Iowa kids playing for Albany...

[UNIChippewa]

So I'm watching/listening to the First Four game between Albany and Mount St. Mary's at the moment, and it turns out that Albany has a couple of Iowa kids on their roster; a 6'10 kid from Waterloo named John Puk who is a senior and a 6'6 freshman from Sheldon named Dallas Ennema (poor kid growing up with a last name like that).

Did we ever take a look at either one of these guys, especially the 6'10 kid from Waterloo? I know that the America East conference is behind the MVC in terms of quality, but Puk is 6'10 after all and starts for them.

Just curious...

[DownGoesKansas]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

So I'm watching/listening to the First Four game between Albany and Mount St. Mary's at the moment, and it turns out that Albany has a couple of Iowa kids on their roster; a 6'10 kid from Waterloo named John Puk who is a senior and a 6'6 freshman from Sheldon named Dallas Ennema (poor kid growing up with a last name like that).

Did we ever take a look at either one of these guys, especially the 6'10 kid from Waterloo? I know that the America East conference is behind the MVC in terms of quality, but Puk is 6'10 after all and starts for them.

Just curious...

Albany always has a couple kids from Iowa on there team. I think they might offer every player who goes D1 in Iowa. And they are in the NCAA tournament a lot so it is usually a pretty good decision for those guys

[sivert]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

We already had a Koch (Jake) and Pehl. John finished at West in '10. Plus a commit from he-who-shall-not-be-named (but plays for Creighton). I think John thought we were pretty all set for bigs.

[BCPanther]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Pretty sure we never offered Puk.

Kid has worked really hard to make himself serviceable. There isn't any way he could have been much of a contributor in the Valley. Austin Pehl was light years ahead coming out of high school

[achrist70]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Pretty sure we never offered Puk.

Kid has worked really hard to make himself serviceable. There isn't any way he could have been much of a contributor in the Valley. Austin Pehl was light years ahead coming out of high school

WOW that is saying something

[9YRPLAN]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

I am not sure why they recruit Iowa so hard but they have for years. Bo's teammate from linn Mar was headed there until he got hurt.

[achrist70]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Their associate Head Coach Chad O'Donnell has some connection to the midwest I don't remember what it is though

[Zakelsta]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Pretty sure we never offered Puk.

Kid has worked really hard to make himself serviceable. There isn't any way he could have been much of a contributor in the Valley. Austin Pehl was light years ahead coming out of high school

This is accurate. Puk was very skinny in high school. Like...makes Bennett Koch look like a body builder skinny. Had the height, but not the strength or physicality to compete. He's developed well at Albany though.

[arealcat]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Kind of shows the "lottery" aspect of recruiting.

[panther1]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Kind of shows the "lottery" aspect of recruiting.

True, but Pehl would have likely been as successful at Albany as Puk. Puk hasn't exactly set the world on fire.

[SteinPizza]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Kind of shows the "lottery" aspect of recruiting.

Or development. Luck plays into it too, but IMO, luck is more applicable to football. Recruiting in basketball is more science than art, while recruiting in football is as much art as it is science (especially if you are not Alabama, Florida, LSU, Ohio State, etc.). Put another way, walk ons can occasionally become meaningful contributors in football, while it's almost unheard of in basketball. It's nice that Martino is good enough to play meaningful minutes for us, but that's a rare one-off.

[BCPanther]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Martino is a 'walk on' in name only. Jake simply couldn't offer him because he knew he was getting an academic scholarship. If there had been any official visits or recruiting, he would have counted against the 13 scholarship limit in the first year.

[arealcat]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Or development. Luck plays into it too, but IMO, luck is more applicable to football. Recruiting in basketball is more science than art, while recruiting in football is as much art as it is science (especially if you are not Alabama, Florida, LSU, Ohio State, etc.). Put another way, walk ons can occasionally become meaningful contributors in football, while it's almost unheard of in basketball. It's nice that Martino is good enough to play meaningful minutes for us, but that's a rare one-off.

I agree to an extent, but there still is a lot of guess work in basketball. Look at the NBA draft for example. Many of the top few picks don't pan out. I know it's a different beast, but no recruiting/evaluating is an exact science.

[EVSPanther]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

Congrats to john punk on scoring 10 points in a tough fight against Florida today. Good to see local talent in the spotlight, even if it was in a losing effort.

[Geno4UNI]

Re: Iowa kids playing for Albany...

He got Waterloo mentioned when he fouled out towards the end of the game.