the recruit: Cody Wallace

Plus a few quick takes from last night's bastaball game....

- I actually was pretty pleased with the halfcourt defense, which is a funny thing to say when you lose by 22. It was not bad though. Particularly from Sene. He's tenacious. But UNC's was better. Textbook case of top-notch defense jump-starting the offense. UNC got more than their share of easy buckets after forcing our guys into freshman mistakes with the ball.

- Got lazy on offense, too. 27 three pointers? You kidding me? After they stopped us a couple times going to the rim, the guys just stopped going and hoisted threes all day. Threes often mean long rebounds which mean a chance for a quick transition basket on the other end, especially when you miss 23 times. Yeowch.

- I was OK with Leitao's constant shuffling of the rotation early on, but it's starting to be detrimental. True, there are only four guys who've really earned regular playing time: Landesberg, Sene, Zeglinski, and Scott. But I think the stats pretty clearly show who the better players are, and frankly, Tucker and Farrakhan deserve the minutes that are currently going to Baker and Diane. Leitao needs to get a handle on this and start figuring out who his better players are. Continuing to shuffle starts to look like expecting perfection, and you're just not gonna get it from all these freshmen and sophomores.

OK, Mr. Wallace has waited long enough.....

Name: Cody Wallace
Position: OT
Hometown: Moorestown, NJ
School: Moorestown
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 265

ESPN: 40
Rivals: 5.1, two stars
Scout: two stars, #123 OT

Wallace is probably the most lightly regarded recruit in the class. Neither the star rankings nor the offer list (only other offer at the time he committed was from UCF) speak of a heavily-recruited player, though there was interest from bigger fish like Miami and Maryland.

But truth be told, Wallace was a little bit overshadowed during his junior year. Moorestown won a state championship and Wallace was surrounded by seniors. At 265 pounds, and probably a little smaller as a junior to be honest, Wallace wouldn't have caught the eye of scouts who'd come to watch others. Had he waited to commit until after the season, he'd almost certainly have had a larger offer pile to choose from.

The thing about a 6'5", 265 pound frame, though, is that it all but guarantees two things: one, coaches will say he has a very good shot at growing into his frame (that is, putting on 30 more pounds) and two, he'll get a redshirt year to do it. Wallace is a sure bet to redshirt, especially since we lose only one player out of ten on the O-line two deep. The good news for Wallace is that the coaches like his potential to play at any spot on the O-line, and redshirt years are great things for learning the answer to a question like that.

Awkward segue time: here is a quick interview with Wallace that was done last month. It has deep, insightful questions like, "Do you realize you could go on to the next level from playing at Virginia?" Actually, no, what is this NFL you speak of?

Awkward return segue. Going by just the rankings, Wallace would appear to have an uphill battle to get himself into the two-deep. We've got a few higher-ranked guys coming in this year. But, it's not like the last three classes have been filled with all-world players, and judging by the run-blocking this year, there's room for someone to make a name for himself. And Cody has a state championship under his belt, which gives him a leg up in the winning department on all but a couple of this class.