re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

Nick Smith looks to be an Arkansas lock.

Jaden Bradley seems like a heavy Arizona lean at this point according to the recruiting experts. We are solidly second at worst. Maybe it isn't quite over yet, but it looks bleak.

Jarace Walker is more of a mystery right now, but us not getting Bradley really hurts our chances. I think Houston probably leads for him right now with Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State and LSU somewhere in the mix. We need to pull out all the stops for his OV next weekend if we want any shot at getting him.

Brandon Miller is essentially down to Alabama or the pro route. A week ago all of the momentum had him choosing Alabama, but he delayed his announcement and is reportedly giving the pro route more consideration. His OV this weekend is massive. Need the staff to lock him down before he leaves campus.

Ty Rodgers is someone we got on a bit later than most as we didn't offer until the end of July, but apparently we have made enough of an impression to be a threat in his recruitment. I watched him play some during the Peach Jam and came away impressed. He's about 6'7" 200lbs and listed a SF, but he has some PG skills in the way that Herb did, but with some better ball handling abilities. Hopefully Oats can work some magic with him and bring him into the fold as he's set for an OV starting on October 22nd. Rodgers is also the nephew of former Michigan State and NBA star Jason Richardson.

Noah Clowney is down to Alabama, Florida, Indiana and Virginia Tech, but it's not really clear if he's leaning in a particular direction. He's in Tuscaloosa for an OV this weekend at the same time as Brandon Miller. Would be great if both went ahead committed this weekend.

Rylan Griffen has quietly turned into a major target and might even be a little underrated. He has all of the tools that a guard needs to be great in Oats' system and could develop into a fantastic player. Griffen released his top ten list a couple of weeks ago that included Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Auburn, Alabama, Arizona State, Cal, North Carolina State and Georgia. He had an OV to Georgia last weekend and has one scheduled to Kansas for October 1st. Alabama is working on getting him to campus for an OV as well.

Kimani Hamilton is down to Alabama, Creighton, Georgetown, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. He is believed to be leaning towards State, but it does seem like Alabama has just recently started to increase their efforts here - maybe that has something to do with what transpired recently with some of our higher rated targets that appear to be headed elsewhere.

Other targets of note are Julian Phillips, Ernest Udeh, Brice Sensabaugh, Ven-Allen Lubin and Chandler Jackson. Any of these could still be possibilities for us as we have recently gone out of our way to visit Udeh and Sensabaugh recently completed an OV. These guys just either feel unlikely (Phillips and Udeh especially) or feel like they are higher priorities for other schools and/or backup type options for us at the same time.

A class of Ty Rodgers, Noah Clowney, Rylan Griffen and Kimani Hamilton would lack the elite star power that we thought we were in a position to land just a couple of weeks ago, but would still be a fringe top ten class in the country. Find a way to add Brandon Miller to that and you could be looking at a top 5 class.

Miller and Clowney are on campus.

John Broom and Cade Phillips are both on campus today for unofficial visits as well.

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A class of Ty Rodgers, Noah Clowney, Rylan Griffen and Kimani Hamilton would lack the elite star power that we thought we were in a position to land just a couple of weeks ago, but would still be a fringe top ten class in the country. Find a way to add Brandon Miller to that and you could be looking at a top 5 class.

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I'm not really worried about the class ranking. I'm a little worried about not having a PG prospect that we're in on. I know there's always the transfer market, but it's a little surprising that we didn't have a plan B PG in this class.

Feels like Nate dropped the ball in this recruiting cycle

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Feels like Nate dropped the ball in this recruiting cycle

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He will still put together a solid class with top 100 guys. Plus you always have the transfer portal as a fall back, which Nate and Hodgson recruit better than almost everyone,

I think NIL cost us with our top top targets.(I hope I’m wrong because that isnt something Nate can fix)

But Anyways...frick off SabanBear

I'll wait until the transfer portal period happens but it's clear Nate is still figuring out that recruiting sweet spot he can hit at a program like ours. It's tough going against the blue bloods for prospects.