re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

Read back a page or two. That'll give you your answer. He's not going to be back. Nate did the right thing. Just bad luck with that. These are the times we're living in. Still a chance another grad transfer PG could pop up. If not, though, we'll be fine with Estrada/Sears/Wrightsell handling the ball. And the 13th ship can potentially be saved for Sherrell in case he enrolls early in December.

Very similar skillsets and very similar production last year. Bediako averaged 11.6 rebounds and 12.4 points per 40 minutes last year and Wague at WV averaged 11.6 rebounds and 15.6 points per 40 minutes. Wague is also an excellent rebounder are very good defender. He should be a great replacement for Bediako.

Also Wague was JUCO 1st team in 2020 you can look up his stats, he dominated in JUCO. He committed to WV after one year of Juco then missed 2021 with an injury.

He does need to cut down on the fouls, he averaged about 4 fouls every 20 minutes he played last season.

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Can someone explain this to me? I'm happy to have the depth Wague provides but is he really a perfect replacement for Bediako? He's the 125th ranked center in the portal. He's not even ranked in the overall players. I know transfer portal rankings are really subjective but he's not really highly regarded

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I don't think it's a 1:1 replacement at all. Wague was a decently productive backup big for WVU though, just like Pringle was for us. As long as one of them steps up and proves capable of defending without fouling I think we should be OK. I don't think we will be nearly as good at interior defense as we were last year, but I don't think it'll be the disaster that the 2021-2022 team was either.

This is a nice video of Wague:

LINK

He's got some post moves and is clearly a plus athlete, which lets him make up for some defensive positioning miscues. Someone has to teach him how to set a legal screen though. That gave me Daniel Giddens flashbacks. There's plenty to like though. Seems like a low floor/high ceiling guy who could end up being a nice long term project if he's willing to commit to it and not portal out again after a year.

Here’s an article I posted a few days ago from K states on3 site.

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“Wague is the Ideal big man K State desires.He is athletic, finishes around the rim, can guard multiple positions, runs the floor and rebounds well. Offensively, his skill-set is varied but his range is limited. Wague will almost exclusively be taking shots at the rim. 87 percent of his field goal attempts come from that spot on the floor, where he shoots at an 80 percent clip.”

“A major strength of his on the offensive end is offensive rebounds. Wague tallied a 19.5 percent offensive rebound rate last season for the Mountaineers and almost always converts those opportunities into points.”

“Defensively, his biggest strengths are using his athleticism and length and ability to elevate. He had a 5.7 percent block rate and a 2.3 percent steal rate for West Virginia. He can guard plenty of spots on the floor because he can move his feet well and has very good speed for his size

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Glad to have some additional big man depth (whenever it actually becomes official). Still wouldn't mind another Guard that ball handle and facilitate the offense but at this point, it's probably a very tough sell to get someone at the quality we're targeting with so few minutes available. So more of wishful thinking at this point.

I don’t think Wague is a game changer by any means, but it gives Oats more flexibility with the lineup and provides much needed depth down low.

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I don’t think Wague is a game changer by any means, but it gives Oats more flexibility with the lineup and provides much needed depth down low.

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Yep. Having another true 5 on the roster with some college experience under his belt should let us pick and choose when we shift someone like Nelson or Stevenson over rather than being forced into it any time Pringle picks up a couple of quick fouls.

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Yep. Having another true 5 on the roster with some college experience under his belt should let us pick and choose when we shift someone like Nelson or Stevenson over rather than being forced into it any time Pringle picks up a couple of quick fouls.

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I think it pretty much locks in a consistent front court rotation.

I'm curious to see if we add another guard or if we feel comfortable leaving the scholarship open (I definitely want another ball-handler, but Oats has seen more than me).

As of right now the rotation will probably look something along the lines of...

1 - Sears 25, Estrada 15
2 - Estrada 15, Wrightsell 15, Griffen 10
3 - Griffen 15, Walters/Cosby/Parker 25
4 - Nelson 25, Stevenson/Walters/Dioubate 15
5 - Pringle 20, Wague 20

Read back a page or two. That'll give you your answer. He's not going to be back.


It reminds me of the book written about college football recruiting, with a long time ago, even Ed O was coaching at Ole Miss (they were featured). And the was one quote that stuck with me and reminds me of the JQ situation. It was referring to getting in trouble paying players. To paraphrase, you don't get in trouble for paying players, you get in trouble by winning bidding wars.

Obviously, you won't get in trouble anymore for paying players. But you'll still get in trouble for winning those bidding wars, just a different kind of trouble. Right off the back, without contacts, a team is in a position to be held hostage by demanding more money.

So you give in the first time. Then bigger offer comes in. And another. And another. So do you pay? That s about the other guys on the team. How does it affect morale? Do they start getting jealous? Will that lead to guys playing selfishly, so that they try to increase their potential value? There's a ton of ways that winning that bidding war can cause a program to implode.

Wague Committed!!!!