Monday, April 26, 2010

James Siakam - 4th Vandy B-Ball Recruit

As I mentioned a couple days ago Vandy recently got a commitment from power forward James Siakam. Siakam stands at 6'6, 210. Rivals has him ranked as the 101st ranked player of the 2011 class and ESPN has him ranked as the #77 PF in 2010 (and an 88 overall). Couple notes of interest regarding Siakam.

1) He is a native of Cameroon (like Stevie Thunder)
2) Was originally a 2011 recruit (hence the current Rivals ranking). But he found out he had enough credits to graduate early.
3) Either his real name or his nickname is "Bamba". Either way awesome.
4) Averaged 18pts, 10 boards and 5 blocks a game this past season.
5) Supposedly is a real strong rebounder and defender (I heard one comparison of a young Dennis Rodman type)
6) Also considered Illinois, Marquette, Florida and UCLA.

I'm interested to see this kid. We continue to add lots of size and not many true guards which seems weird to me but hopefully one day we will learn how to rebound. With 6'10 Henderson, 6'6 Siakam and 6'8 Rod Odom we definitely are adding some height to our front line.

The way last year ended I'm just glad I have some positive news to spread. The loss of Beal and AJ is going to hurt but we have 4 solid freshman coming in and yet will have a pretty veteran team next year.

5 comments:

macpfled said...

I am really pumped about this guy. If Siakam is what I am expecting he will have a great attitude and work ethic(supposedly super nice guy, guess its a Cameroonian thing) and play an Andrew Walker type role. Only sounds like this guy is a great athlete who really crashes the board and hustles. College bball is all about good chemistry and I think one of the problems wish this past years team was too many "stars". Beal, Ogilivy, Jenkins, and Taylor were/are guys that needs shots/touches. I say the more role players the better. I'm looking forward to seeing La Bamba bash with Team Africa. Starting to be more and more optimistic about next year's team. Beal and AJ were great but I honestly think this team could really get a swagger.

Seamus O'Toole said...

According to the Tennessean, Siakam's high school coach said "he will come in and right away be Vanderbilt’s best defender and shot blocker." That is bold. Is this just a prep school coach hyping his guy or has he really compared him to Festus and Stevie T and still genuinely believes this? Regardless, the more I hear about La Bamba the more I like.

Anonymous said...

I really like everything I have read about him. He sounds exactly like the kind of player that always gives us trouble.

-SoCalDore

Always Wanted to Play Piano said...

Don't know anything about him, but 6'6" / 210 sounds a little skinny for a 4. Of course, given his age, there is time to put on some muscle.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about this team still. Beal and Ogilvy were our best players last year. There were games Jenkins and Taylor were the guys but for the most part it was the Beal/Ogilvy show. We lost our best big man and our best PG (really our only true talented PG). Hopefully Fuller can step up and help but I just don't know if he can. Tinsley has got to be more comfortable running this offense next year. Jenkins and Taylor should be our go to guys but without significant contributions from Odom/Fuller/Henderson/Sikiam and more from Stevie Thunder/Lance/Festus we could be in big trouble. I just don't know about these guys....