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New coach Brian Katz signs six from community colleges.
By John Schumacher - [email protected]
Last Updated 5:46 am PDT Thursday, May 8, 2008
Story appeared in SPORTS section, Page C8
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Given just a few weeks to do a year's worth of recruiting, new Sacramento State men's basketball coach Brian Katz stuck close to a simple formula.
Find players from winning programs. Take kids whose coaches have held them accountable. Stick with players he has seen for a few years.
Those guidelines produced a recruiting class of six community college transfers Katz hopes can immediately help a team that finished 4-24 last season and last in the nine-team Big Sky Conference.
Katz, officially hired April 10, signed guards Mike Marcial (Fresno City College) and Jared Stigall (American River College), guard-forward Antonio Flaggs (Diablo Valley College) and forwards Aaron Wilson (San Joaquin Delta College), Aj Kapanoske (Irvine Valley College) and Michael Selling (American River) in his first three weeks on the job.
Marcial led Fresno City to a 62-16 record and one state title in two seasons. Stigall and Selling helped ARC finish 21-13 last season. Kapanoske played on an Irvine team that posted a 27-5 record in 2007-08. Flaggs played a big role in Diablo Valley's 26-8 finish last season.
And then there's Wilson, who played for Katz last season at Delta in Stockton, helping the Mustangs finish 27-6.
"Kids from winning programs understand about having to play a role, having to sacrifice, how to fit in and be part of a group and make it successful," said Katz, who has seven scholarship players returning. "I do think sacrifice has a lot to do with that.
" 'The guy over here is a better shooter than I am. Let me throw an extra pass so we can get a better shot.' That's always something I've believed in."
So is recruiting kids from programs with sound coaches who hold players accountable.
"What we want to do here is establish a culture of accountability and responsibility on and off the court," he said. "In this first group here, we didn't want any surprises at all."
Katz said assembling a recruiting class on such short notice was a big challenge.
"The minute you get the job, the clock's ticking," he said. "You're doing a year's work in two weeks … It was very challenging because each second that ticks off, guys get picked off left and right.
"I looked at each of those players and said real simply, 'Do they make us better?' … The goal was to get kids we knew what we were getting, we knew what they could do and we knew they'd be accountable and responsible."
Katz indicated Marcial could develop into a leader, Stigall and Flaggs would help on the perimeter and Wilson, Selling and Kapanoske had "a lot of upside."
"I felt like we ended up with kids that could come in and play right away," Katz said.
Hornets guard Loren Leath, who will be a senior next season, said he suspects the new faces can supply immediate help.
"I just hope they're all pretty good and ready to play," Leath said. "I don't think he'd recruit anybody from juco (junior college) to sit on the bench."
Katz, who said all of his recruits were academic qualifiers out of high school, said he signed all community college players because few high school players were available who could have contributed right away.
"If I had a perfect world, next fall we would sign four freshmen," Katz said. "Then you would want those guys to back up this group. Then as sophomores they're ready to go."
By John Schumacher - [email protected]
Last Updated 5:46 am PDT Thursday, May 8, 2008
Story appeared in SPORTS section, Page C8
Print | E-Mail | Comments (0)|
Given just a few weeks to do a year's worth of recruiting, new Sacramento State men's basketball coach Brian Katz stuck close to a simple formula.
Find players from winning programs. Take kids whose coaches have held them accountable. Stick with players he has seen for a few years.
Those guidelines produced a recruiting class of six community college transfers Katz hopes can immediately help a team that finished 4-24 last season and last in the nine-team Big Sky Conference.
Katz, officially hired April 10, signed guards Mike Marcial (Fresno City College) and Jared Stigall (American River College), guard-forward Antonio Flaggs (Diablo Valley College) and forwards Aaron Wilson (San Joaquin Delta College), Aj Kapanoske (Irvine Valley College) and Michael Selling (American River) in his first three weeks on the job.
Marcial led Fresno City to a 62-16 record and one state title in two seasons. Stigall and Selling helped ARC finish 21-13 last season. Kapanoske played on an Irvine team that posted a 27-5 record in 2007-08. Flaggs played a big role in Diablo Valley's 26-8 finish last season.
And then there's Wilson, who played for Katz last season at Delta in Stockton, helping the Mustangs finish 27-6.
"Kids from winning programs understand about having to play a role, having to sacrifice, how to fit in and be part of a group and make it successful," said Katz, who has seven scholarship players returning. "I do think sacrifice has a lot to do with that.
" 'The guy over here is a better shooter than I am. Let me throw an extra pass so we can get a better shot.' That's always something I've believed in."
So is recruiting kids from programs with sound coaches who hold players accountable.
"What we want to do here is establish a culture of accountability and responsibility on and off the court," he said. "In this first group here, we didn't want any surprises at all."
Katz said assembling a recruiting class on such short notice was a big challenge.
"The minute you get the job, the clock's ticking," he said. "You're doing a year's work in two weeks … It was very challenging because each second that ticks off, guys get picked off left and right.
"I looked at each of those players and said real simply, 'Do they make us better?' … The goal was to get kids we knew what we were getting, we knew what they could do and we knew they'd be accountable and responsible."
Katz indicated Marcial could develop into a leader, Stigall and Flaggs would help on the perimeter and Wilson, Selling and Kapanoske had "a lot of upside."
"I felt like we ended up with kids that could come in and play right away," Katz said.
Hornets guard Loren Leath, who will be a senior next season, said he suspects the new faces can supply immediate help.
"I just hope they're all pretty good and ready to play," Leath said. "I don't think he'd recruit anybody from juco (junior college) to sit on the bench."
Katz, who said all of his recruits were academic qualifiers out of high school, said he signed all community college players because few high school players were available who could have contributed right away.
"If I had a perfect world, next fall we would sign four freshmen," Katz said. "Then you would want those guys to back up this group. Then as sophomores they're ready to go."
