Bowen to Louisville
- Thread starter M51
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Sort of an out of the blue decision and direction. I wonder what Pitino gave him under the table. I also have to wonder why a player as talented as him waited so long before signing. I guess Miles Bridges staying at MSU ruined his dream of being a one and done player. It would appear that MSU was his plan A, and he didn't have a plan b. By his choices, it was obvious he wanted to play for a top 20 team. Maybe Louisville matches his style of play.
He would have been a nice addition, But there were also a lot of red flags.
He would have been a nice addition, But there were also a lot of red flags.
It would have been bad news if he wanted to be a Boilermaker. It's been stated before that Nojel Eastern and him are/were known for openly acknowledging that they didn't want to play together in college after playing on the same AAU team. It could have just been a chemistry issue or something more personal than that.
Yes, I wondered why this wasn't an OT thread... Really only ones concerned was MSU & Louisville in the ending months of his recruiting.
Weird recruitment for sure. I read article where someone from Bowen's "camp" reached out to Pitino a couple weeks ago to see if UL was interested in him still. Up to that point Louisville had stopped recruiting him after offering a couple years ago early in the process.
MSU would have been clear preseason #1 if he goes there. Plenty of exposure for NBA and he could have started over Langford IMO. Sure Bridges would be the star, but UL has some talented wings already too.
Not very often where you find a 5 star initiating where they want to go late in the process........
Bowen would be behind JJJ and Bridges at MSU. And MSU has a stacked front court. It was not a very good fit. Louisville has King at the wing position and actually has a need for an immediate impact wing to take backup minutes. Plus they play a very uptempo style. It's a good fit for Bowen and I am oh so very happy that Izzo wiffs on another recruit. Bowen actually really hurt himself by waiting so late. All of the really good teams that offered him already had that position filled. When Bridges stayed and they signed JJJ, Bowen lost his chance there.
Also, I don't think Bowen would be enough to move them to number one. They are already completely overhyped (look at last year how they were ranked and how they ended. If not for IU they might have been the most overrated team) so it is possible they would look at the addition and not think about how he would actually impact the team. Bowen would be getting backup minutes unless they were to play Bridges at the 2 and I don't know that would be beneficial. It would be an entertaining team to watch, but guard play is what is going to keep MSU back and Bridges doesn't address that problem at all.
I am curious to see how MSU finishes, but I don't see them haveing a better year than Purdue had last year. We shall see.
I believe this thread is on topic as much as any other recruiting thread is. We have an open scholarship. Bowen was a remaining 5* talent. He went to LA lum - a prep school that both Painter. And Lutz have recruited players from. Bowen was on Eastern's AAU team. Admittedly, Purdue was not one of his first choices. Or second or third or tenth. However, as all those other choices closed their doors, It is worth discussing to see if Bowen or Painter or Eastern changed their minds and decided to bury the hatchet and recruit Bowen. It's not like Purdue has a lot of elite talented true small forwards. Adding Bowen could have been a great addition talent wise. And yes he would have been a huge distraction and a team chemistry headache.
But this is a fan message board, and we live on team headaches. We're constantly talking about players long after they transferred. We talked more about Cline's off court actions than his on court success.
Bowen would have provided us a lot to talk about. On the other hand, Sasha, Wheeler and Ewing have been kind of boring with no off court problems or controversies. And if we don't talk about and criticize players, we usually waste our time criticizing other boiler posters. So what is better? Recruiting Bowen and criticizing the reasons for doing so, or saying your posts have made me dumber for reading them?
But this is a fan message board, and we live on team headaches. We're constantly talking about players long after they transferred. We talked more about Cline's off court actions than his on court success.
Bowen would have provided us a lot to talk about. On the other hand, Sasha, Wheeler and Ewing have been kind of boring with no off court problems or controversies. And if we don't talk about and criticize players, we usually waste our time criticizing other boiler posters. So what is better? Recruiting Bowen and criticizing the reasons for doing so, or saying your posts have made me dumber for reading them?
"Not very often where you find a 5 star initiating where they want to go late in the process........"
I wonder if that reflects on Bowen's "camp" and/or Bowen's attitude. It seems like he might be a bit of a prima donna. I know that type of thing is often said about players that don't choose Purdue (I didn't know much about him beforehand but definitely was not interested in him after learning about the rift between him and Eastern, since Eastern was a legit prospect for Purdue) but I think there might actually be some truth to it in his case.
I wonder if that reflects on Bowen's "camp" and/or Bowen's attitude. It seems like he might be a bit of a prima donna. I know that type of thing is often said about players that don't choose Purdue (I didn't know much about him beforehand but definitely was not interested in him after learning about the rift between him and Eastern, since Eastern was a legit prospect for Purdue) but I think there might actually be some truth to it in his case.
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