RANKINGS: 2019 Rivals150 | 2019 Team rankings | 2019 Position rankings
Dan McDonald is back with his weekend primer, McDonald's Nuggets. This week’s edition addresses the FBI investigation, a prediction about Mike Young at Virginia Tech and the Commitment of the Week.
MORE: Roundtable on the final 2019 rankings | 2019 Point guard rankings | 2019 Shooting guard rankings
PREDICTION: Mike Young will have a lot of success at Virginia Tech
I liked a lot of the hires at the high-major level this cycle. We’ll look back a few years from now and see a lot of successful coaches hired this year.
One hire that I don’t think is getting enough attention is Mike Young at Virginia Tech. From just a coaching standpoint, there aren’t many better. He hired a really good staff around him with Chester Frazier, Antwon Jackson and Christian Webster, who he retained. That’s a connected staff all through the Eastern time zone, and it should keep quality players coming to Blacksburg.
Young has point guard Hunter Catoor, who signed with him at Wofford, coming with him, and he also has Keve Aluma following him as a transfer. On Thursday, the Hokies added a commitment from Jalen Cone. Virginia Tech fans will be pretty happy with this transition, even though Young has big shoes to fill.
WHAT’S ON MY MIND: The FBI investigation
The FBI arrests that rocked the college basketball world happened in late September of 2017, and we’re just now finishing up the trials for those involved. With the criminal part of the process mostly behind us, we now wait to see how the NCAA handles everything that came up during the trials.
Rick Pitino and his entire staff (except for David Padgett who remained as interim head coach before being let go after the season) at Louisville were fired. Assistant coaches Chuck Person (Auburn), Book Richardson (Arizona), Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State) and Tony Bland (USC) all lost their jobs after being arrested. Steve Smith (Clemson) also lost his over information that came out in the most recent trial. Sean Miller and Will Wade were each suspended, but both were reinstated. Several other schools were dragged into the scandal throughout the trials.
Over the next several months - and possibly years - it will be very interesting to see how many more jobs are lost and how many schools face sanctions over the actions of their coaches. The other question is how much evidence the FBI turns over to the NCAA that hasn’t come up yet in trials. If the NCAA does nothing with all these allegations of cheating, what message does that send to other coaches and schools? For that reason, I do think we’ll see more fallout from this in the form of sanctions and coaches getting fired.
RECRUITING NOTE: New school in the mix for Walker Kessler?
Walker Kessler is officially staying in the 2020 class after flirting with the idea of moving up his high school graduation a year to join the 2019 class. It’s mostly the same schools still in the mix: Duke, North Carolina, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Michigan. Vanderbilt was also in pretty deep prior to the coaching change, which is how a new school entered into the mix here. Roger Powell, who was an assistant for Bryce Drew at Vanderbilt, built a strong relationship with the five-star big man, but he’s now moved on and joined the coaching staff at Gonzaga. I spoke with Kessler on Wednesday night and he said Powell was one of his favorite recruiters. Mark Few came in for a home visit last week, and Kessler says the Bulldogs are firmly in the mix now.
COMMITMENT OF THE WEEK: Ethan Morton to Purdue
Sometimes you see a commitment from a highly-rated prospect and it just feels like the perfect fit. That’s what I thought when I heard four-star guard Ethan Morton committed to Purdue. Morton is a highly productive player who will flourish playing for Matt Painter. He’s a playmaker who makes guys around him better. He’ll be a four-year player for the Boilermakers and will rack up loads of assists while also carrying enough of the scoring load to keep the opponent honest. Purdue fans should feel really, really good about this commitment.