Following a busy end to September, where Princeton picked up verbal commitments from Chris Clement, Daniel Edwards and Ben Hazel, it appeared like the Tigers' 2010 recruiting was complete.
Enter a November surprise - the fifth member of this class, 6'7" forward Tom Noonan (#31, right) from William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia.
Noonan had piqued the interest at times during the recruiting process of three Ivy schools - Cornell, Columbia and Yale. He attended the Lions' and Bulldogs' Elite Camps over the summer and would have been present at the Big Red's were it not for an injury.
I had a chance to speak to Noonan's head coach at Penn Charter, Jim Phillips, earlier in the week and he shared his thoughts with me about this future Tiger marksman, both on-and-off the court.
Exclusive quotes, descriptions and links to articles about Noonan can be all found after the jump.
"His serious recruitment was Williams, Amherst, MIT, Hamilton and NYU," Phillips told me about this "tremendous young man, phenomenal person and a great shooter" who averaged 12.7 points and six rebounds playing in the Delco Elite Inter-Academic League as a junior last season.
Noonan played on a "mom and pop" neighborhood AAU team that was at July's Hoop Group Jam Fest in West Virginia, where he caught the eye of Princeton coach Sydney Johnson.
"It was really, really strange," Phillips said. "We were back to school in the fall and to be honest with you - you thought the 2010 recruiting class was finished? I think [the Princeton coaches] thought it was finished also - and then they saw Tommy."
An admissions slot eventually opened up and after encouraging Noonan to remain patient, Princeton offered it to the wiry sharpshooter.
"He's every bit of 6'7" and he shoots the thing better than anybody I've ever coached," Phillips said. "He's just a spectacular shooter. I think his size coupled with his skill set seems to be a good fit for [Princeton's] system."
Noonan came up to an open gym before the season started and played with current Tiger players. "I guess Tommy played well," said Phillips, who drove Noonan to Jadwin that day.
Phillips, who returns to Penn Charter as head coach for the 9th season following a year-long sabbatical, described the Quakers' offense as "a little bit of a 'four around one.' We play [Tom] on the wing and then depending on mismatches we'll cut him through the post, but by no means is he a 'sit himself back to the basket on the block' kind of player. You've got to guard him almost with a smaller player because he's so good at the arc and so good on the perimeter. If they go and they decide to guard him with someone that's going to chase him around off all the screens we're going to set for him on the perimeter and do that well, now we can backscreen him to the post and he can have a mismatch down there. He's kind of unique."
Asked about where he would like to see Noonan continue to improve, Phillips said that "[Tom] needs to assert himself more to score in different ways. He needs to be able to get some stuff off the offensive glass. He needs to get out in transition. He needs to use his shot fake, put it on the ground, get into the lane and get to the foul line. The willingness to mix it up a little bit more than he has in the past. He's never really been asked to do a lot more than be a perimeter player. This team that we have this year will need him to broaden his arsenal of what he uses on the offensive end."
"Tommy is an interesting bird, man," continued Phillips. "Since last May I would say he went from being in like with basketball to more being in love with it. I think something just finally clicked for Tommy. Probably until that point he thought he was working harder than he actually was and now I just think he came to a new realization of what it takes to be even better and he's really recommitted himself to doing those things."
"We've been practicing a whopping five days. You can already tell how much more assertive and stronger he is."
"He realistically is thinking that by the time he is a sophomore he's probably going to be ready to help [Princeton] in some capacity," Phillips revealed. "I wouldn't say he's going to come in and be a 'son of a gun' as a freshman."
"I let my Quaker go and be a Tiger," Phillips said with a laugh.
Articles about Noonan's commitment to Princeton ran in the Daily News and the Inquirer.
NJ Hoops had a brief post about Noonan in late July of this year.
Noonan played for the Smart Jox Travel team in the Sonny Hill League and you can see some game-by-game point totals if you follow this link.
Following the 2008 Hoop Group Academic Elite camp, Noonan was named to the list of Underclassmen All Stars.
He also placed on Tier XVIII of a North Star Ball list following the same camp.
Hoop Scoop had Noonan as the 134th best junior in the Philadelphia/Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey area.
Noonan received the Quakers' Coach's Award following his junior year.
A high jumper as well as a basketball player Noonan was part of a team that won the high jump title at the 2007 Karl Hankton Relays.
Tom Noonan's brother John was a Jostens Trophy finalist on the Ursinus basketball team that went to the 2008 Division III Final Four.
