Rubenstein did some writing for Pro Insight this past winter about some high school prospects at various events. I'm not sure how instructive it is of who he'll target as the Director of Recruiting here but it's something...

https://www.prospectiveinsight.com/post/grind-session-notebook-1
https://www.prospectiveinsight.com/post/grind-session-notebook-2
https://www.prospectiveinsight.com/post/hoophall-west
https://www.prospectiveinsight.com/post/ftth2022

First clue.. He went to Miami and worked in analytics for the basketball program. So it seems to make sense

Have we ever had a Director of Recruiting before?

https://twitter.com/erubenstein12

Brenden Straughn Bio

Deep DC roots is right!  Welcome coach!

if you want to feel old, looks like he was a high school teammate of lasan kromah at eleanor roosevelt 

Yup, in 2007-08 they were teammates!

The players mentioned in that post on the St. Joe's board (all local products, who knows if they'd want to be closer to home):
Cam Brown
Erik Reynolds
Christian Winborne
Looking at Verbal Committs, wonder too if Straughn would be able to convince four star 2023 prospects Jacoi Hutchinson and James Johns to come here. Looks like we offered Hutchinson last year and, interestingly, Miami had offered Johns back in 2020.

Last edited by trops_fc (4/08/2022 1:50 pm)

GW0509 wrote:

Also, the official job posting for Assistant Coach is now open on the GW jobs website.  I nominate DMVPiranha as a new AC in charge of scouting the opposition! 
https://www.gwu.jobs/postings/92117

I'm flattered GW0509! I'm sure the staff is aware of most if not all of what I post from their scouting reports but if I had any say I would definitely push for us to go two-for-one more often than not at the end of the first half (like Todd Golden did this past season at San Francisco) and not settle for an isolation shot in our last possession. In principle, I get it from the standpoint that you want the ball in your most capable scorer's hands in that situation (which I guess will continue to be Bishop next season) and any passing may lead to not getting a shot up at all but far too often teams just end up taking a wildly contested shot that misses the majority of the time. The time left in the final possession dictates this somewhat, but assuming there's 15+ seconds left I think you can afford to get in a pass or two after running the clock down enough where you aren't concerned about the other team potentially stealing the ball away and getting a fast break opportunity before the buzzer sounds.

Anyways, back to the actual topic Rubenstein and Straughn are great hires and a good start to building out the staff. Straughn's ties to Team Takeover can only help. It seems like Maryland is going to finally make an attempt to keep kids home after adding Cox from URI, and with Georgetown hiring Nickelberry the local recruiting battle is going to be crazy. Mason of course has Simpkins as well. We needed a guy with local ties (I believe there are rumors of Lamar Butler who is coaching at Paul VI and was on Mason's final four squad being potentially added on the staff as well, but that might have been dependent on Straughn's inclusion). I still hope to see one guy get added to the staff with international recruiting ties. All schools recruit internationally nowadays as well, but I still think we can distinguish ourselves locally going that route. We should be up there with Davidson getting guys from outside the US.

I can dream, but imagine Reynolds following Straughn to GW and Brayon electing to come back. Along with Bishop and Adams, that would be a really formidable backcourt. Reynolds probably has a better opportunity to shine (in terms of playing time) by staying at St. Joe's but maybe he'll like the added bonus of coming home. He's a great player who I'm surprised we never really recruited the first time around.

As for Winborne, it seems like he's staying committed to SJU:

Colby Giacubeno @ColbyGHoops 11h
FWIW: ‘22 @GilmanHoops PG Christian Winborne will remain committed to St. Joe’s, I’m told. Straughn was the lead recruiter for Winborne.
 

I think Shawnta Rogers would be a great hire as an assistant. I'm sure Shawnta would agree.