going4roses;842511935 said:
how come ahmaad rorie did not end up in berkeley?
wish him the best
ahmaad made a commitment to coach decuire during his sophomore year of high school, the two talked almost every day with td taking on a positive male mentorship role is rorie's life due to the absence of a father figure...ahmaad is very close to his moms rhonetta & was an excellent student in high school with a 3.8 gpa
with permission from the staff (donors can never speak with prospective recruits, at that time rorie had already signed a letter of intent with cal), i spoke at length with ahmaad (an avid reader of this cal's monster class thread) while sitting next to him behind the cal bench during the washington game in seattle in the spring of 2014
i was struck at the time how ahmaad's twitter personality (very brash) was quite different than his real personality (reserved & inwardly focused) and that some of his goals seemed quite unrealistic to me at the time...i was also concerned that he left alaska airlines arena almost immediately after the bears high energy victory opting not to visit with the coaches (other than td) & his future teammates...i shared these observations with the prior staff
point guards more than anybody on a basketball team need to be unselfish leaders, guys that command respect & facilitate their teammates...t-wall needs to lead his team more vocally this season but he fulfills all of the other qualities of a great leader...sam singer & brandon chauca also put team goals ahead of their own personal achievement and i admire both of them for that, they are my boys
ahmaad & coach martin never quite got on the same page so rorie signed with dana altman who smoothly fed his ego of nba stardom...of course the criminal's promises turned out to be empty so now rorie will be heading to montana to be guided by someone he can truly trust
rorie is not really a point guard, he's kinda like paris austin, a high scoring undersized 2 trapped in a point guard's body...he would've been a good fit ala justin cobbs with cal under mike montgomery or travis decuire as the head coach with the bears then mid tempo pace of play that emphasized half court sets...unlike burners like dominic artis he wasn't a good fit in oregon's frenetic paced offense ...the shame of it all is that ahmaad wasn't mature/sophisticated enough at the time to constructively understand his own skills & the best type of offense to showcase those skills which allowed a slick salesman like altman to sell him a pile of ****
ahmaad rorie truly loves his mom (just like me and dwight tarwater) & for that i will always root for his future success...he's a good person that will mature under coach decuire's brutally honest but compassionate mentorship
the 253#