(03-16-2023 09:18 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Well so much for playing Jones a lot during the CBI now. No need anymore.

I would take a look at King at HCU. The kid is one of the best shooters I saw all year long.

Never going to happen. He was committed to us at one point in HS and from what I've heard, the staff either reneged on their offer or there was some sort of miscommunication.

Couple of other guys Twitter says we've reached out to (probably just going to keep adding to this post rather than creating new ones):

> Tedrick Wilcox. 6-6 senior guard out of St. Francis (NY). Averaged 11.3 points and 3.7 rebounds on 40/36/78 splits
> Greg Dolan. 6-3 senior guard out of Cornell. Averaged 13.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists on 48/43/74 splits
> Steve Settle. 6-10 junior forward out of Howard. Averaged 11.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks on 42/30/81 splits
> Isaiah Swope. 5-10 sophomore guard out of Southern Indiana. Averaged 15.6 points and 3.5 assists on 46/42/75 splits
> Enoch Cheeks. 6-3 junior guard out of Robert Morris. Averaged 15.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists on 45/36/79 splits
> Ques Glover 6-0 junior guard out of Samford. Averaged 14.7 points and 2.1 assists on 48/38/85 splits
> Javonte Johnson. 6-6 junior guard out of New Mexico. Averaged 5.8 points and 3.6 rebounds on 46/31/90 splits
> Rickey Bradley Jr. 6-2 freshman guard out of VMI. Averaged 9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds on 48/39/81 splits

Camp Wagner, a 6-6 guard from Lake Highlands has committed. Also had offers from Indiana State and Elon. Looks a bit like Geron in stature, but from the highlights, I see a little Drew Peterson in there too. But he will have to develop a lot to get to that level. His brother played briefly at Oklahoma State as a walk on.

1 to 3 scholarships still open depending on the status of Olivari and Perkins (whether he goes on scholarship).

Doesn't strike me as an instant impact guy but I've been wrong plenty before and I trust that the staff knows more than me. Looks like he was on an okay EYBL team in 2022 but played the least of anybody on the team. Probably why he took a prep year. Not exactly the most inspiring start to what is a critical offseason, especially when we have so many holes on the roster that need immediate filling.

https://twitter.com/gopherhole/status/16...WX6HIUMFtA

What a mess is college basketball.

First known visit from a player in the portal is Anthony Selden (scheduled for April). 6-6 junior guard who played at Gardner-Webb. Averaged 11.5 points and 4.4 rebounds on 48/30/62 splits. Not going to do a huge amount of research unless we land him. But he'd seemingly fit the mold of a wing with length who can improve our defense (his Gardner-Webb team was 101 in defensive efficiency last year). He scored 11 points on 5-10 shooting against Colorado State last year and 21 on 7-12 shooting against UNC. Improved as the year went on, averaging 14 points on 51/42/59 splits in February and March.

His brother Wayne played in the NBA a few years and was a decent player at Kansas.

Keep an eye out for Noah Thomasson. He's a senior transfer from Niagara who's from Houston originally. Averaged 19.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists on 48/39/67 splits. Started his career at Houston Christian and then played a year at Butler Community College. Don't know about the academics. Realistically, whether he's an option will depend on that and the quality of the high-majors that come knocking.

The other guy I'm not sure why we're not recruiting (well, maybe we are but none of our coaches are following him on Twitter and we haven't been connected in any tweets) is Jordan Minor.

Co-NEC player of the year at Merrimack, played both AAU and HS with Evee for a couple years, and also knows Carl Pierre. He's taking visits to some power conference schools but is also visiting FGCU so I'd think we could have a conversation with him at the very least.

There were some really big names to enter the portal today, most notably Cryer of Baylor and Abrams of Oral Roberts. I guess if Houston gets either, then their prospects seem much better. Although I would think Abrams might be a possibility for Wichita State now?

The thing about the portal is it means a lot of guys end up getting 5 or even 6 years of eligibility. There just aren’t enough scholarships everywhere for all of them. We will get 1 or 2 impact guys. Hopefully they are closer to Evee or Pierre impact level than some others we’ve brought in.

ETA - had the coach move wrong on the guy from Oral Roberts. He went to Wichita.

Thomasson is being recruited by McCasland to Texas Tech which immediately solidifies him as the scoring guard in the portal that I want the most, because McCasland generally only recruits guards who are dogs on defense. Doesn't hurt that Penn St also sounds interested, because Rhoades values guards who defend.

