The WAC on Saturday

Vandal athletics highlights newcomer Djim Bandoumel who is becoming a fave of Coach Don Verlin. PTW loves the accent

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Dayton Morinaga/Warrior Insider offers video of Coach Gib Arnold and frontcourter Bill Amis discussing their thoughts on the upcoming game against Chaminade.

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Brian McInnis serves up a Q-and-A with Walter Roese, a UH assistant coach as well as an explanation of the Man Drill. It has nothing to do with Black and Decker or a Christmas present for hubby.

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Shawn Harrison covers USU's latest exhibition win -- Tai Wesley got a T for too much rim time. When is the last time an Aggie was whistled for such?

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Tony Jones does the same, with a few interesting opinions mixed into the report.

New Mexico State triumphs again

The Aggies got on the right side and took down the Kia All-Stars tonight. Go here for the game report. Plus, Jason Groves reports that Friday's game will be the last in the tour. Go here.

PTW did notice that one Djim Bandoumel played against New Mexico State and totaled 18 points. The 6-foot-eight frontcourter signed with Idaho back in November and was cleared to play last month.

Here's a July 15, 2010 report on the young man (scroll down): "...I asked Coach Francis about him and he said that he didn’t know much about him either other than what I did. Jim, as they called him, was the most energetic guy in the place. He seemed to be taking in everything with a wide-eyed wonder, which is truly refreshing. I had no clue who he was but he said hi to me with a smile Tuesday morning. I gotta say I like this kid already. He has hops, he’s competent with both hands and he has good quickness. His only drawback, and Coach Francis mirrored my thoughts, Bandoumel is very, very raw. You can’t teach height or long limps and he was soaking everything in like a sponge so he has those going for him..."

Your early Tuesaday WAC bundle

AW Prince at Silver and Blue Sports spoke with Devonte Elliott and offers this report - a sub is required.

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UI athletics has issued a formal article on the eligibility determination of Djim Bandoumel -- go here.

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Anthony Ray at Arizona Preps is reporting that Boise State has offered 6-foot-3 Arizona prep guard Tim Derksen, class of 2012 and owner of a 4.0 grade point average. Go here and a Rivals sub is required.

From a March, 2010 Greg Hansen article in the Arizona Star, come this about Derksen: "...Amphi sophomore Tim Derksen, a coach's son with terrific basketball instincts, has a chance to be a Pac-10 player. But Derksen is maybe 6-2 and probably needs to add a few inches and considerable strength before he can attract recruiters from Top 25 programs..."

Here's an July, 2010 ESPN mini-description: "Derksen is a basketball player in every sense of the word. The slick lefty plays at a great pace at both ends of the floor and rarely makes bad decisions. He is a high-level passer in transition and rarely over handles the ball. He moves well without the ball..."

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Per Damon Sayles @ Texas Hoops, Boise State is also showing interest in 2011 point Williams Knowles, out of the Lone Star State. Go here and a Rivals sub is required.

Monday evening WAC items

Travis Mason-Bushman reports that Vandal recruit Djim Bandoumel has received the nod from the NCAA Clearinghouse. Go here to read about this. A tip o' the hat to Travis for letting us know.

A quick piece of advice for Mr. Bandoumel: forget college, forget college basketball -- set up a business as an obvious expert guide through the Clearinghouse maze. You'll make millions. 

It literally is amazing that he was cleared at this point in time considering (1) the trend has been that the season begins with many recruits awaiting an outcome and the Clearinghouse folks then enter their winter hibernation AND (2) Idaho and the WAC are not on the level of say a BCS school which can 'command' more attention.

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Chris Murray has much more on Devonte Elliott's eligibility to play for Nevada this coming season -- glad it happened before he ran out of eligibility. (are we in a bad mood? maybe, but how about the NCAA tossing a few million greenbacks towards resolving the sloth-like pace of eligibility determinations?)

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Here is a 3 hours old tweet from Jeff Goodman: "No clue if its out there, but source told me former KY commit and Gonzaga guard G.J. Vilarino is headed to Appalachian State. Ideal level." Does this cause heartbreak in Fresno or a shoulder shrug?

Three hours ago Dave Telep tweeted this: "Appalachian State added Michael Neal and transfer GJ Vilarino (Gonzaga) today. Appy State's backcourt for 2010 is locked up. Nice work."

Hmmm, anyone ever seen Misters Goodman and Telep together in the same gym?

The Monday a.m. WAC-mobile coming at you

Boy, are we glad that all the uproar and hoopla have died down over how the Western Athletic Conference was a dominant factor in the NBA draft -- not. It's fascinating how blinders -- often self-imposed -- obscure reality. A story ripe for the writing and, quite apropos metaphorically, the ball was dropped. Guess that 4,050th story on John Wall was too compelling not to write.

