According to North Star basketball blog’s Twitter feed, 6-foot-3 guard Miles Cartwright from Loyola High School in Los Angeles has committed to Penn.This is astoundingly Penn’s seventh reported verbal commitment to the class of 2014 and its fifth guard (with nobody who appears to be a true point guard to eventually back up Zack Rosen). North Star called it “a fantastic get for the Quakers.”
The twitter posts call Cartwright a big-time scorer, and the stats I’ve found definitely support that. He led Loyola in scoring last year when they went to the state regional finals. I couldn’t find his scoring average but I did read that he scored 40 points and dished 10 assists on Dec. 12, 2008 against Centennial High School (Corona). He also had a 37-point game. As a So Cal kid, he faced fellow recruit Austin Kelly and Harvard-Westlake twice and split the series.
Continue after the jump for more information on Cartwright from ESPN and some blogs, and my own analysis of the news.
ESPN’s Scouts Inc. rates Cartwright as a 90, which is by far the highest rating of any of the seven recruits (Dau Jok - 80, Kevin Panzer - 78, Casey James - 76, Cameron Gunter - 75, Austin Kelly - 74, Steve Rennard - 70). It’s actually the highest in years (2009: Carson Sullivan - 86, Brian Fitzpatrick - 80, 2008: Rosen - 78, Loughery - 75, Howlett - 70, Hunt - 70, Belcore - 40). I haven’t followed ESPN’s recruiting services for long enough to know how good their ratings are, and the most recent analysis of any player was a July 2009 update on Jok (the next closest was way back in September 2008 on Kevin Panzer.) I’ll also add that in retrospect 78 and40 seem low for Rosen and Belcore, respectively, while 70 for Hunt is way too high. That said, seeing a Penn recruit rated 90 overall by ESPN made me gasp.
Here are some highlights from ESPN’s analysis on Cartwright: compared to Gabe Pruit (Boston Celtics), called a mid-to-high major level prospect, great length but frail frame, outstanding shooter, good finisher inside, good ball handling but not a natural point guard yet (more of a combo right now), doesn’t have great speed or quickness but is crafty offensively and has a knack for scoring, must improve passing and decision-making to play the point in college.
This blog by College Hoops Net says that Cartwright considers himself a combo guard who can “do a little at both positions.” He played the point at Loyola as their go-to guy, but he was in a supporting role as an off-the-ball player for his AAU team, California Supreme, which sent players to USC and UCLA this year.
The blog also indicates that Cartwright was very interested in going to an Ivy League school (he has a 3.7 GPA). “Academics come first with the schools,” he said. “I also have to fit in with the players and the coaches. I’m going to live there for four years – the other students, location, city and school support has to be right.” Penn and Princeton were among his top choices, while he also looked at Stanford, California, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah and Portland State. It says he wanted to stay on the West Coast, so I guess he couldn’t get an offer from Stanford and was serious enough about academics to decide on Penn. He attended the Pennsylvania Elite Camp in June.
I found out about this around 4 a.m. and unfortunately I don’t really have much time this week to try to confirm it on my own, but I will relay any further confirmation as I hear it. If this kid turns out to be as good as he sounds, Miller might have put the icing on an already sweet recruiting cake. I wonder where he’ll find the time to play all these guards next year, but I don’t question stockpiling talent wherever you can find it. That certainly seems to be his strategy with seven recruits seemingly in the bag. The next most extensive class in the Ivy League (according to reports) is Princeton with four verbals. I’ve been trying to get an interview with Miller to ask about all these recruits, but he’s been quite busy, well, recruiting. He also can’t talk about these kids yet, but I’ll get his input as soon as I can.
Looking at where he might go from here, I still think Penn needs a legitimate big man. Maybe Miller really thinks Gunter is that guy. North Star called him a “glue guy” but he’s not the post presence offensively that the Quakers hope to get out of Andreas Schreiber this year and need to find after he’s gone next year. But there’s no reason to believe that Miller is done. After the Jok commitment I didn’t think we’d see another guard, but I thought we might see one or two more guys at PF/C. I know there have been some big men visiting in the last week or two, but I don’t know specifics yet. Lord knows what will happen next.
Tags: basketball, glen miller, Miles Cartwright, Recruiting
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October 7th, 2009 at 8:34 am
ESPN did a rescaling adjustment between the Class of 2008 and Class of 2009 that generally pushed everyone up a level or about 10 points. So, when comparing backwards to ESPN’s 2008 grades, you have to give the recruits about a 10 point bump (that adjustment starts to narrow a bit as you get higher up in the grading scale).
I tend to think that ESPN’s grades are a good general approximation of level of recruit, but that +/- a few points isn’t all that distinct. The written descriptions are usually pretty accurate of what you can expect at the next level.
