Recruiting 2019

[sdoyel]

Bilau

[PortlandHawk]

He looks like he is pretty athletic, has some skills, looks fluid. I hear he has only played 4 years. What do we have to lose?

Poor man’s Billy Preston (although if he actually plays, can we really call him a poor mans anything?)

[CrimsonNBlue]

Dude has academic questions tho. Like 6 high schools in 3 years

He’s from France, though. Which, last time I checked is not in Africa, so maybe he’s got a shot at qualifying per the NCAA.

[ousdahl]

Wait, so we signed this guy but no one even bothered to give him his own welcome thread?

[ousdahl]

And let’s go for some downer pity!

What are the odds Self burns all our remaining schollies on big men that end up ineligible, while our starting guards all play 40 minutes a night?

[holidaysmore]

That guy has some impressive handles for a guy his size. I mean if he wants to come I doubt KU says no but there is currently a log jam for guys 6’8 and over whose primary position is labeled as ‘back to the basket.’

[jfish26]

He looks like he is pretty athletic, has some skills, looks fluid. I hear he has only played 4 years. What do we have to lose?

Poor man’s Billy Preston (although if he actually plays, can we really call him a poor mans anything?)

So he'd want to take a car from someone, not just some wheeels? Hard pass.

[PortlandHawk]

He looks like he is pretty athletic, has some skills, looks fluid. I hear he has only played 4 years. What do we have to lose?

Poor man’s Billy Preston (although if he actually plays, can we really call him a poor mans anything?)

So he'd want to take a car from someone, not just some wheeels? Hard pass.

Lol. I meant his skill set. But really, I think he would be fine. He is at least worth a visit.

[jfish26]

College basketball is losing more underclassmen every year to the NBA Draft, but can the NCAA reverse the trend?

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... the-trend/

College basketball has a defection issue that, with each passing year, is growing more obvious and troublesome.

The sport isn't explicitly approaching a crisis, but if the NCAA doesn't seek a way to keep its underclassmen with fringe NBA talent from leaving college for good, a sport set back by a lack of star power will become all the more humdrum -- and thus less nationally relevant -- than it already struggles with.

[...]

[C]ollege basketball's true immediate-and-long-term problem came into view Thursday morning when the list of players who opted to stay in the 2019 NBA Draft pool crystallized. A generous forecast of this year's draft allots 45 of the 60 picks to go to underclassmen from American universities. Yet nearly double that amount are keeping their names in and will never play for a school again.

[...]

Would this be the case if the NCAA enacted Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules that allowed college players to make money off their own NIL? Probably not. If you told a college sophomore with almost no chance of being drafted that he could chase a two-way NBA deal, or return to college and potentially make $20,000 off his NIL because he was the BMOC, don't you think the latter option would entice just a few more players to head back to school? The players should already be afforded the opportunity to get this money anyway. Now that college basketball's collective crop of talent is becoming thinner by the year, maybe the NCAA will finally find a way to allow it to happen.

It might be why the NCAA has formally started the process of, at the very least, discussing the NIL issue and how it could be adopted for college athletes.

[...]

And things are tracking to get a lot thornier. By 2022, if Adam Silver and the NBA can convince the National Basketball Players Association to revert the age minimum to 18 years old, the talent drain on college hoops will be at an all-time high. The sport will miss out on anywhere from the top 10-25 prospects coming out of high school in addition to the herd of underclassmen who don't come back.

All told, you could have college basketball deprived of 100 or more players who would be eligible to play in college but nonetheless circumvent the NCAA and its relatively restrictive rules on amateurism. That's the larger issue. It's on the sport's ambassadors and power brokers, now, to make moves to lessen the damage and improve inauspicious attrition rates.

[...]

