Mean Green Blog

There was some talk of this in the last couple of days, but I think it's worth mentioning that Chris Babb, a shooting guard from Arlington with an offer from UNT, committed to Penn State this week. It's not the end of the world, but Babb would have been a huge get for UNT.

Just a few months ago, Babb only had a few scholarship offers, but the number and quality of his offers seemed to grow by the week. Just remember, UNT recruited Kendrick Davis and Collin Dennis out of high school, saw them both go to other schools only to transfer to UNT later in their careers. Who knows? Babb is headed halfway across the country to a place where the culture will be a whole lot different and he will be pretty far away from family. He could always end up changing his mind later on.

It is also interesting to note that Paris Junior College and its power forward Eric Trammiel will face Southeastern Illinois College in the first round of the NJCAA National Tournament on Tuesday in Hutchinson, Kan. Trammiel has long been on UNT's recruiting radar. My gut feeling is that UNT really wants Trammiel. The 6-7 sophomore appears to be a player similar to Quincy Williams, who had a heck of a last couple of years at UNT.

Trammiel averaged 15.4 points and 6.8 rebounds in the regular season while shooting 58.6 percent from the floor.

Here’s the problem, Trammiel is blowing up just like Babb did. The list of schools after him has grown in size and stature. The list now includes: Arkansas-Little Rock, George Mason, Georgia State, New Orleans, South Alabama, Murray State and Weber State. That list should grow longer now that Trammiel is headed to the national junior college tournament, which doubles as a coaching convention. Just about every mid-major program has a head coach or an assistant show up in Hutchinson, Kan., to recruit.

One edge UNT might have is assistant coach Bill Foy was the head coach at Paris before he joined Johnny Jones’ staff and still has connections to the program. Foy’s old assistant Ross Hodge is now Paris’ head coach.

The following is a link to the tournament Web site:

http://www.njcaabbtrny.org/mod/index.htm