German recruit picks Hokies
BLACKSBURG — Malik Mueller, a guard who attends a boarding school in Germany, said Thursday he has orally committed to Virginia Tech.
The 6-foot-3 Mueller, who plays for a club team in Germany, said he also had offers from Utah, Evansville and Tennessee Tech.
“The team chemistry looks really good,” he said.
Mueller has dual U.S. and German citizenship. His mother is from Germany and his father is from Florida. He lives with his mother in Germany. He was born in Frankfurt.
I talked to Mueller at the the Duke-Tech women’s basketball game. He watched the game with his future teammates as he concluded his recruiting visit.
Mueller turned 19 last month. He will be a Tech freshman in the fall.
Mueller said he plays both guard positions but that Tech wants to use him as a point guard.
He was the MVP of the Jordan Brand Classic international game in 2010 at Madison Square Garden. He had 21 points and four 3-pointers in that game, which included current college players such as Anthony Bennett (UNLV) and Kevin Pangos(Gonzaga). He was 16 at the time.
He also had exposure in America because his club team plays in a high school tournament in Tennessee each December.
He is a member of the German U-20 national team.
“I would call myself a combo guard, but I really like to play the point guard,” he said. “I’ve been more focusing on playing point guard, but still I’m a scorer. I can score. I want to score. But still I want to look out for my teammates. I can shoot the ball from outside, I can penetrate.”
And now, here is my game story from the Duke-VT women’s game:
BLACKSBURG — Duke offered more evidence Thursday as to why it is the best women’s basketball team in the ACC.
The fifth-ranked Blue Devils beat Virginia Tech for the 19th straight time, cruising to a 77-33 win at Cassell Coliseum.
Forward Haley Peters and center Elizabeth Williams each matched her career high with 25 points.
“I’ve never coached two post players to each get 25. I’ve been coaching 21 years,” Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie said.
Duke (23-1, 13-0) is atop the ACC standings. But is Duke a Final Four team?
The Blue Devils have lost in the Elite Eight the past three years. Considering they lost at Connecticut 79-49 last month, one has to wonder if they can close the gap with UConn, Baylor, Stanford and Notre Dame and beat one of them in a possible Elite Eight game next month to make the Final Four.
“There’s definitely been a gap, and it’s our job to close it,” McCallie said.
What did the UConn game reveal about the difference between Duke and the Huskies?
“They played harder for longer,” McCallie said. “That’s something we think about a lot. And that was … why we pushed the ball tonight and not walked it down the floor. We don’t have that luxury. We’ve got to get better, … try to really play at that tempo.”
The Hokies (8-16, 2-11) suffered their most lopsided defeat since a 90-40 loss to Duke two seasons ago.
The 6-foot-3 Peters, who played just 28 minutes, had a career-high four 3-pointers. She also had 10 rebounds and two blocks.
The 6-3 Williams, a third-team All-American last season, had seven rebounds and two blocks in 29 minutes.
Williams and Peters did not go to the bench for good until there was 5:01 left and 3:29 left, respectively.
“My job is to develop my team to the fullest,” McCallie said. “This is not high school. I’ve got All-American players. I’ve got great players. Elizabeth was moving so well. … I owe her that, for her to be out there and doing what she does.
“We’re trying to win championships and someday win a national championship. You do that by having a program that breeds intensity.”
The Hokies double-teamed Williams in the early going, leaving Peters open. Peters made two 3-pointers and a jumper to give Duke the lead for good at 8-0.
Tech, which lost at Duke 58-26 last month, was once again without starting post players Uju Ugoka and Taijah Campbell because of injuries.
“We guarded them better the first time when we had both of those girls playing,” Tech coach Dennis Wolff said.
The Hokies shot just 27.8 percent from the field against Duke’s zone defense.
“We pass up what we think as a coaching staff are good shots and end up toward the end of a shot clock struggling to get a shot up,” Wolff said. “You’re not beating that zone by just constantly passing the ball around the outside of it. You’ve got to get into the gaps.”
