Saturday, November 22, 2008

A Yankee Kansas in the rotation (most unusual recruit of the year)

This story broke in the summer, but it wasn't really that big so you may have missed it. The Memphis Tigers have another player on their roaster who we have yet to see play this year. The player is CJ Henry.

The name sounds familiar, because, i) he is the brother of touted recruit Xavier Henry and ii) yes, he was a walk-on in 2005 for Kansas

He is currently nursing injuries but eventually he should be able to contribute. How much we don't know, but at 6'3" he has a slight advantage in that there are no "shorties" in the Memphis rotation, other than Willie Kemp, so that may give him a leg up when Calipari wants a more traditional back-court.

For more on how this came to be, be sure to check this Commercial Appeal article from late August 2008.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Calipari strikes gold once again

After a series of major NBA disappointments way back in the era of high-school freshmen being allowed to go directly to the NBA, John "used car salesman" Calipari has managed to string a trio of lottery pick recruits. The one that started it all was Derrick Rose, and he led the Tigers to being the co-champions of 2008. Next up was Tyreke Evans, who may end up being more of an OJ-Mayo type, meaning he would be more effective in the NBA-game than the college game.

And fast-forward to today, the Memphis Tigers have picked up a huge commit for next season, highly-touted Xavier Henry, and ironically perhaps, the battle for Xavier was a rematch of the 2008 NCAA tournament championship. And Memphis won again :-)

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Latest posts

Latest from NCAA Hoops Today