re: Tide Hoops | Offseason

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2023 Alabama Basketball Recruiting: August Edition

Alabama is coming off a monster 2022 recruiting class, headlined by potential first round pick Brandon Miller, who shined in their foreign tour games in Barcelona and Paris. Many fans are wondering what comes next for the Tide with their 2023 class that has one commit already in four-star and top 100 forward Samuel Walters. While I do not necessarily see another top 3 class coming this year for the Tide, that does not mean that there are not players who can impact the Alabama program in the 2023 class. The 2023 class is not seen as a class that is as strong as 2022 was from top to bottom, but there are multiple multi-year players available that can add value to programs beyond their freshman year.

Let’s start with an overview of spots available for Alabama to recruit. Alabama is expected, in my mind, to have a minimum of three spots. For the sake of this exercise, let’s not assume anything about players turning pro or potentially transferring as we are only in August and there is a whole lot of basketball to be played between now and March. One of these spots is the current open scholarship spot that was not used for the 2022-2023 season. The other two spots become available through Noah Gurley and Dom Welch having their eligibility exhausted. One of these spots is being filled by commitment Sam Walters which leaves two more open spots to be filled. Keep in mind that this is the minimum number of available spots at this moment and more could come open. Alabama could sign more than three or less than three players in the 2023 class given the transfer portal will once again have a plethora of talent come the offseason. Alabama has been successful thus far in landing players both from the grassroots level and through the transfer portal and the numbers will always work themselves out. Let’s look at some potential options for Alabama from the grassroots level.

Davin Cosby

First, let’s look at a known official visitor – Davin Cosby. Cosby is a 6’5” shooting guard who is ranked 177th currently in the 247 Composite Rankings. Keep in mind when seeing that ranking that only On3 has updated their player rankings for this class since the summer live periods and Cosby should see himself move into the top 100. I find myself to be a bit higher on Cosby than most due to me seeing his style as incredibly translatable to the college level – especially with what Alabama likes to do. Cosby is a quality shooter who excels in catch and shoot scenarios but can create separation through step-backs or using dribble combos to get to the rim. Per Synergy, Cosby shot 35% from three this summer on 134 attempts for Team Loaded VA. In catch and shoot scenarios from three-point land, Cosby was 37% on 102 attempts. His offensive points per possession on all field goal attempts lands at 1.055 but is at an impressive 1.107 PPP in catch-and-shoot shot types. Cosby also possesses good length and has tools to be a more than capable defender. From an Alabama standpoint, his length and shooting ability looks to be a good fit for a multi-year prospect who would have multiple opportunities to showcase his talent.

Cosby is transferring to Word of God in North Carolina to play his senior year next to Tennessee commit – and one time Alabama target – Freddie Dilione and should see his stock continue to rise in his senior year. Cosby will visit Alabama over Labor Day weekend and has other visits set up to Virginia and Tennessee. LSU, USC, and NC State are other schools hoping to receive one of his final official visits. Cosby also officially visited Wake Forest and the end of July. The three schools that come up the most when I speak with others on Cosby are Alabama, Tennessee, and Wake Forest. Cosby is currently expected to take all his visits, but if he finds a school, he feels comfortable with on a visit he could always end his recruitment earlier. Alabama is a threat in this recruitment, but there is still a long way to go.

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I don't mind taking a slightly lower rated kid that projects to be a multi year player every once in a while. I don't want to be doing it annually, but having one sprinkled in every few years is probably a good thing for some continuity from year to year. Especially when it is a tough ballhandling guard from in state that matches the culture that we want and that is kind of what this kid sounds like.

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Kind of love that start to the season tbh.

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2024 Link Academy (MO) F Tyler McKinley has received an offer from Alabama.

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"We really got to make sure that everybody is bought into whatever they can do to help the team win," Nate Oats said on the 'Hey Coach' show Thursday night. "I think we got a little off track with that last year."

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Oats to @UA_CTSN: “If you notice, some of the guys maybe could have got drafted then, some of the guys dropped in the draft. It’s a big deal whether your team is winning or not. Let’s put all the individual stuff aside.”

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Oats: "Some of these guys got parents that are [involved]. Which is great, we’ve got really good parents. But parents tend to want to be about their own kid, not the team."

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Oats: "Our uncle, cousin, sister, brother, parents -- that’s great, I love their support -- but let’s make sure if they’re not telling you what’s appropriate for the team to be great, let’s be sure we’re listening to the right things. I think that’s the big focus."

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On the good/bad he saw from the team…

“What did I like over there? I thought our scoring was really balanced. I think in the three games, we had six players average double figures or more. Brandon Miller led us in scoring, but then Mark Sears, Darius Miles, Dom Welch, Noah Clowney and Nimari Burnett all scored in double figures, averaged double figures. So to have three games and have six guys average double figures is pretty good balance. I think we’re gonna be a lot more balanced this year. When certain guys may be struggling, I think other guys can step up. We didn’t shoot the ball well against China. We were there nine straight days and that was at the end of the trip and we hadn’t really been able to get in a gym. Our guys spend a lot of time in the gym, so I think that was part of it. But we still figured out how to beat the best team we played not shooting it well. So to me, that stood out, too. Are we gonna be able to win when we don’t shoot the three well? I thought we proved we could in that game. We got the O boards, we turned them over 21 times. I thought that was good.

