Five-star guard Anthony Black sets commitment date
On3 Consensus 5-star guard Anthony Black is one step closer to making a decision, as he’s set a commitment date for Monday, March 28th.
The 6-foot-6 combo guard out of Dallas Duncanville is set to decide between Gonzaga, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, TCU, and the G-League at the McDonald’s All-American game.
Black is ranked as the No. 19 overall prospect in the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He’s also currently the highest-ranked uncommitted guard in the class.
On3’s Gerry Hamilton recently caught up with Black to discuss the programs involved in his recruitment.
Black talks schools, G-League
Gonzaga: “It was a good culture. It’s a basketball school. They don’t have football, so everyone showed up and showed how they prioritize me. They showed how they prioritize basketball there. Coach Few wants me to come in and lead the No. 1 team in the country as a freshman. Have a big role. Have the ball in my hands. Help the team win early on.”
Arkansas: “I just know that Coach Muss knows what to do with big guards. I know he also knows what to do when he has a lot of talent on the same team. So I feel like me, and Nick (Smith) and Jordan (Walsh); and everyone else they have right now would play well together. And I think he would do a good job of making us play unselfish.”
Oklahoma State: “Coach Mike trusts me a lot. He feels like I can come in early and help the team win. He feels like I can be a playmaker with the ball in my hands, and do a lot of good stuff.”
TCU: “It’s really just the local school that would let me be me, and play the way I want to. Playing the way I want to play while helping the team win. And I have family there now, and it would be in my backyard.
“We have a pretty good relationship,” Black said of head coach Jamie Dixon. “Just because Micah is there playing and I’m around all the time.”
TCU has proximity in its favor. Their campus is just over 30 minutes from Black’s home in Dallas. Current TCU guard Micah Peavy is a graduate of Duncanville High. His father, David Peavy, is Anthony Black’s current head coach at Duncanville.
G-League: “That’s just like living basketball. Being a profession right now. Just train and get a lot better. I think my mom would be happy for me. She knows how important development is for me, and how much better I need to get. I believe she would be okay with that decision.”
On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine favoring Arkansas
Currently, the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM) gives Arkansas an 85% chance of landing Anthony Black. This is largely due to the fact that On3’s Gerry Hamilton made a 60% confidence pick in favor of the Razorbacks last month.
While Arkansas might hold the majority, I still wouldn’t count out Gonzaga.
RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college.
It factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.