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Post by motorcitysam on Aug 13, 2021 15:54:48 GMT -5
Resembles Kenny Anderson when he was hoopin’ at Archbishop Molly’s HS in Queens. I hadn't thought about that, but that's a good comparison.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 22, 2022 12:45:09 GMT -5
UMass is, I guess, still considered a mid major for our purposes, and they got a verbal commitment from Tre Mitchell, a four star center ranked in the top 70-80 range by several services. Interesting development, because that program appears in chaos, with all three assistant coaches being let go and the team on a downward trend in the win/loss column. basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/umass-nabs-the-commitment-of-tre-mitchellUpdate on Tre Mitchell: Had a great freshman season for the Minutemen, putting up 19 and 7 on 52% shooting. Then...as soon as the season was over he hit the transfer portal. He visited Florida State recently, but has all kinds of Power Five interest. I think we'll see that on the rare occasions that a mid major pulls off a coup, it's usually not a long term benefit. After a nondescript season at Texas, Mitchell is in the portal again.
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Post by motorcitysam on May 2, 2022 22:01:57 GMT -5
Marquavious Brown, ranked 136 in the nation, just committed to Georgia State. Highest ranked recruit ever for GSU.
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Post by motorcitysam on May 13, 2022 13:45:05 GMT -5
Update on Tre Mitchell: Had a great freshman season for the Minutemen, putting up 19 and 7 on 52% shooting. Then...as soon as the season was over he hit the transfer portal. He visited Florida State recently, but has all kinds of Power Five interest. I think we'll see that on the rare occasions that a mid major pulls off a coup, it's usually not a long term benefit. After a nondescript season at Texas, Mitchell is in the portal again. Mitchell to West Virginia. We'll see if he gets a waiver.
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Post by motorcitysam on May 13, 2022 13:49:59 GMT -5
Hutchins-Everett had a good season for AP, averaging 12 and 7. His highlight performance was a 25 and 14 outing against Dayton. The good news for Austin Peay is, he hasn't hit the transfer portal.
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Post by motorcitysam on Sept 22, 2022 16:04:11 GMT -5
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Post by motorcitysam on Oct 12, 2022 23:21:39 GMT -5
Rice signs a four star recruit for the class of 2023 as Keanu Dawes commits to the Owls. Rivals ranks the 6-8 forward the number 99 player in the class. Had offers from Houston, Kansas State, Mississippi State, all the Texas Big 12 Schools, and some PAC 12 schools. n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2023/keanu-dawes-281542
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Post by larrytitan on Oct 13, 2022 8:13:02 GMT -5
Decided to stay home in Houston. Great academic institution as well.
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Post by motorcitysam on Mar 31, 2023 1:41:51 GMT -5
Hutchins-Everett had a good season for AP, averaging 12 and 7. His highlight performance was a 25 and 14 outing against Dayton. The good news for Austin Peay is, he hasn't hit the transfer portal. Hutchins-Everett's numbers slipped a bit in 2022-23, down to 11.5 ppg and 5.5 rebounds per game. Had some solid 20 point performances. However, the Governors only went 9-22 on the season.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 27, 2023 15:57:27 GMT -5
It's been almost seven years since the start of this thread, which began with the Commissioner recognizing the commitment of 5-star recruit Mitch Robinson to Western Kentucky. Seemes like a good time for a look back on this thread and see how these mid major teams have fared after these signings.
WKU and head coach Rick Stansbury have been a regular entry on this list, landing a couple of five stars and several recruits ranked in the Top 100. Stansbury had a reputation as a top recruiter, and when he was hired by WKU a lot of pundits predicted regular conference tournament bids and NCAA tournament appearances. It didn't work out that way; despite the best recruiting classes in the conference, Stansbury failed to make the NCAA tournament during his seven years on the Hilltop. He only had two losing seasons, and won over 60% of his games, but just couldn't get over the hump to win the conference tournament or pile up a good enough season to get an at large bid.
