11/28/96 - MSU signee Tang Hamilton had 28 points in a 89-59 victory over Forest Hill Tuesday night. He is averaging 24 points per game.
11/28/96 - According to Richard Williams, Whit Hughes' ankle will be fine. He hurt it during the SLU game, but came back in and played with no problem.
11/28/96 - Here's what Southeastern Louisiana coach John Lyles said about the newest edition of Bulldogs - "They're not quite as good as they were last year, but they are still good. This is a young team and they are going to get better as the season goes on. They're always going to play great defense. This year's team is not as experienced or mature as last year's team, but the future is bright at Mississippi State. No question about it." Source: The Commercial Dispatch
He said this about Horatio Webster - "As far as I'm concerned, he is the same caliber as the three great players they had last year. I think he fills one of those spots. I think Webster is on the same level as Erick Dampier and Dontae' Jones." Source: The Clarion-Ledger
11/28/96 - Rick Ball, of Ballplayers J.C. Report, rates Detrick White, 6-1 170, as the 3rd best point guard in the Juco ranks. Detrick averaged 12 pts, 2 rebs and 9 assists per game last year. He had a 3.0 GPA average as a freshman and is expected to graduate with no problem. Rick Ball, like many others, has Detrick leaning to MSU.
11/27/96 - Todd Myles averaged 10 steals a game his senior year in high school. He is supposed to be super quick.
11/27/96 - I went to the basketball game Tuesday night and heard a little more info about Tyrus Boswell. He not only is considered the best player in Alabama this year, but he is also considered by some to be the best player to come out of Alabama in 15 years.
Here are four reasons he chose MSU over Alabama and UAB (In no particular order): We went to the Final Four. He likes Richard Williams a lot. He likes the players. He likes our style of play.
11/27/96 - Watching Quentin Smith play tonight was so much fun. This guy has the potential to be the best player to ever wear the maroon and white. It is so hard to believe he is only a freshman. He has all of the tools to play in the NBA. It seemed like he was making an effort to get every rebound (he had 11), block every shot and to top this, he had 14 pts. He has played two games as a Bulldog and he has a double double in both of them, (1st game - 10 pts, 13 rebs; 2nd game - 14 pts, 11 rebs). BTW, we won the game 77-63. If you can make the Saturday game, please do. Richard Williams wants the place to be packed.
11/24/96 - Look what happens when you go to the Final Four, recruits come out of the woodworks saying they are considering your team. Greenville, MS. has four players who said they were considering MSU. The four are forward Kenneth Trader, 6-5 205; forward Dusty Cole, 6-8 260; guard Tommy Sutton, 6-2 210 and guard Fredrick Williams, 6-4 190. MSU's program has come a long way from ten years ago. I found this information in a November 1st Arkansas newspaper, the Democrat-Gazette.
11/23/96 - Thursday night, Cedric Wallace, of Northeast CC, had 31 points in a 90-81 victory over Wallace junior college.
11/23/96 - In a rarity for Kentucky basketball, after hosting seven blue-chip targets in their version of midnight madness and predicting an enormous recruiting haul, they were all but shut out, signing only one of them. All of the others signed with other teams. They also may be trailing on two other top prospects they are still recruiting. In fact, one of them, Tracy McGrady, may go pro. What happened Kentucky?
11/23/96 - Van Coleman, a well known recruiting analyst, has put out his preliminary basketball recruiting rankings for the early signing period. Only one SEC team made the top 20, Tennessee, which was 17th. MSU and Kentucky were near misses. Based on this, we have the 2nd or 3rd best recruiting class in the SEC, at this time. IMO, we had a much better class than this, but I thought some of you might be interested, so I posted it. Duke was number one. The odd thing about this, is Van counted two players who haven't even signed yet. Both of them have said they are going to sign during the spring. However, one of them, Elton Bland, may not. He is visiting other schools, while saying he is still committed to Duke.
11/15/96 - Cedric Wallace scored 27 pts in a 112-73 victory against Columbia last night.
11/15/96 - Todd Myles told The Coeur d'Alene Press that he signed a basketball letter-of-intent with Miss State Wednesday. MSU officials do not confirm signees until the scholarship papers are received at the school. The same news item stated that Todd had the following stats against a team from Lithuania: 12 pts, 7 assists and 7 steals in 19 minutes of play.
11/14/96 - In the Tuscaloosa News today, Alabama announced that Neil Ashby, a 6-9 Power Forward from Georgia, signed a basketball scholarship. IMO, this could help MSU with Tyrus Boswell. Tyrus will be competing with this guy for a position. He won't be with Tang, since Tang is a Small Forward. Another one of those wait and see kind of things.
