Three-Point Play: Greg Brown, Harrison Ingram, rankings
In today's Three-Point Play, Rivals.com analyst Corey Evans checks in on the recruitment of Greg Brown, details upcoming visits for Harrison Ingram and looks at one of his biggest rankings regrets for the 2019 class.
EVANS MAILBAG: Karim Mane, Jon Kuminga, B.J. Boston
ACTIVITY WITH GREG BROWN
Greg Brown's recruitment has begun to pick up steam. The five-star was originally focused on a group of five, but now North Carolina is no longer under consideration. The Tar Heels have already wrapped up their 2020 class, ranked third-nationally, and have not consistently recruited Brown in recent months as a result.
Enter Michigan. Juwan Howard has been in touch with Brown and his family in recent months and have secured an official visit for Feb. 7. I don't think Michigan has much of a chance, but at least the Wolverines will host the five-star. Never say never in recruiting.
Brown will head to Kentucky tomorrow for his fourth official visit. He visited Auburn in November and Texas in September. The Longhorns have been the most heavily discussed landing spot for him as he lives just 20 minutes away from the 40 Acres campus and his father and uncle both played football for Texas.
However, earlier this week, I changed my FutureCast selection for Brown. While his visit to Memphis last weekend was relatively brief due to scheduling issues, I feel confident enough with I have heard to report that the Tigers have taken the lead in Brown's recruitment.
There is still is more time to go before a decision takes place, but it looks like Memphis is the team to beat right now.
RACE IS ON FOR HARRISON INGRAM
The race is on for Harrison Ingram. The top-15 junior has ascended the Rivals150 over the past two years and sits as one of the most versatile prospects in the 2021 class. A 6-foot-6 small forward that can play practically every position on the offensive end, it is for these reasons and more that he leads a high-major, priority recruitment.
Ingram took an official visit to Stanford in the fall. With all of the elite programs that are either involved or getting involved in Ingram's recruitment, one might assume this would be too pressure-packed of a recruitment for the Cardinal to win. Think again. If things ended today, Jerod Haase and his staff would be celebrating in Palo Alto.
Unfortunately for Stanford, Ingram's recruitment is not over. A number of national entities have been in to see Ingram this high school season, one of which is Arkansas. Thanks to the hiring of former Oklahoma assistant Chris Crutchfield, who developed great in-roads with Ingram, the five-star has scheduled his second junior year official visit to check out the Razorbacks on Jan. 18.
Things won’t stop there. Ingram will be at Texas Tech on the weekend of Mar. 7 for another official visit and could potentially squeeze in another trip, to North Carolina, before the season completes. Kansas, Memphis, Purdue, Tennessee and Texas are a few others to monitor in his recruitment.
While Stanford might be out in front at the moment, there is a more time to go before a commitment commences.
I WAS RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG
If you were in our ranking meetings for the 2019 class in recent years, you would have heard me consistently campaign for Vernon Carey and Isaiah Stewart. While we are just half-way through the college season, I feel confident in saying that I was right about both players. Carey is on path to potentially win National Player of the Year honors, while Stewart is silently leading all freshmen in scoring and pitching in over nine rebounds per game.
I was right on Carey and Stewart, and I was wrong about Onyeka Okongwu.
My fellow analyst Eric Bossi stumped for him. I didn’t want to hear it. I had worries about his all-around skill set and durability. Knee issues had plagued him in the past and, while I had always respected his motor and nose for the ball, I just didn’t know how well it would translate to the next level. Well, I would say over 17 points and nine rebounds per game, and making 61-percent of his field goal tries translates pretty well.
While questions remain as to how good he can be after USC, right now, he is one of the best in the sport.
In the final rankings, we plotted Stewart second, Carey fifth, and Okongwu... 30th. Oops. Okongwu has been tremendous in practically every game that he has played in and while I still might take Stewart and Carey over Okungwu, the miss on him dwarfs my hits on Carey and Stewart.