RaceToTheTop

Drew Thewell of Morehead State has visits set to Iowa and SMU. Already visited UCF and is setting up visits to Michigan, Wake Forest and Miami. So that's 2 Big Ten schools, 2 ACC schools, and a Big 12 school. He put up gaudy assist numbers this year (6.2 per game) but he isn't really a scorer (10 ppg and just 7.1 ppg over 4 years at Morehead State) and is just an okay shooter. Guess he's living his best life and traveling the country taking visits, but a guy like that lining up 5 visits to power 5 schools is just nuts.

Supposedly he let the staff know last fall that he would be entering the portal at the end of the year. Probably part of the reason Painter oversigned by so much. By the same token, it's also part of the reason that Painter cut his minutes from 25 to 10 from his junior to senior year (plus the fact that he simply isn't any good).

Spoiler alert: he ain't getting a combine invite.

Tony Perkins visited Missouri back on April 1st and didn't commit and it's been ten days since. My personal feeling is that the three players we are in best position for are Rice, Hickman, and Payne.

There has never been a player as consistent in four years of college basketball than Gillis....that is, the player he was as a freshman was the exact same player he was as a senior. Some people would call that not developing. MPG: 22.2, 23.5, 20.4, 21.2 PPG: 5.2, 6.4, 6.8, 6.5 RPG: 4.1, 4.8, 3.8, 3.9 APG: 1.3, 1.1, 1.3, 1.7

Georgia Southern 5'11" guard Tyreen Moore. 17 pts, 2.8 reb, 3.1 assists. Shot 47/41/87. Two years of eligibility left. From Louisville, so could be he'll come home. Kentucky's top ten incoming recruit Jayden Quantaince reopens his recruitment. 6'9" post.

I would assume that he wasn't getting from anyone the amount of $ he wanted. Also assume IU was thrown in there in his 'finalists' because it added a school that has NIL and he wanted others to put in $. I know IU contacted him but don't think it went beyond that.

Mike Sharavjamts, San Franciso back in the portal. IU pursued him last year when he was transferring from Dayton. 6'8" G/F. Stats made a little bit of a jump but still nothing standing out. In 25 minutes per game he averaged 7.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.7 assists. Shot 42/36/82.

FWIW, Purdue I believe would be over by scholarships by THREE if Edey and Gillis had decided to use their covid years. Edey already announced that he would be going into the draft, but Gillis came back they are already two over the limit so if Morton and Furst were to both go into the portal, they still would currently be full if Gillis came back. FWIW, Purdue message boards pretty much believe that Gillis will not be coming back.

I believe Furst's brother is already on Purdue's roster and is a walk on.

A player already took the NCAA to court over not getting another free transfer and was granted an injunction. It doesn't really matter whether it is the NCAA or another organization, unless the courts rule in favor of that organization transfers are available at the end of the year. And although it's not best for college basketball, I'm not sure that an organization should be able to block a player from transferring when students are free to move from college to college every year. Athletic scholarships are only one year guarantees.

One of the most important things for him seemed to be moving closer to where his daughter lived. Not every transfer is totally about money or getting more shots. If he would have stayed, he would have certainly gotten shots at IU. He asked IU for a lot of NIL in order to come back, but basically I believe he asked for that much because that is what it would have taken for him to not move back near home. I would be willing to bet that what IU was willing to give him in NIL money is more than he got at Missouri.

Bates' offense has gotten better each year. Bate's defense hasn't. FWIW, not even all of his offense improved this past season. He did a good job in turning himself into a guy that scores from multiple spots on the floor, but his assist and turnover rates were both worse than his sophomore year at IU.

Arterio Morris in the portal. Played his freshman year at Texas, transferrred to Kansas but then was removed from the team pending rape charges. Charges have been dismissed now.

Penn’s Clark Staljchert, whom IU contacted, has committed to USC. Not a surprise, he’s from LA and his cut list was almost exclusively west coast,

I wasn’t talking about evaluation from a talent standpoint but rather an attitude/chemistry fit — things that don’t necessarily show up on film. Some players those are knowns, but guys like Tre White who seems to be a talented player who hasn’t seem to make his team better and will be on his team next year is a guy I would want to have some time with before getting him. Depends on the player.

I will say one thing.....would people be happy getting a player that may or may not fit that hasn't visited or spent much time with staff? Tre White seemed to commit pretty quickly to Illinois and to my knowledge he didn't visit. This will be his third school in three years and he's a former 35th ranked player who seems to underachieve. If he were to have committed to IU without visiting, I'd say we'd have questions.

Or both. Usually is some of both, just depends on how much of each. With Gunn, it seemed that dad wanted to point blame at others. Just my experience that likely if a parent thinks responsibility lies with others, their kid isn't putting in the necessary work. I know that people liked Gunn's athleticism but when I look at a kid who didn't get physically stronger from his freshman to sophomore year, Gunn is a poster child. Banks I have no idea on how hard he worked nor what the staff did to improve him.

I would venture to say that there are players committing to places that had been recruiting them previously and they might have already visited there. I'm not sure where you are getting the only targeting 12 guys TBH. The net is much wider this year than last. I agree that we aren't likely to fill all spots -- not sure that we should unless the last guys are coming in knowing they are end the bench guys.

Wesley Yates from Washington enters. 6'4" combo guard, ranked 53rd in class of 2023. Missed his freshman year due to injury. Cedric Coward, Eastern Washington enters the portal. 6'6" forward. One of the most efficient scorers in D1, shot 57% overall, 38% from three, and 90% on free throws. Effective shooting percentage of 64% and took a significant amount of threes (51 of 133). Averaged 15.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists.

Marcus Domask lawyering up to try to get a sixth year, claiming he deserves a redshirt for 20-21 despite: 1. The fact he was over the minimum number of games to be eligible for a redshirt and 2. The NCAA already not counting 20-21 as a year for anyone, meaning the redshirt would be meaningless. Even the NCAA can’t blow that case.

Tre White (Louisville) commits to Illinois.

Ummmm.....is anyone that is going after Olsen making her their top portal priority? I assume her and Van Lith are the two best gets.

Read an article about the newest Auburn decommit -- previously Pearl was saying that the top rated point guard coming in 'isn't a point guard, he's a scorer' and planned on playing at the 2 guard. They mentioned Rice in the article as a potential target but the one they really centered on was J.P. Pegues from Furman, who has Auburn in his final 4.