re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

Yeah I’m seeing conflicting reports in that thread from different people that were there.

He also said Youngblood struggled

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He also said Youngblood struggled

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Man we must have watched a different practice.

Okay, here are my observations from the one-hour practice. Small sample size, players did some 1v2/2v1 transition drills, passing/read drills, and 5 on 5. Sears (delayed flight) and Reid (with USA U18 team) were only absences. Nelson did individual stuff the whole time so not sure if he’s nursing an injury or something, so really 10 guys who I got a look at. Overall the length and athleticism in the floor is unbelievable (and I talked to a former player who expressed the same sentiment). It’s almost impossible to finish anything at the rim. 5 v 5 was Holloway, Youngblood, Mallette, Stevenson, Omoruyi vs. Philon, Wrightsell, Cunningham, Dioubate, Sherrell.

Philon was extremely impressive defensively. He blocked 3PA by Wrightsell, Youngblood, and Holloway during practice. Active hands, good at getting into lane. Needs to work on making quicker decisions with the ball but huge upside.

Holloway is noticeably small. He shot well in the first part of practice and had one or two nice finishes but overall struggled with the length and athleticism of Philon (and everyone else) who was guarding him most of the time, though he did have a nice left handed finish at the rim near the end.

Youngblood was the most vocal guy out there (along with Wrightsell). Nice looking shot and made a few really nice drives finishing with some turnaround shots near the goal. He’ll play a lot at the 2.

Mallette surprised me. He’s taller than I expected and was one of the best defenders in 5 v 5. Nice looking stroke but didn’t shoot it that well today. He’ll definitely play.

Naas showed some really nice flashes offensively but he’s super skinny. Think he’ll need a year in the strength program to be able to go toe to toe with wings he’ll see in this league.

Cliff was as advertised. Hit a few 3s early on in practice which got my attention but had a couple bad looking jumpers in 5 v 5. Freakish rebounder with his wingspan.

Aiden Sherrell has me pretty excited. He was the best player on the court today. He’s noticeably taller than anyone else out there (I later learned he just measured a half inch over 7 feet, so he’s still growing). Has a nice stroke, hit more 3s than anyone besides maybe Wrightsell and had a couple nice midrange jumpers. Made some really nice passes too. Affects everything at the rim. I believe he’ll be a lottery pick in 2025 and our best center by the time March rolls around. 7 footers with that kind of stroke and size (he’s not skinny by any means) are absolute unicorns.

Here is Sherrell ending 5v5 with a corner 3:

I’m think we could put Sherrill out there with Cliff like we did Clowney and Bediako.

Looks like Rylan’s autism came out pretty strong in a video posted by Kansas today.

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I still don't know why Stevenson didn't enter the portal. Maybe Stevenson is regretting not entering the portal. He may receive less PT than last season.
Sherrell is a year older than Stevenson, but he is ready to play in CBB, is more athletic and physical, and everything Stevenson can do, Sherrell can do better.

I just don’t understand our fanbase negativity towards Rylan. Dude was a key piece on our first ever Final 4 team. Yeah he left but that’s the nature of today’s game. He was upfront with Oats about wanting to leave from the middle of the season and instead of packing it in he gave his all.

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Yeah he left but that’s the nature of today’s game. He was upfront with Oats about wanting to leave from the middle of the season and instead of packing it in he gave his all.

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Him leaving is fine. But don't keep talking about "wanted to play for a true title contender". When He was on one the last 2 years. It's fricking disrespectful. Yeah, he's a dumbass kid. But I can still not appreciate the angle he is taking here.

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I just don’t understand our fanbase negativity towards Rylan.

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I mean if he just came out and admitted Kansas paid him, or even said some crap about being closer to home or feeling like he could have a bigger impact on the team no one would care. But he keeps saying shite about wanting to win a championship and talking up how much their fans care about basketball. Regardless of his intent with those comments, people are going to take them a certain way. He's just coming across as a bit of a douchebag with all of it.

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Rylan is in the rearview

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Agreed. He wouldnt be a top option on this team if he had stayed. The roster is so stacked that it got me thinking about Oats desire to play positionless basketball. We have guys that can do a lot of different things and some reports are even saying our one guy thought to be most one dimensional, Cliff, can maybe shoot the rock too. But most interesting to me is Sherell and his ability to shoot the ball. We can play five out with Sherell and Nelson/Stevenson and still have a ton of size on the defensive side.

I think Nate maybe explores using Grant Nelson as a ball handler to create mismatches. Most teams just wont have the personnel to defend that. The big man is like an endangered species now. We have a bunch of them. Of our group, Grant seems the most comfortable flowing between his inside and outside game. He can keep a defender on his hip and be comfortable making decisions with the ball in his hands. I think we see him in a very different role next year offensively.

The only problem with that theory is we have Mark Sears and we are gonna keep the ball in his hands a lot. I dont expect teams will really be able to double Sears bc we have too many weapons. But maybe we run into some teams with really good defensive guard play. And i think Sears play less minutes overall this year. He wants to show that he can be a menace on defense and he cant go hard on both sides of the ball if he is playing 35 minutes each night.