at any time since the days of Carr, Levingston, McDaniel etc., but included are 6 players who have never played Division 1 basketball. It is a giant step up from JUCO and even a larger step up from high school or international basketball.

A.J. will be outstanding I believe, but he is still playing under a new system. I know he had the opportunity to practice and that will certainly help, but he has not played any games under Coach Marshall's system yet.

Griskenas is coming back from a serious injury. Hopefully he will be healthy and will continue the improvement he showed the last several games before he was hurt.

Hopefully Ellis will be closer to the player he showed that final game in St. Louis and will prove that was not a flash in the pan performance.

Hopefully Clemente will continue to show the offensive aggresiveness he showed later in the season to go with his rebounding and defensive effort.

Hopefully someone will prove to be solid in backing up A.J. at the 3. At this point, that is a question mark as both Griskenas and Ellis looked much better at the 4 than at the 3 last year and anyone else backing A.J. up will be a freshman.

Hopefully Hannah and Chamberlain will both be able to make the step from JUCO to Division 1 quickly and between them provide the type of point guard play so badly needed in the Valley.

Hopefully Murry or Kyles (preferrable both) can make the transition smoothly to the college game.

Hopefully Durley will learn to bring it on both ends of the court consistently rather than for 25% of the time which is about what I felt he was doing last year.

Hopefully Stutz and/or Orukpe can be honest to goodness contributors as freshmen. Don't expect either to dominate the league right out of the shoot. They may be superstars at some point, but keep in mind how much Antoine Carr improved after his freshman year.

All this being said, yes I am very excited. I cannot wait for the season to start. I am terribly anxious to go watch them at Shocker Madness. I hope to see some pick-up games this summer. I am looking forward to retiring at the end of the year, then I want to go watch them play on the road as well as at home.

However, I don't expect this team to come together immediately. I hope that they will be over .500 next year and then win close to 20 the following year. I expect to be amazed at some wonderfully athletic plays and amazed at some real bone-headed mistakes next year.

I have often seen that people who get too high when things look good are the ones who tend to get too low when things go wrong. The people who have unrealistic expectations are the ones who will first turn on the coaching staff and then the players when those expectations are not met.

Be excited about the future, but keep in mind that we are talking about an extremely young, inexperienced team that will take time to develop. If you stay on an even keel, you will have a much better chance of being pleasantly surprised later rather than terribly disappointed.

Boy, I only meant to say a few things, but then got carried away. Now I'll have to not post anything for a month after all this. :D

:wsu_posters:

[rrshock]

Questions:

1) Does EO get to practice at SCA? If so, with anyone?
2) It was mentioned he gets to play in pickup games at CKA? Is that right, with him not being enrolled at WSU yet?

3) With tuition at SCA at $5300, who is paying for him to be at SCA?
4) Plus, he needs some Shocker gear to wear, and some good ole fashioned American hamburgers down him!!! .... LOL

1) I don't think that's why he's at Sunrise. And no he can't "Practice"
2) Yes. they are for anyone to play in
3) ???
4) This is the right weekend for hamburgers

[Bigshotmaker]

Yeah you said quite a bit, but you were on point.It's ok if we get excited though,we really have something to get excited about.HCGM fulfilled every need the team was lacking last yr.They will be young and inexperienced but talent trumps youth and playing time will take care of inexperience.I understand what you're saying ,I can live with the early mistakes as long as we have some great plays sprinkled in. Young kids are up and down like that.

[SubGod22]

Mike and 21,

Yes, we're all excited about everyone that's returning and the new pieces brought in and they've all been talked about before as well. With Ehimen's troubles things have taken off. But I don't think anyone is expecting us to be great out of the box. Most have predicted we'll have more wins this year than we did last year and that's about it. Most expectations are on the 09-10 season when they all have some experience under their belt.

The "over the top" comments on here shouldn't be taken 100% seriously and I'm sure they weren't inteded to be. Ehimen is a great athlete. That's been said by everyone who's seen him and they're good judges of talent. He can come in here and be a defensive presence like we haven't seen in a long time. That's not much of a stretch considering he's 7 feet tall and is known for D and blocking shots. When's the last time we had one of those???

Nobody is thinking we build the team around Ehimen. He's not an offensive threat. At least not yet. Nobody has ever said that we're putting the others around him to play second fiddle. Where that comment came from I have no idea.