Tech turned the ball over 23 times. Tech had more turnovers (18) than points (14) in the first half.
Duke led 31-11 with 5:26 to go in the first half. At that point, both Peters (13 points) and Williams (14 points) had outscored the Hokies.
The Blue Devils cruised even though All-American point guard Chelsea Gray had two points, 11 below her average.
“We just have so many weapons, and people off the bench that are so good,” Peters said.
February 14, 2013 - 8:49 PM
Hmmm
Out recruiting Evansville, Utah, and Tenn Tech should push this team over the top. Recruit NY and Maryland for ballers! With ‘Cuse and Pitt coming in, and Maryland leaving to be a small fish in the Big10, recruits should want to come compete in the new (stronger in basketball) ACC – don’t forget Louisville in league as well.
VT should be able to get recruits from fertile basketball areas other than those recruited by schools with low RPI: Evansville 127, Utah 274, Tenn Tech 268. VT is 170 by the way.
Who the heck flew back and forth to Germany to visit this kid anyway? Recruiting budgets are tight, and I would think you could check out 25-50 kids from VA to NY by trekking the Mid-Atlantic by car!
They’ll sorely need his services. Rankin has shown over his career that he’s not the answer at PG. Mueller has the reputation for being a heady baller. He should get significant minutes.
I heard the Duke gals kept the full court press defense on even though up by forty at the end of the game. Quite the difference in approach by the two teams. We’ll see similar differences in the two games coming up on the men’s side.
Under Bonnie, VT actually beat a highly ranked Duke team in Cameron 72-69.
My how things have changed. Now we get outscored by more than a 2-1 margin when we play them at home.
Weaver, please spend the $ and get us a decent coach……..
You don’t have to fly to Germany to recruit these kids, they play on this side all the time. Glad to see they are following my advice and troll AAU venues. You get a better analysis of kids playing against kids with equal talents than some 19 year old senior running up 30 points against a 14 year old freshman. I expect we may see a couple of JUCO players in the mix also.
#1: Judge the kid on his merits, not the recruiting competition. Don’t denigrate a kid who can play on the German U-20 National Team. There are a whole bunch of circumstances why any kid goes under the radar. One of which is that there is no one to promote him. Another is that he had to make a decision about going pro now vs. college.
You may not realize this but German pro teams underwrite several levels of club teams. There are no school based team athletics as we have here. EVERYTHING is done by sport clubs. These clubs are based in your town and paid for by both dues and the pro team a the top.
Kids are identified and recieve pro quality coaching at a very early age. These clubs do not use the dad or mom down the street who is willing. The training is tough and structured and consistent. Stars are identified early and separated into feeder pipelines. Play for pay can start in the teen years.
When German kids play a sport for fun, they play during breaks in the school day or after school. When they play club level sport it is far more serious than your local travel teams.
I am surprised he is eligible as I would have thought he would receive payment for the U-20 team and be considered a pro already.
I know something about this as my kids played baseball and soccer in this system. I know its a shock but there are some Germany trained baseball players in the Show. Nowitzki grew up in the system. Rubio grew up in the Spanish equivalent. Many good US players are now overseas. You don’t need to go to the streets to find good ball. You don’t need to travel tobacco road either. You need to keep up dude.
For the chokies to go overseas to get players they need more than just help they need a entire overhall. The chokies need help in all aspects of the game of basketball and giving a scholorship to an overseas player to come to the chokies and make them win is like asking Duke to quit playing in the 2nd half of a beatdown of the chokies!! ZMan you need to keep up with the times because going overseas for players means either you can’t get kids here in your own country or even region and second the beloved chokies are so pathetic and sorry that kids from this country don’t want to play for the loser chokies and their over hyped pathetic fans!! Go Chokies!!!
Zman,
Nonetheless, NO ONE else recruited him!