Cassidy's Takeaways: Standouts ready for McDonald's All-American Game
HOUSTON – Monday of McDonald’s All-American week brought with it a short morning workout followed by the event’s media day. There was plenty of buzz around prospects’ on-court performances as well as their off-court opinions, and Rivals national analyst Rob Cassidy was on hand for the day that was in the Lone Star State. He shares his biggest takeaways below.
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Related: Cassidy's takeaways from Sunday's McDonald's All-American practice
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KENTUCKY COMMIT BOOGIE FLAND WEIGHS IN ON FAN BASE UNRESET
Like everyone else in the college basketball world, Kentucky-bound point guard Boogie Fland saw the fan backlash created by Kentucky’s first-round NCAA tournament loss to Oakland. He followed the will-they-or-won’t-they narrative about the possibility of UK firing his future head coach and kept one eye on the situation.
But while Fland was aware of the loud grumblings, he definitely wasn’t surprised by them. According to him, that’s simply the brand of pressure he signed up for when he pledged his services to John Calipari and his blue blood Wildcats.
“Kentucky fans want to win,” Fland said on Monday. “That’s what they’re used to. I feel like their reaction was the right reaction. They came up short when they thought they shouldn’t have.”
Fland says he understands that Calipari might be coaching for his job next season. And while the legendary head coach hasn’t directly spoken with his future point guard about the microscope under which next year’s team will be forced to operate, Fland plans to not only embrace the situation, but use it as motivation.
“The reason we go to [Kentucky] is because of that pressure,” he said. “Without pressure there’s no privilege,”
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UNCOMMITTED LIAM MCNEELEY IMPRESSES, STAYS MUM ON RECRUITMENT
The most in-demand interview subject of the week was, of course, the lone uncommitted prospect at the event. Liam McNeeley has stayed relatively silent since he decommitted from Indiana back on March 7, and he did his best to stick to that script during Monday’s McDonald’s All-American Media Day.
“Right now, I’m just focused on McDonald's,” McNeeley said. “Later this week, I’ll just be focused on Chipotle Nationals. I’m not going to worry about recruiting until that’s over.”
But while the five-star wing declines to say much with his mouth, his play certainly did some talking of its own. McNeeley hit a game winner at the buzzer during Sunday’s scrimmage and looked dialed in for much of the next day’s practice, where he shot the ball well from deep and attacked the rim with regularity. McNeeley was one of the standouts of Monday’s brief workout and seems to be building momentum as he heads toward game day.
As for which school will land the Montverde Academy star’s impending commitment, McNeeley seems to, at the very least, have a few programs in mind.
“Kansas, UConn, Kentucky, Houston, Michigan … and a few I’m sure I’m missing,” McNeeley said when asked which programs are involved in his second recruitment. “Those are the the ones ta the top of my mind
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NORTH CAROLINA-BOUND IAN JACKSON PEAKING AT THE RIGHT TIME
Nobody on either team has been more consistently effective than Jackson, who shined in Saturday night’s scrimmage before carrying that momentum into Sunday's practice, where he once again showed himself to be as versatile an offensive threat as there is in this class. The term “three-level scorer” gets overused in modern basketball but Jackson is the true embodiment of the descriptor, as his quick first step and ability to get to the rim is made even more dangerous when he has it working from deep, which he has for the entirety of McDonald’s week. Once seen as a bit of a raw athlete with developing peripheral skill, the future Tar Heel now looks like a polished offensive threat ready to impact ACC games. Jackson currently sits at No. 9 in the Rivals150 but the week he’s had in Houston may well earn him a bump in the final rankings.
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MIAMI SIGNEE JALIL BATHEA GETS ASSERTIVE
One of the most well-rounded and gifted scorers at the event, Miami signee Jalil Bethea deferred a bit too much during Sunday night’s formal scrimmage but looked more like his usual self during Saturday’s short practice, getting to the rim and knocking down 3-pointer after 3-pointer. The sharp-shooting Bethea is also a gifted passer with solid floor vision, but is clearly at his best when he’s managing to get his teammates involved while still managing to pop as a scorer. The future Hurricane was one of the alphas of Monday’s East practice and managed to pop off the page as both a shooter and a passer despite being surrounded by other elite prospects.
“Over the past year, I feel like people have put an image on me as being just a shooter,” Bethea said. “I feel like in the offseason, I worked on my ball-handling and my footwork. I feel like that has improved a lot.”