About two months ago I received an email from DTN reader Greg, who went to the same preparatory school as Darryl Ashford last year and wanted to pass along some information on Darryl and what type of player he is.
For those of you who don't know, Ashford is a 6-4 shooting guard who spent last year at New Hampton School in New Hampshire. From what I can tell, Texas Tech offered Darryl a scholarship, but due to grades, most likely not having the qualifying SAT scores, he didn't qualify at Texas Tech.
Back to Greg's email, about two months ago was about the same time that former defensive coordinator Lyle Setencich was "re-assigned" and all hell broke loose here at DTN. Greg was kind enough to email me again today and notified me that Darryl Ashford would be going to Jacksonville College this fall (which is in East Texas).
Greg had some pretty good stuff in that original email and with his permission, here's what Greg had to say about Darryl as a player:
He was a decent three point shooter, being able to get hot, but he never really worked on his game and just had incredible natural ability.
I can remember about 3 or 4 times where during practice he would have a dunk on top of someone where either we would just stop practice or take a break because of how crazy it was.
His jumping ability is like nothing I have ever seen and he also has the ability to take contact and finish in the air, probably his second best ability besides his athleticism. He played point in a handful of games but he is not an incredible distributor, he is much better just focusing on scoring.
He is also a very capable defender, with long arms and great hands, he can also catch virtually any alley-oop and finish.
Greg went on to say that Darryl didn't return for the winter trimester at New Hampton, but he kept in touch with Darryl for no other reason than because Darryl was a really good person and according to Greg, Darryl still wants to go to Texas Tech.
Thank you Greg, and if any of you guys have any first-hand accounts of a player or prospect then please feel free to start a diary on the right or add a comment to one of the recruiting boards (2008 Football and 2008 Basketball). I know that I always appreciate reading these and I know that other readers would as well.