The
WAR ROOM is back and this edition is full of hoops recruiting scoop! With the second evaluation period of the summer under way, as always we'll break down where Virginia's coaches are and tell you what they'll be looking for when as scout various players. There's a potential transfer on the board and we'll get into how his addition could change things for the Cavaliers on the recruiting trail. We'll break down what UVa saw last week, how it's impacted what the staff will see during this period, and even give you some new names as the Wahoos search for a player to add on the wing in the class of 2016.
As always, what's said in the War Room, stays in the War Room. Let's go!
The second live period continues
We'll start again this week with logistics, as
Tony Bennett and his staff are spread out during this evaluation period. Bennett was scheduled to begin his week at DeMatha High School for the Ty Lawson/Victor Oladipo camp on Wednesday night before heading to New York for the adidas Uprising All-American Camp yesterday. By tonight, he was slated to be back in D.C. with the two weekend dates open to whomever he wanted to see in person.
Assistant coach
Jason Williford began his week in Atlanta at the Under Armour Finals before heading to join Bennett at DeMatha. From there, he was scheduled to head to Richmond for The Show, which will include the Team Loaded kids.
Brad Soderberg, meanwhile, started in Chicago at the Nike Global Challenge before heading to the NY2LA event in Wisconsin, where he was set to see a lot of younger kids. That was also the focus for associate head coach
Ron Sanchez, who after being in New York for the adidas event, was scheduled to head to Hoop Group in Pennsylvania to check in on some 2017 and 2018 prospects. He's set to finish his week down in Atlanta at UA.
We'll get into specifics on players in a moment but the overall focus or theme going into this open period was to learn more about the wings in 2016. UVa, sources say, feels pretty good about its evaluations of the bigs on its board but things are a bit murkier when it comes to the wings. The Cavaliers continue to look at a slew of guys, including players that maybe didn't wow them last week. But there are also new names that have been added to the list given what the players put out there during the first eval period. What remains clear is that adding a player on the wing is still very much a priority.
How things line up with Nichols
Let's begin by setting the table, so to speak, so that everyone is on the same page. As of today, UVa projects to have 11 scholarship players on its 2015-2016 roster. That group includes four seniors, one junior, four sophomores, and two freshmen. So, seven of those players will carry over to 2016-2017 and as everyone knows, the Cavaliers currently have three commits in the class of 2016. That means that UVa can add three more players who will be on the roster for that 2016-2017 season.
As has been the case since word broke that Memphis was altering his release to remove all of the restrictions that had been placed on his transfer, UVa is the frontrunner to land former five-star forward
Austin Nichols. According to our sources, it's a matter of the process continuing to play out and everyone we've talked to, including UVa sources, those in Memphis, and those in Knoxville, fully expects him to be a Wahoo soon.
So, what happens if Nichols commit to the Cavaliers to play his final two years of college ball? Our sources say that Bennett and his staff will likely use the other two scholarships in the 2016 class. One will go to a big and the other that aforementioned player on the wing. And should this scenario play out, the type of big that UVa targets will not be of the "big" big variety. Instead, the staff will focus on athletic, rangy guys who can play a sort of Akil Mitchell/Darion Atkins role, albeit with more offense. As we've touched on in various posts, Bennett may play smaller at times next season and one of the potential tweaks going forward could be for the Cavaliers to targets these types of post guys in the next couple of classes. So, if Virginia gets Nichols, it likely means Bennett will not target guys like
Tyler Cook. But you better believe that there are a clear top two on the list right now (more on that in a moment).
There have been questions about Virginia possibly carrying over one scholarship to the 2017 class. Since the Hoos are projected to have one senior in 2016-2017, that would give them a total of two scholarships to use but as of now, we don't see that being a likelihood. Our sources continue to believe that Bennett, who is very much a bird-in-hand recruiter, will use them both.
Now, while most of the focus in 2017 has been on getting a point guard (and with good reason given that the graduation of
London Perrantes opens up that spot), the type of wing Virginia ultimately gets in 2016 could impact that line of thinking. Simply put, there's a possibility that with four-star commits
Kyle Guy and
Ty Jerome playing at such a high level and showing multi-faceted games, the "need" in that class could end up being somewhere else, particularly if the wing UVa lands is a guy who has range and ball skills.
All that being said, we still think the Cavaliers are very likely to go with a PG in 2017 and find a wing in this class who primarily is a longer, athletic defender but has offensive chops. As one source put it, the staff would love to find "a Marial Shayok clone" to fill that role.
Diakite and Gabriel atop the board
The situation on the wing may not be clear but what is very clear right now is that four-star Rivals150 standouts
Mamadi Diakite and
Wenyen Gabriel are options 1A and 1B right now for UVa.
There is definitely a sense that the timeframes for each guy really work in Virginia's favor: Everyone expects a decision from Diakite by roughly the end of the month while Gabriel appears certain to go into the fall for a round of visits before he decides. So, should something totally unforeseen happen with Diakite (everything we've heard makes us very comfortable with that 9.8 number from last week's Confidence Meter), Gabriel will be a guy the staff really turns up the heat on.
Players on the wing
As we said, things on the wing are up in the air right now. For example, while
Lindy Waters has been a guy several sources thought would get UVa's attention, that wasn't the case last week. In addition, both
Jalen Johnson and
Brandon Robinson didn't exactly impress, either. It's not that they all played horribly but just that the staff didn't respond as strongly as they had hoped.
But several newer names certainly did play well, starting with Texas prospect
Andrew Jones, who picked up an offer from the Cavaliers. At a legit 6-foot-3 with a nice wingspan, Virginia's staff liked his potential to fill that wing role. They also liked what they saw from
Xavier Sneed,
Raquan Wilkins, and
Jagan Mosely. Word we've heard is that the staff will see all of those guys again, as well as give Waters, Johnson, and Robinson another look, this week. The hope is to have a much more firm grasp on the board at that spot going into the final evaluation period next week.
As of this very moment if you made us pick one, we'd be surprised if UVa didn't make some kind of push for Sneed, a teammate of Cook's with the St. Louis Eagles. At 6-foot-5, the four-star guard from Florissant (MO), who was set to play at the DeMatha camp this week, has offers from Cincinnati, Creighton, Illinois, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Wichita State, and Xavier. It'll be interesting to see how that one plays out.
That is it for this week, and as always, what's said here, stays here!
