News of Mergerson Visit Provides Hope

Written for your enjoyment by: Raff

I'll be honest. There hasn't been a whole lot to be excited about regarding the Mount St. Mary's basketball program in recent weeks.

It seems as if the only news that really has come since last season came to an end in the NEC semifinals at Robert Morris has been about folks leaving the program. The only real good news has been when there have been some rumors about potential departures that end up sticking around. All three of the recruits that were signed on to join the Mount have ended up elsewhere, and they been replaced by others but I've taken a wait and see attitude with those guys as you never are quite sure what you're going to get in late commits. Sometimes they turn into something special. We're all hoping that here.

And I've got to admit that I think eventually I'm going to like Robert Burke's offensive style of basketball. But I'm not sure it is going to match the players that he has inherited and that has me quite concerned about what could have been somewhat of a rebuilding effort to begin with this year. But we'll wait and see how that works out.

So as I've scoured for recruiting bits the last few weeks, the only things I've found is how good players are choosing other schools over the Mount. Most recently Julian Debose chose Rice and David Appolon picked Robert Morris (but I'm not certain the Mount ever offered). Prior to that Eddie Mitchell picked Rider and John Schoof selected American. At the beginning of the summer the pair from Eastern York signed on at Monmouth, Marcus Thornton chose William & Mary and Keith Belfield picked Furman. The only news you really were hearing really wasn't good news

And I don't know that that this most recent news will ever turn into good news. But Texashoops.com reported that the 6-8 forward Luke Mergerson out of Duncanville TX is headed to Emmitsburg on a visit in three weeks time. Prior to that he'll visit Tulane and UNC-Wilmington. He also reportedly has scholarship offers from SMU and Texas State. He supposedly is considering taking visits to Cornell and Brown. He is a silky smooth shooting 6-8 inch pivot who has caught the eye of quite a few big name programs including Georgetown, Notre Dame, Boston College and others.

He seems to be a tweener at that level. Not quite big enough or athletic enough to play inside, but not enough range on the jumper to really go outside. But as we've seen, 6-foot 8-inches is plenty big enough in the NEC.

I think that the emergence of Mergerson as a recruit shows a couple of things about Robert Burke. 1. I think it shows that he might not be looking for total athletic player that seemed to always grab the attention of Milan Brown. That he is looking for some players who can shoot the basketball. 2. I think it shows that he is willing to butt heads (and maybe losing out on some of the other players shows the same) with some of the bigger programs. Mt. St. Mary's isn't going to outrecruit Georgetown. But if it can steal a player from a Colonial or a CUSA type program as it is attempting to do hear, the outlook could be quite positive. 3. The other thing it does is make me wonder which offensive style Robert Burke is going to goto. His past history has the Loyola Marymount/Siena coaching in it along with the Princeton Pete Carill stuff. If you're going to run the Carrill stuff, you've got to have a center who can shoot from the high post. Mergerson would seem to fit that bill.

I'll be honest as a fan its a tough time of year. And with the fact that so much is unknown right now, it's even more difficult. A few days ago, I was lamenting how nothing seemed to be going the Mount's way. That nothing seemed to be going the Mount's way. All of sudden just the mere mention of Mergerson has done a lot to lift my spirits.

It's almost October 15th. I can't wait. And all of a sudden there is an increased reason for optimism.