Josh Heustis commits

[Ray]

Josh announced today he has given Stanford a verbal commitment to play for them. Best of luch Josh.

[CPACAT]

Josh had a great game against Kalispell on Saturday. CMR won 76-29. They ran the clock continuosly from half way through the 3rd quarter til the end of the game. He officially had 11 blocks but the number of shots altered was probably double that. He had a couple of very impressive dunks and showed great range. He will be a player at the next level.

[John K]

Josh had a great game against Kalispell on Saturday. CMR won 76-29. They ran the clock continuosly from half way through the 3rd quarter til the end of the game. He officially had 11 blocks but the number of shots altered was probably double that. He had a couple of very impressive dunks and showed great range. He will be a player at the next level.

I went to the CMR-Senior game tonight, specifically because I wanted to see Heustis play at least once before his high school career was over. I found myself having mixed feelings about how well he might do at the next level. He had a couple of great dunks, and a few nice blocks. And you're right, he alters a lot of shots and Senior was pretty hesitant to even try taking it to the hole with him lurking under the basket. He also seems to have a nice touch from medium range. He ony took a couple of shots from outside and missed them both, but his form looked good, and he is a good free throw shooter. I wonder though if he will be kind of stuck in between a 3 and a 4 in college. He would have to bulk up quite a bit to play the 4 in the Pac 10, but although he is very athletic and agile, I wonder if he truly has the skills to be a standout 3 at that level. At any rate, he is apparently a great student and very nice kid, so I wish him the best next year and beyond. For those of you who have seen him play much more often than I, what are your thoughts?

As a team, CMR looked very good at times. They had really nice ball movement most of the game, and have a lot of offensive weapons, and just having Heustis makes them pretty effective on defense. But I found myself thinking that if I didn't look at the scoreboard, I would have expected the game to be a blowout....CMR was clearly far more talented than Senior. But it was a very close game until about midway through the fourth quarter, when CMR finally started pulling away. CMR had a couple of stretches where they were kind of careless with the ball, and Senior took advantage of that, getting some steals and easy layups, which is mainly what kept them in the game. Again, for those of you have followed them more closely, are they really a lock to repeat as many AA fans seem to think? How do Bozeman, West, Capital and Sentinel compare to Senior?

[TomCat88]

John K: Take this for what it's worth....which probably ain't much.

I don't know if this was the only game you went to this year or not, but if it is then one thing to keep in mind is that how the teams/players look is twisted a little by not watching them regularly. This is something I've noticed anyway.

I recall coming back to Helena in the late 80s and going to a couple HS BB/FB games and thinking how small, slow and unrefined the players were. Then when I started going every week I was able to appreciate them a lot more. I went to a game last year and noticed I was right back where I was in the 80s. I figure this happens from watching college and pro games on TV, then getting hit with a huge dropoff at the HS games.

[CPACAT]

I think that CMR at times plays without discipline and gets sloppy and can keep teams in games. They seem to think they can show up and just win without putting in a solid effort at times and it bites them. IF they play solid focused ball and don't have lazy turnovers they will win State easily. If they play a less than full speed or effort they are beatable.

[SonomaCat]

Sounds like Josh is a part of a pretty special class for Stanford ... he could end up being a major player on some really good teams.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1C53EN.DTL

[John K]

Sounds like Josh is a part of a pretty special class for Stanford ... he could end up being a major player on some really good teams.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1C53EN.DTL

That was an interesting read....thanks for posting it. Josh is definitely a fun player to watch, as he had several spectacular dunks and blocks against Senior.

[SenorWeezer]

Nothing against Heustis as he is a really good basketball player however, a guy scholarshiped by a school the caliber of Stanford should be DOMINATING play in this state (i.e. see Joslyn Tinkle last year). Danny Little (a junior) from Billings Skyview as well as Jake Owsley from Bozeman are his size and have played with and/or outplayed him this year. It will be interesting to watch the AA State tournament this week and see if he rises to the challenge. I wish him the best of luck this year and in his college career.

[CPACAT]

Nothing against Heustis as he is a really good basketball player however, a guy scholarshiped by a school the caliber of Stanford should be DOMINATING play in this state (i.e. see Joslyn Tinkle last year). Danny Little (a junior) from Billings Skyview as well as Jake Owsley from Bozeman are his size and have played with and/or outplayed him this year. It will be interesting to watch the AA State tournament this week and see if he rises to the challenge. I wish him the best of luck this year and in his college career.

Please explain how Little and Owsley have played with or outplayed him. I have watched CMR play several times this year and he has totally dominated although the stats in the paper don't always show this because CMR is more than a one man show and Josh is a great team player.

[mslacat]

Nothing against Heustis as he is a really good basketball player however, a guy scholarshiped by a school the caliber of Stanford should be DOMINATING play in this state (i.e. see Joslyn Tinkle last year). Danny Little (a junior) from Billings Skyview as well as Jake Owsley from Bozeman are his size and have played with and/or outplayed him this year. It will be interesting to watch the AA State tournament this week and see if he rises to the challenge. I wish him the best of luck this year and in his college career.

Please explain how Little and Owsley have played with or outplayed him. I have watched CMR play several times this year and he has totally dominated although the stats in the paper don't always show this because CMR is more than a one man show and Josh is a great team player.

Josh does not have the killer instinct that other Montana players have had, he is more of team player. He has had the luxury of playing on CMR teams that have been loaded with talent and he has not had to score huge games. Still though all you have to do and watch him play and it clear as day he is head and shoulders above any Montana player he faced this year. I saw him score 10 points 8 rebounds and some where around 4 blks in the first quarter in a December game and it was effortless. Then the CMR guards started taking a ton of shots and it limited Josh's touches. he is one of the most gifted athletic and smooth big men I have ever seen in Montana. You can not gauge Josh by the box score to get an idea how good he is. If you were give Josh the aggressiveness of Ferch (take your pick) or Sprinkle and it would be scary to see what he would average.

[MSUcantouchus]

Despite not dominating in the scoring column in Montana, as one guy said, he did in many other areas of the game. Also he spend most of the last several summers out of state playing in tourneys and AAU, I believe, and he did quite well. I think if he was not up to Pac 10 recruiting standards then it would have shown at these games.