QB Terrelle Pryor (official thread)

[Oh8ch]

From no less an authority than the New York Times:

SPORTS PEOPLE; Schlichter on Court? - New York Times

Back to Pryor

(sorry fellow mods - I'd split it, but I'd screw it up)

[nwbuckeye]

Sorry for the off topic discussion there, but back to Pryor...obviously the chances of a 2 sport athlete getting hurt is the same whether he is a football player playing basketball or vice-versa. It would though seem to me that there would be less gnashing of teeth (coaches wise) if a highly recruited football player would want to play basketball too, than if a blue chip basketball player wanted to play on the football team also. I would imagine if the ONLY chance of landing him is for both coaches to agree he can play both sports, then much swalloing of pride and concern will be done in the interest of the good of the buckeye nation

[BengalsAndBucks]

Luckily for us, neither Matta nor Tressel are the types to let their ego's get in the way of things.

Pryor is currently ranked as a better basketball player than either Lighty or Turner were coming out of HS. While I don't think he would start, I believe that he will certainly be able to contribute valuable minutes as much more than an "energy guy". Energy guys are athletic people with no basketball talent (Noah). Clearly, Pryor has a load of basketball talent.

[wigmon]

Pryor is ranked about the same place Lighty was (RSCI 30 vs. 31), but Lighty was part of one of the best classes in recent memory and was recovering from a very serious knee injury during his SR year. Turner's RSCI is 54, but I think he falls into the late bloomer category since he was a 6' PG as a soph and is still growing into his body. I think he will be a very good surprise in this class. Also, the '08 class is considered to be fairly weak, so being ranked 30 or so in ''08 is not equivalent to 30 in say '06.

What would you say Lighty's contribution was this past year? This was for a team that was short-handed (only 9 scholarship players once Oden returned) and he was fighting for playing time against Harris and Lewis at 2 different positions.

Pryor is a very good athlete but I hear his strength (other than athleticism) is his touch around the basket and midrange, but his ball skills and outside shooting are his weaknesses. Do you think in Matta's 3 guard lineup (the SF is essentially a big guard) that a SF that needs work on his "guard" skills is going to get much PT over players with experience and good guard skills? If Pryor was playing hoops year round like the other guys, then I'd have confidence in him being able to improve enough in those areas because he is a great athlete, but I think it will be extremely difficult for him to reach that level for a final 4 caliber team by only playing basketball for 3 months out of the year. I could see him potentially playing some PF on a smaller quicker lineup and I think that could be his niche on the basketball team.

I could very easily be wrong in what I am thinking (honestly I hope I am), but I just think the fact that we are going to have extremely talented basketball teams and that Pryor will be in football from July to Jan will make it very difficult for him to find PT on the basketball court.

[Buckeye737]

Another guy who might be a better comparison for Pryor on the basketball side of things is Tony Gonzalez who played SF at Cal. He was a strong and well-rounded player and was probably the best player on a Cal team that made the NCAA tournament. On the football side it's definitely a different story with Gonzalez playing TE rather than QB.

[wigmon]

Gonzales was a solid basketball player on a fairly good college team who averaged just over 6 points and 4 rebounds for his career. Here is an excerpt on his best year in hoops in college:

- On the basketball court, he helped lead Cal to the ?Sweet 16? of the NCAA Tournament ? Played in 28 games (six starts), averaging 6.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game ? Started all three of the club?s tourney games in place of injured Pac 10 Player of the Year, Ed Gray and posted a season-high 23 points in Cal?s second-round NCAA tournament win vs. Villanova.

What you have to look at is the talent on both the football teams and basketball teams. IF your FB team is talented, then obviously that means they are going to be playing longer into basketball season and have a strong emphasis on off-season development. IF the basketball team is talented, that means its going to be deeper in talent and harder to get PT for everyone. We happen to have both right now, so its going to be tough competition in both sports.

[jimotis4heisman]

Originally Posted by wigmon

Pryor is ranked about the same place Lighty was (RSCI 30 vs. 31), but Lighty was part of one of the best classes in recent memory and was recovering from a very serious knee injury during his SR year. Turner's RSCI is 54, but I think he falls into the late bloomer category since he was a 6' PG as a soph and is still growing into his body. I think he will be a very good surprise in this class. Also, the '08 class is considered to be fairly weak, so being ranked 30 or so in ''08 is not equivalent to 30 in say '06.

What would you say Lighty's contribution was this past year? This was for a team that was short-handed (only 9 scholarship players once Oden returned) and he was fighting for playing time against Harris and Lewis at 2 different positions.