Here's what happened with the highly ranked guys who committed to the Hilltoppers:
1. Mitchell Robinson was a five star/top ten recruit out of Chalmette high school when he committed to WKU. He committed after Stansbury hired Robinson's guardian as an assistant coach. Robinson never did play for WKU. He enrolled, but then left the team during the summer. He decided to come back, then changed his mind, and ended up not playing college basketball at all. He sat out the year, and in the 2018 NBA draft, the Knicks picked him in the second round. He's had a decent career, averaging 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He signed a four year/$6.5 million contract in 2018 after he was drafted, and just prior to this season he signed a four year/$59 million extension. Basketball has been very, very good to him. Coincidentally, he had one of the best games of his career last night, putting up 13, 18, and 3 in a Knick playoff victory.
2. Josh Anderson was a four star/top 60 recruit when he signed with WKU in the class of 2017. He was the opposite of Robinson: he played FIVE years at Western Kentucky. He had a solid career, averaging 10 points per game. His last season was 2021-22. He was not drafted by the NBA.
3. Charles Bassey was similar to Robinson, a five star/top ten center, who eventually became a second-round pick in the NBA draft. Also, like Robinson, a family member was hired to the WKU coaching staff prior to Bassey's commitment. Unlike Robinson, Charles actually played quite a bit at WKU. He averaged 14 points and 10 boards as a freshman in 2018-19. An injury cut his sophomore year to only ten games played, but he worked hard on his rehab and put up 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game the following season and declared for the draft. Had Charles been born a few decades earlier, he would have been a high NBA draft pick, but in 2021, he was drafted in the second round by the Sixers. He made $925,000 his first year and this season he signed a four year/$10 million deal with the Spurs. The Hilltoppers won 20 games in each of Bassey's college seasons.
4. Nick Ongenda was ranked a four-star 2019 recruit by ESPN, but he was not as highly regarded as the previous players on this list, when he committed to the Hilltoppers. He never suited up, though. He signed with WKU but then asked for a release and signed with DePaul, where he has played for four years. He has put his name in the NBA draft evaluation process, while maintaining his eligibility. He is fourth on the all-time career blocked shot list with the Blue Demons.
5. Jordan Rawls was a Rivals four-star recruit in the class of 2020 when he committed to WKU. He then reclassified to 2019. He spent the first two years of his college career at WKU, averaging around 8 points per game. For his junior year, he transferred to Georgia State, but there his scoring average fell to 5 points per game. Get this: for the 2022-23 season, he transferred BACK to WKU, and got his scoring average up to 7.5 ppg. Last month he entered the transfer portal for the third straight year.
6. Zion Harmon committed to Western Kentucky as a four star/top 75 recruit for the class of 2021. He enrolled there, but never played a game, leaving the team early in 2022 amid rumors of behavioral issues and mental health concerns. Harmon transferred to Bethune Cookman prior to this past season, and put up 13.7 points per game, apparently putting those issues behind him. Good for him.
So, that's six names with mixed results. Three guys never played for WKU. Bassey was the most successful, being named 2021 Conference Player of the Year, making the all-conference team twice, winning the 2019 Conference Rookie of the Year award, and garnering some other honors. Rawls and Anderson were just typical mid major guys.
It just goes to show, winning signing day doesn't automatically translate into winning a lot on game days. There are a lot of factors that go into recruiting and coaching, beyond the number of stars your recruits have next to their names. College basketball coaching, especially on the mid major level, is a tough business.
More updates on the players in this thread coming up...
