gary with the DSouthr like post. Roy is going "full Roy" for Bamba and PJ Washington. Lol, what a dork. In their recruiting news thread it is amazing the amount of pipe dreams over there. They are talking Knox, Bamba and Washington. Mention all kinds of names like that as if they actually have a shot at these kids. Bamba is said to be an intelligent kid. Why would he even think seriously about going to UNC with their new academic reputation? When you bring up North Carolina and academics together it is now a national punch line.
"I got stuck up here in DC and missed Peach Jam so I'm relying on a couple of friends. Honestly, I haven't gotten anything definitive that I would stake my reputation on, like I did with JB and JJ, or even with TB and BR last year.
For example there was zero coming through the AAU scuttlebutt about Tilmon since he wasn't playing this summer --- and as you and I both noted, that boded poorly for us... and good for the home team.
At risk of jinxing anything (yeah, I'm a jock and admittedly superstitious), I'll just share what little I've heard recently. Sticking with your initials meme, I'm not sure who A would be (Ayton ain't on our radar that I know of). As for C, I'll go ahead and tell you that WC was the player I was referring to in a previous post. The same person (from his HS program) who said WC still liked UNC was also the one who came back and said that he "used to be totally a Carolina Kid", but didn't know if "he's the same kid anymore'. Needless to say that put a bit of a damper on held-out hope there. I posted that to make a point about modern recruiting. I SMH at those who like to post that Player-X was "never going to come to UNC". The reality is that sometimes things change. The NCAA junk combined with his growing hype has hurt us badly with this particular player. I'm not gonna totally give up hope, but let's just say a commitment from him would be a very pleasant surprise.
As for B, I did hear that Roy is going Full-Roy on Bamba, i.e., Roy's presence was ubiquitous at his games and as we know Roy is very good at letting kids know they are a priority, and that vid that 58 linked would seem to indicate it's making an impression. Again, I still haven't gotten anything I'd hang my hat on, but I feel confident saying Roy has us deep in the mix there. I do get concerned however when I hear the modern NBA catch-phrase "positionless player". Calipari throws that around to the OADs.
Speaking of Calipari, he seems to be getting a bit desperate to land a top '17 Big. He hasn't had much success thus far. Obviously he's hard on Ayton, but has competition from the usual suspects. He's behind dook (and probably us) for Carter, and he could be outside-looking-in on Bamba, but he's coming hard. Bamba's a sharp kid and especially seeing two Senior Bigs at UNC I hope would be attractive, and I hope that he sees through the infamous Calipari hype. So where's dook with Bamba? That one I can't answer.
Finally, the positive vibe I referred to in the post above regards a player of the large persuasion whose first name is Paul (although he goes by his initials
). Roy has also gone Full-Roy on him and I'm glad to hear it. IMNSHO he is the most important recruit in this class along with Jalek (with whom he won the 3-on-3 championship at USA Basketball). The recent media reports have been positive and I did get a text from a buddy saying he heard PJ may be "feeling Carolina". Hope so. Now Dave, I know you get hung up on numbers concerning size (Meeks is taller than you like to list him), but PJ plays as big as anybody out there, and can stretch you as well. Another thing is that some of these 5* Bigs (like Tilmon) are still projects to a degree --- not Washington, he could step in and start from day-1. I also think he and Bamba could co-exist nicely. Speaking of Calipari, he may now be our biggest threat here. He is apparently trying desperately to rekindle things with PJ after not showing enough love for a while. Texas, once considered the favorite may have already recruited themselves out of that, so watch out for the snake in Lexington. Anyway, if I had to go out on a limb, I'm starting to feel like we are the current leader in the clubhouse for Paul Jamaine Washington Jr. (If that jinxes it, it's your fault!
)"