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Djim Bandoumel. No, he didn't score the winning goal in the World Cup -- he's an Idaho recruit out of the New York community college ranks who Vandals fans are wondering about, a la if he will be on the court in Moscow next season. Bandoumel was recently sighted on the Idaho campus but his eligibility remains up in the air. The NCAA Clearinghouse works in mysterious ways and most certainly on its own timetable. Our sense is Bandoumel will enroll and be in school even if a verdict on his eligibility remains pending. The stumbling block could be about core class acceptability or possibly when his eligibility clock began ticking

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Thanks to mcgeorgeaggie for finding it and treesap32 for the translation -- Jared Quayle is heading to Belgium. The info can be found at the Basketball Forum of the Utah State Scout site.

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Fresno State's Greg Smith is attending (invite only) the Amar'e Stoudmire Skills Academy. He was measured in sneakers at 6-10 and weighed 249, with a 7-1 ½ wingspan.

Friday's p.m. links and notes

Jeff Portnoy and Gib Arnold conversed last night and the former liked what he heard and saw.

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Chris Murray has a post on the staying or going situations facing big-time talents and those lesser lights. We repeat: LB has nothing to gain basketball-wise by remaining -- it will have to be another reason or reasons keeping him in Reno.

Chris also says that former Wolf Packer Ahyaro Phillips is heading back to the D-1 ranks -- just imagine the media uproar if the school was Virginia Tech.

We will never forget the unintended irony of Phillips listing his hobbies as "playing basketball and shopping" -- although, in fairness, shoplifting charges were dropped against him from the Scheels store incident.

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 Jason Groves blogs about possible/actual recruiting targets of Marvin Menzies.

The highly athletic Simmons was highly regarded -- Utah invited him to it's elite camp in July -- but his numbers 12.8 points and 3 rebounds per game -- appear just so-so.

Cantino seems to be the NMSU prototypical recruit: well-traveled.

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Matt Sonnenberg isn't kicking back in the off season -- he offers a feature on Utah State point recruit Brockeith Payne.

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Dale Grummert's Lewiston Tribune article on Idaho recruiting is posted here.

Two paragraphs from it:

"...More complicated is the case of [Djim] Bandoumel, who took a good-sized hiatus from basketball before his junior-college career and therefore faces questions about his eligibility clock. It could be weeks before the NCAA makes a ruling. Having blocked 65 shots this year for Monroe College in New York, he could help fill a void left by graduating UI post Marvin Jefferson.

The Vandals appear to have a scholarship available for Bandoumel. Verlin said Thursday that point guard Marcus Lawrence, who was under scholarship as a redshirt in 2008-09, was docked to walk-on status as a disciplinary measure this past season, and is slated to remain a walk-on next year as a senior..."

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Leon Rice is looking at backcourter Brady Heslip -- a Boston College November signee who is now a back on the market due to the coaching change at Chestnut Hill:

Sanders and Heslip leaving BC
Mark Blaudschun
Boston Globe
April 15, 2010

Just another wild and crazy day at the Boston College basketball office today which began with the request--which was granted-to transfer of junior forward Rakim Sanders and freshman guard Brady Heslip.

New BC coach Steve Donahue said that nothing was official yet, but confirmed that Sanders, a 6-foot-5 inch unior was indeed leaving. Although nothing can be formally done until the paper work has been filed, sources familiar with the situation say that Sanders will be headed to Fairfield to play for former BC assistant coach Ed Cooley., Sanders will have to sit out next season before he can conclude his collegiate career
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Donahue also granted the release of Heslip, who spent the fall at New Hampton and enrolled after Christmas, but did not play this season. Heslip is visiting Boise State this weekend...

Go here for the remainder.

Here is Heslip's Twitter account.

Here is a SLAM article on Heslip followed by another link to an interview.

Here is a second interview with Heslip.

A Djim Bandoumel update

According to Monroe College (New Rochelle, NY) Coach Jeff Brustad in an email exchange with us tonight (Thursday), 6-foot-8 Djim Bandoumel is headed to Idaho.

Some Vandal fans were fretting because the November signing period has closed and there has yet to be an official announcement. We're not sure why not but you Verlin-ites need not be concerned -- go forth fretless.

The young man is coming to Moscow and the anouncement will happen when it happens.

(the photo on the right adorns his Facebook page)

Idaho lands a JC 'big"

Credit goes to poster GoVandals1893 at the Scout GoVandals.net site basketball message board for this find: Djim Bandoumel, a 6-foot-8, 215 pound power forward from Monroe Community College (Bronx, New York) (the same college as Westly Perryman, Boise State's new backcourter) has verbally committed to Coach Don Verlin and Idaho.

The young man is from Quebec and played in 31 games last season, scoring 4.8 points and grabbing three rebounds a contest. He shot 63% from the floor. Bandoumel went 25-44 from the foul line and blocked 1.2 shots each time out.

He's a big time jumper -- here's a snippet from an August 2006 camp: "Day three of the camp included a slam-dunk contest and All-America games in each of the four divisions. In the slam-dunk contest big John Brown from Cincinnati put a serious display of power with his dunks. By most accounts, Brown was the contest winner, followed closely by 6’6 Djmanoum Bandoumel from Canada."

Here is his Facebook page. The photo above is taken from that page.