Wednesday's Leftovers: Auburn, Jalen Terry, Kentucky, IU
A few more questions to get to this week in our Wednesday’s Leftovers, including Auburn’s center needs, Oklahoma State’s targets this winter, and where things stand with Jalen Terry. Plus, will Kentucky add a player and what does Indiana's future hold?
MORE: Twitter Tuesday mailbag | Why is Auburn flying under the radar?
The 2020 center crop is far from ideal. It was decimated by the early signing period and continues to get worse. Auburn is heavily involved for Kai Sotto and I would expect for the Tigers to get a visit from him. Bruce Pearl and his staff have a few underlying connections with Sotto in addition to the fact that he is in a city (Atlanta) that has treated the Tigers well in the past. However, placing a percentage on their chances remains difficult since his recruitment is just beginning.
Along with Sotto is Cliff Omoruyi. Auburn is the lone program to have already hosted him for an official visit, but that may have worked against the Tigers. At the time, he was going to complete a slew of visits before potentially signing last month. Rather, following his visit, he postponed the remainder of the visits and the plan now is to begin his visit trail again in the spring leading up to his late signing. Could the distance between his September visit to his commitment make it too difficult for Auburn to secure the top-60 center? Competition for him is fierce, too, with national and blueblood suitors involved.
If not Sotto or Omoruyi, look for Auburn to take another stab at Dylan Cardwell, who played for the same travel program as five-star guard Sharife Cooper. Auburn will also monitor the decommitment front this spring or hit the grad-transfer realm after the season.
JT Thor is the primary name to know for Oklahoma State fans. The four-star forward was thought to be a heavy lean towards signing with the Pokes last month, but decided against it and he could potentially take a a few other visits before committing. Kentucky garnered most of the talk outside of OK State and while I am still sticking with the Cowboys for where he lands, I am not as confident as I was a month ago.
I would expect for Oklahoma State to be active this spring whether Thor signs or not. Going the graduate-transfer route would be the smart idea in looking for a capable shot-maker seeing that they will be losing its two best after this season in Lindy Waters and Thomas Dziagwa. Also, Matthew Alexander-Moncrieffe, a four-star forward from Canada, is another to keep an eye on. He will likely take his recruitment through the winter and OSU has begun to pick up their interest in him.
The feeling following his decommitment from Michigan State was that Jalen Terry was going to quickly come to a college decision again seeing that he took an official visits to LSU and Louisville just a few weeks later. He then visited Oregon but, instead of rushing to a commitment and signing last month, Terry decided to hold off.
Could Terry commit before the New Year? Any three of the programs involved sure would love for that to be the case. If he would have signed last month, it would have been for Louisville. Seeing that he didn’t, Terry gives LSU and Oregon more time to make up ground. The Tigers and Ducks each had a coach on hand for him over the weekend and while much of the talk has surrounded the Cardinals and while Will Wade has become known for his pressure-packed recruiting wins in recent years, do not slight Oregon’s chances.
What I would expect is for Terry to take things through the high school season, visit a few other schools, one potentially being Ole Miss, before coming to a decision which would lead to a signing in April.
Kentucky already sits with a tremendous 2020 class, but it is not done yet. The only issue is figuring out who will complete its class in the spring, but I promise one thing and that is its class will only get stronger. John Calipari has never sat out the late signing period during his tenure at UK and this year will be nothing different. Whether it is Omoruyi, Thor, Sotto, Moussa Diabate or even Greg Brown, one will ultimately select the Wildcats.
I feel much better predicting one of it 2021 commitments, with the likeliest being Jaden Hardy and Paolo Banchero. The shooting guard crop is rather abysmal, which is why the Wildcats have placed such a heavy priority on Hardy early on. Like Hardy, Banchero’s visit to Lexington could not have gone any better in the fall and while Washington is going to do all they can to keep him home, and Duke, North Carolina and Tennessee will have a shot, too, UK remains in the best spot for the top-five junior.
We are looking at a potential top-15 team in the preseason polls for Indiana next year. There was a little heat on Archie Miller's seat heading into the season, but a strong 10-1 start with wins over Florida State and UConn have reflected what most of us believed: that Miller is the guy to turn the ship in Bloomington and that he has the coaching chops and grit to get it done over the long haul.
The Hoosiers will likely fall back to earth a little and the Big Ten looks to be the best league with no easy games (see Minnesota and Nebraska earlier this week), but an NCAA Tournament berth should create momentum for what should be a breakthrough for the Hoosiers next year.
That comes with two caveats, though: one, Trayce Jackson-Davis, its stud freshman big man, must return for his sophomore year, and secondly, it finds another capable ballhandler to enroll next fall, whether it is via the transfer front, or reclassifying a member of the 2021 class.
If each box is checked and the proper progressions are made, I see the best season for the Hoosiers next year since 2016 when IU won the Big Ten outright.