The unfortunate news is that he lists Butler, Charleston, Oklahoma, and San Francisco as the schools recruiting him the hardest, and Georgia and Notre Dame as other schools he's interested in. And that he says his goal is to play in the NCAA tournament. So basically, doesn't seem like he's gonna be our guy.

6'7" forward from Cal, Sam Alajiki, is transferring to Rice with 2 years of eligibility remaining...

https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/stat...6337494016

So either two spots remaining or one if Perkins is put on scholarship.

Alajiki averaged 6.1 points and 3.6 rebounds on 39/36/56 splits for an atrocious Cal team (like 3-29 atrocious). 58% of his shots were 3s. Shot mechanics look fine. He's athletic, might throw in a post move now and again. Plays physically. Doesn't look like a guy who you want handling the ball. No clue what he's like defensively.

I'm, uh, getting a bit nervous (and I'm kind of confused)! We started the offseason with 3/4 roster spots open. We've landed two wings, one who seems like a longterm freshman project. We have a third wing visiting on April 14, albeit one who would be a solid addition. And Perkins is also a wing, if he gets put on scholarship. Feel like the staff needs to be reminded that we have two ball handlers (maybe 3 if Dawes plays point forward), one of whom is better off the ball. That's kind of a big deal coming off a stretch of 4-5 seasons in which we struggled to break down disciplined defenses that could take away Fiedler and neutralize our sets (a big reason why our offense has never gotten over the #100 hump in KP offensive efficiency).

I guess it's possible that the staff sees Alajiki as an elite defender. If that's the case, then yay! Because we can win with an offense ranked 100-125 if our defense improves. But...man. Reserving judgment until the roster is finalized.

He started 13 of his last 14 games for Cal. But as elw said, it was a bad Cal team. Really bad (although some of their conference losses were close). Mark Bermans tweet says we got him over Penn State (and Davidson), so that’s kind of cool. He’s also a foreign player for those who have been asking for a foreign influx (originally from Ireland).

Perkins isn’t a wing. He’s a 4/5.

But yes, I agree we absolutely need a guard who can handle the ball with the last scholarship. What about we trade with Texas - Quincy for their freshman PG who just went into the portal?

(04-10-2023 05:02 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  He started 13 of his last 14 games for Cal. But as elw said, it was a bad Cal team. Really bad (although some of their conference losses were close). Mark Bermans tweet says we got him over Penn State (and Davidson), so that’s kind of cool. He’s also a foreign player for those who have been asking for a foreign influx (originally from Ireland).

Perkins isn’t a wing. He’s a 4/5.

But yes, I agree we absolutely need a guard who can handle the ball with the last scholarship. What about we trade with Texas - Quincy for their freshman PG who just went into the portal?

I could've sworn that Perkins was a wing (and admittedly big and gangly wing) when I watched his HS tape. But either way, good point about the international element. And I hadn't seen that we beat out Penn St and Davidson for him. If Rhoades was recruiting him, that makes me a fair bit more confident about his defensive chops.

Wonder whether he was injured for a bit last season. He made the Pac-12 all-Freshman team the year before, so i assume he was a starter, or played significant minutes as a true Freshman.

Alajiki was definitely a surprise as he wasn’t being followed best I could tell by Green or Pera. He doesn’t. Have much Twitter action but he is retweeting about 2 players that Green is following so hope this was a package deal waiting to unfold. I think Pera is smart enough to know what he needs and probably wants someone who could play at least 2 years so we aren’t decimated again after next year. Seems we are definitely getting longer and hope more athletic.

That was in Bermans tweet (and it was Richmond, not Davidson - sorry). It also says he was offered by 50 to 60 schools, including Notre Dame and Stanford, although I don’t know if that’s current or out of high school?

(03-13-2023 09:06 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  FYI - Right now, it seems like we only have one scholarship open (McDowell's roster spot). With Lewis's departure, Olivari leaving would open up a second scholarship.

(04-10-2023 05:33 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Wonder whether he was injured for a bit last season. He made the Pac-12 all-Freshman team the year before, so i assume he was a starter, or played significant minutes as a true Freshman.

No, he doubled his playing time in 2021-22 (from 12.5 minutes a game to 24 a game). He was playing closer to 30 minutes a game at the end of the season.

It was HM all freshman, not really all freshman. It means he received at least 3 votes but wasn’t one of the 5 freshman on that team a year ago.