Ball State: Analyzing this year's men's basketball recruiting class

With the addition of four more recruits signed in the spring, Randy Davis, Jarrod Jones, Brawley Chisholm and Zach Fields, this year's men's basketball recruiting class for Ball State is now complete. They join the three that signed in the fall, Maurice Hubbard, Pierre Sneed and Eric Wormely. Yes, that's seven new players for this year. I know personally I'm not a fan of so much turnover, as this is the third straight year we've gone through this, but this class has some potential.

The player that revs my engine the most (get your mind out of the gutter) is Davis. In case you forgot, he was the runner-up for Mr. Basketball and averaged 23 points per game. The winner, Tyler Zeller of Washington, is going to North Carolina. No big deal. For a team that has been TERRIBLE shooting the basketball, let's hope Davis provides much-needed marksmanship.

Let me tell you who doesn't rev my engine and that's Pierre Sneed. He averaged somewhere around the 3-4 points per game. He was lucky enough to parlay his height into a Division I scholarship. Reminds me a little bit of a kid I graduated with at DeKalb, Jan Thompson. He was 6'11" but only averaged four points a game as a senior. He was able to get a Division I scholarship at Eastern Illinois and he actually ended up starting a fair amount, including scoring the game-winning basket that sent them to the tournament in 2002 or 2003. So it was on a goaltending call, but don't hold it against him!

I also like Jones to contribute immediately as well. Not that it won't be hard with a completely new roster.

There was some interesting controversy surrounding Zach Fields. The 6'10" product originally committed to IUPUI but they took away the scholarship offer from what I understand, saying he didn't have the grades. The kid at least got a 25 on his ACT. That's better than what I did, sadly.

Doug Zaleski at The Star Press said the best bets are Hubbard and Davis. I'll take Jones and Davis, just for argument's sake. He also said that coach Billy Taylor was u a pair of JUCO's, Marcus Thomas and Anthony Simpson, but they went elsewhere, leading Fields and Chisholm to Muncie. Interestingly enough, Chisholm, a JUCO, was a backup last season. Sounds promising. Hopefully he doesn't have the Micah Rollin "get ball, turn around, throw toward rim" mentality and might develop some actual post moves. We'll see.