Starting Five: Reclass rage continues, big decisions coming
RANKINGS: 2019 Rivals150 | 2019 Team rankings | 2019 Position rankings
Reclassification continues to be a theme in high school basketball. Over the weekend, high major prospects like four-star Jalen Cone reclassed up while others moved back a year. Cone is also one of three four-star prospects with a decision coming this week. Eric Bossi takes a look at that and more in this week's Starting Five.
1. FOUR-STAR JALEN CONE TO 2019 AS RECLASS RAGE CONTINUES
Four-star point guard Jalen Cone told us about a month ago that a move to the class of 2019 from 2020 was a possibility. Now, he's made the move official. Not only has Cone decided he will enroll with the current senior class, he has a final six and has set a decision for Thursday at 3:45 p.m.
Down to Boston College, NC State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, Cone recently completed a visit to Virginia Tech. Given that he's coming right off the visit and the new staff at Tech's need to make an early statement, you have to figure that the Hokies have a solid chance here. Cone himself has not given any hints as to which way he's leaning.
2. MORE RECLASS: BRIDGES TO 2020 AND HUNTLEY-HATFIELD TO 2022
While Cone will graduate early, a pair of other high major prospects have decided to move their timeline for enrolling back a year as senior Jalen Bridges will do a year of prep school and sophomore Brandon Huntley-Hatfield will move back to the class of 2022.
A 6-foot-7 three man from West Virginia, Bridges is coming off of a strong senior season. However, it's a recent run on the grassroots circuit that has seen his stock soar. Rather than make a rushed decision, Bridges is making a smart play to take some time and get to know all of the new schools involved. He has size, he has athleticism and the skill is coming quick. Illinois, Pitt, TCU and Xavier are among those to offer in the past few weeks and more should be coming.
3. FOUR-STAR WHEELER WILL ANNOUNCE MONDAY AFTERNOON
The first four-star announcement of the week, point guard Sahvir Wheeler will pick from between Georgia and Iowa State on Monday afternoon.
Committed to Texas A&M for a couple of years, Wheeler opened things back up when Billy Kennedy was replaced by Buzz Williams earlier this spring. Now, he's coming off of visits to see the Bulldogs and Cyclones in the latter part of April.
Though he's not the biggest floor general around, Wheeler can penetrate and pitch, moves the ball and is a good teammate. This one has sounded pretty close, but on decision day I'll give the edge to Tom Crean and the Bulldogs.
4. DOWN TO TWO, DECISION COMING FOR QUINONES
Top 50 shooting guard Lester Quinones will announce his decision Friday at 5 p.m. Eastern.
The prep school guard at IMG will announce his decision at home in New York and he's down to Memphis and Indiana.
Quinones has good size at 6-foot-5 and is one of the premier deep jump shooters in the 2019 class. Indiana needs a Romeo Langford replacement while Memphis is hoping to rebuild quick and make Quinones part of signature recruiting class for the Tigers.
He's seen both campuses and the Hoosiers have been making a strong charge, but at least as of today Penny Hardaway and Memphis appear to be the slight favorites.
5. COMMITMENT CATCH UP
There were a few Sunday commitments that stood out to me that I wanted to touch on.
Jerry Stackhouse picked up his second child of an NBA player on Sunday when Kenyon Martin Jr. joined Scotty Pippen Jr. by committing to Vanderbilt. A high school teammate of Pippen's as well, baby K-Mart is an athletic, aggressive and tough power forward who makes up for being slightly undersized with his motor.
Kansas State picked up some needed backcourt stability with the addition of junior college point guard David Sloan. How much of an impact juco players can make at the high major level can be a bit of a risky proposition at times, but Sloan has a chance to be pretty good in Manhattan. He can score, he can set up and there are a lot of minutes to be filled with the departure of Kamau Stokes. He's part of a quietly solid class for Bruce Weber and his staff.
For a little while, it looked like Kendall Lewis may elect to go to prep school. Instead, Appalachian State has scored one of the bigger steals of the spring in the 6-foot-6 wing from the Atlanta area. Lewis has very good size, is a dangerous jump shooter from deep and he's also got the potential to be an upper tier defender on the college level. Dustin Kerns has really pulled one off here.
Finally, Malachi Wideman is off the board. One of 2020's most electric athletes, Wideman is a four-star wide receiver and four-star small forward. Sunday, he committed to Florida State for football and he's likely to try and play hoops as well. The NCAA will say that his scholarship will come from the football side, so his final ranking may end up in that sport. However, he can certainly hoop and will drop jaws with what he's capable of doing in transition.