Pryor is a very good athlete but I hear his strength (other than athleticism) is his touch around the basket and midrange, but his ball skills and outside shooting are his weaknesses. Do you think in Matta's 3 guard lineup (the SF is essentially a big guard) that a SF that needs work on his "guard" skills is going to get much PT over players with experience and good guard skills? If Pryor was playing hoops year round like the other guys, then I'd have confidence in him being able to improve enough in those areas because he is a great athlete, but I think it will be extremely difficult for him to reach that level for a final 4 caliber team by only playing basketball for 3 months out of the year. I could see him potentially playing some PF on a smaller quicker lineup and I think that could be his niche on the basketball team.

I could very easily be wrong in what I am thinking (honestly I hope I am), but I just think the fact that we are going to have extremely talented basketball teams and that Pryor will be in football from July to Jan will make it very difficult for him to find PT on the basketball court.

id entertain an argument that matta runs a four guard set...

[Napoleonbuck]

You could make that argument, but I don't think you'll see it as much in the future. Matta seems to want athletic, shooting power forwards, which means you'll see slightly more traditional line ups with a C(Hunter or Mullens in the future), an athletic PF(Kosta, Sidney, Sullinger type players. You could have thrown Babbit in here too), and then the interchangeable SF/SG, and the PG.

I think the roster he inheritied forced Matta to go to four guards, but I don't think you'll see it as a base line up unless we're trying to play a match-up game.

As for Pryor. Sounds sort of like a JJ Sullinger type player, though obviously a little more skilled. If he can rebound, play solid defense, and slash and run, he could be a great addition to the team mid way through the season should he come to Ohio State.

[wigmon]

I'd agree with Napoleon on that one. I think Matta wants a PF with some guard like skills (passing and shooting), but I don't think I'd call it a 4 guard lineup. Our 4 guard lineup last year was somewhat out of necessity against smaller teams because neither Oden, Twig or Hunter (although he was the best) were good at defending on the perimeter.

I guess thats the advantage to bringing in 6'6" guards and where Pryor may fit into the system is that if we need to go with a quicker lineup, we can put 2 or 3 6'6" guys on the floor. I think that would be Pryor's chance to play more, is if we went small and he played the 4.

Here is what I do believe about Matta and that is that he will find a way to get his best players on the floor as much as possible. If Pryor is the 3rd best SF option, but one of the 7 or 8 best players on the team, then he will get his PT at some position. I'm just of the opinion without concentrating on basketball, he will have a difficult time breaking into the top 8 with the amount of talent on the team (the PF spot may be the opening depending on how long KK stays).

[billmac91]

Hopefully it doesn't make a differnce in his recruitment, but Pat Bostik just left the Pitt program according to Joe Schad on ESPN

[sandgk]

Originally Posted by billmac91

Hopefully it doesn't make a differnce in his recruitment, but Pat Bostik just left the Pitt program according to Joe Schad on ESPN

OK - why would this make a difference - one way or the other?

I ask as Scout has it that he is going home for personal reasons - and Pitt is keeping open arms waiting for Bostik's return.

[The Man]

Originally Posted by billmac91

Hopefully it doesn't make a differnce in his recruitment, but Pat Bostik just left the Pitt program according to Joe Schad on ESPN

didn't sound like a permanent leave when I read it earlier, unless something changed

[billmac91]

b/c it's less competition at the QB position and early in his recruitment, Terrelle was well aware of Pat at Pitt and stated such.....now Pat isn't there

[billmac91]

Quote:
According to Pryor, all five of the main contenders have told him they would take him as a quarterback and for both sports. The top in-state quarterback last year, Pat Devlin, redshirted this past year at Penn State; and Pitt is about to officially sign this year?s top in-state quarterback, Pat Bostick. Though both are considered excellent prospects, Pryor is rated higher than both Devlin and Bostick. But both will also likely be sophomores during Pryor?s freshman year, giving them a head start in any battle. Things are even tougher at Notre Dame, where the Fighting Irish are welcoming the consensus No. 1 player in the country, quarterback Jimmy Clausen, and at Michigan, who welcomes the consensus No. 2 quarterback in the country, Ryan Mallet.

Pryor admits that he has noticed who each school has at the quarterback position, and while confident, he says he wants to play right away.

Originally Posted by CleveBucks

Notice which school is missing from the list of top QB recruits?

Just to add on to my previous post....I know there was a recent report of him wanting to redshirt anyways, but Bostik leaving Pitt would prob intrigue him anyways

[billmac91]

Originally Posted by sandgk

OK - why would this make a difference - one way or the other?

I ask as Scout has it that he is going home for personal reasons - and Pitt is keeping open arms waiting for Bostik's return.

Oh OK, I hadn't see they were awaiting his return...of course I saw the report by ESPN which makes everything as dramatic as possible and made it seem as if he was done for good with the program