Florida Man: Prediction on Aidoo, Kentucky's woes, UGA news
Each week, Rivals national basketball analyst and very own Florida Man, Rob Cassidy, takes readers around the hoops recruiting world, touching on news, notes and developments that relate to prospects and teams from coast to coast.
This week, he puts in a forecast for Marquette, discusses the panic that surrounds Kentucky, explores what may become of Georgia’s open scholarship and tips his hat to college basketball’s ultimate late bloomer.
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FLORIDA MAN PODCAST: Interview with Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton
2021 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2022 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team
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Futurecast of the week: Jonas Aidoo to Marquette
Nothing is ever certain in recruiting, and the words “lock” should be used with caution. That said, Maquette has long seemed to be the leader for Jonas Aidoo, who is set to announce his choice later this week.
Kansas made a legitimate run at him in the past month, but the late nature of the push combined with the NCAA rules committee cloud that surrounds the Jayhawks hamstrung Bill Self’s effort.
The Golden Eagles remain the smart choice as things stand, but KU and, to a lesser extent, the in-state schools, shouldn't be totally ignored down the stretch. Aidoo is set to announce his choice on Dec. 10.
I’m picking Marquette, but I’ve been wrong before and will be again. I appreciate you guys for always letting me know when that happens, by the way.
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Recruiting development of the week: Georgia suddenly has room for a semester take
A week ago in this space, we took a look at the recruitment of five-star forward Aminu Mohammed, who is off to an incredibly impressive start to his senior year and is entertaining the possibility of enrolling in college come January. At that time, we talked about Georgia being in the mix but also noted that the Bulldogs were without a scholarship to offer should he settle on an early enrollment.
One week later, the numbers in Athens magically aligned. Former Rivals150 recruit and current UGA forward Jaykwon Walton hit the transfer portal last week, giving Tom Crean a scholarship with which to work.
Will Mohammed choose Bulldogs? Who knows? But a major barrier preventing him from doing so has now been removed. Georgetown, Indiana and Kansas State are also options and remain in the mix.
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Take of the week: Kentucky is gonna be fine … I think?
Kentucky’s 79-62 loss to Georgia Tech over the weekend sounded plenty of alarms, as the clubbing at the hands of the Yellow Jackets dropped the Wildcats to 1-3 for the first time since the 2000-01 season. (Georgia Tech was 0-2 with losses to Georgia State and Mercer.) John Calipari’s bunch looks young, inexperienced and rattled. In most normal cases, all of that would be ok for a team leaning heavily on freshman stars. Problem is, Kentucky isn’t a normal case.
Yes, expectations are always lofty in Lexington. Yes, things have looked hideous at times. Yes, these slow starts are starting to become a trend for Calipari's Cats. Still, I’m having a hard time pressing the panic button four games into a season being played at the peak of a global pandemic that limits practice and actively prevents cohesion.
The Wildcats’ offensive efficiency rating of 0.918 ranks below the likes of 0-3 Towson and is semi-alarming, but the fact that it’s driven down by the appalling 18.2 turnovers Kentucky has averaged might actually be a good sign for the future. Teams that rely heavily on freshmen and that haven’t been permitted to practice together in any normal capacity tend to have issues with turnovers.
Also, the Wildcats, who actually started to shoot the ball better in the loss to Tech, don’t need to have anything approaching elite levels of point guard play to get that turnover number back down to the 12.5 it averaged during last year’s 25-6 campaign.
The sample size is small and the challenges are unprecedented, so something tells me that next month, UK will see its efficiency jump back over 1.0 and we’ll forget all about this 1-3 stumble. It may well be a month-long climb back, but it’ll be a climb back nevertheless.
Nobody is built to win in this uncertain nightmare season, but young teams have it doubly tough. The only thing we’ve learned thus far is that the Calipari model is not pandemic proof.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH KENTUCKY FANS AT CATSILLUSTRATED.COM
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Parting thought
We don’t get the chance to celebrate many four-year players these days, so let’s do so while we can and use this space to talk about Georgia Tech’s Moses Wright. Wight’s incredible start to the season along with the 21 points and eight rebounds he ripped off against Kentucky has been shouted down by the What’s-wrong-with-UK noise on a national level. But what the Yellow Jackets’ star senior is doing thus far shouldn't be glossed over.
A three-star prospect in the class of 2017, there was next to nothing written about Moses as a high school prospect, as few saw him in person and even fewer were struck by his talent. Wright didn’t play for an organized basketball team until he was 14 years old and played just one season on his varsity squad. Fast forward to today, and Moses is averaging 21 points and 10.7 rebounds through three games for Josh Pastner.
The Tech senior has always carried the title of “late bloomer” and he seems to be blooming yet again in his final year of college, taking another step forward from an impressive junior season that saw him average 13 points and seven rebounds. Three games is a small sample size, sure, but Moses’ reputation for rapid development makes him worth keeping an eye on all year.