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 28, 2023 14:55:19 GMT -5
Jordan Brown enrolled at Nevada and played there his freshman year, scoring 3 points per game. After that season, he transferred to Arizona. After sitting out for one season, he played the 2020-21 season for the Wildcats, averaging 9.4 points per game and garnering some "Sixth Man of the Year" conference awards. After that season, Coach Sean Miller was fired and Brown hit the portal again. I can't imagine that his plan was to end up at Louisiana, but that's what happened. He's played very well there the past two seasons, averaging 15 and 18 ppg. The Ragin' Cajuns went 26-8 this season, losing to Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Nevada went to the NCAA tournament in Brown's freshman season, and went again this past year, falling in the play in game.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 28, 2023 15:05:49 GMT -5
College of Charleston gets some good news today as 2019 Brenden Tucker verbally commits. Tucker is ranked a three star on Rivals and ESPN, and a four star on 24/7. Rivals and 24/7 put him in the top 150 nationally in the class. Tucker reportedly had offers from Georgia, Northwestern, Ole Miss, and Clemson, among many others. If it sticks, that's a nice pick up for C of C. 247sports.com/Player/Brendan-Tucker-46035928Brenden Tucker enrolled at College of Charleston. He spent three years there, with his scoring average improving each year, at 2.3, 9.4, and 11.3 ppg. C of C was basically a .500 team during his time there. Tucker then decided to enter the portal after his junior year, and transferred to Georgia State. Tucker is in the running for the "Bad Timing" award, because after he left, Charleston had an historic season in 2022-23, going 31-4 and winning the CAA regular season and tournament titles. Georgia State meanwhile had an uncharacteristically bad season, going 10-21. Tucker averaged 13 ppg for GSU. Ironically, C of C was super excited about getting a recruit of Tucker's rating, but he had nothing to do with the best year in their history.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 28, 2023 15:41:30 GMT -5
UMass is, I guess, still considered a mid major for our purposes, and they got a verbal commitment from Tre Mitchell, a four star center ranked in the top 70-80 range by several services. Interesting development, because that program appears in chaos, with all three assistant coaches being let go and the team on a downward trend in the win/loss column. basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/umass-nabs-the-commitment-of-tre-mitchellTre enrolled at UMass as expected, and played well for two seasons, averaging 18 points and 7 boards per game. Team success didn't come with those good individual numbers, however, as UMass went 14-17 and 8-7 (Covid shortened season). Mitchell transferred to Texas after his sophomore season. The Longhorns made the Sweet Sixteen in his only year on the roster, but Mitchell's production was basically cut in half. In the Spring of 2022 he hit the portal again, and landed at West Virginia. The Mountaineers squeezed into the tournament with a 19-14 regular season record, falling in the first round. Tre had an individual bounce back season, scoring 12 ppg. He recently announced that he will be returning to West Virginia to finish out his career.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 28, 2023 18:34:01 GMT -5
Charles Coleman, a seven foot center who is ranked as a three star recruit by the services, committed to East Carolina today. Worth noting about this is that Coleman had previously committed to Wake Forest before backing out of that in April, and had received recent legitimate offers from Duke, Pittsburgh, and other high majors. Rather than jumping on a offer like Duke's, where he would likely be deep on the bench, Coleman decided to go where he is definitely a Plan A recruit, not a Plan C roster filler as he would have been with the Blue Devils. I think it is a smart decision on his part. Hopefully, for the sake of ECU, he sticks with it. 247sports.com/college/east-carolina/Article/ECU-Basketball-Recruiting-Charles-Coleman-Commits-132365824/Despite Charles Coleman picking ECU instead of a late coming high major where he might get buried on the bench, he has had an unremarkable career. He spent two years at ECU, starting with the 2019-20 season. As a freshman, he played in 30 games, averaging 3 points per game. As a sophomore he only played in 9 games, scoring 7 total points. He transferred to Saint Joseph's after that. Over the past two seasons, he's averaging 2 points per game in about 10 minutes per game over the course of 50 games. Sometimes players just don't live up to the expectations. Sometimes the "experts" get it wrong when evaluating a player.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 28, 2023 18:39:04 GMT -5
USF is in the AAC, but I think they qualify as a mid major. They certainly aren't a high major. Today, they got a verbal commitment from Caleb Murphy, who is ranked #52 in the country by Rivals. First ever four star pick up for South Florida. n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2020/caleb-murphy-235989Caleb played at USF for two seasons, averaging 8 and 11 points per game. He transferred to DePaul for the 2022-23 season. His scoring average fell to 5 ppg, and of course, DePaul struggled again.
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