[Here are] names of only some of the guys who are gone from college forever: Jordan Bone, Ky Bowman, Iggy Brazdeikis, Armoni Brooks, Amir Coffey, Tyler Cook, Kyle Guy, Jaylen Hands, Jared Harper, VJ King, Martin Krampelj, Cameron Lard, Dedric Lawson, Zach Norvell, Jaylen Nowell, Shamorie Ponds, Jordan Poole, Brandon Randolph, Simi Shittu, Justin Simon, Nick Ward, Kenny Wooten.

All those players qualified as top-three guys, at worst, on their teams. None are projected as obvious top-40 picks -- and all but maybe three or four will go undrafted. You can't tell me college basketball is better off for not having them next season. If you could even entice one-fourth of the names on that list to return, the sport would be a preferable product.

Coaches always have been and always will be the true stars of college hoops, but if the sport is going to find firmer tread in marketing its players, in the hopes of holding onto them, it needs to find a way to reward them monetarily as soon as possible. The realities of how much money players could bring in while profiting off their NIL is another matter, but it's a matter they at the very least deserve to encounter as soon as possible.

We can acknowledge two things happening at once here: happiness for the players to have the freedom and empowerment to make these choices en masse, but concern for college basketball's well-being to lose upper-end talent in gobs like this to the point where it's impacting overall marketing, and potential success, for top 50-type schools.

College basketball is not dying nor is it in ominous peril, but it's also not trending in the right direction. Real legislation to alter its course needs to be made soon so, by 2022, we don't come to see many of the best would-be college players playing basketball everywhere except ... in college.

[Judy_Jayhawk]

I just read that UNC doesn't have any scholarships left for this year. Why is Jalen Wilson going on a visit there next weekend?

[twocoach]

Anthony Mathis of New Mexico just announced he is entering the transfer portal as an immediately eligible grad transfer. Shot 44% combined from 3 the last 2 seasons. Hopefully Kansas contacts him immediately.

[jfish26]

Anthony Mathis of New Mexico just announced he is entering the transfer portal as an immediately eligible grad transfer. Shot 44% combined from 3 the last 2 seasons. Hopefully Kansas tampered with him as soon as Hampton turned heel.

[twocoach]

Sounds like he is good friends with Oregon's Peyron Pritchard, who withdrew from the draft and is returning to school. I would guess they are the leaders for him since he is from Oregon but we should throw our hat in the ring for sure.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Another transfer shooter from the West. Should work out well.

[Deleted User 266]

Anthony Mathis of New Mexico just announced he is entering the transfer portal as an immediately eligible grad transfer. Shot 44% combined from 3 the last 2 seasons. Hopefully Kansas contacts him immediately.

44% from 3 the last 2 seasons?
I'd take that and be happy with it.
Problem is.....
22.6% from 3 the last 2 seasons (5 games) in the Mountain West Conference Tournament - one could argue games that actually matter.
If you're only as good as your last game/s......
19% from the field last season in the Mountain West Tournament.
For whatever that's worth.

[pdub]

Not that much.

[twocoach]

Anthony Mathis of New Mexico just announced he is entering the transfer portal as an immediately eligible grad transfer. Shot 44% combined from 3 the last 2 seasons. Hopefully Kansas contacts him immediately.

44% from 3 the last 2 seasons?
I'd take that and be happy with it.
Problem is.....
22.6% from 3 the last 2 seasons (5 games) in the Mountain West Conference Tournament - one could argue games that actually matter.
If you're only as good as your last game/s......
19% from the field last season in the Mountain West Tournament.
For whatever that's worth.

I'll take "Cherry Picking Stats" for $200, Alex.

[Deleted User 266]

No doubt "cherry picking stats" but as I mentioned, one could argue they were in the games that actually mattered. Kid might have had mind blowing stats in High School games that mattered so it's probably not fair of me to just point out his struggles in "big" college games.
If we were to only use MWC Tournament games to judge talent then Vance Jackson is an NBA first rounder.

[PhDhawk]

all games matter.

[CrimsonNBlue]

If RJ truly started something, it sure makes hires like Penny Hardaway and Jerry Stackhouse look all that more shortsighted. Ridiculous if anyone has already jumped on the NBA-player college coach train.