Twitter Tuesday: Wake Forest, Andrew Nembhard, Virginia

Things are beginning to heat up on the visit front which means that more commitment dominoes are about to fall. In this week’s version of #TwitterTuesday, we take a stab at Wake Forest’s battle for an elite 2018 class, where Torrence Watson might land, separate the contenders from the pretenders on five-star guard Andrew Nembhard’s final list and examine Virginia's recruiting troubles.

STARTING FIVE: Four-star Watson opens it up, many setting visits

Wake Forest has now landed top-40 prospects in consecutive years for the first time since Jeff Teague was running the show in Winston-Salem. Danny Manning has done a phenomenal job of remaining patient with the process and accruing the proper talent while, at the same time, taking high-character kids he can build with.

On Saturday, the Deacons landed the commitment of Jaylen Hoard. A native of France, Hoard is the type of versatile forward that should slide in nicely within Wake’s system. A near five-star recruit, Hoard will join last year’s top-40 stud commitment, Chaundee Brown, next season.

This brings us to ask whether Wake can land two McDonald’s All-Americans this class. To put it bluntly: I just do not see it happening. First, Hoard needs to gain the recognition as he will be on the cusp of nomination for the top high school all-star event. This winter, he should build onto his already strong resume where he was a standout on the Nike EYBL circuit this summer and was also invited the swoosh’s premier post-summer camp, that being the Nike Skills Academy.

However, this does not belittle all that Wake has going for them this fall. The Deacons are just one of two programs to set visits with Ayo Dosunmu and Isaiah Mucius, though the chances of landing the former is much smaller than gaining a commitment from the latter. However, Wake Forest does remain in a great spot with Mike DeVoe, an emerging guard from Florida, and remains in the hunt for Nate Laszewski.

Torrence Watson, Ohio State’s first class of 2018 commitment, reopened his college recruitment over the weekend and backed off of his pledge to the Buckeyes. Where might the Rivals150 wing from St. Louis be leaning?

Before Watson committed to Ohio State, he had narrowed his school list to a group of eight consisting of the Buckeyes, Creighton, Marquette, Michigan, Missouri, Vanderbilt, St. Louis and Kansas State.

Any of these programs could jump back into the mix and a handful of others will do the same. However, look for some of the top area programs to be the spot where he lands.

Many schools, after missing on Watson, invested more time with a few other top priority recruits. Creighton and Marquette have eached picked up a commitment since Watson’s original pledge to the Buckeyes, Vanderbilt has gained solid footing with a few other Rivals150 small forward prospects and Michigan has nailed down dates with a couple of their own top recruits.

That all brings us back to St. Louis, Kansas State and Missouri as the most likely landing spots for Watson. While the former two could make a hard push this fall, Missouri is probably the favorite. Cuonzo Martin has done a great job of becoming heavily involved with the top local prospects and was also vocal in stating that he wanted to create a pipeline between St. Louis and Columbia. Selling the idea of replacing likely one-and-done Michael Porter next year and the chance to become a program builder at Mizzou may be too difficult to decline.

Andrew Nembhard, one of the best passers that I have had the chance to evaluate, narrowed his school list to a group of nine on Saturday evening.

UConn, Maryland, Florida, Stanford, Gonzaga, Seton Hall, Ohio State, Virginia and USC each made the initial cut for Nembhard, a 6-foot-4 lead guard that recently reclassified into the 2018 class. As we had profiled two weeks ago, Nembhard has had a solid three for the past few months where Stanford, Gonzaga and Florida have remained out in front.

The Cardinal have developed the best relationship with Nembhard, Gonzaga has the Canadian sell and winning pedigree, while Florida has the location as it is the closest to his high school and also the biggest void at the point guard spot. However, things are not set in stone with these three programs as UConn and Virginia have made their own push.

The Huskies have done a great job of prioritizing Nembhard since June and have not taken their foot off the gas. They will bring Jalen Carey, a top-50 guard, to campus for an official visit on Wednesday but Nembhard comes more in your facilitating, pass-first variety, so even if Carey would pledge to the AAC member, it shouldn’t disrupt UConn's focus on Nembhard.

The Cavaliers, right along with the Huskies, would love to nab the Canadian guard. They are entering the new college basketball season without four-year stalwart London Perrantes at the point guard position and have made sure to sell to Nembhard the idea of coming in and running the show for an upper-echelon ACC program.

No visits have been set just yet and there is still some time to go before a college decision is made. Seton Hall, USC, Maryland and Ohio State could make a run, but I would be surprised if Nembhard does not commit to a group consisting of UConn, Virginia, Stanford, Florida or Gonzaga, with the latter two as the likeliest of landing spots.

Jake brings up a very interesting question regarding Virginia and its ability to land top notch talent. The Cavaliers' track record over the last four years is as good as you’re going to find as they have notched NCAA tournament bids as a one, two, one and five seed, respectively, sport a cool 112-30 record during the same time frame, and have not finished lower than fifth in the ACC standings since 2011, Tony Bennett’s second year at UVA.

With this winning pedigree, one would expect for Virginia to be in the hunt for some of the top prospects along the east coast. However, they have just once boasted a nationally recognized class over the past five years, so what gives and why has the program not been a consistent recruiting force?

For one, Bennett is not a big believer in casting a wide net and offering anyone that is deemed a high-major prospect. He believes in scouring the nation for the type of guys that can fit into his system and program. Knowing that someone is good enough will not suffice; Bennett believes in doing most of his own evaluations and asks for his staff to not buy into the hype that builds around a prospect, but to trust what they see. This approach has led them to uncovering talents such as Klay Thompson, London Perrantes and Ty Jerome.

Along with in-depth evaluations and limited scholarship offering, going up against Duke, UNC, Syracuse and Louisville, among many others, is no easy task. The blueblood programs in Carolina will always get theirs. The fact that each program is located so close in proximity to Charlottesville does not help the cause, either. Even with NCAA penalties hanging over the heads of those in Chapel Hill and Louisville, and the constant questioning of how much longer Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino have at their posts, recruiting to UVA compared to a few of the other elite programs within the conference is no easy task.

Lastly, despite the winning, there has been some negative recruiting against Virginia because of its pace of play. Speaking with kids, more often than not, they want to go to a program that gets up and down the floor. This is not how it's done in Charlottesville. Not that Bennett will not tweak his system, but his pack line defense and mover blocker offense has become the crux to the program's success.

There are positives and negatives to any program; what hasn’t been talked about is that Bennett realizes that if he did speed things up, he doesn't have high-volume scorers, thus harming their chances of winning. A quick retort would be to just recruit more polished offensive ballplayers, but there is no argument for the constant run of success that Virginia has enjoyed of late. Virginia’s recruiting may never been among the elite, but its chance to play deep into March is always in place thanks to Bennett’s system and the deep, thorough evaluations that he and his staff partake.

Bennett and the Cavaliers did land a 2018 commitment from Australian wing Kody Stattman on Monday night. A lanky wing, the three-star prospect holds promise as a long range shooter.