This kid can GO. Watching his highlight clip he has deep range, handles the ball very well and if the opportunity presents itself he can punch it home with authority.
Other interesting facts:
played with Naz Reid his SR year of HS
played for Bob Hurley at St Anthony HS in it’s last year of existence his JR year
I know we are going to need some forwards, but this kid is to good to pass up.
Click on the video in this article (around the 34 second mark)
This would be a big time add. I’m all about talent, talent and talent. While I’d like to use the last spot on a grad transfer this would be a better add long term. Either a big time player off the bench next year or a nice replacement for Joe if he does indeed leave.
Can you imagine a roster the next season with a nucleus of Joe, Jones Sills Chaney + Vanover, Notae, Horton + the 2020 class? The days of mismanaged rosters and where half the roster isn’t even SEC caliber is clearly in the rear view mirror. I will say I bet we do end up with a GT or regular transfer for next spring too. A big time GT forward this time next year could really put it over the top.
These guys we are looking at have a lot of potential and could be quality rotation players. However, they look a lot better as supporting cast for guys like Moody. I don’t see us moving up in the SEC pecking order by bringing mid-major transfers into the SEC as the meat of our recruiting. CEM was successful at Nevada by bringing high-major transfers into the Mountain West. Mid-major into the SEC isn’t likely to do as well. I’m a wait-and-see on his recruiting. We can’t say a lot about it until a year from next November, and I suspect recruiting stii has a lot to do with factors out of the staff’s control.
If you are not exaggerating it to emphasize your claim, I have to challenge you on this. I am not going to let you go back all the way but let’s just take last year. Our roster last year was
Gafford
Ali
Osabuhoein
Bailey
Henderson
Chaney
Simpson
Joe
Sills
Harris
Jones
Garland
You’re counting chickens before they are hatched if you assume that Notae, Vanover, and Horton definitely represent major upgrades in recruiting. If senior Jacorey Williams from MTSU grad-transferred to Arkansas after playing there three years, a lot of fans would have assumed he was a big upgrade over Harris, whom he played behind at Arkansas.
The only guys on last years team that you could win with (lets say, be a top 20 team) would be 5: Gafford, Joe, Jones, Sills, Chaney. Only three of those were ready for starter, high major minutes (DG, Joe, Jones). Sills and Chaney could get to that level but I think they are at least rotation high major guys last year. No one else could have an expanded role and it not hurt the team. Harris would be a guy who may fit on this level as a backup, 10-12 minutes a game guy, but clearly not the starter level minutes a game guy we saw last year. He’ll likely see that role (10-12 min a game) this year.
The worst was likely the year before. You had two high major guards in JB and DM and a big stud freshman inside. Around them? WOOF! Not much. Everyone else wasn’t high major caliber or we tried fitting in a role they didn’t belong in. Beard maybe the perfect example of what I’m talking about. On a really good team, you can probably have Beard as a rotational, 3rd or 4th guy off the bench. However here he was a starting guard who logged major minutes.
MTSU Jacorey would have been a major upgrade over Harris. Dude took it up another level during that sit out year. We saw similar growth in Nick King when he transferred there.
I’m not counting Garland because he was never going to play sadly.
Henderson was clearly overrated. I’d be shocked if he finishes his career here. KE went to a Tulsa which is pretty perfect for his skill level. Ali, Bailey, Gabe pretty obvious.
EM has brought in Whitt to run the pg this year, Notae for next year and also now Appleby for next year, tells you where he is at on Harris.
Previous year yes to all, thought like I already said on Beard would have been fine as the 3-4th guy off the bench now a big minutes starter guy. Hall would have been in the Sills/Chaney category.
The doesn’t take much to see that the incoming transfers are an upgrade from what we have lost.
There was a reason the last guy got fired. If you dont think roster management, recruiting, or his philosophy were an issue I’d love to know your reasoning for why he was fired after 8 seasons.
He only played 6 players last year, and two of them were the Martin twins, his first and third leading scorers. They were better the year before when they also had Purdue transfer Kendall Siephens averaging 28 minutes per game and Iowa State transfer Hallis Cooke averaging 20 minutes per game. Of his seven-man rotation on the SS team, four were high-major transfers, and they were three of his top four scorers. Those guys plus Caroline were the meat of those teams. Caroline was a good evaluation/development player.
Simpson was clearly affected by missing most of the summer and camp due to injury. Ditto for Phillips. We may regret that both transferred out.
Two years ago the meat of the Auburn and UT teams that were the two best in the SEC this season went 7-11 and 8-10 in the SEC. Quite frankly going 8-10 in a stronger SEC with eight frosh, a couple of them slowed by injuries, and a raw second-round soph wasn’t a firable offense, but he got fired anyway.
