April 17, 2007

Paul Konyndyk and Jim Comparoni

LAKEWOOD, Ohio - Delvon Roe made public on Tuesday afternoon what Michigan State basketball fans have been hoping for since last summer - that he will sign with the Spartans and play college basketball for Tom Izzo in East Lansing.

Roe made his commitment to MSU public today.
At a press conference at Lakewood St. Edward High School, Roe announced officially that he has verbally committed to Michigan State over North Carolina. He plans to sign with Michigan State in November. He will be a freshman at MSU in the fall of 2008.

Roe, 6-8, 215, is ranked the No. 2 power forward and No. 6 player overall in the junior class by Rivals.com.

"I've known for a while," Roe said of his decision to pick MSU, "but I didn't know how to tell Coach Williams."

Roe took an unofficial visit to MSU for the Notre Dame football game in September. But bad weather prevented him from attending home MSU basketball games against Ohio State and Michigan.

He cited Tom Izzo's personality, family considerations and program toughness as reasons for his decision.

"I've never been up there for a basketball game, but I was up there for a football game and I could tell by the atmosphere, and by watching on TV, that it would be a great fit for me," Roe said. "They love their basketball.

"They love basketball, but they care about academics."

He said he plans to major in criminal justice.

"I loved North Carolina," Roe said. "But my heart was with Michigan State.

"Coach Izzo was very excited (about my decision)."

Roe informed Izzo and North Carolina coach Roy Williams of his decision early last week. Prior to that, Roe was believed to be a heavy Tar Heel lean.

After informing Izzo and Williams of his decision, word leaked out that the Spartans had gotten a silent commitment from the talented, left-handed scorer. Tuesday's decision is not a surprise to astute basketball followers, but it marked the first time that Roe spoke publicly about his decision.

Roe is a favorite to become the ninth McDonald's All-American of the Izzo era and the first since Shannon Brown. Roe will join Zach Randolph and Paul Davis as national Top 10 interior players during the Izzo era. But Roe's talents extend out beyond the interior.

Unlike Randolph and Davis, Roe has the quickness and perimeter skills to be a wing forward at the college level. However, he is probably best-suited as a mismatch power forward, the type of player Izzo and many other college coaches covet but are hard to find.

Roe averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds for St. Edward as a junior. He helped St. Edward to a 25-1 season, which ended with a state semifinal loss to Cincinnati Moeller. St. Edward finished the season ranked the No. 23 team in the nation by USA Today.


YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!!!!!

Congrats

I don't care which thread you want to talk about this in, but I suggest you merge this with the HS recruit thread, or move the posts about him here. Otherwise, you'll be having the same conversation in two places. Just a suggestion.

It was previously determined that 5 star commits deserved their own thread if the fans of that school felt it was necessary.

Besides, if I merged this thread it would look really bad for two John Beilein threads to be running, and I really don't want to spend the entire evening merging threads.

As Jethro mentioned, we decided that 5 star guys deserve their own thread before. Roe talk in the other thread has ended and will take place here. Honestly, I'm so into recruiting, I'd have no prob with an individual thread for 4 star guys that commit to Michigan. I love following recruiting.

I just watched the Roe press conference. I don't mean to sound like I'm on this gigantic Roe hype train all of a sudden, but I was incredibly impressed. I've never heard a high school kid so well spoken. He acted extremely professional and spoke that way. He seemed so polite and complimentary about every program discussed in the press conference. Some reporters brought up the point that he is so academic driven. He actually asked the coaches that recruited him academic questions before they talked basketball. I can tell just by the video that his parents raised him right. We got not only a great player, but he seems to be a great kid.

The one line that stuck with me the most, "My heart was with Michigan State." Gotta love it!

It'd be more impressive if he would have said "My heart was with Michigan State" in Farsi.

He answered questions in his presser, which is something I haven't seen in the past. Also, he came straight out and said, "I'm committing to MSU" to start, rather than some elaborate 'Who's he gonna choose?' event.

So that impressed me.

And I've heard him compared to Larry Johnson, Antwaan Jamison, Tyler Hansborough, and more. I'm pumped.

Congrats on Roe, he's a stud. State is going to be reeeeally good the next couple of years. I just hope Beilein can close the gap down the road.

It was previously determined that 5 star commits deserved their own thread if the fans of that school felt it was necessary.

Besides, if I merged this thread it would look really bad for two John Beilein threads to be running, and I really don't want to spend the entire evening merging threads.

my bad, never saw that detirmination. That's why I didn't do it myself and let the mods here handle it.

I wonder if Roe will give Strickland a call now? It would be nice if Roe and Lucious were both on Strickland pushing for a commitment. Izzo has already offered Strickland and both Roe & Lucious are good friends with Strickland. It just makes too much sense for him to come to EL.

You add Strickland and you've got the makings of 3 straight Top 5 recruiting classes. Strickland is a Top 5 player in the 09 class.

