re: UA Basketball Recruiting

Yea, I mean, he seems to have the tools to recruit well (and recruited well at Buffalo relative to their size/structure). I have NO concerns about his recruiting moving forward.

However, it was inevitable that getting all excited about some guys seeing our staff's energy and track record and throwing us in a huge "first cut" list was going to turn into disappointment and doubt from some the minute those guys cut us for the typical 2-3 final teams (UCLA, UNC, Duke, Kentucky, etc).

Oats is gonna get guys here and more importantly he is gonna scheme and develop those guys in a way that we haven't done in a long, long time.

quote:

---

I think Oats will recruit better than we've seen in quite a while. But, it will start to happen AFTER he is winning a lot of games. The fun style of play, coupled with wins, will bring in good players.

---

I agree with this. He has to prove himself down here. Some folks were getting carried away with the fact that we offered highly rated guys. He's supposed to offer them . Landing them will take a few years of great results

Excited to hear about Kira and Herb. Where's Sideshow Bob aka Petty? For us to break out, Petty has to buy in and perform up to his billing. That worries me.

How big was the 2020 class going to be anyway? I thought I read somewhere on here we only have room for 2-3 guys. Well, if we're in the running with a lot of 4 and 5 star guys, we only have to hit on a couple to make this class a success. I like our chances of doing that. Also, I still think we need to take a wait and see approach to recruiting. It's hard to recruit to the shitshow Avery put on for the last few years. Kids want to see Nate do his work at Bama. When that happens, we'll be more than just a hat on the table. Right now, Nate is selling a dream, a story, a what-if. Let him win some games, beat Kentucky, and suddenly, it's not a dream anymore, it's a reality and kids will buy in.

It's hard for us because we've been waiting for a decade now to get out of this rut. I get it, I'm with you. So the first sign of life, we jump on it and ride it for all it's worth. We get all excited about being in the final group for a bunch of top players. That's a good sign. When they go with the proven commodities over Bama, we get all pissed off, dejected, and feel jilted. Have patience. This should be the final year of "wait and see", then shite gets real. It doesn't help that Pearl and Auburn have the dream season and get within one controversial call of playing for a title. But we'll get there. Nate is the MAN! Besides, how many more kids can look at that stormtrooper Hodgson and tell him no?

quote:

---

Where's Sideshow Bob aka Petty? For us to break out, Petty has to buy in and perform up to his billing. That worries me.

---

Not worried about him at all based on the effort he gave last year

quote:

---

--Another kid they’ve been impressed with is freshman Jaden Shackleford. They've raved about his competitiveness, how hard he plays.

---

Excited to hear this. Kid oozes talent that’s going to make him an unstoppable scorer before he leaves here, but the competitive edge and hustle will go a long ways in him making an impact sooner rather than later. He’s the guy I’m most excited to see play. Wouldn’t surprise me if he scores double digits next year if he’s given enough minutes.

Year 1: Establish relationships and get your name out there with high school coaches and kids, especially the top ones.

That's what's going on. If we snag a big fish early, so much the better. But for now, Nate is building the foundations.

We used to be a pretty damn good team with Wimp and CM when we kept the best in state kids, poached a few from Mississippi and Georgia and supplemented with the occasional Juco talent, often from the Panhandle Conference here near me. That's our base territory. If Nate wants to expand and go after kids from all over, more power to him, I hope he lands some. But to be consistently successful, I think you need to concentrate on taking care of these areas, probably add Texas to that mix now some. That's our bread and butter. We'd get high 3 star and 4 star kids from these areas; we struggled (and still do) to keep the 5 star talents at home. UK has been stealing them for quite some time. Wimp and CM made a habit of getting good athletes and making better basketball players out of them. It was rare that we got a kid that was a basketball phenom, they were mainly just athletes playing something besides football. I think Nate has his sights set a little higher and I have no problem with that but pure basketball players are rare birds in the Deep South.That's why Wimp and CM dd what they did. Plenty of athletes that can play basketball. Few basketball stars and those want to go to Kentucky.

What happened to Fever?? He hasn’t been on in a while, he seemed to think we was getting all of these kids

(no message)

Speaking of instate kids I saw a tweet about the kid from Ramsey, Keshawn Murphy, attending our Elite Camp. I know previous staff was super high on him. Looks like new staff is still recruiting him too.