Around the A-10: 2024–25 Edition
- Thread starter SFspidur
- Start date
Looks like new coaching staff at VCU wasted no time and landed a top 40 prospect in the portal from UCONN. Ahmad Nowell - appears to have been a heralded recruit for UCONN but never got off the bench. Will be interesting to see how he does at VCU. They also landed a guard from Oregon who has some experience - having averaged 7 points and over 20 minutes a game for the ducks the past 2 seasons.
After a year of data (or lack thereof) in D1, high school rankings are meaningless
There were meaningless for UR - when we got our one and only top 100 HS recruit by way of Michigan transfer in GW3, but it proved to be meaningless because we never saw if he could play or not.
But - you have to go off some metrics with these transfers, especially coming from higher leagues and in essence, transferring down some may say - because when they have little to no stats at that school - how can you evaluate them? And you can't tell me, myself included - if UR signed 5 transfers this off-season, and all 5 were top 100 HS recruits who for one reason or another - likely more playing time, wanted to come to UR - you would not be excited and think - we got a great transfer class coming in. I know I would. Its no guarantee they will all work out. But I like my chances.
This guy was top 40. Hurley was going for another championship and signed Mahaney out of the portal. He was essentially the 4th guard getting crumbs. I do think top 40 and a miss would be more unlikely. According to 24/7 - which I believes averages the rankings from the top sites - GW3 was #141.
I'm with Gkiller on this one, guessing this is a guy that will do damage at VCU - but we shall see.
I'm with Gkiller on this one, guessing this is a guy that will do damage at VCU - but we shall see.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
how are you 6'10 in decent shape and never thought to play basketball 😂
right? and he's 23 now, so just started at 22?
kind of explained here ... but doesn't explain why he didn't play high school ball:
Bonaventure Lands Grahovac and Mitchell
BY: RILEY PENDLETON; STAFF WRITER Photo: @hoopglitch on Instagram With the Bonnies losing nine players on the roster to the transfer portal, they needed to make some noise of their own. Adrian Wojn…
www.thebvnewspaper.com
How about top 20 and a miss? TJ Power. LOL. Wow, has to be the worst miss ever by recruiting services.
wow. huge lifestyle change, from ACC living and NIL to taking 5 hour bus trips to Dartmouth and Cambridge.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
DC does have a beautiful campus though, it's leafiness rivals even ours!
No chance. He wouldn't have played for us last year. And I am not kidding. His first game with UVA I could tell how bad he was. It was obvious.
It really is. First, the recruiting services. Then, Duke. Then, UVA. Really strange because he is slow, non athletic, no handle, and just very awkward out there.
Would suspect that there are numerous guys every year that are top 50 type players, get recruited by the big boys, and than turns out they can't play high level college ball. Hoping that VCU just picked up one of those the other day.
seems strange for a kid to be ranked so high and not be athletic though. athleticism is a prerequisite at the high major level.
A few things from this.
1) Woj is out recruiting for Bonnies? I was not even sure that was allowed, but does that open a loophole in the rules that they found. Just thinking of these other schools that have hired big name "managers" - like Davidson and Steph Curry being "Assistant GM". Does that mean if Davidson finds a kid they really like they can ask Steph to show up to one of his AAU games and "recruit" him? If so - that gives them a little bit of advantage right? At the very least - it doesn't hurt.
2) Give the Bonnies credit - they get this kid in the portal and they are basically already marketing him. And why not - its a great story, and while I can't root for the Bonnies, it will be hard not to root for this kid. Just based on the video seems like a very down to earth and genuine kid. Maybe because he has had it rough before and has not been pampered by AAU programs and coaches growing up, he is much more appreciative. Either way - I hope this kid has a great career, but when he plays the Spiders - he can lay a goose egg.
3) Just appearance only - this kid fits the Bonnies. He could be their mascot in my opinion. They will find a way to market this for sure.
Looks like Davidson found a replacement for Durkin.
www.thedp.com
Sam Brown of Penn men’s basketball to transfer to Davidson
Brown's 19.3 points per game during conference play led the Ivy League last season.
www.thedp.com
Fantastic pick up for Davidson and someone who on paper would’ve been a perfect fit for UR. I wonder if we were recruiting him. Wildcats also doing well in the portal. Like VT said in another thread, I think UR is missing a key piece to contend for top 4. Right now, I don’t have a ton of confidence that we’ll do much better than 13th next year.
