|
|
|
|
GET IN THE GAME
Click here to submit your photos, story ideas or comments. |
|
Stewart: ‘I just wanted to play at the highest level’ |
|
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 |
By AARON SEIDLITZ
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Mississippi State assistant coach Phil Cunningham is quick to point out the nuances to recruiting in the current college basketball atmosphere.
Cunningham – who has been on Rick Stansbury’s staff since 2000 – makes it clear that the difficult part in recruiting is not only the speed with which decisions have to be made on whether a player should be targeted.
In college basketball, Cunningham explains, maybe the most important step is to identify one’s competition.
“We can’t recruit 10 All-Americans like the North Carolinas or Kansas’ of the world,” he said.
The easy part, Cunningham said, is to spot the talent that can fit on a 13-scholarship roster. He mentioned that Stansbury and the staff were on players like Jamont Gordon, Charles Rhodes, Monta Ellis and Travis Outlaw from a young age because it was obvious.
The hard part he said – at least for a school like State that won’t bring in all big name, high-profile recruits – is to find the kids who will be solid players two to three years down the road and blend them into the team.
“One thing we’ve been very successful at, we’ve always had a couple of the elite type players – all-league players, guys who were recruited hard – and one has been inside and one outside when we’ve been at our best,” Cunningham said. “Then we’ve filled in with a lot of players that maybe weren’t big time recruits coming out of high school.”
At the top of that list to Cunningham is current senior Barry Stewart, an undersized, 6-foot-2, skinny, 170 pounds last season, shooting guard. Cunningham’s thoughts on Stewart were always geared toward the long term when Stewart was recruited by State.
Stewart said that before MSU contacted him, he was mostly looking at smaller schools near his home in Shelbyville, TN. There was Tennessee-Chattanooga, Middle Tennessee State, Lipscomb and Austin Peay.
“It was a quick progression,” Stewart said. “I think you just never know until you get out there. I remember when I got out there against the SEC I was comfortable enough, and all it took was effort and hard working.
“Looking back at it, I fit well with this team.”
After State was the first Southeastern Conference team in on Stewart, it even surprised Cunningham how quickly Stewart became a prominent player with the Bulldogs.
In just his freshman year at State, Stewart averaged 9.8 points per game, and he broke Reginald Delk’s school record for 3-pointers made and attempted by a freshman.
“The thought was that he’d eventually turn into the player who’d be in the rotation for us. We didn’t know if he’d ever be a starter,” Cunningham said.
The plan at first was for Stewart to be one of those players that Cunningham said mid-major programs stock up on. The kind of players that aren’t the most heralded coming out of high school and who don’t leave early for the draft or are more of a danger to transfer.
The staff at MSU wanted a player like Stewart to be a danger when he was a senior.
“We try to look for a guy like that,” Cunningham said. “Who’s the guy out there who might not be recruited at the highest level, but by the time he’s a senior will be playing at that level and just be a terror when you play them in the NCAA Tournament?
“We saw that in Barry Stewart.”
The progression just happened quicker than the staff expected, so there was Stewart as a sophomore starting regularly for the Bulldogs’ SEC West-winning team.
Then as a junior he was the veteran presence on a team that went to the NCAA Tournament again on the back of an SEC Tournament-winning run.
All of it was a little different Stewart even expected of himself when he was entering college. Back then he saw himself as a guy who could defend and score, and he still sees that now.
He just didn’t see all that would garner him while at MSU.
“I wanted to compete at the highest level I could,” Stewart said. “When they came after me, it didn’t matter so much about the SEC, it mattered about the coaching staff and the team.
“But I couldn’t tell the future.”
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 July 2009 )
|
|
|
|
