now, i pride myself on being a wildcat sports fan, but not a nerd. i'll generally read about a recruiting class when they're signed, and not much before then.

this changed about an hour ago, when the boy called to tell me that the duke transfer, and former mcdonald's all american. michael thompson had signed with the cats. he becomes eligible - as a junior, following the completion of finals next december.

the cats current recruiting class features the following:

michael thompson, 6-10 center, joliet (providence catholic)
brandon lee, 6-1 point guard, peoria central
sterling williams, 6-3/4/5 shooting guard, chicago (whitney young)

lee is the point guard on the top-ranked team in the state of illinois, and williams is the top scorer for another solid (although i can't really find how solid - these websites only publish player bios, not actual standings) whitney young squad.

this would seem to place the cats conference season depth chart somewhere like this:

PG: Tony Parker, 6-2, JR.; Brandon Lee, 6-1, FR.
WING: Mohammad Hachad, 6-5, JR.; Sterling Williams, 6-3, FR.
WING: Tim Doyle, 6-5, SO [?] (St. John's transfer); Evan Seacat, 6-2, SO.
PF: Vedran Vukusic, 6-8, JR.; Davor Duvancic, 6-8, SR.
C: Michael Thompson, 6-10, JR.; Vince Scott, 6-10, SO.; Ivan Tolic, 6-9, JR.
(That's 11 scholarship players!)

I may be an idiot, but this seems like a pretty good team on paper. Parker and Hachad are ballhawks, and Williams, Doyle, and Seacat are legit shooters.

by all accounts, Thompson is an athletic, versatile frontcourtman to go with Vukusic, and Tolic was downright impressive dishing out five assists on Saturday.

like i've already said, i think Vu has borderline-NBA talent.

also of note, this roster would be composed entirely of non-seniors, with the exception of kareem abdul-duvancic.

now, if only they could miraculously finish 8-6 for the remainder of the conference season, and get jitim a damn nit bid. he deserves it.

the games that should be wins:
home: minnesota, penn state, indiana, iowa, michigan (five games)

road: penn state (i don't care if they've started 2-0)

after that, they'd need to win at least two of the following games (in order of likeliness): home, v. illinois (wed.), home v. michigan state (1/21), at ohio state (2/4), at indiana (1/17), at michigan state (2/21), at purdue (2/11).

i've determined that the cats can't beat wisconsin at home and can't win at illinois.

we'll see how it goes.

i'm excited, with no real reason for excitement...it happens to eternal optimists (and if you're a cats fan, don't you have to be?), i guess.


we're the unicorns, and we're people too.