Friday is Rivals Roundtable day, and the tradition continues today. This week, analysts Jason Jordan and Rob Cassidy dive into new coaching staffs that have impressed with their recruiting approaches, juniors that might hop aboard the reclassification train and some big visits planned for this weekend.
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Which new coaching staff has impressed you most during its first few months on the recruiting trail?
“Rick Pitino is the obvious choice here, but I feel like going with one of the best college basketball coaches of all time is a bit of a cop-out. That’s while I’ll go with Damon Stoudamire and company at Georgia Tech. Maybe it’s recency bias, but Jaeden Mustaf’s Thursday commitment to the Yellow Jackets was encouraging, to say the least. Beating out schools such as Maryland, Florida State and Indiana is an impressive accomplishment for a first-year head coach with no high-major coaching track record to sell to recruits. It’s especially difficult when you’re marketing a program that has appeared in the NCAA Tournament just once in the last 13 years. There’s obviously still plenty of work to do. Getting Tech back to where fans want to see it is probably a multiyear undertaking, but landing a top 50 prospect before ever coaching a college game is certainly an impressive start.” - Cassidy
“I’d say Mike Rhoades at Penn State, more from a standpoint of the impact he and his staff’s aggressive energy is having and how they're helping to keep the Nittany Lions on the minds of elite prospects. So far he’s only actually reeled in Jahvin Carter in the class, but with talented prospects such as Matt Gilhool and others expressing more and more interest behind the legwork of Rhoades, Jamal Brunt, Brent Scott and Jimmy Martelli, an influx of young talent seems imminent.” – Jordan
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Which 2025 prospect do you see as a real possibility to reclassify to 2024 before all is said and done?
“There’s a lot of smoke around the possibility of Jasper Johnson landing in the class of 2024. Exactly what effect that will have on his recruitment is unclear, but teams such as Baylor, Cincinnati, Auburn, Kentucky and Kansas are involved to differing extents. Which class Johnson lands in may have a little to do with which school emerges as the leader to land his services, but most of that is speculation at this point. Physically, Johnson seems suited for a reclassification, so such a move shouldn’t hurt the 6-foot-4 guard’s long-term development. Add in the fact that he was one of the summer’s most impactful players and the recipe for a re-class seems to be present.” - Cassidy
“I could see someone like Bryson Tiller jumping to 2024, not for any overt reason; I’m just basing it off him being at Overtime in the professional culture and conducting his situation as a business. He’s had a stellar summer and he fits the mold of a pro with his size (6-foot-9) and versatility. A lot about his game translates at the pro level with a logical progression and I'm saying that I know his camp could potentially be throwing that around, even if it’s just in their heads. Again, though, no overt reason.” - Jordan
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Which weekend visit do you see as most important?
“I’ll go off the beaten path and talk about a class of 2025 prospect. Efeosa Oliogu has intrigued me since I saw him for the first time last year at this time, and the Canadian-born guard has only improved since. He’s set to take an official visit to Auburn this weekend, and the trip feels like an opportunity for Bruce Pearl to vault his program into the early lead for an instant-impact type of scorer. Pearl and members of his staff stopped into Overtime Elite earlier in the week to see the four-star wing, and things seem to be trending in the right direction between the parties. It’s still early, obviously, but the weekend trip could determine a lot about where things go from here. Oliogu’s upside is absolutely massive, so it would behoove the Tigers to use the upcoming weekend to establish themselves as the team to beat in the early going. First impressions are critical, after all.” - Cassidy
“This weekend, I’ll definitely say VJ Edgecombe’s visit to Florida. Gators coach Todd Golden gets first at bat for Edgecombe and - let's be clear - he’ll have to crank a homer with the murderer’s row of visits that will follow, from Duke to Alabama to Baylor to Michigan and Florida State on tap. Making a lasting impression is the primary goal, and it can happen but the Gators will have to pull out all the stops to land this level of a program-changing prospect.” - Jordan
