Your Thursday afternoon WAC catchup

Illiwa Baldwin would really help the Wolf Pack by being major help in pairing with Dario Hunt. Check for seismic activity in Reno and Las Cruces if Baldwin and Hamidu Rahman tangle.

Wolf Pack targets Baldwin to plug middle
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
April 15, 2010

It's been a couple of years since the Nevada basketball team had a player close to 7-feet roaming the paint at Lawlor Events Center, but that might change next season.

The Wolf Pack is hosting 6-foot-11, 260-pounder Illiwa Baldwin on an official campus visit this weekend and hopes to land the center from the Land Down Under.

Baldwin, who was born in Papua New Guinea and moved to Australia at age 11, played the past two seasons at Pratt (Kan.) Community College...

Go here for the remainder.

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Is Stephen Madison still due in to Moscow or did Matt Borton take his spot? Deremy Geiger will certainly be sky high when the Vandals face the northern Aggies.

Vandal men add two during late signing period
Idaho Athletic Media Relations
4/15/2010

MOSCOW, Idaho - University of Idaho head coach Don Verlin announced Idaho's two late-period signees on Thursday, as freshman Matt Borton and junior Deremy Geiger join the Vandal men's basketball program...

Go here for the remainder.

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Here's the official USU signing report on junior college transfer Antonio Bumpus.

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Here's the official Nevada signing report on point Jordan Finn.

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Here's the official SJSU signing report on Wil Carter.

A few recruiting notes

Boise State is pursuing a backcourter out of Las Vegas.

Ray Brewer in the April 13 edition of the Las Vegas Sun, offers this note:

"...Foothill guard Evan Roquemore has offers from Air Force, Ball State, Boise State, Eastern Washington and Fairfield, Falcons coach Kevin Soares said. Creighton and Tulane also have expressed interest.

Roquemore averaged 23.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game this winter in leading the Falcons to the Sunrise Regional title game. Soares said Roquemore could take his first trip this weekend..."

Here is additional material on Roquemore. Here is a brief ESPN evaluation of the young man.

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Aziz Ndiaye, a Senegalese 7-footer out of the College of Southern Idaho, has signed with Washington. Fans for several WAC teams -- possibly a few head coaches too -- were hoping against hope for this guy. It apparently came down to UDub and Oklahoma. Here's a worth-reading humorous writeup on Ndiaye.

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jlwaters1 at the GoVandals.net basketball message board provided a link to yet another Idaho recruit -- backcourter Matt Borton.

Here's a game article that includes a photo of Borton.

In a Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not moment, we remember seeing Borton play for his club basketball team in a Memorial Day tournament in Santa Clara, CA a while back. We liked his skills and savvy -- he definitely knew how to play the game -- but questioned his athleticism. He was the second biggest player on his squad and, at times, had to match up with Renardo Sidney, a 6-foot-11, 300-pound man-child out of Los Angeles, who is finally going to play this coming season at Mississippi State after sitting out last year due to money issues from his family's association with Reebok funding.

Hey, we scrounged around the 'net and came up with this article we wrote back in May 2008 about Borton and Sidney matching up, and more. Take a look at our Borton prediction.

Matt's cousin Katie  is quite the basketball talent. She was a Parade All-America and is now on scholarship at Notre Dame.

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