SMART

[swellafelon]

I'm not suggesting that Marshall hired Lindsted just so WSU can sign Smart. Not at all. I think Linsted was hired for his entire body of work in steering players to WSU, and letting the Shockers use his prep squad as a farm team for future Shockers so they wouldn't have to redshirt or use up a year's eligibility sitting on the bench at WSU.

My Smart prediction is speculation, but WSU hiring Lindsted certainly doesn't hurt it. If Lindsted and Marshall think Smart is worthy of a scholarship, Smart signs with the Shockers. I think this scenario was put in place a long time ago.

[GoRamblers]

Swella with the HOT TAKE months ago.

[lusuperfan]

Lol who is to say WSU even wants Smart? You all have made a LOT of ASSumptions.....

WSU will probably be recruiting quite a few guards considering you'll only have 3 (if you count Frankamp who is scholarship-worthy) scholarship guards on the roster for 16-17. Do you really think Smart's old HS coach will not recommend extending an offer his way? And if Marshall, who will ultimately be making the decision to offer the scholarship, didn't see eye to eye with Lindstead, do you think he would've hired him? Or even recruited half of the SCA team in the past three years? Plus, isn't it fishy that we recruit him hard for years (I think we reached out to him first day as a sophomore), he commits to us, and after a few months in a boarding school less than 5 miles from a conference rival, decommits? Even if WSU does pass (again, I think it's pretty doubtful), you think they would've be OK with a Rivals Top-150 player going to another school in conference?

You have to stick your head WAY down in the sand to think they're not even talking to Smart.

[swellafelon]

Guess who Coach Lindsted recently followed on Twitter, along with "Shocker Compliance", a Wichita State Twitter account about how to comply with NCAA regulations?

Follow up question: Guess who Roosevelt Smart recently followed on Twitter?

[swellafelon]

I wonder if Smart deciding to play AAU ball this summer means he wants to showcase himself for possible new suitors, which weakens my argument that he's committed to WSU. Or maybe he just wants to play and improve his game against high-level competition.

I guess we'll find out soon enough. (I hope to God Smart signs in the Fall, and doesn't wait until next spring. The suspense is killing me!)

[lusuperfan]

If you're argument is that he's 100% committed to WSU, then it was kind of weak to begin with cause there's been no news from him and commitments are usually something kids shout from the mountaintops.

I think part of the reason he's playing is love of the game, to get reps, all that crap. However, Twitter is only 140 characters, and obviously those limited characters need to be used judiciously. So the fact that he's "6'3 190 pound combo guard" Roosevelt Smart in that tweet insinuates that he's still putting himself out there to be recruited.

Also, to be noted, it's interesting that he came back to play AAU ball for the father of our recently promoted and now able to recruit assistant coach. I bet he could've jumped ship to another program if he wanted to or even stayed in Wichita for the summer. I think it's kind of crummy about what happened to an all-around good guy like Matt Gordon (kind of reminds me of the Rodell Davis revolving door a few years ago). It does certainly make it interesting from a strategy perspective on how the staff is set up.

[swellafelon]

I think you're right on the money about the implications of the tweet including Smart's height, weight and playing position. It makes it sound like an ad for Roosevelt.

[SubGod22]

The only WSU/Smart connections I've seen anywhere are on here. WSU will need to bring in a guard or two and are all over the map recruiting them and I haven't seen his name pop up.

Sunrise has never steered anyone to WSU. The only player we've gotten from Sunrise that we didn't place there is Rauno Nurger, who was roommates with Zach Brown while they were there. And placing kids in prep schools for a year isn't uncommon. We're just lucky enough to have a prep power in our back yard.

Lindsted was hired because he's had one hell of a successful career at Sunrise with a tremendous record. On top of that, his international connections, or his fathers, are a huge reason as well. Plus, during his time building SCA into a prep power, he's no doubt made a number of contacts/connections at other prep powers that will help with recruiting. On top of all of that, he's a disciplinarian that will demand hard work and not take crap. That fits in quite well with the staff that 3G puts together.

Basically, I think some of you are a little paranoid over nothing. No doubt, going forward this may help when it comes to trying to recruit the next Buddy Hield or Tum Tum out of Sunrise, but then again it may not. Kyle has been a WSU fan forever and that didn't help us land either of those two, whom we both recruited, or any of the others that we invested time in while they were at Sunrise. SCA is a well respected academic institution and integrity matters there. I know and have known a number of students there and know one teacher. I've met Buddy Hield. It's a first class school and is much more than just the prep basketball power they've grown into.

We also have another local private prep school looking to follow in the footsteps of SCA. We'll see how that goes over the next decade.

[swellafelon]

Kyle's father, Dr. Robert Lindsted, who founded and currently heads Sunrise Christian, sounds like a real crackpot, as evidenced by this quote from a 1991 newspaper article in which the good doctor at a Biblical Prophesy Conference predicts the imminent end of the world:

I really think the Lord is coming tonight," Robert Lindsted, one of the nation's leading "prophetic observers," told the assembled on the first evening of the three-day gathering. "I'm waiting for the sound of the trumpet.

http://articles.philly.com/1991-11-05/n ... hal-events

As for his son Coach Kyle, it looks to me like he's influencing some of his high school senior players to break their college commitments, which seems problematic to me. Smart is one. Another is C.J. Keyser, who recently announced that he is not going to honor his Letter of Intent with Colorado State and instead will, like Smart, go to prep school for a year, either at Sunrise or Brewster Academy. Now I suspect Wichita State may be the intended beneficiary of these "flips", but it could also be that Kyle doesn't care where these players ultimately land, and that his motive is to benefit the Sunrise prep program by keeping these players around for a second year. My question is how much is Lindsted motivated by the best interests of the players versus how much is he motivated by self-interest. The fact that he parlayed his success at Sunrise into an assistant coaching gig at WSU suggests to me that Lindsted is not without personal ambition, and might be willing to exploit his players to achieve it.

So I hope you'll forgive me if I don't hold the Lindsteds or Sunrise Christian Academy in such high esteem as you appear to.

As for my predictions, two have already come true: Smart has reclassified to 2016, and he will spend a second year at Sunrise as a post grad in their prep school. My third prediction, that he will sign with Wichita State, has yet to come to pass, but I believe it has a better chance of coming true than one of Dr. Lindsted's doomsday prophesies.

[lusuperfan]

I think the CSU kid might be a stretch cause he just opted out knowing full well Lindstead was gone. But if they land a SCA kid or 2 or 3 in the next few years (Smart?), which very well could happen, I hope that the NCAA takes a good hard preemptive look to make sure everything at Wichita is on the up-and-up