re: UA Basketball Recruiting

I’ve lowered my expectations for this season too. If Oats loves small ball with a stretch4, Rojas & Gary would have been 2 candidates for that.

For me, it comes down to Jahvon Quinerly’s eligibility for 2019/2020. I LOVE this mans tape, he looks fantastic. If he plays, I see 22 regular season wins and a nice March Madness seed. If he doesn’t play, i see 19 wins and another bubble year.

Kira Lewis/Jaden Shackelford
James Bolden/Jaylen Forbes
Herbert Jones/John Petty
Alex Reese/Galin Smith
Javian Fleming/Raymond Hawkins

If we’re being truthful, that rotation isn’t that imposing. Donta Hall & Riley Norris are huge losses, and the Juwan Gary & James Rojas injuries hurt bad.

Now, here’s what I AM ecstatic about. The 2020/21 season, I believe Bama can make a run for a National Championship.

- Oats Year 2
- Jahvon Quinerly is lacing them up this year
- James Rojas & Juwan Gary are back
- 5- Stars Nimari Burnett & Isaiah Jackson joining the Tide
- Good Senior Leadership (Petty, Herb, Reese, Smith)
- the only loss will be James Bolden

And, as I’ve mentioned before..... I think Kira Lewis is a phenomenal player, but he’s not on any NBA draft boards right now, and he has a lot of work to do with his skill set, and needs at least 2 more years in the weight room. Personally, I believe he comes back for his Junior season. If he does, and we add Burnett/Jackson, this will be the best team Alabama Basketball has ever put on the court.

PG: Kira Lewis/Jahvon Quinerly/Jaden Shackelford
SG: Nimari Burnett/Jaylen Forbes
SF: John Petty/Herbert Jones/Juwan Gary
PF: Isaiah Jackson/James Rojas
C: Alex Reese/Galin Smith/Raymond Hawkins

^ Folks, if that line-up doesn’t give you a woody, you need to see a doctor. That line-up has five 5-Stars, sprinkled with a ton of high 4-Stars. Plus, we know their talents won’t get wasted with Oats like they did with Avery. I pray this line-up happens, it could be the greatest Bama Basketball season ever.

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For me, it comes down to Jahvon Quinerly’s eligibility for 2019/2020

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I think I’m all alone here, but I’m not near as excited about Quinerly as I am about Shackelford. Quinerly doesn’t seem to shoot well and has had trouble finishing against length last year (and it still seemed an issue in the practice video we saw). I view his likely contribution (if he were to play this year) similar to what Justin Coleman provided us when he played here: a steady ball-handler we can trust to get the ball up the floor and set up the offense. I think he has the potential to be much better over time, but I’m not expecting what many people on here project to be a huge jump in efficiency and production.

I think Shackelford can be so much more, even in his first year. I was super high on him when we landed him, just looking at his offensive skill set, but the way Oats talks about him makes him sound like a big time hustle player on defense as well.

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I think I’m all alone here, but I’m not near as excited about Quinerly as I am about Shackelford.

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I'm actually higher on Shackleford than I am Quinerly, also. But I would agree with Saban Bear that Jahvon's eligibility may be make or break for our season. Not because JQ is some other worldly talent, but because we desperately need the added depth.

If Quinerly doesn't get cleared, along with the injuries to Rojas & Gary, we will only have 10 scholarship players available. And when you really dig deeper into it, three of those guys (Galin, Fleming, & Hawkins) are all centers and aren't really candidates to play anywhere other than the 5. I mean, MAYBE, Fleming is skilled enough to play some 4, but we just haven't seen enough of him to accurately say. And from other reports we've heard, it doesn't sound like Hawkins is ready to be a major contributor yet.

So with all that being said, you could have only 7 guys to play the 1-4 positions. Which that is doable, but you know other injuries are bound to occur during the season, and then you're talking about being REALLY thin. That's what worries me the most when you consider how fast paced we want to play. You need those extra bodies, especially extra ball-handlers.

We got 2 CB picks 7 minutes apart this morning for Charles Bediako, a 2021 4-star C. Andrew Slater and Bill Embody put in the picks