Yeah I don’t know why we weren’t on this guy. Would have needed to make him the centerpiece but well worth it. Moon is the 1 with the Philly roots & connections supposedly too. Never seems to help us.
I think we need another shooter, but I'm not sure this would be the type player I want. I don't think he would have made a big impact for us, certainly not one to get us to top 4 in the A-10. 15-65 from 3 OOC. He shot better in conference play, but he will not be playing against Ivy League teams next year. And, Penn went only 8-19 and only won 4 Ivy games last year. Not a great athlete. He himself said he is not an above the rim player. Time will tell, but I just don't see him being a difference maker in the A-10.
Whether his stats translate to a higher level we won’t know for sure yet, but 19 PPG, 43% 3-point shooting in conference play, 89% FT, and 2.28 assist to turnover ratio fits the bill with our kind of offense that we implement in my opinion. I will say, I’m glad we got some players who seem to score on multiple levels and attack the rim. Hopefully we modify our offense some to fit those strengths. If we can lock down another player who can score multiple ways and play strong defense, I think we may be able to contend for top 4.
Durkin wouldn’t have played us for either. Dji wouldn’t at p5. Who is the above the rim good shooter u want? don’t remember many of our best guards here being above the rim players. Heck Mooney doesn’t have too many at any position on his rosters. & Ivy is a top half conference. Also look at all our recent transfers. They r all coming from bad teams. Minus AP who never played and rat tail from decent LMU.
Sure let’s get an above the rim great shooter from a great team in a great league. Let’s do it. what is Moon waiting for.
I guess I look at it like do we want him starting? I say no. We have one spot left. I think there are still guys out there who could make a bigger impact for us. Someone had to score for Penn. They only won 4 conference games while he averaged those 19 points. He's just not the guy I am looking for with our last spot. Some have said we don't even need to add a guard. I said we should add one if he can make us a lot better, and give us a chance at the top 4. Does this guy do that? I don't think so.
I’d be pretty excited if we picked him up now, but with who has committed to us already, I agree that perhaps there’s other more impact players we can find. Not sure about his defense at Penn, but that should be a top priority for our last spot. Still, at 6’3” with those stats and who we have returning, I’d say he would definitely have been someone a lot of us would want starting and could play the 1-3 even with our other commitments. What qualities do you look for in our last transfer that you think could make the most impact?
Shooter. Athlete. Quickness. Defense. I just watched Browns's highlights. He just doesn't look athletic, and has a push kind of low releasing 3 point shot. We were so non athletic last year. It showed itself every game. Good or bad, the A-10 is usually a pretty athletic conference.
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Vcu with another commit from someone who actually produced at p5 level. Also landed a top50ish national hs recruit. Decommit from Xavier. Hs teammates w Will Harper but that’s as far as the comparison goes per my Gonzaga sources.
Martelli had like 2 guys when he took over. In matter of weeks he’s got twice the talent. I mean who could we ever hire better than Moon right.
9-29 incoming
Martelli had like 2 guys when he took over. In matter of weeks he’s got twice the talent. I mean who could we ever hire better than Moon right.
9-29 incoming
None of them could get into UR because of academics. You know the drill.
Mooney was going to follow the St. Mary's model and get the Aussie pipeline flowing. Got Duinker, hyped him as a potential rookie of the year then didn't like or play him. No more Aussie recruits since.
Here’s the thing: even if we went after guys like this, and had the NIL to entice them, and had the rizz to close them, they’d still never come here because we are 56% the last 20 years with just 3 ncaa appearances.
None of this changes until we restart under different leadership, or some other drastic change occurs.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
Maybe the recruits just don't realize that we went 24-7 six seasons ago, I bet that would get their attention!
Mooney says Richmond is one of the top basketball programs in the NATION. Tbone u must have missed that memo. It is less than a year old. idk why it's not working in recruiting.
Beause it only works with Matt Smiths replacement fans, Hardt, Queally, and the little old lady moon defenders. Not actual players.
