Twitter Tuesday: Louisville, J’Raan Brooks, Tyler Harris, Keion Brooks
In this week’s #Twitter Tuesday, we examine the possible elimination of the one-and-done rule, evaluate Louisville's recruiting options and dish the latest on several top prospects.
We don’t yet know exactly what change the NBA is going to make to its early entry rules, but it’s clear that change is coming soon. When the rules do change, no two programs will be more impacted than Duke and Kentucky.
After being somewhat cold to the one-and-done trend – which began with the high school class of 2006 when the NBA ended the ability to go straight from high school – Mike Krzyzewski embraced the notion beginning with Kyrie Irving in the class of 2010. John Calipari on the other hand has embraced it since day one. But starting with that 2010 class, those two programs have combined to produce 28 one-and-done players – 10 at Duke and 18(!) at Kentucky – and will likely have more this year. It’s become a big part of their recruiting and the fabric of their program.
I don’t think that it’s going to hurt either program and it will have less of an impact at Duke, but it’s surely going to mean major change in philosophy. Most of all it’s going to require two programs that have essentially been able to pick and choose the five-star prospects they want to do a deeper dive into the guys ranked at the back end of five-star status all the way down to the end of the top 100.
I doubt there is another coach in the country who is in a worse recruiting situation than David Padgett is right now. The alleged payments to suspended freshman Brian Bowen already helped cost his mentor, Rick Pitino, his job and Louisville its commitments from five-star Anfernee Simons and four-star Courtney Ramey.
Since it was Padgett who spearheaded the Ramey recruitment, he has kept trying and maybe he could pull off a miracle and get him back. But at the moment recruiting prospects are pretty bleak for the Cardinals. Not only is there the question of who will coach next season, but also what could happen to a program already on probation from the recruit/prostitution scandal is a major concern for any recruit. I think that as the winter goes on we’ll start to hear some names but in the short term there isn’t really anybody out there in the class of 2018 eager to show much interest in Louisville.
J’Raan Brooks decommitted from USC in the wake of Tony Bland’s arrest surrounding the federal investigation into college corruption. Since then the power forward out of Seattle has kept a low profile but his recruitment hasn’t been entirely silent. Brooks has taken an official visit to California, he’s been to nearby Washington and he’s scheduled to visit St. John’s in mid-December. Others involved include Arizona State, Connecticut and Texas A&M. I wouldn’t look for Brooks to rush into any commitment and my initial feel would be that he ends up at another West Coast program.
When it comes to further decommitments, I think that we've seen what we are going to see on that front. Obviously that can change if there are new allegations leveled but the situation seems to have calmed when it comes to kids being secure in their decisions. Arizona got Brandon Williams and Shareef O'Neal to sign scholarship agreements, USC didn't lose anybody besides Brooks. Both of Oklahoma State's signees made their commitments after the arrests and there's not anybody left for Auburn or Louisville to lose as a result.
Four-star point guard Tyler Harris looked like a near lock to commit to Iowa State near the end of the summer. He was high on the Cyclones and others recruiting him seemed to be almost conceding him. Then time went by and it started to look like he might be leaning toward staying home and that Memphis could earn a commitment shortly before the early signing period. That didn’t pan out either.
Now that the early signing period has come and gone without a commitment from Harris, it appears that he’s wide open. From that regard it’s good for Iowa State, but surely the staff has to be a bit worried that it seemed to have come that close to landing him but couldn’t get it done. Is that something that can be changed with more time?
Clemson and Mississippi State are among those who have recently checked the temperature of Harris’ recruitment and given that he’s the fifth-highest ranked combo/point guard left in the class of 2018 I’d expect his recruitment to pick up even more.
One of the top juniors in the Midwest, Keion Brooks is a skilled combo forward with range on his jump shot and budding athleticism. Since late September he’s taken unofficial visits to Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan State and Purdue.
There are others involved but at this time I’d be pretty surprised if his final choice came from outside of that group and I’d currently put Indiana and Michigan State tied for the lead. But, I don’t see Brooks as somebody looking to wrap up his recruitment anytime soon.
The natural assumption by many of us when Jahvon Quinerly backed off his Arizona commitment was that he would end up at Villanova. It's close to home, a playing style that fits him and Jay Wright had been heavily in the mix before Quinerly picked Arizona, so it made sense. However, the hangup here is that nobody is sure exactly how badly Villanova wants to get involved with him this time around and if Quinerly will have to clear any NCAA hurdles over allegations that he took money from Arizona assistant Book Richardson, who was arrested in the federal investigation into college corruption.
Four-star Byrce Wills is currently on an official visit to Stanford and has Nova in his final four along with the Cardinal, Wake Forest and UConn. But, Wills is also much more of a two-guard than the point guard it looks like Wright and his staff will need (assuming junior Jalen Brunson goes pro). That leaves Courtney Ramey in your group and the Wildcats have been going hard on him. From what I’ve heard he’s been pretty receptive and while I think he would love to find somewhere a little closer to home if possible, he’s the one I see them having the best shot with until we know more about Quinerly’s situation.