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Wake Forest Basketball Recruiting: Juke Harris Commits!!

Pilchard said:
WF basketball has not crushed it with the recruiting of the HS Class of 2022. There is no denying that. Lots of near misses, but in recruiting, Ricky Bobby is right: "If you're not first, you're last".

Love Forbes and have total faith in his ability to build a program including recruit. That said, WF is coming off a decade of in basketball incompetence, and has finished the last 3 basketball seasons ranked outside the top 100 in college basketball. To give an example of how low WF basketball has fallen, a college named "Bellarmine", who played their first season as a D1 program this past year, had a better ranking than WF basketball in 2021. Over the past few years, WF is arguably the worst Power Conference program in the nation. So, despite his charisma and enthusiasm, even Steve Forbes isn't going to immediately pull top 150 recruits away from programs that have been significantly better than WF for a decade. WF basketball is going to have to show progress on the court first to get higher rated recruits to buy-in (and fans for that matter). Feel confident that Forbes will do that in 2021-22 with a roster mix of his own recruits, transfers and international talent. Not saying we are dancing this year, but if we can be a tough out, play competitive games and get to .500, recruiting will get easier as the program builds momentum. Really important that WF basketball to take a step forward this year. Think it will happen.
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This.
 
Wake is going to have to win some games to show recruits that this decade will not be like the last. Forbes may have to dip into the portal pool for recruits again this year.

His JuCo experience may be a plus in navigating that. JuCo guys arrive, play one or two seasons and are gone. That is a lot of portal guys as well.
 
Forbes got some top 150 guys in the 21 class and that was without supposedly our best advantage of getting them on campus. What would explain the drop off in 22 now that we are actually getting them on campus?
 
Cam Hildreth committed a year ago tomorrow. He was the second commit behind McCray who committed last July.

Just for comparison.
 
I’m also surprised by the lack of success this year as compared to last year but agree that performance on the court this season is paramount. We have the talent and depth to be a quality team this year so Forbes needs to prove his coaching mettle.
 
If I'm Forbes and I believe Wake has the pieces to make a good showing this year, I'm absolutely willing to gamble on the portal versus taking non-ACC guys and hoping they work out in a few years while they tie up scholarships. There will simply be too much proven talent in the portal year after year in this new era of college basketball, with opportunities for NLI money pushing talent out of lesser programs even more than this past year. Wake may not have the booster numbers to simply hand cash to players, but we do have a great NBA presence with plenty of millionaires to drive funds to our team.

Of course I wish we'd landed a couple of our higher targets to this point, but Wake's a complete mystery to recruits right now. Playing time? Relevance? Can Forbes replicate his ETSU success somewhere so different? With a bunch of redshirted COVID underclassmen will there even be starting spots open 2 years from now? I think we're in a kind of no-man's land recruiting-wise. Not proven enough to land top 50's, not enough guaranteed minutes to promise to 50-120's, not enough pessimism to start chasing lower ranked guys (unless we think they're under the radar).
 
PhDeac said:
Cam Hildreth committed a year ago tomorrow. He was the second commit behind McCray who committed last July.

Just for comparison.
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Also, would put international recruits in entirely different category. They aren't as swayed by a teams on court reputation and exposure as US HS players are. Carter Whitt's dad went to WF; so, that's a connection that can overcome a lot of hurdles.
 
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Also I think it was Strick who made the point that Monsanto is technically a 2022 guy, albeit with question marks coming off a major injury. Pretty sure I have that right since he redshirted his first year at ETSU, played last year but didn’t count against eligibility and will now presumably get a medical redshirt.
 
PhDeac said:
Cam Hildreth committed a year ago tomorrow. He was the second commit behind McCray who committed last July.

Just for comparison.
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Actually, Carter Whitt was the second commitment on 9/21/20 (per Rivals).
 
WRS said:
Also I think it was Strick who made the point that Monsanto is technically a 2022 guy, albeit with question marks coming off a major injury. Pretty sure I have that right since he redshirted his first year at ETSU, played last year but didn’t count against eligibility and will now presumably get a medical redshirt.
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I would think there is very low likelihood he is a 7-year player.
 
Tobacco Road said:
I would think there is very low likelihood he is a 7-year player.
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Going to be a long time before we know how the extra COVID seasons will play out. Still trying to get my head around that Sam Hartman is playing his 4th season as WF's QB, and is considered a sophomore. Hartman started a game for WF in August 2018, and he could start a January 2024 CFP Championship game for the Deacs. Weird.
 
WRS said:
Also I think it was Strick who made the point that Monsanto is technically a 2022 guy, albeit with question marks coming off a major injury. Pretty sure I have that right since he redshirted his first year at ETSU, played last year but didn’t count against eligibility and will now presumably get a medical redshirt.
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Yeah, I have no idea if he'll stay (and I hope for his sake that he doesn't - you only get so many years to earn professional athlete salaries), but he'll be a RS freshmen next year.
 
just pulled this off twitter

"Deacs are going to be huge this year. Remarkable transformation to go from basically Ody to 7’ Walton, 7’1 Marsh, 6’10 Sy, 6’9 Ingraham, 6’8” LaRavia, all ready for good minutes. Excited to see this new team"

This team is now big and none of these guys appear to be stiffs. We also have good guards and it will be an interesting season to say the least. Hope to finish in the upper half of the conference with a chance for the tourney. For those worried about '22 recruiting I would not be very concerned. Forbes has filled in the holes and developed a very solid roster. He can recruit and coach.
 
WRS said:
Also I think it was Strick who made the point that Monsanto is technically a 2022 guy, albeit with question marks coming off a major injury. Pretty sure I have that right since he redshirted his first year at ETSU, played last year but didn’t count against eligibility and will now presumably get a medical redshirt.
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Monsanto may not play seven years, but I fully expect him to be a significant contributor at Wake to the 2022 - 2023 season, and maybe the next. He needs to play at least one season to show that he has recovered.

I just hope he gives Forbes a "heads up" if he is leaving at the end of next season (May 23). It's one thing to replace a guy you know is leaving at the end of a season. It's another to find out near the end of a season that a guy you thought was returning is moving on.
 
Deaconblue said:
Monsanto may not play seven years, but I fully expect him to be a significant contributor at Wake to the 2022 - 2023 season, and maybe the next. He needs to play at least one season to show that he has recovered.

I just hope he gives Forbes a "heads up" if he is leaving at the end of next season (May 23). It's one thing to replace a guy you know is leaving at the end of a season. It's another to find out near the end of a season that a guy you thought was returning is moving on.
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Since Monsanto was originally a Forbes recruit at ETSU, you'd have to think their relationship is good enough where that wouldn't be an issue. I do feel like paint touches had this problem with his guys, though.
 
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