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Welcome Isaiah Wilson! Highest rated UR recruit ever by 247 Sports

Awesome! Big time get. He will likely start as a freshman.
 
Nice pick up, I like the list of offers. I watched some video and like his competitive nature. If 4700 is predicting he starts day one that would seem to indicate Gilly already has a grad transfer in place for senior year? Interesting thought, no way he starts over Frances and Gilly next year and we wont go that small.
 
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Sorry. Likely start as a sophomore. I got a little carried away there. Sometimes, I forget we have no seniors. Some of our guys have logged so many minutes for us already, it is hard to believe we still have them for 2 more years. Things are really looking up.
 
Does our recruiting target the small, undersized guard? I have nothing against that as long as the guy can play - but under Mooney so far we have had Kevin Anderson, Kendall Anthony, ShawnDre Jones, and Gilyard - all basically under 6 feet tall. All of those guys have put up good numbers - but we really only had good teams with Anderson (and don't forget his supporting cast) and I believe one team under Anthony was top seed in NIT.

Is it just coincidence? Or are we maybe targeting guys who might have P5 talent, but not P5 size?
 
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I will have to say Trap, that could be Mooney’s only decent strategy. Taking the small guys with big talent that the P5’s won’t risk a scholarship on. It has worked so far. Guards have never really been our problem.
 
Is it just coincidence? Or are we maybe targeting guys who might have P5 talent, but not P5 size?
a guy with P5 talent, P5 athleticism and P5 size is probably going P5.
if we're going to give up one thing at the PG position, we've shown we're fine giving up the size.

Wilson is a great get. I know it doesn't fit the narrative, but CM's been recruiting extremely well for a team coming off 20 loss seasons. the roster is in excellent shape.
 
Does our recruiting target the small, undersized guard? I have nothing against that as long as the guy can play - but under Mooney so far we have had Kevin Anderson, Kendall Anthony, ShawnDre Jones, and Gilyard - all basically under 6 feet tall. All of those guys have put up good numbers - but we really only had good teams with Anderson (and don't forget his supporting cast) and I believe one team under Anthony was top seed in NIT.

Is it just coincidence? Or are we maybe targeting guys who might have P5 talent, but not P5 size?

If we didn't have good teams some years with those guys, it certainly was not because of them. They were all and are (Jacob) outstanding. I think it is very smart to target these guys. PGs with size are not common, just like the big with great athleticism is rare. Usually, those will end up at the P6 schools. Sure, we can still go after them, but the best strategy is to go hard at a guys like Jacob and Wilson because they are super talented, but don't have a lot of P6 offers due to their size.
 
Mooney should be recruiting every undersized guard he can find every year. It's his primary legacy as a coach at this point – a line of really good small guards. It's a huge selling point to the next one in the line. The only great one we missed on was Chris Lykes, but he was one of the few who was SO good in high school that his offers were legit right away and we couldn't sneak him in under the radar.
 
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As much as we talk about offense with Mooney and his Princeton or not so Princeton style - the reason we won and wen to back to back NCAA appearances was our defense. And size had something to do with it. If you look back at those teams - they played Mooney's switching zone defense to perfection, mainly because they only had to worry about keeping Anderson on the outside. The other 4 guys, even Geriot - could all switch and were either athletic enough or smart enough to guard all 5 positions on the opposing team when needed. UR was holding guys in the 50's and 60's then, but now - we are trying to outscore opponents up to the 80's.
We have just not had the right mix on the defensive end or the depth lately to consistently win games. Maybe that changes this year - but we still have some liabilities on defense to worry about.
 
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Agree that Burton was an athletic body that we really really needed. sounds like he may have grown and inch or two. Not seeing him as a super skilled guy at this point, but if so he has a super high ceiling as a wing.

I really like the looks of Crabtree's highlights, but I wonder where Mooney will play him? Looks like a wing skill set to me, but can shoot it from frosh year stats.
 
yeah, lot of ways we could go. Crabtree's a big SG who can play the 3. Burton's a 3 who could play the 4 for us post-Nathan. Sal's a 4 but with another 15 lb gain could be a skilled 5 in 2020/21. still have Jake and Andre as guards. future is set up well. huge 5 man class to worry about, but that's down the road a bit.
 
I have been down on the basketball program due consistent poor results. It does seem that we are now moving in the right direction. Three out of the top 15 players in the A10 with a growing group of talented players should start to show dividends with effective coaching. Kudos to the staff for improved recruiting over the last three years. Now let's see some results.
 
the roster is in excellent shape.
the roster is absolutely better. I don’t think anyone can reasonably say it’s in excellent shape yet. We need to go out and actually win at a decent clip to proclaim its excellent.
 
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Good get. I think a really good get. Stars and recruiting rankings are meaningless but when I see programs like Georgetown, Rhode Island, Umass, St. Bonnie offering a kid that means a heck of a lot more to me. Other really good coaches and programs see the potential and hence the offer.

Mooney does well with these 1 class recruiting classes, he only has to land 1 good player. It is when he has multiple scholarship offers to play with that we end up with a lot of chafe.
 
