MVCfans.com

Blers wrote:Per Roy Schmidt he's taking officials to LUC, UNI, and ISUr.

Visiting UNI today, ISUr the 16th and Loyola the 23rd.

Curious to hear if fan bases of any of these teams are really high on him at this point.

Blers wrote:Curious to hear if fan bases of any of these teams are really high on him at this point.

He's a strange one.

He does very well in the AAU circut. He is highly regarded there. He hardly sees the floor for his HS team. UNI fans would take him, but would rather land wing Tywhon Pickford from the Twin Cities this year.

uniftw wrote:

Blers wrote:Curious to hear if fan bases of any of these teams are really high on him at this point.

He's a strange one.

He does very well in the AAU circut. He is highly regarded there. He hardly sees the floor for his HS team.

Are you thinking of the right guy? I think Bruninga averaged 35+ for his high school team.

He must have the wrong kid, as Taylor was the Peoria Journal Star small school player of the year. He did average nearly 35 a game:

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20170328/2 ... ini-bluffs

DUBulldog wrote:

uniftw wrote:

Blers wrote:Curious to hear if fan bases of any of these teams are really high on him at this point.

He's a strange one.

He does very well in the AAU circut. He is highly regarded there. He hardly sees the floor for his HS team.

Are you thinking of the right guy? I think Bruninga averaged 35+ for his high school team.

Yeah, I was thinking the kid from Valley - Blake Brinkmeyer.

My mistake. The B names threw me a loop on tha tone.

uniftw wrote:Yeah, I was thinking the kid from Valley - Blake Brinkmeyer.

My mistake. The B names threw me a loop on tha tone.

All good! What are UNI(and ISUr if any are reading) opinions on him this far into the recruiting season? As an LUC fan I kinda just shrug at his numbers since in terms of size we need someone who can play down low while he seems more like a shooting type. We also are the only team that offered a 4 for 4 from my understanding so my thoughts on him are kinda skewed.

From what I've read, he is not an inside player, as he'd rather float out to the 3 point line. Who knows though, maybe he could be a good stretch 4, but would definitely have to hit the weight room hard.

Blers wrote:

uniftw wrote:Yeah, I was thinking the kid from Valley - Blake Brinkmeyer.

My mistake. The B names threw me a loop on tha tone.

All good! What are UNI(and ISUr if any are reading) opinions on him this far into the recruiting season? As an LUC fan I kinda just shrug at his numbers since in terms of size we need someone who can play down low while he seems more like a shooting type. We also are the only team that offered a 4 for 4 from my understanding so my thoughts on him are kinda skewed.

He is a 4-5 at UNI. He seems a bit like a project with good upside if he develops.

From what I can tell (based on talking to others I know) combined with my opinion is he is a Nate Buss style player (I use Buss because he was a UNI player). Here is a long highlight video on Buss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPNGFIinZsY

If you don't want to watch a tape here's his stats and UNI bio
http://unipanthers.com/roster.aspx?rp_i ... ath=mbball

He redshirted and still took 2 years of playing to start to come into his own as a JR. He was a big part of those two teams though. He was 6'9 but came in at like 190. He left at 215. He led the state of Iowa in scoring at 27.2 ppg in high school with 11 boards and 3 blocks. He pretty much never posted up. He was a wing but was 6'9. It took 3 years for him to really buy into UNI's defense first, offensive stats don't matter philosophy - he was in the dog house hard for about 2 years.

In terms of build and HS stats he seems nearly identical to Buss (even looks like him to some extent). He played at a high school, and level, similar to Buss in high school. It was a bit of a knock on Buss (and Bruninga) that he didn't face people of his height or skill often so that's why he had those numbers. That isn't entirely false. Looking at his high school stats - 25% of his shots as a senior were 3 point shots (124 of 204). He also shot 41% from 3. He's a shooter. He's a stretch player. He is exactly what UNI wants. Think Jake and Adam Koch (before the Loyola days), Nate Buss (partial Loyola days), Klint Carlson, etc...

Another Valley player with a similar build/high school career is Casey Schlatter at Drake. He played at a real small Iowa school. Dominated and many thought was "underrecruited" because of his numbers. He has two years left, but there is less than zero through his first two years playing (plus his RS) that leads me to believe he is a Valley level player - http://godrakebulldogs.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=3966

UNI has a wing player, a post transfer and potentially a grad transfer at PG they are looking at for this years final scholarship. He will be a 4-5 at UNI unless we whiff on all three of those.

I don't know how he feels about a 4-5, and going 4-4 at Loyola may give them the edge. UNI and ISUr are both going to redshirt him. It doesn't sound like that is the case at LUC. Maybe they will but give him a ride all 5 years. Even if he redshirts there the edge may be the scholarship.

TL;DR - high potential upside, but project to get there.

Welcome to the Redbirds Taylor!

From the Pantagraph:

Illini Bluffs High School first-team all-stater Taylor Bruninga announced on his Twitter account late Monday night he will play his college basketball at Illinois State.

The 6-foot-7 Bruninga averaged 33.4 points and 11.5 rebounds per game as a senior this past season. He shot 60.4 percent from the field, 41.1 percent from 3-point range and 87.2 percent from the free throw line while earning a spot on The Associated Press Class 2A all-state first team.