Five-star Ernest Udeh Jr. talks Michigan, UGA, Arkansas, more

Wouldn’t get my hopes up here.

Looks like at least Udeh’s considering a UA visit. That’s good to see but probably only a slim chance here.

I’m assuming Michigan is the favorite for Udeh.

Really athletic center looks like he’d be a good fit for what Muss likes from his big men.

Not sure why coaching staff is having difficulty attracting quality bigs to Fayetteville and getting them to commit but it’s starting to become an issue imo.

May be harder now to attract bigs now, without big money available. The comment above regarding Hunter having the opportunity to harness the financial strength of big corporations in NW Arkansas and failing, assumes that every business wants to or needs to dedicate money for these purposes.

It obviously fits Nike, being in the Sports world, to make large sums available to their preferred school. Will our giants feel similarly, is the million dollar question? Since the toothpaste is out of the tube, the merits or lack thereof of the new world is a moot point and not feeling positive about its impact will only dire the ire of numerous experts, so we will just have to wait and see.

Jeg099, thinking aloud and searching for a reason for what you bring up.

Some true bigs (6-10 and above) view themselves as scorers and being one of the primary scoring options on offense.

Muss has had his success playing positionless ball with a defensive/rebounding big. He does not have a history of playing true bigs as scorers. In fact, there is negative history with Jordan Brown in Nevada.

Having said that, Muss already has a true big on the roster in JWill. How he is used next season could change that perception or reinforce it,

This “negative history” of Jordan Brown is insignificant in my opinion and is voided because of how he played a lesser ranked big, Jaylin Williams.

What I will agree with is that he hasn’t had a successful scoring big in college so far.

Here’s the bottom line - we’re competing against the best of the best for many of the players we’re after. It will appear that we will lose more than we win because we’re on so many more players than historically.

I don’t see a problem yet.

Related to the OP, I was pleasantly surprised with our position with Udeh. We’ll see where it goes.

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When a 5-star center from NLR spurns the flagship university for the state of Arkansas and commits to Oregon, there’s a problem IMO. Also, we missed out on Kijani Wright; to no one’s great surprise. The coaching staff set their sights too high with him. Arkansas isn’t yet at a place nationally to nab a top talent like Wright.

Reneau and Walsh – who knows??? Their recruitment is being kept super quiet.

So maybe Muss is going to have to put together a couple more Elite 8s or a Final Four for 5 star kids–especially NLR kids–to actually want to play at Arkansas, because we are clearly not there yet.

Hopefully all Muss needs is some more time.

I think it’s well documented that Ware just wanted something different. He’s a different kind of kid. This is not a Malik Monk or Archie Goodwin type of deal. We made a good push for Ware. Momma liked the idea of him staying close. Not a lot we could do.

What we all need to remember is that the transfer portal allows us to shoot high on the high school kids and be okay with missing. I also do think as we experience more success, we will nab a 5-star.

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That is encouraging. This kid will be a great fit.

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Don’t get your hopes up. Arkansas is a longshot for Udeh.

Richard who can we get our hopes up about ?

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Maybe we the fans want a big more than Muss?

Yeah, could be. Coaching staff seems content playing next season with only 2 true bigs on the roster, JWill and CVanover. Instead, for next season, they loaded up on quick, penetrating guards/SFs and perimeter shooters up and down the roster. It’s the Baylor experiment, and that’s fine if that’s the way the coaching staff wants to go moving forward.

We will see if it works as good for Arkansas as it did for Baylor this past season.

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It could be a two way street. They may not want true bigs and recruits know they don’t want true bigs.

I remember talk about Nolan the same way. We had trouble recruiting big men.

It makes ZERO sense to recruit a kid you don’t want! You all are acting like these bigs we’re missing on are forcing the staff to recruit them against the staff’s will.
Stop it!

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Um…Darnell Robinson, Lee Wilson, Butch Morris, Oliver Miller, Dwight Stewart, Roosevelt Wallace, Derek Hood.

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Nolan had great size for his two runs to the title game. Darnell, Lee and Dwight were true bigs and while Corliss wasn’t as tall, he dominated the low block.

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I know the list, but you don’t remember the talk about Nolan cannot land big men and cannot develop them? There were a lot of suggestions that he should hire Joe Kleine.

I remember the talk, and it was nonsense. I would say it turned out pretty well. As a matter of fact, I’m not so sure Stewart wasn’t the first “stretch” big.

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Nolan had some good bigs at Tulsa, too. Bruce Vanley and Greg Stewart were extremely talented.

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Richard is on vacation until next week.

The commits always roll in when one of us takes some time off.

I would not get my hopes up for anybody right now.

I’d just remain even keel and see what happens, but hey, that’s just me.

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