BillySee58

Didn't know you could use the grad transfer rule twice

It will affect two home games. Don't think it will be that big a deal, from a home scheduling standpoint.

I don't think that Woolridge would play off the ball, even with a healthy Gibson. Gibson was healthy and starting at the beginning of last year but he played off the ball and Woolridge ran point. Defensively, however, you could see Woolridge guarding an off-the-ball player possibly if Draper, Duffy, or Gibson are in the game next to him. Here is what I have 1 - Ryan Woolridge 2 - Jorden Duffy 3 - Roosevelt Smart 4 - Mark Tikhonenko 5 - Zachary Simmons Bench 1/2 - Umoja Gibson 2/3 - Larry Wise 2/3/4 - Abdul Mohamed 2/3/4 - Michael Miller 4 - Jahmiah Simmons 5 - Tope Arikawe 1/2 - DJ Draper If he's starting, he'll probably be our second leading scorer. If he's at full-strength, he can be a 15 point/game guy, easily. To everyone reading this, can we please stop referring to Mark Tikhonenko as "the Russian" or "the Russian Kid?" His last name is 10 letters, 4 syllables. It's really not that hard. Referring to him as the afore mentioned is just lazy. Hell, call him Tikho for short if you really want to abbreviate. As far as how good can he be, he's the closest thing we have to a prototypical stretch-4. Which is why he had Power conference offers. Miller and J Simmons are probably further along, so they might be more likely to start at the 4 but Tikhonenko has them beat hands down in potential. I think Gibson off the bench would give us a legit 6th man and a legit backup point guard at the same time. We lacked both of those things most of last year. We also now have a bench made up entirely of guys who have some offensive skill, and can shoot free throws. Gone are the guys who brought little to nothing offensively and couldn't shoot free throws (Benford recruits), save for Woolridge. I also think Wise and Mohamed will be helpful as wings. They can allow guys like Smart and Duffy to play the 2 offensively and also not have to guard bigger wings defensively. Basically, they can bring some of what Lawson and Holston brought defensively, while also being able to stretch the floor from 3 and not be liabilities offensively. Mike Miller really brings a lot on both ends now that he is shooting jumpers right-handed, as evidenced by the CBI. Jahmiah Simmons is a player who played, started, and produced for Mccasland as a true freshman at Arkansas State. He's not a great three-point shooter but it looks like he's working on it so should at least have the capability. He knows how to play in the paint on both ends, and can score down low, rebound, and even block shots despite being by just 6'4". Last, Arikawe and Draper both are knowns. Arikawe is a solid backup 5 and Draper is likely an end of the bench guy now but capable of lighting it up from deep and playing adequate defense.

To quote @UNT90, "Scheduling, the worst thing this AD (RV) does." I disagree/disagreed with that, but not because I thought RV was good at scheduling. Fun to see some of the series Wren has signed us up for. And he has been able to get them all 1 for 1 to my knowledge. Hasn't had to agree to a 2 for 1 to get top-notch opponents to agree to come to Denton.

Both are 2019 commits, finishing up their junior year's of high school. Jackson is committed and Iwuakor is undecided

Yes

Jahmiah Simmons was already on the roster as a scholarship player last season. We've only added two.

Two

Nice! Big perimeter player who can shoot. Certainly fills a need

I like it. So does this confirm Holgorsen has decommitted?

Never heard of em

Yes. And our coaches have shown the willingness to do so in their tenure here. Or, it's 2018 and coaches push for commitments earlier than they ever have. Plus there is an early-signing period now when many spots are filled up, and players are pressured to commit a year or more in advance of their high-school graduation, pushing players to commit and have a spot in a class before they may truly be ready. Or before things change drastically (i.e. Coaching staff changes, life situations, etc.).

