2013 F Austin Nichols (Memphis Briarcrest)

#351
#351
bleedingTNorange said:
Makes sense to me.

Honestly probably a smart decision, a lot of these kids need to get away from their home city.
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Yep, now Nichols is a different story. He's a private-school kid and has almost no chance to stay in Memphis. He's not one of the ones that has people making decisions for him.

But JW3 and Black? They'll be fine to go to Kentucky or UT or another high-major schools hours away. But if they stay in Memphis it'd take a Calipari-esque level of ego-asuaging to keep them happy. Not worth it.

I do, however, think Pastner f'ed up with Hubbs by not making him a higher priority. Hubbs isn't your run of the mill City of Memphis player and from what I heard, his family pretty much gift wrapped him to Memphis but Pastner didn't make him a top priority.
 
#352
#352
MemphisCanes said:
Yep, now Nichols is a different story. He's a private-school kid and has almost no chance to stay in Memphis. He's not one of the ones that has people making decisions for him.

But JW3 and Black? They'll be fine to go to Kentucky or UT or another high-major schools hours away. But if they stay in Memphis it'd take a Calipari-esque level of ego-asuaging to keep them happy. Not worth it.

I do, however, think Pastner f'ed up with Hubbs by not making him a higher priority. Hubbs isn't your run of the mill City of Memphis player and from what I heard, his family pretty much gift wrapped him to Memphis but Pastner didn't make him a top priority.
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Well we would for sure love to have Hubbs.
 
#354
#354
MemphisCanes said:
We could never keep every guy home in Memphis. Memphis will always have a deep recruiting pool, and Pastner used this to his advantage as a new coach. However, Cal was notorious for letting highly ranked kids from Memphis go elsewhere, and I think Pastner is starting to see why.

In city kids come with baggage, and that's trouble for a hometown coach. I'm sure UT fans heard a bit about Joe Jackson over the season. He wasn't performing, was benched and then his AAU coach started rumors that he was going to transfer. If Joe was at UT, or Georgetown, and was underperforming, he'd simply ride the bench in peace until he snapped out of it. But in Memphis, he's got so many people in his ear. More than most coaches care to deal with.

So Pastner has started to eschew in-city recruiting, which he held up as one of his priorities only a few years ago, in favor of getting TX, GA and Northeasterly kids.

I expect he'll pursue the occasional in-city kid like Nick King, but others, like JW3 and Leron Black, Pastner has simply givin up on. Hell, our recruiting class this season is 2 kids from GA and a JuCo from Kansas.

This will obviously work to UT's benefit.
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I agree it will inevitably work to Tennessee's favor. However, Pastner (and Cal's) reasoning for wanting to end the series with Tennessee was the unfair recruiting advantage it afforded Tennessee to play in Memphis vs any advantage Memphis gained, or didn't gain by playing in Knoxville. Essentially, Tennessee stood to gain everything and Memphis nothing short of a boost in RPI and SOS. It seems contradictory to now abandon that effort that they have been so outspoken to protect.

Question for you; assuming Pastner is adopting the approach of broadening his focus, is the perception that King comes with little to no baggage, and that JW3 and Black aren't worth the trouble that possibly follows them? In other words, are JW3 and Black bad apples?
 
#355
#355
MemphisCanes said:
We could never keep every guy home in Memphis. Memphis will always have a deep recruiting pool, and Pastner used this to his advantage as a new coach. However, Cal was notorious for letting highly ranked kids from Memphis go elsewhere, and I think Pastner is starting to see why.

In city kids come with baggage, and that's trouble for a hometown coach. I'm sure UT fans heard a bit about Joe Jackson over the season. He wasn't performing, was benched and then his AAU coach started rumors that he was going to transfer. If Joe was at UT, or Georgetown, and was underperforming, he'd simply ride the bench in peace until he snapped out of it. But in Memphis, he's got so many people in his ear. More than most coaches care to deal with.

So Pastner has started to eschew in-city recruiting, which he held up as one of his priorities only a few years ago, in favor of getting TX, GA and Northeasterly kids.

I expect he'll pursue the occasional in-city kid like Nick King, but others, like JW3 and Leron Black, Pastner has simply givin up on. Hell, our recruiting class this season is 2 kids from GA and a JuCo from Kansas.