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the roster is absolutely better. I don’t think anyone can reasonably say it’s in excellent shape yet. We need to go out and actually win at a decent clip to proclaim its excellent.
respectfully disagree. we're not flying blind here.

I liked JJ, Yates and Oddo as much as the next guy, but we're replacing them with Francis, Burton and a presumably healthy Sherod. that's somewhere between a big difference and a huge difference ... inclusive. add to that a projected level of improvement from some of the returning players, especially last year's freshmen. and that Crabtree and Wilson suit up the following year with no scheduled attrition.

I don't need to wait for wins to believe the roster is in excellent shape going forward, barring something unforeseen.
 
respectfully disagree. we're not flying blind here.

I liked JJ, Yates and Oddo as much as the next guy, but we're replacing them with Francis, Burton and a presumably healthy Sherod. that's somewhere between a big difference and a huge difference ... inclusive. add to that a projected level of improvement from some of the returning players, especially last year's freshmen. and that Crabtree and Wilson suit up the following year with no scheduled attrition.

I don't need to wait for wins to believe the roster is in excellent shape going forward, barring something unforeseen.

I'm with s-man. Only caveat is that I'm reserving judgment until I see us play defense for a couple games.
 
respectfully disagree. we're not flying blind here.

I liked JJ, Yates and Oddo as much as the next guy, but we're replacing them with Francis, Burton and a presumably healthy Sherod. that's somewhere between a big difference and a huge difference ... inclusive. add to that a projected level of improvement from some of the returning players, especially last year's freshmen. and that Crabtree and Wilson suit up the following year with no scheduled attrition.

I don't need to wait for wins to believe the roster is in excellent shape going forward, barring something unforeseen.
And I’ll respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. You’re flying blind until you see the unknowns actually play. Point in case: Solly Stansbury.

Credit to Blake and Crabtree who have shown they can ball at D1. But can’t say that about Burton or Wilson.

Again, it’s better. No doubt.
 
I thought this deserved it own tread

Look forward to seeing Isaiah play and hopefully he will be one of many small guards that have flourished at U of R.

Isaiah is 3 star recruit who was also recruited by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, DePaul, Kent State, and several other schools.




https://www.richmond.com/sports/col...cle_8cee0e3d-5a16-519c-9494-add735b6626f.html

best recruit ever? Or at least since 2010.....

https://247sports.com/Article/About-247Sports-116092/
247sports.com was founded in 2010 by Shannon B. Terry and acquired by CBS Sports Digital in December 2015.
 
Daon Merritt was also a Rivals 3-Star and ranked as the #14 PG nationally, while Wilson is ranked #43. Merritt was also an inch shorter at 5'10", FWIW.
 
Daon Merritt was also a Rivals 3-Star and ranked as the #14 PG nationally, while Wilson is ranked #43. Merritt was also an inch shorter at 5'10", FWIW.
I was super impressed to watch Daon get his ass worked by a walkon at URI, while talking $hit to him the whole time. Guessing Wilson has better character. Will say that I agree with 97 in that I like to see the impressive offer list moreso than the ranking number. Wilson doesn't look as impressive offensively as KA or SDJ's highlights. Sounds like an impressive competitor, but not necessarily seeing an All A10 player. Hoping he proves me wrong 7 days a week.
 
Solly was much more of an unknown than Burton or Wilson. I think we have a good idea of what we are getting in Burton and Wilson. When a guy plays in France for three years, there's a few more question marks with him. I don't think there was nearly as much excitement with Solly until TJ talked him up.
 
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Solly was much more of an unknown than Burton or Wilson. I think we have a good idea of what we are getting in Burton and Wilson. When a guy plays in France for three years, there's a few more question marks with him. I don't think there was nearly as much excitement with Solly until TJ talked him up.

I can literally go back on this board to early 2017 and found a few posts of folks being excited about Solly, including a conversation with Marcus Jenkins, who said that the staff was excited about Solly.

I don't know how long posts are saved on Rivals, but I appreciate the archive of the board a few years prior to see how we either over-react or under-react to games, players.... No over-reaction to head coach, though. Mooney is God awful.
 
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Welcome Isaiah. You'll be a great Spider.

Quick story I'm driving my son and his 12 year old friend. This is the same day that Isaiah committed and I heard about it maybe an hour earlier via a text. Out of blue the friend shows my son his phone and says this guy is going to Richmond. I overhear and I'm like wait what? How did you know that?...Instagram. I follow him he's really good at basketball. Alright then. I said give his Instagram post a like.

I'm taking this as a great sign.
 
lol. ouch. good point!
I'll stick with believing our roster is in excellent shape but will be willing to admit I might be wrong if we lose our opener! :)
Yeah, I’m just saying we have a propensity to assign hero status to many players long before we see them here. I’ve been guilty of this myself. I hope your prognostication is on point.
 
Yeah, I’m just saying we have a propensity to assign hero status to many players long before we see them here. I’ve been guilty of this myself. I hope your prognostication is on point.

I agree. We all do this, but I feel really good about Burton because of his size to go along with his athletic ability. And, Wilson just has the look of another great PG for us. But, it is more than fair to have a wait and see attitude with them.
 
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