Demo

Agree. Was already fan of Thompson and of Taylor’s talent, but watched Allmond’s state semi-final and final game from last year the other night and his team was really good and beat the mess out of both those teams, but he was very impressive. He’s got everything you want. Prototype modern 4. Already knew that, but what was eye-opening was that his school played at a crazy fast pace, pressed all game and ran off makes or misses, and that kid ran hard and really moved his feet well laterally pressuring. That kid will hit a campus next year ready to play. Hope it’s this one.

Still don’t understand what the NCAA’s argument against Moore is after granting eligibility to a kid like Pavia. What’s different?

RIP to the great Nancy Leonard. She and Slick saved the franchise and she’s been like a Pacers’ guardian angel ever since. Love her.

A piece of game used football? Was never a card collector, is that a thing?

Never had one on this one. And, frankly, I don’t love him.

Imagine you’re right. Those are certainly the 3 they’ve invested the most effort in. It does seem like they want a PG in the ‘26 class, but when I watch Moody I absolutely think he’s eventually a full-time PG. But he’s not playing 20 mins next year as a primary. Suppose they could try to get in on a kid like Bivins, but would think at this point they’ll wait until spring and see what shakes out.

Byington is doing very well. Going from Stackhouse to that guy was a world class upgrade.

https://x.com/KayserHoops/status/1970845742127292867 Uh, ok.

https://x.com/_jordanwalton11/status/1970612687295127720 Branham’s trainer. Has trained a fair number of D1 kids over the last few years.

The example that immediately came to my mind, no idea why, was Kendall Brown. Played 1 year of college. Came out too early. Was a 2-way guy for the Pacers and Nets and and got kind of stuck in the G-League and signed a 2-way with the Celtics. But he’s probably 21 and after that much time playing pro basketball and with his athletic tools he’d have an impact in college. If it doesn’t happen next year in Boston what would stop him from exploring going back to Baylor?

Home today, so watching Jenkins play in the Florida 2A state tournament semis and final game from last March. Interesting in that he doesn’t really look like any of their other offers. He’s a big, thick, physically-mature, not terribly athletic sort of 4/5 with a very nice skill level for his age but not a ton of projectability. His best traits are his skills: nice stroke, very nice handle, can pass it and sees the floor well. But he’s kind of a below the rim guy, he runs ok but not great. In 2 games against a bunch of kids he’s miles ahead of physically he has 1 block. Not sure the athleticism will ever be plus. Effort’s very good. If you dropped him in a college weight program in about 90 days he could hold up physically in a college game. That’s how far ahead he is. Will be interesting to see how he does in the OTE environment. Side note: the team he’s playing in the final, Santa Fe, has a ‘25 named Tate Darner, son of former PU player and coach in a million places Linc Darner, and that kid’s a nice player. 6’4”, can really shoot it, never stops moving, and is the only reason this is a 20pt game instead of a 40pt game. He’s a freshman at UT-Chattanooga and I imagine he’ll outgrow that program and be an interesting portal kid in a couple of years.

Not that it wasn’t already dead, but the NCAA has officially killed off even the slightest notion of college sports as an amateur endeavor, A player who played 2 years of professionall basketball in this country. So no weird amateurism elements to rationalize for an international kid. A straight up American Pro will now play for a college. 

This will still be an interesting one to follow. Kid’s said a million times that UNC is his dream school. If he ends up elsewhere it would say a lot about how Davis is perceived at this point. If he goes out this year with his top 5 recruiting class and his really good portal class and all the money they spent and stinks it up again, man, they just have to make a move there.

Freeman visited in the spring and they reached out on Emeka Opurum. I’m sure Clark worked a couple of them at UT. Overton played for DDV at Drake. But it would be pretty stunning if the roster isn’t the roster at this point.

I think this is Izzo’s last year. No real reason other than this, Drew Valentine has offered several ‘27 kids that are way more likely to end up at a Michigan State than a Loyola. So I’m guessing that’s what he thinks.

That’s cute. Have we seen one of those before?

Open Alabama Senate seat that Tuberville is vacating.

Yup. Imagine that’s the one person who without even looking up from her iPad can just say, “No, Dear.”

Curious: Per Kayser, Gardner has scheduled 5 fall visits and Indiana is not 1 of them. Hard to imagine they wouldn’t stay on him but maybe they’ve just decided they’ve got their ‘27 PG.

Van Pelt stepping right up to the line of putting IU in the B1G top tier.

Would be pretty surprised if that was the deal. He’s age-appropriate for ‘27 and he might be able to translate early skill-wise, but he’s not some kid who’s straight killing his age group. So I don’t really see the point of it.

It will be hysterically funny if in a division with 2 #1 overall and a #3 overall QB the best QB in the division turns out to be the guy everyone in the world thought was terrible.

Committed to Mizzou. Very, very nice get for Gates and gives me an excuse to keep an eye on him.

Re-watching the game right now because it’s entirely too much fun not to. On the EJ Williams TD catch in the 2nd qtr am I the only 1 who didn’t notice that right as he made his break he started pointing up for a high throw the way a roll man points up for an alley oop? Totally missed it.

I want 1 more. I want 70. I want them to remember, FOREVER, the night they played the Hoosiers!