11/14/96 - I listened to Kevin Henderson's sports call-in show Thursday night. He said Ben Perkins has committed to Providence, but has not signed as of this morning, when he talked to him last. May be getting cold feet. Just have to wait and see. Seems kind of odd to me he would go on a visit to Providence and then commit. This would be a major surprise. However, it could ultimately lead to good news for State, if this helps us get Tyrus Boswell, who I like better anyway. He is already bigtime. Ben has the potential to be; although, I would still like to sign them both. Kevin believes if Tyrus signs during the early period, we will get him. If he signs during the spring period, Alabama may get him. Kevin said Todd Myles will sign very soon. He mentioned that a couple of coaches he talked to, believes Todd definitely has NBA talent. He also said Detrick White will sign with MSU during the spring period. Also, if Perkins does go to Providence, we may sign Cedric Wallace, who he believes is a great player; although, not as basketball skilled as the others.
11/13/96 Here's a few things Kevin Henderson said about Miss State's recruiting on the Mississippi Sports Talk Show Wednesday night. He said we WILL sign Tang Hamilton and Todd Myles during the early period. We will also sign Detrick White during the spring signing period. Kansas has just lately jumped on the bandwagon for Detrick's services, but Kevin says we have a wide lead at the moment. Kevin said we are also very much in the running for Ben Perkins and Tyrus Boswell. He said Tyrus may make a decision in a day or two. He doesn't believe we will sign Tang, Ben and Tyrus. The schools recruiting against us will not let that happen. Todd Myles was ranked the 13th best player by Bob Gibbons (Not 12th as I have stated in this site. My mistake. - Gene) coming out of high school two years ago. Another player we were recruiting, Shannon Foreman, is leaning to LSU, but he will most likely not qualify. Cedric Wallace, who we are interested in, will most likely not be offered a scholarship, due to the number of scholarships we have available. Tough to pass him up, but State will probably have to. All in all we are having an OUTSTANDING year.
11/13/96 - Look for Todd Myles to have a press conference today to announce that he will be signing with Miss State during the early signing period. As most of you already know, Tang Hamilton will be having a press conference Friday to announce that he will be signing with Miss State.
11/10/96 - Just got through talking to Kevin Henderson, of MISSISSIPPI HOOPS, a few minutes ago. Had a lot of GREAT info about Miss State basketball recruiting. See my basketball page for individual details, such as where they are from and height and weight, on each player.
11/07/96 - According to Future Stars, Shannon Foreman, a Top 50 recruit according to some recruiting analysts, has narrowed his list to Miss State, Iowa State, Pittsburgh, DePaul and Conneticut. (This appears to be good news for Miss State, since we are the closet to his home. This makes me wonder if Todd Myles, the guard I have mentioned on my page, will still transfer to State. Isn't it great, Miss State involved with all of these Top 50 and Top 100 players. How times have changed - Gene.)
11/05/96 - The Sporting News 1996-1997 College Basketball Yearbook asked five of the top recruiting "gurus" to provide lists of the top 100 high school seniors. The five were Clark Francis, Van Coleman, Bob Gibbons, Recruiting USA and Brick Oettinger. The two players we are recruiting that were consensus Top 100 were Tang Hamilton, 59th, and Ben Perkins, 79th. Tang had a high of 37th by Bob Gibbons and a low of 83rd by Van Coleman. Ben Perkins had a high of 43rd by Clark Francis and a low of 91st by Brick Oettinger.
Other items of interest in the yearbook: Quentin Smith was listed as the 48th best incoming freshman. Horatio Webster was picked as the newcomer of the year in the SEC. Miss State is picked to be an NIT team this year. We are picked as the 62nd best team in the country. We are also picked to finish 4th in the West. Detrick White, a point guard we are recruiting, is listed as the 5th best point guard in the JUCO ranks.
11/05/96 - A player I just found out we are recruiting is Eric Williams, a 6-9 Forward from Milford, CT. He is also listing Mass., UNLV, Seton Hall, West Virginia, TCU and Florida. Source: Future Stars.
11/02/96 - Personal observations and things I heard while at the intrasquad game today.
......Ben Perkins, the 6-7 Forward from Vinton, LA., was officially visiting MSU this weekend. Saw him at the game today.
......Some opinions I formed while watching the intrasquad game. The three go-to players this year will be Horatio Webster, Tyrone Washington and Bart Hyche. These three really stood out during the game. Horatio is a great one-on-one player. Very hard to stop. Tyrone looked outstanding shooting the ball today. He has a really sweet 10-12' turnaround jump shot. Really looked smooth. Bart was the one guard that really seemed to shoot the ball well today. He was not the least bit tentative shooting the ball from the outside. Trey Moore has good one-on-one moves. He will probably not shoot a lot of threes, but he will be able to create some shots and he appears to be a good free throw shooter. He also is not afraid to yell to the other players what the play is. When he is running the play, the other players are going to know what is going on. He has the potential to be a very good point guard. Whit Hughes really hustled today, but what else is new? Took charges, made great behind the back passes while going out of bounds. He even scored off of an attempted lob pass toward the bucket. Guess he thought he was passing to Dontae'. Those five will be our starting five based on what I saw today. The freshmen, as well as all of the other players, really played hard today. There is a lot of potential, but until the backup players get some experience, we will struggle a little. Right now, there is a lot of difference between the starting five and the backups. One other item from the game, Quentin Smith did not play. His mother died about a week ago and he wasn't there because of that. Hang in there Quentin, all of the Bulldog backers are thinking about you and your family.