Romar really had the juice. He was getting dudes even still in his second act at Pepperdine (and then underachieving their talent level)
Lol at the Google search page for him
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Thatās exactly what I couldnāt understand at the time, It always seemed like he always found a way to do less with more, but recruits never seemed to connect the dots.
I lazily reconciled that it was more likely me who wasnāt connecting the dots, and bags seemed as likely a reason as any that multiple top-5 recruits would venture across the country to a meh program while spurning dozens of offers to play closer to home for better coaches at more successful programs.
Man, I must really hate using periods lol
2 Likes
Romar has/had deep recruiting connections out here. Seattle is a basketball town and there are deep bball roots here. He was able to snag the top talent that was here and keep them home.
Isiah Thomas was from Tacoma and Brandon Roy is Seattle born/raised. So was Nate Robinson. They all stayed. When he left though - Seattleās best players started leaving - thinking mainly of Paolo Banchero.
The Pro Am that Jamal Crawford runs here in Seattle is must see. I go every year. Some elite talent.
Hopkins was an East Coast (Syracuse) guy who had some early recruiting wins but it didnāt translate to wins. Probably because of his dumb zone. UW has been struggling to regain their footing since.
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So long, Will
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We got some France connections, right? Nick Kalinowski was flagging this guy as popping statistically at U18 Eurobasket:
Shooting splits werenāt great, but he was averaging 5.1 apg against 0.6 topg. Made the All-Tournament Team.
I guess the Jayden Hodge highlights are more relevant:
Bonus: The tournament MVP from Spain is going to Davidson. Real coup for them, heās very skilled.
5 Likes
No clue where this is going. Normally would mean weāre done but after the way things went down this spring, who knows. As far as I know, the only finalists heās ever visited were SMU and Texas A&M (old staff), just early unofficials last fall/winter.
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That certainly has an SMU feel to it then? Or are visits out of vogue for high schoolers now too?
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We do have a high hit rate with this staff on guys who never visited lol
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SMU?
Still think our best option for forward is to kill it this season and then get Cam Ward or Sadie White in the portal.
And I wasnāt that high on him but bummer for the staffs HS cold streak to continue and a kid they clearly wanted badly. Hopefully means we offer Julius Avent and Ethan Mgbako (but more likely staff wonāt force until the spring cycle with decommits/coaching changes/former top 100 Hs kids with 3-4 years left in the portal)
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I do think itās going to be SMU, fwiw
Yepā¦apparently he pushed up his SMU official visit, did it over the weekend.
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Trilly saying heās hearing SMU is trying to get him to reclass to 2025. Would be an interesting move if he thinks he can play (heās most likely going to redshirt).
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How many 2026 recruits with current offers will visit UVA?
- 2 or less
- 3
- 4
- 5+
0
voters
Is this On3 offer list right?
Thought Bivins hasnāt been offered? And itās missing Cody Peck, Christian Gibson.
Nah. My list. I think I deleted a few that cut UVA.
2026
Jordan Smith
Bo Ogden
Cameron Holmes
Junior County
Christian Gibson
Luca Foster
Cole Cloer
Fred Smith
Latrell Allmond
Cody Peck
William Stevens
Billy White
Lucas Morillo
Davion Adkins
Arafan Diane
Bryson Howard
Dylan Mingo
Jayden Hodge
Ethan Taylor
Quentin Coleman
2027
Cayden Daughtry
Obinna Ekezie Jr.
LJ Smith
Nasir Anderson
Baba Oladotun
Marcus Spears Jr
Paul Osaruyi
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Pretty sure Itās Duke or Calipari and the rest is window dressing. Think @HoozGotNext mentioned Odom saw where this was headed and stopped trying.
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Annoys me to see Indiana be a finalist for two VA guys and we are not (the two top guys, right?)
That program annoys me. Itās so mediocre on paper and its most famous coach was borderline (and Iām saying borderline because Iām a nice person) psychotic.
Itās not even like the second best program in its state. Why the pull with Virginia kids?
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He began his coaching career in 2002 as the associate head coach at Eleanor Roosevelt High School while eventually becoming the associate head coach at St. Paul VI Catholic High School for four years (2007-11).
While a high school coach, Johnson also served more than six years as a director and head of travel and logistics for the nationally recognized Nike Team Takeover AAU organization and was the head coach of its 16 and under age group during that stint. The program produced more than 53 Division I players and four future NBA players during that time.
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He was there before, though, right? I guess with Archie.
I donāt really get it. If recruits like people from Virginia, I actually think a Virginia school would be their best bet.
Is ālook at the amazing college career of Robert Johnsonā something that Kenny is trying to sell?
In any event, we have two VA kids coming in to this class, and hopefully thatās of some marginal benefit in recruiting.
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Golly, I forgot that garbage IU team with Yogi Ferrell made the sweet 16.
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I would really like to land Allmond, but it seems like that one is just such a weird case because of the damn shoe circuit. I donāt know if weāre completely out of it yet though, things can happen and we still have geography on our side and a coach that was really close to home for him for 2 years.
We did get 2 top 5 kids in the state in Odomās first class, both top 100 nationally! ~1000% improvement over Tonyās effort.
1 Like