Also, 40 just means that they never saw the prospect and thus never graded him.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Noah: Thanks for the contribution. Sounds promising for the future of MBB.
A special thanks to you and the other men from the DP. You have really come into your own in the past months - stepping up to the challenges and delivering an excelllent product.
Lets keep the momentum going and raise the bar!
If we believe it, we can achieve it!!
FOJL
October 7th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Noah, you are red-hot, brothah, on the trail of all these signings. Keep it up, baby. You’re killing it.
And I’m liking the feel of some of these recent signings. I sense something good is brewing. And props to Glenn Miller and staff, if indeed this is the case. I want to see Miller succeed, and vindicated.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Ditto. Noah is the king of Penn B-Ball scoops.
Steve - any word on Dau Jok’s latest growth? Based on my unofficial calculations if he keeps up his current rate he’ll be around 15′ by his first Penn practice. If so, that’s a troubling development, the Palestra is not built to accommodate 15′ players. Neither are the rims, they can’t even accommodate Brian Fitzpatrick’s strength. Plus imagine how many of these recruited guards Dau would crush just by accident! Perhaps that’s why Miller is stocking up on guards.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Noah, I trust you were awake at this time last night because you were making your way home from Blarney quizzo or Kweeder at Smokes….
October 7th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Steven: Thank you for the contribution today. I fully agree that Noah is doing a terrific job these days. He, along w/ the other men, have really come into their own in the past month. I am sure you are enjoying seeing the continued positive trends!
Kind Regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen
FOJL
October 7th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Steve -
I second and share your sentiments.
EN
October 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
MrJames - Thanks for the clarification, especially regarding Belcore’s #. That shocked me, though now it makes sense. If it weren’t the middle of the night I probably would’ve noticed that. Even with the adjusted ratings it still seems like Cartwright (by these numbers) is the best recruit in years, although the gap is certainly narrower than I thought. That makes a lot more sense.
Nightowl - I wish I could say that was the case. Alas, the life of a DP editor. No complaints though; well worth it.
Steve/Ernie - I third that. Hopefully I’ll find out soon what Miller himself feels.
October 7th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Why did Street and not DPOSTM break the line e-mail?
October 7th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
KB: Thank you for the contribution. Does it really matter which deparment of the DP “breaks” the email about The Line?
The bottom line is that the DP in fact, was able to get the word out to the young men and women who want to join the line.
I leave it to Noah, Zach, Eli, and Davd(Ben) to explain the nuances as to WHY the “Street” rather than the “Buzz” was the first to make the news available.
FOJL
October 7th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
First of all, I tweeted the news well before Street posted it on their blog. Twitter is a much faster avenue for news like that than The Buzz. I got it up there almost right at 9. Their blog post was at 9:21. KB, if you’re going to call us out, get your facts straight.
Second of all, as FOJL said, it doesn’t matter which department “breaks the email.” If that is even necessary. Which leads me to…
Third, it is not our responsibility to market for Penn Athletics.
Trust me, if anybody wants to help promote The Line, it’s me. My column Tuesday was clear evidence of that. Perhaps we could have both put it on our blogs, but it would not have made a difference.
Lastly, when the announcement was made, we actually were scrambling to COVER THE EVENT like good journalists, not focused on being a marketing tool of the AD.
October 7th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
We have your back, buddy. If anyone gives you a hard time your posse will take care of it.
I do have a question. Penn B-Ball twitterer very recently posted the following cryptic message:
“The good news continues for the Quakers!”
Then followed it up with a shout-out to Scott Kegler. What is twitterer’s good news? Anything new?
October 8th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Working on it Rodney. I did hear some rumblings earlier today but I have nothing concrete. Like I said, I think Penn is looking for a big man. I’ll let you know.
More on Cartwright:
08-09 Stats for Loyola
19.5 points per game
4.9 assists per game
2.8 rebs per game
2.0 steals per game
47% shooting
44% on 3-pointers
79% free throws
Excellent numbers. Also, the blog Hoops Masters confirmed the commitment, and apparently it came straight from the horse’s mouth.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:02 am
Noah - THank you for the excellent explanation. By no means are you and the other men on the DP responsible for marketing Penn Athletics. Although I personally feel that you, Zach, and David(Ben) could do as good as job as some of the characters they have in place right now.
But we will leave that for now.
Bottonm line - The DP was able to promote the line one way or the other!
BRAVO!
FOJL
October 8th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Rodney, i hear your concerns about Jok’s projected height (assuming continued, astronomical growth rate). We will stay on this.
Also, I wonder if some of the recent recruiting productivity isn’t an early benefit of Jerome Allen’s new, welcome presence on staff? I don’t doubt these kids were being pursued prior to his arrival, but maybe Jerome has had something to do with their final commitments?