I think the only high expectations for any of the newcomers this season has been AJ. And that's because he's proven he can play at a fairly high level in the A-10 which isn't a horrible league. He would have been considered one of the better returners last year had he returned. Coach and PJ have raved about his abilities.

Don't get me wrong, I don't completely disagree with what you've said, it just appears to have been a little much with what's actually being said about the players. At least in how I've read things.

If anyone is expecting a Valley Title and return to the Dance this year they're expecting too much. But I haven't seen anything close to that in expectations.

[Snapshot9]

The main thing taken from all of this, is that we will have a team to be a little excited about! We have some good talented recruits coming in, and even with the learning curve they will experience, we should see some good ball played.

Frankly, maybe overly optimistic, I expect us to be a 20 game winner, or fairly close to it this coming season. 18 at least.

Smart talented players don't take half a season to 'catch on'. 2 or 3 games is usually enough for them, but getting used to your teammates 'moves' and getting the teamwork down does take some time.

I look for it to be an exciting season.

[HockeyShock]

Personally, I'm just happy to have two legitimate centers on the team. We haven't even had one legit center since Paul.

I, too, haven't seen anything completely unreasonable other than those posts that were meant to be taken in jest. Remember, a few weeks ago we were all but convinced that his LOI would run out and he wouldn't be here at all (uneducated as we were). Let us be happy for a little while.

I think 20-wins is a little optimistic, but maybe not. We all know how big a role the little breaks play in a season, so we'll just have to wait and see. The only thing I know is that I'm ponying up MY money for season tix again.

:clap: :wsu_posters: :yahoo: :clap:

[forevershockerfan]

14-17 wins this Season with such a young team would be quite an improvement. Anything beyond that will be gravy. The following Season after this one is when I believe expectations will be high. We will have ample quality depth and more scorers and shooters. Therefore, we should be more apt to win more of the close ones that seem to plague are injury laden team last Season.

Recently, when we made the Sweet 16, we had no Superstar player. Paul Miller was having a banner Senior year including his 30 points in our double OT win over S. Illinois. Matty B hit several huge shoots to sink Creighton. Karon "Big Shot" Bradley had ice-water running through his veins and hit key shots. Tennessee overlooked PJ in their scouting report and he was instrumental in sending them home. Sean Ogirri lite up St. Johns like a Christmas tree. Kyle Wilson and Ryan Martin did several special things to help us win that year. These young men came together and peaked when they were supposed to and we will never forget them. Now, Coach Marshall is building another solid foundation here. This takes time but we are seeing progress being made at an encouraging pace.

As for this recruiting class which I include AJ and EO in, it will be one to remember and shades of more of the same upgrades in the future. It is not just any one player that jumps out out me, but rather 8 new solid players that will all fill a needed role. Competition for playing time will easily surpass last Season. EO is here. Now THAT is exciting. The process for him to be a Shocker is ongoing. We are all pulling for him and Coach Marshall will continue to right our Shocker ship.

[shockall]

Personally, I'm just happy to have two legitimate centers on the team. We haven't even had one legit center since Paul.

I'm not sure they can be considered legit until they can prove they can play college basketball. It's way, way, too early to claim any incoming player as legit. Look at all the players we've had in the past 5 years that have not played much at the college level, although they were high school stars.

[Shox21]

The "over the top" comments on here shouldn't be taken 100% seriously and I'm sure they weren't inteded to be.

My point was that if EO read these comments, what HIS reaction would be. EO is from Nigeria, not Peoria. Do they have these same kind of message boards over in Africa. I don't know. I don't know if EO would KNOW to take the comments in stride and not take them seriously.

Nobody is thinking we build the team around Ehimen. He's not an offensive threat. At least not yet. Nobody has ever said that we're putting the others around him to play second fiddle. Where that comment came from I have no idea.

I didn't say that was the case. All I said was that I wouldn't want the other recruits to think they were support players to EO. The page total on this thread alone is indicitive of the interest in EO. Granted, you need to take into consideration that EO was a long, long time in getting here and thus his thread kept going. Garrett's was only 29 pages, definitely pale in comparison. When the other recruits see this almost 60 page opus on EO, I just wouldn't want them to think that our fans feel EO is the cream of the recruits.