It also looks like Stephen F. Austin has gotten a pair of big commitments from 6'5 J.J. Thomas from Baton Rouge (Scotlandville) LA and 6'4 Amos Olatayo from Alief (Alief-Elsik) TX.

The former is a legitimate top 10-ranked senior in the state, played over the summer for the Brandon Bass Elite club team, and picked the Lumberjacks over schools like Louisiana Tech, Tulane, New Orleans, Louisiana-Monroe, Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana, and UT-San Antonio.

The latter is ranked #6 in the Houston area by Jim Hicks of RCS sports.com, played over the summer on the Houston Lynx Blue club team, and picked the Lumberjacks over schools like Colorado State, New Orleans, Air Force, Arkansas-Little Rock, Sam Houston State, UT-Arlington, Texas State, and The Citadel.

When you also add 5'9 Darius Gardner from Houston (Yates) TX, who also recently verbally committed to Stephen F. Austin, into the equation, it's easy to see why we have the Lumberjacks' recruiting class tied at #39, along with Liberty and St. Joseph's, on our list of the Top Recruiting Classes To-Date for the Class of 2010 and why we think Lumberjacks' assistant coach Ulric Maligi is one of the bright up-and-coming guys in the business

They are having more and more Texas Top 100 players committing, I'm excited to see them compete with the big boys in the near future. They had scouts at every tournament this summer, they were recruiting hard and it is showing.

The progress we have made in the 4 years I have been here as a student has been amazing. My first year we were an afterthought. But, Kasper has made this a legitimate Southland conference contender year in year out.

Now that the SLC tournament is over with, it was very disappointing to see SFA not receive any post season bid this year. I was not surprised that the NIT did not take them, given the teams passed over for the NCAA tournament. I was surprised that the other two tournaments, College Basketball Invitational and collegeinsider.com, did not select them. collegeinsider.com is a tournament specifically for mid-major programs (which SFA is considered) who have over 20 wins so one would think the 'Jacks had a real good chance of being selected.

Very disappointing for a team that was 23-9 and had been to the NIT and the NCAA the past two years.

Maddog
Longview Class of 1972
SFA Class of 1976