This will obviously work to UT's benefit.
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I can certainly see this as the situation for Memphis. All the local kids expect to start and be stars. There is local influence working for the kid and against the coach if things don't work out as expected. This is a typical problem at the high school level and I can see the extension to college for local kids.
 
#356
#356
cncchris33 said:
I agree it will inevitably work to Tennessee's favor. However, Pastner (and Cal's) reasoning for wanting to end the series with Tennessee was the unfair recruiting advantage it afforded Tennessee to play in Memphis vs any advantage Memphis gained, or didn't gain by playing in Knoxville. Essentially, Tennessee stood to gain everything and Memphis nothing short of a boost in RPI and SOS. It seems contradictory to now abandon that effort that they have been so outspoken to protect.

Question for you; assuming Pastner is adopting the approach of broadening his focus, is the perception that King comes with little to no baggage, and that JW3 and Black aren't worth the trouble that possibly follows them? In other words, are JW3 and Black bad apples?
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Very good point about the recruiting. I've always believed that to Cal and Pastner, it wasn't so much the home game at Memphis that they were complaining about, but the away game in Knoxville. Not a huge recruiting base here in East Tennessee to showoff for and say "hey, you'll get to play in front of your home crowd every two years if you come to Memphis."

As for King, I believe he's got less "hangers-on" than JW3 and Black, not that they're necessarily "bad apples". Joe Jackson isn't a "bad apple", he's just got a lot of people around him. Sometimes the interests of those people don't align with Joe's interests or those of the University. JW3 and Black have been top recruits since middle-school, like Joe. King has not.
 
#363
#363
BruinVol said:
It seems to me basketball is the sport where recruits wait the latest to make decisions. If that is the case why is that?
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-sometimes it's to see who stays and who goes on the team, as well as the staff

-sometimes, they are getting pulled different ways by family and friends and their hs's, like football, but aau coaches and handlers are around and muck it up

-and some are waiting for the best overall deals for their handlers or families, whether future payment, payments to charities, jobs, or however they skirt around the coach, as long as the coach "doesn't know about it"

College ball is crooked. Moreso than any sport.
 
#365
#365
Spartacavolus said:
-sometimes it's to see who stays and who goes on the team, as well as the staff

-sometimes, they are getting pulled different ways by family and friends and their hs's, like football, but aau coaches and handlers are around and muck it up

-and some are waiting for the best overall deals for their handlers or families, whether future payment, payments to charities, jobs, or however they skirt around the coach, as long as the coach "doesn't know about it"

College ball is crooked. Moreso than any sport.
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Thanks for the answer. I am betting those AAU coaches want to make sure they get their share of the "attention" in the summer and really discourage early commitments.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#369
#369
from a Gator website......

Class of 2013 power forward Austin Nichols certainly has made a name for himself at Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis, Tenn. Nichols was named Mr. Basketball in Tennessee after finishing as a finalist last year.

Florida coach Billy Donovan paid a visit to the 6-foot-8, 195-pound junior earlier this week. Nichols’ high school coach, John Harrington, said the visit was to evaluate Nichols’ interest in the Gators.

“They wanted to make sure he was interested in them,” Harrington said. “Austin is very interested in them. I think Coach Donovan and (UF assistant) coach (John) Pelphrey have done a great job recruiting him.”

Read more: Donovan checks out ‘Mr. Tennessee’ - Florida Gators Basketball Recruiting - GatorCountry.com
 
#372
#372
Kusotate said:
Also Austin Nichols is playing for ex gator Mike Miller's AAU team (M33M) along with Robert Hubbs. The Vol's should be worried IMO...........

M33M Basketball - M33M Elite Team
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Or you should be worried that ccm has proven to own billy and these recruits know that.

The only reason they're playing for that team is because the Memphis kids wanted to split up this year. You've got about 2 top Memphis kids on each of these aau teams now instead of 5 or 6 like last year.
 
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#373
#373
BruinVol said:
Thanks for the answer. I am betting those AAU coaches want to make sure they get their share of the "attention" in the summer and really discourage early commitments.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
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Also you don't have to go to a big time school in basketball to go pro. Which gives you alot more options.
 
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