Since there’s no actual recruiting news to talk about, you’re welcome to suffer through my rambling observations.
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Shout out to @HOOS . I think you’re the same guy as on twitter, right? I took him up on his offer to proofread after he noticed typos in my last blog post. He’s no Buzz Williams either. Offer was legit! Any incorrect spelling is on him. I’ll still take credit for the usual poor grammar.
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That was a fun read. From my view the scripting/education of the recruits is the biggest difference. Any top recruit knows the game and how it’s played. They walk into their visits as media/image savvy/aware beings. A big difference.
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It’s funny you reference Guy’s tweet from 2014, his commitment tweet is what first sparked my interest in recruiting lol. Been hooked ever since
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I posted a few times and yesterday how im worried about college recruiting. You left out how easy it is tu cheat, get paid, access tu players, everybody is an expert and going pro.
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I remember Kyle’s offer well. I was one of the original 27! lol He played up an age division at 17U. His Indiana Elite team won the Adidas Championship during Vegas week… People called them the Spurs of AAU because they didn’t have the star power, played great together and beat teams filled with higher ranked recruits. When I saw it reported Tony was there at the last game, ya had to know one of those Indiana kids would pull in an offer. That night it came.
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Thanks for the shout out @HoozGotNext! Yes, I am one and the same as Hoos on Twitter sir. I’m just happy to be able to contribute in a small way.
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Thanks HGN! Great read. Navigating the topic of recruiting is actually kind of complicated I think. Glad we have some people closely following along to translate.
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To any former players out there. Do you envy the current recruiting environment or are you thankful you were born before this “mess”?
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For me very happy born before all this now. I obviously wasnt a huge recruit like Junior, Cory etc but still went through it on a different level. Guess the only thing annoying then were unwanted phone calls etc but nothing like what it seems to be now.
Junior talks about his recruiting story some on the podcast too.
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Thank you for that response. Did you ever have a top 10 or a top 5 in mind at the time of your recruitment, or were you ever leaning one way and then one event completely changed you wants?
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I was HS class of 89 so came out with a lot of big time PGs. Kenny Anderson Bobby Hurley etc etc. Vandy and Stanford were on me early among a lot of other schools but then Stanford signed someone else and Vandy backed off. In the late signing time I was kind of the last PG left and schools that needed that all came calling. I visited Texas AnM, Nebraska, Arkansas State and Uva after Coach Holland offered me during that NCAA tourney. Carolina was always around but never offered and then signed Kenny Harris out of Petersburg
I knew in my mind Virginia was the best place and playing in the ACC a dream of course for me. I also had a mentor growing up who was a huge UNC guy but understood way better than I could have the value of Virginia. So that was that and Coach Terry Holland even came all the way to my HS in Fayetteville TN for my signing day which I thought was as classy as could be.
Aftermath: Eddie Fogler became the new coach at Vandy during my decision time and tried hard to get me to visit but I had a bad taste from them backing off. After signing Dean Smith sent me a personal letter saying it was down to me and Kenny Harris and had he gone somewhere else they were coming to my house next. Funny too he left his phone number and said call collect if I ever need him hahhahha. Transfer Portal!!!
I was treated great by almost everyone and appreciated that all along.
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Excellent read. I am interested in another change. I think it goes hand-in-glove with the rise of the AAU shoe circuits, but I don’t know. It seems that highly touted kids are now transferring to private schools/boarding schools in droves. Back in the day, parochial schools always seemed to attract elite talent. Power Memorial & Rice in NYC, Roman Catholic in Philadelphia, Cardinal Gibbons in Baltimore, DeMatha, Mater Dei, etc. I also remember a time when Oak Hill and Flint Hill were the big destinations as boarding schools. However, public schools still produced lots of talent. Ralph Sampson attended public high school. Ballard High School, which gave Virginia Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, and Terry Gates was a public high school. I understand the staff is keeping an eye on a prospect from Varina H. S., but, if his profile grows, what are the odds he stays there? Do any elite kids attend public schools these days? Later, we can talk about the days when Street & Smith provided us with our only source of recruiting evaluations. 
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Nailed it yep. Recruiting is pretty much all summer/AAU now. Most will go wherever they think gives them the best opportunity to improve their game. School season=development AAU=showing it off.
Your Varina example is perfect. A few years ago we had a pair of 2021 Varina kids come for underclassmen day. AJ Williams, now at Trinity Episcopal. And Jason Nelson, now at John Marshall, a public school coached by Team Loaded director Ty White.
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Now you peaked my interest you final lost of schools seems pretty spread out in location types of school traditions everything really. I understand the attrition of the recruiting process but still seems like an interesting list of schools to visit. Care to go into more detail about how that came to be?
Uva is absolutely the outlier in that list of schools you visited.
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Man it was just pretty random at that point. Danny Nee was the coach at Nebraska and he had an assistant that I really liked back then. I wish I could remember his name and he gave me his Kool Moe Dee tape but dont tell nobody.
AnM was really interesting for me. Shelby Metcalf was the head coach and Legend. One of the true gems of college basketball. We can talk about that visit when we finally get out for some easy ones.
And Arkansads State. The assistant coach was Dicky Nutt. I literally have no clue who the head coach was. The guy was as smooth as anyone you will ever be around. He recruited my mom hard and she loved him so we did that visit and man, do not sleep on Jonesborough Arkansas!
Virginia was getting ready for Michigan in the NCAA final 8 so my visit was exciting that way but very dry on the other side. The coolest part of that trip was Coach Holland having me over to his house and making me and Bryant Stith waffles for breakfast. You cant make that up. And if I had been a “big time” recruit that breakfast would have sealed the deal for me cause I realised how much we were all alike and this is when BNice was givin people buckets in the tournament.
Man I am from a small town in the south and was ready to go semi far away for college so I liked seeing all those places and they all really connected with me as a player and person end of the day. Funny thing is I did unofficial to Syracuse and Tennessee and Tennessee basically slept though I was never a huge fan of them the way I was with Cuse.
Man, UVa was fate. And I couldnt be happier about spending my 4 years there. Wouldnt change it for anything @BDragon
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Man respect for that. Great reply. I love hearing the insights on those things. Especially from guys who arent the 5 star blue chippers. Their stories are more relatable and usually have some random twist and turns yours does not let down.
Jonesboro is legit been out that way a couple timea Ark St was a rugby powerhouse about 10 yrs ago.
Totally get the from a small town and needing a get out and adventure. It’s why I left Cville despite my love for Uva.
Appreciate it
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Appreciate that my man. And of course you been to JBoro hahahha. My brother played Rugby at Kentucky by the way. Maybe around 1998 or so
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Nice! I played my first game ever in Lexington agaisnt UK. I had never seen a game before and had no idea what was happening. Had gone through a month or so of off season workouts before that.
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