Hoops: Hinz, Faulkner heading to Carleton

Two out of three ain't bad for Dave Smart and the Carleton Ravens.

Much vaunted forward Tyson Hinz of Orleans according to Hoopstars Canada, is committed to Carleton, meaning the most-feted player in the city is staying home for his collegiate career (and, shades of a certain man who played the same position and wore No. 42, he helped his school win an OFSAA title in his final season)

Six-foot-5 swingman Greg Faulkner out of Kingston, also a Hoopstars Canada top 50 player, is headed to Carleton, the Kingston Whig-Standard reported this morning. The Ravens got two of the three top-50 players from Eastern Ontario, since 6-foot-8 post Owen Klassen from Kingston Bayridge committed to Acadia.

No one you need any reminder that Hinz' decision was probably the most closely watched in Ottawa basketall circles. He led his St. Matthew Tigers to a 45-1 season and the Ontario AAA title. His dad, Will Hinz, was a superb player at McGill during the 1980s, where he has a Rhodes Scholar at McGill, which sparked talk his son would follow in his footsteps, plus Redmen coach Craig Norman has often recruited in the Ottawa area (Orleans' Kevin Dulude was the lynchpin when Norman had RMC playing winning basketball in the first half of the 2000s.)

Faulkner's club coaches with the Kingston Impact were Rob Smart Sr. and Duncan Cowan, the Queen's coaches. His literary namesake should concoct such a subplot.
"Duncan and Rob have done a lot for me to get me where I am. It's just that I want to move on and try something different." — Faulkner, via The Whig sports editor Mike Koreen
The estimable Koreen also caught up with Acadia-bound post player Owen Klassen, who played club ball with Faulkner on the Kingston Impact and against him in high school. Klassen's high school coach at Bayridge Secondary, Geoff Stewart, told The Whig:
"Owen can make a significant impact. I've compared him to Aaron Doornekamp. He has a similar skill set, he's tall and co-ordinated and he can play inside and outside like Aaron."
Evidently, every 6-foot-7ish kid who can shoot the three and pass out double-teams is going to be held to that standard.

(Cross-posted to Out of Left Field; thanks to a commenter for the hook-up on Hinz.)
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6 comments:

  1. Well, as Meatloaf used to sing, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
    For coach Smart, landing Faulkner and Hinz will take some of the sting out of not snagging Klassen.
    From what I heard, Smart REALLY wanted Klassen....but of course, so did everybody else.
    From all accounts, this kid is another Aaron Doornekamp, and landing him along with the other two would have had Carleton locked and loaded for the next five years and their OUA opponents crying the blues.
    As it stands, the Ravens appear to be in pretty good shape.
    They have their host berth as an ace in the hole, but from the look of the other OUA East teams, I think they'll enter the 2010 tournament through the front door again.

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  2. You would have to ask Dave Smart himself but I don't think he's looking at Hinz and Faulkner as consolation prizes. Smart generally gets who he wants. All these guys will be impact players in the CIS with great futures ahead of them.

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  3. Ross Quackenbush, the Saint Mary's coach, made a great point when Mark Masters and I were talking to him before the '08 Final 8. He was saying that people should realize it's a little different with recruiting in Canada; you can't get too excited over who's going where since it is such a developmental league.

    In other words, and this is my interpretation, you don't get someone such as Carmelo Anthony or Derrick Rose, the one-and-dones who can take a team to the Final Four. You get toolsy players who want to be coached and who want to be better.

    This is just an observation, but Carleton seems to do that very well.

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  4. I don't think of Hinz and Faulkner as the consolation prizes for not getting Klassen...no sir, not at all.
    But I'm just saying that if Smart had landed all three of them, he would have been laughing.
    But with those two kids in tow, Smart must be smiling like the Cheshire Cat.

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  5. When speaking of Faulkner, What were you referring to by "His literary namesake should concoct such a subplot"? and is Greg reconsidering his decision now?

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  6. William Faulkner. Considered the greatest writer ever, depending who you ask.

    I haven't heard if he is.

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