Wiley transfers again, also...

[UOducksTK1]

http://www.kval.com/sports/Wiley-Ill-al ... 59285.html

Probably a wiser decision for him. No pro basketball future, go be a big fish in a little pond. Wish him the best, great guy.

[greenyellow]

Seems like a huge step down. I'm surprised he didn't go to Northwest Christian University, right near the UO campus, since they play in NAIA but still have that Christian school feel he was looking for. He'll at least be playing for a good coach there, as I've known the guy for over 10 years and has been successful almost everywhere he's been.

[oregontrack]

we made two bad recruiting mistakes with local midwestern league kids over the past decade.

the first was taking jordan kent over shea washington in 2002. i mean, yeah, it's obvious why we took kent. but taking his last name out of the equation, he was the exact same player in high school as he was in college, only he couldn't score in college because everyone caught up to him athletically. shea washington, meanwhile, was the 2002 mwl mvp (over kent) for thurston high school; he went on to montana state, then later transferred to southern oregon to get closer to home. we played southern oregon one year in an exhibition game; washington was the best big man on the court for either team. i think he had a 20 & 10 night against our sad sack group of bigs. kid was only 6'7, but had a whole hell of a lot more game than whatever we had at the time (zahn? short? schafer?). he would have been a solid four year player for us. but whatever, matt short was 7'0 so he was obviously worth the scholarship...

the second was taking wiley over north eugene's brian conklin in '08. wiley was a volume scorer from range, but couldn't score inside to save his life, and he wasn't athletic enough to ever translate his game to the next level on the wing. conklin destroyed him in three meetings their senior years. he averaged 14 points/game for st. louis this year, leading the billikens to the ncaa tournament; he'd help us a lot next season.

[dthomas=ddixon]

we made two bad recruiting mistakes with local midwestern league kids over the past decade.

the first was taking jordan kent over shea washington in 2002. i mean, yeah, it's obvious why we took kent. but taking his last name out of the equation, he was the exact same player in high school as he was in college, only he couldn't score in college because everyone caught up to him athletically. shea washington, meanwhile, was the 2002 mwl mvp (over kent) for thurston high school; he went on to montana state, then later transferred to southern oregon to get closer to home. we played southern oregon one year in an exhibition game; washington was the best big man on the court for either team. i think he had a 20 & 10 night against our sad sack group of bigs. kid was only 6'7, but had a whole hell of a lot more game than whatever we had at the time (zahn? short? schafer?). he would have been a solid four year player for us. but whatever, matt short was 7'0 so he was obviously worth the scholarship...

the second was taking wiley over north eugene's brian conklin in '08. wiley was a volume scorer from range, but couldn't score inside to save his life, and he wasn't athletic enough to ever translate his game to the next level on the wing. conklin destroyed him in three meetings their senior years. he averaged 14 points/game for st. louis this year, leading the billikens to the ncaa tournament; he'd help us a lot next season.

Totally agree. I was at Springfield high the same time those 2 were at NEugene & Thurston, same grade as those 2 actually, & I went to a lot of our basketball games. Mostly just to watch the good players for other teams. Springfield was always awful, all my friends were on the team haha. I remember being really excited to see Wiley & coming away so unimpressed. He was already committed to the Ducks & pretty highly regarded according to some recruiting services so I was expecting him to just mop the floor with us. Instead he just kinda hung out by the 3 point line & shot 3s. He was a really good shooter but at 6'7 & going against kids who were 5'9 I expected him to be a lot more dominant inside. Our tallest post was maybe 6'3 & super skinny. And he actually fared pretty well when they went to Wiley down low.