New video on Roe from the Kingwood Classic.

http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/video.asp?section=fbrecruit&vidtype=amp&vidid=2455

I love the fact that he never sounds satisfied with his game. Even though he dominates the competition, he knows that his shot and handle are areas that need improvement before he arrives on campus.

Michigan State will benefit greatly from this kid's drive and dedication!

I think that not just MSU can benefit from the Roe Experience, but all of humanity can as well.
He might inspire us to discover new planets, think about global warming, make up with the French, and give up smoking!

New video on Roe from the Kingwood Classic.

http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/video.asp?section=fbrecruit&vidtype=amp&vidid=2455

I love the fact that he never sounds satisfied with his game. Even though he dominates the competition, he knows that his shot and handle are areas that need improvement before he arrives on campus.

Michigan State will benefit greatly from this kid's drive and dedication!

I agree. The kid is way humble. Then I watch his videos and he is killing guys. It's funny, watching his game he reminded me of Antawn Jamison (sp?) when he was dominating at UNC, then in his video he mentions watching Jamison film.

His shot didn't seem as bad as I imagined, the sky truly is the limit for this kid. He will be able to really run with the 07and08 guards. Kinda like a Marquise Gray but with a brain on the offensive end that doesn't always suggest dunking.

His shot didn't seem as bad as I imagined, the sky truly is the limit for this kid. He will be able to really run with the 07and08 guards. Kinda like a Marquise Gray but with a brain on the offensive end that doesn't always suggest dunking.

yeah, i agree. when i looked at his pics on rivals, his shot looked terrible. But, when I actually watched it live, it wasn't too bad. Apparantly it's coming along. Really, with the guards coming in all he has to be able to do is finish close to the rim because he's going to be on the receiving end of many Lucas/Lucious dimes.

There's an old saying that my biddy HipDigIt coined back on the News forum: Cashing checks.
I'm keeping track of all the Sparty check writing that's going on here.

The DVD don't lie

I love all the bitter UM fans that jump in with a joke or two every once in awhile. I believe I was hated on and told to grow up when I jumped in with a negative joke about Legion leaving, but it's okay for UM fans to do it. Same old hypocricy.

There's an old saying that my biddy HipDigIt coined back on the News forum: Cashing checks.
I'm keeping track of all the Sparty check writing that's going on here.

What check writing are you talking about? In the football recruiting forum Zip didn't like it that we were talking about MSU's offensive scheme next year. Now he doesn't like us talking optimistically about the future. Zip, why don't you go ahead and tell us what we are allowed to talk about.

Go ahead and keep saying what one or two posters did works against all Michigan fans. I'm glad that you are able to find something negative I've said more recently than you, and yet somehow I'm lumped in. That's great.

Tre:
Now you're being a little too sensitive. I actually LOVE it when Sparty regales us all with Tales of Future Sparty Greatness. We've been hearing them since 1968, and it never gets old!
There's more holes in those stories then there are in my head.

Tre:
Now you're being a little too sensitive. I actually LOVE it when Sparty regales us all with Tales of Future Sparty Greatness. We've been hearing them since 1968, and it never gets old!
There's more holes in those stories then there are in my head.

I figure we can't lose if we tell tales of future Spartan greatness. If it fails to happen, we'll just end up like the Michigan football fans last year. "Better than 97"?" "Best Defense Ever?" "Super Mario for Heisman?"

Dude, Mario was a lock if he didn't get injured.















































But so was Michael Bush at Louisville, dude was sick and would be the steal of this year's draft if he can have an injury free NFL career. For once a Bush that is underrated, lol.

AAU bball report...

----------------------------------
Just when it looked like King of the Court was going to put the game away, Kenny Boynton stepped up huge and hit three straight highly contested 3-pointers to get his team back on even terms in the final minutes of the game.

With 27 seconds left, King of the Court’s TJ Lindsey stepped to the line and hit one of two free throws to put his team ahead 71-68.

Everyone knew who was going to take the shot for Team Breakdown. They inbounded the ball to Kenny Boynton and he brought it up the court and he dribbled through traffic near the top of the key before stepping back for a deep and contested 3-pointer that hit nothing-but-net to tie the game at 71-all with 11 seconds left.

Everyone knew who was going to take the shot… but there was nothing they could do about it.

On King of the Court’s final possession Anthony Crater drove the length of the court and took a 15-foot jumper from the baseline that rimmed-out right into the hands of Delvon Roe who threw up his put-back attempt as he was falling to his back.

A ref blew the whistle and called a controversial foul that sent Roe to the line with 9/10 of a second left on the clock.

Roe sank both free throws and King of the Court won the best game of the spring (so far) 73-71.

Delvon Roe was near dominant as he scored 24 points, including the game winner. He is strong, fast and highly skilled and cemented his spot among the top-5 in the class of 2008. Michigan State will have a superstar on their campus the fall of next year.

What a great last line in that article.