“Probably the one thing that stood out that we need the most work on – again, we didn’t shoot well against China, the 3-point shooting, but I think that will come with just being able to be in the gym all the time when we’re over here. So maybe the other big thing was just our defense has to continue to get better. We’re gonna be a better defensive team than we were last year. But we’ve got a lot of young talent and the chemistry on the defensive end is a big deal and that’s gotta keep coming. Like Charles can protect the rim, Noah Clowney can play the four and the five. We can go big or you put like Charles or Nick Pringle or even Noah Gurley or maybe Clowney, but then you can also put Clowney or Noah Gurley at the four, you can put Brandon Miller, who is almost 6-9, at the three. So you can go like 7-foot, 6-10, 6-9, and then you’ve got like a Nimari Burnett that’s got a 6-10 wingspan that covers a lot of ground and rebounds well for you. We can be a lot bigger, but our defensive chemistry just has to continue to get better and we’ve gotta figure that out. It’d be great if we could get back to being top three in the country in defensive efficiency like we were two years ago.”

On his favorite meals on the trip…

“It was all good. Amanda, our nutritionist, went on the trip, her and her husband, Jonathan. She did a great job with the menu. I think between her and Alex with the restaurants – our guys maybe didn’t eat all the stuff. They’re a little pickier on American food. I said when you’re in Europe, let’s experiment a little. I’m trying to think what the best – there was a lot of good stuff. There’s some different fish over there. There was tar tar. You don’t have that over here very often. The pizza was good. Shoot, it was a little different style pizza. In Paris we had the pizza. I don’t know if we had any Spanish food, per se. Actually, there was a spot, I don’t even know what it all was, to be honest with you, but they just kept bringing it and it was really good. They did a great job with the meals. The meals were great.”

On freshman forward Brandon Miller…

“He led us in Blue Collar (points) on the trip. It’s ironic how that works – the guy that leads you in the Blue Collar stats also leads you in scoring. When you’re playing really hard, getting deflections, blocks, steals, rebounds, you get yourself going in the game. But he shot pretty well in two of the games. He didn’t shoot it particularly well in the last game, but he still was able to get to the rim. He can get to the rim, and he’s got great body control. He can finish. But he can also pass the ball. So he had a good run, but we’ve got a lot of good guys.

“Noah Clowney led us in rebounding, so those are two freshmen that played really well. Rylan Griffen won the Hard Hat the first night out. We had three freshmen that contributed greatly. Jaden Bradley was solid. He led us in assist-to-turnover ratio the whole trip, and he’s not really even 100 percent. He just started getting back to full speed – and when I say full speed, he’s not full speed. But it was good for him to get three games under his belt and kind of see where he’s at. We gave our guys two weeks off because I don’t wanna burn them out, but I talked to our strength coach. Jaden’s been in with him every day. I think he could tell he wasn’t quite as explosive as he would have been. He had the foot surgery not that long ago. So it was good for everybody to get experience and play. Nimari Burnett didn’t play at all for us last year with the injury. He came in, and I thought he played great. He gives us great defense and offense both, can make shots at a high level. We got good production from a lot of guys.”

On Courtside with (Adam) Cottrell…

“He had his stats screwed up on the first one. Rule No. 1 is you’ve gotta get your information correct before you interview a coach. So once we got that straightened out, then he was alright. It would help if he could make a shot when I put him in, then we could talk about him, too. But actually, I love Adam. He’s a good guy. I told him on the one, he kind of stumped me on a question. I said if you’re gonna ask questions like that, just give me a heads up so I can think about it for a minute.”

On being able to empty the bench…

“The first two games, that Spain Select Team and then the Lituania Men’s B Team, neither were very good. We played the entire roster both those games for the last half of the fourth quarter, even sooner than that in the second game. But we didn’t get to play them all against the China National Team. That was actually pretty close. We were close. We had it to 20 and then they kind of cut it a little bit, but we ended up winning by 12. But it was fun. I was glad all the walk-ons were able to make the trip. It was great. They’re an integral part of our program. We’ve got five of them. Cottrell’s a senior. Jaden Quinerly has been with Jahvon, which is fun. I’m glad he’s able to be here with his brother. Delaney Heard’s a great kid, been here now going on his junior year. And then we’ve got Max Scharnowski, a kid from Chicago, brings all kinds of energy. He’s a junior, this is his second year with us. And then we’ve got a freshman, Kai Spears, who is good. So we took all five walk-ons. It was great. We’ve got 12 on scholarship, Jahvon couldn’t play, so we had 16 guys that could play – 11 scholarship guys, five walk-ons. We got all 16 of them in the first two games.”

On how much this trip will help the newcomers…

“It’s gonna be huge. We’re gonna sit down as a staff. We’ve been mainly focused on recruiting this week. That’s really important. If you’ve got good players, you look really smart as a coach. If you don’t, you don’t. So we’re kind of trying to get back on the recruiting deal after we got back this week. Next week, Monday, we’re gonna meet, go over everything, all the analytics, stats, video, who needs to work on what. But now we’ve got three games against real, live competition. We had a lot more practice this summer. OK, how do each one of our guys, how does each one of them need to improve? How do we need to improve as a team? What can we get better at? And then we can really start to attack it in our individual skill work in September, and then, shoot, by the end of September, we’re practicing again. I think it’s great. We got a head start on it. Can we use it to our advantage? We’re gonna make sure that we do, and we’re not gonna waste it.”

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