Javon Pickett, a 3 star shooting guard from southern Illinois, was released from his LOI by U. of I. following their coaching change and is back on the market.

We offered Pickett last year along with Il. State and some other mid-majors. I wonder if Porter will make a pitch for him.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/co ... story.html

I guess we can/should assume Custer will be leaving after next year, even though he has a year of eligibility?

Next year was always going to be a big class. We're going to have at least 4 scholarships open up next year, maybe more. I think Custer (and Townes) sincerely have no idea what they'll do and will make their decisions after the season. If we have a great year, I could see them staying. If we implode in February again and those two have their minutes cut, maybe they look elsewhere. I think if Kirby took a nice step forward and didn't just play nominal minutes because he was our best option to take the tip, he would've stayed. The tricky thing about recruiting is it's a 2 way street: the program needs to want them but the players also need to want to be at the school. If they decide to transfer (and sometimes that decision comes out of left field), you always need a plan B, which would explain 6 open offers for 1 spot (per Verbal Commits).

I'd be surprised if Pickett's recruitment picks back up. Most Chicago area recruits in 2015 were offered by Emanuel Dildy who's no longer with the team so communication might have broken down. While i wouldn't say it's impossible usually when decommits like this happen a bevy of new offers come in and the process starts over. Pickett was a bit over recruited though, he's a mid major plus guy but would have been a bench guy in the Big Ten. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in Akron with Groce. Who knows though! He'd be a big get for us!

Also Superfan. I don't know if you saw but Porter stated on the radio that he's looking to fill two scholarships. Most of us just assume it's Vlatko. It's likely we would have seen news from anyone else given social media presence (and the play time that Bruno got as a freshmen would likely make it a scoop that would make the rounds). As for Kirby, I thought he took a decent step forward but he still only made 3-4 contested buckets during his fourth year college basketball. Even in JUCO he was only averaging 8 points after redshirting at VT. He improved at getting rebounds, but was still very foul prone and just okay on defense (Julius had a similar problem where even if he was in great position people just seemed to score over him...), i don't think he's ceiling was much more than what we saw. Whereas the upside on a player like Akiean Frederick is much higher (That's not at all to dump on Kirby, seemed like a great kid, would dive for loose balls, and never had an effort problem). That said I truly hope Kirby has success at IUPUI. His size may go even further there and he could prove me totally wrong!

Looks like we'll have to wait a few weeks to hear about Frederick.

Seems like the majority of guys commit while on their visit or shortly after. Hopefully this isn't a bad sign for us.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I'm starting to think Lucas Williamson from Whitney Young is a new target. I checked a few weeks back when he was mentioned on the board on twitter to see if any coaches followed him, nothing. But came across his name recently and checked and Mullins is following him. He's a do it all guard who's been under recruited. Many had him pegged for NIU, but they recently signed another guard and questions have arisen about what it means for Williamson.

I'm pretty high on any public league recruit as a way to open doors; Whitney Youngs senior class next season has at least 3 D1 talents in Javon Freeman, Justin Boyd and Xavier Casteneda... Williamson fits our talent level, seems like a great kid with good leadership intangibles and he's also won two state titles (he's also 6'4" as Swella pointed out so he's really checking all of Porter's boxes). The main reason he's been under recruited is he does everything well but nothing outstanding. He's a good but not great athlete, he plays pretty well inside and out, but you can't point to him as a shooter, a driver, a defensive specialist...

That said he improved his 3 point shot greatly in his senior year and does all the little stuff you need to do to win. He's the type of player we'll need especially after Richardson graduates.

Agreed, but we've had players wait like Jackson and Chastain. He said it was a good visit on twitter, and that the city of Chicago was amazing; fingers crossed. I believe he has a visit scheduled at George Mason in late April.

I'm not thinking it's a bad sign. He tweeted that before his visit. I just didn't find it until today. I'm also guessing he just wants to take all visits before signing. I've seen players who are fully committed to one school take a visit to another because they can or because they want to reaffirm their commitment. If he's visiting George Mason then, the decision should come out soon after that.

Both from twitter:

-Frederick visits Kent State this weekend.
-We will host Taylor Bruninga next weekend according to twitter after he visits ISUr this weekend.