.9 is a four-star. But they seem to round up on the composite rating, so anything over .85 is a four-star, if memory serves correct

Huge. Even if he just said "North Texas is my current leader" that would be huge

Jalen Guyton is our guy. He needs to have a huge year, but he showed game-breaking ability at receiver. I have no idea how he completely disappeared after that amazing run of games, but if he can get his consistency to where it needs to be, he has a better chance than anyone we've had in recent memory at getting drafted

He has signed on the dotted line https://t.co/rQnjacbsBG

What direction do you hope we go with the last 3 scholarship spots we have to give for next season? Here's a rough guess at what our depth chart would look like if we only had our current 10 scholarship players/signees: 1 - RS JR Ryan Woolridge RS FR Umoja Gibson 2 - SR Jorden Duffy 3 - JR Roosevelt Smart FR Larry Wise 4 - SR Michael Miller/RS FR Mark Tikhonenko/RS SO Jahmiah Simmons 5 - SO Zach Simmons SR Tope Arikawe Obvious spot is we need another JUCO or grad transfer wing who can challenge Duffy or at least give us scoring punch off the bench. Maybe one more player who could play in the post. I'm thinking maybe a 6'6"-6'8" player with some bulk who has range out to the three-point line and can play 5 in a pinch or stretch 4. I also wouldn't be surprised to see us save a spot on a D1 transfer who would have to sit out a year. We should be deep enough to have the luxury of using a spot on a guy who would have to redshirt.

Timeline wise, those schools offered right after his sophomore year, and he committed to Drake back this past December. Seems like those schools moved on from him before his senior year started, since he picked Drake before district play even began during his senior year.

Easy conclusion is that yeah, they dried up. This is more of an example of being opportunistic, like with guys like Darden and Siggers in football, rather than a legit head-to-head recruiting win against A&M and SMU. Solid pickup any way you look at it.

Good work by Greg.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2018/larry-wise-3197 http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/larry-wise https://www.hudl.com/athlete/7132624/larry-wise

Former Drake commit. Also held offers from Texas A&M, Tulsa, MTSU, and SMU at one point

If Brewer breaks out, we may need to evaluate how much emphasis we should place going forward on recruiting slot receivers. I say that, but it seems the coaches are already thinking along those lines. If there's a good one out there like Darden, sure, go get him. But if you're able to get walkons that can make plays this often, you probably don't need to spend a spot on a slot in every class. Which they didn't last year. May become a trend.

It's a really simple concept. That team is long gone. That team had Lawson playing the majority of the minutes at the 3 and Holston and Temara playing the majority of the minutes at the 4. Three guys who other teams continually dared to beat them, and were unable to due to their severely limited offensive games. Then we saw how much better Mccasland's offense, and team, looks when he actually has guys in there who he recruited, who are not liabilities on offense, can actually burn other teams for leaving them open, and can hit above 60% from the free throw line. Now we get that starting five back, get three more key players who Mccasland signed who were sitting out, plus have four more spots for him to get more guys like Smart, Duffy, Miller, and Gibson rather than guys taking up spots who don't fit. That's why the up-tick next year is expected, and why the concern of the late-season sputter was almost completely erased once we stopped playing the players who were the main cause for it and started beating teams by wider margins than we had all year. I explained this to Andrew too, but the article was not about giving credit to Mccasland for Benford's recruits. It's saying that with the departure of four of the five scholarship Benford players Mccasland inherited, the guys on this roster are either guys he signed or guys he still wants here (Woolridge, Simmons, Draper). It's his roster now. He doesn't have to play with guys he inherited who did not fit his scheme anymore, like he did last year.

He signed Simmons. He recruited Gibson, but Gibson committed and signed under Mccasland. Mccasland could have released Simmons from his LOI like he did with Wainwright, but he didn't which means Simmons is as much his guy as the players he did sign. This article clearly is about how Mccasland has crafted this roster to resemble what he wants his roster to look like, rather than a roster he inherited. Not about who gets credit for which player, which Benford could only take credit for Simmons and Woolridge at this point. Not Gibson. Woolridge and Simmons may have signed under Benford but that doesn't change the fact that they are only still on the roster at this point because Mccasland wants them, not just because he inherited them like with Lawson, Holston, Fuller, and Temara.