DRC: UNT lands Bryce Zephir after his standout showing at JUCO showcase

[Brett Vito]

Edited August 1, 2021 by Brett Vito

[BillySee58]

Story sounds really similar to Jason Preston who was just drafted by the Clippers out of Ohio this year.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Preston

[GrandGreen]

Overall, I don't know how any NT fan could be thrilled with this signing.

I frankly expected a much bigger splash from McC last signee.

This is apparently a player with a great upside fueled by a growth spurt and who demonstrated progress in a juco tournament for unsigned players.  

Out of the players available in the transfer pool plus the normal sources, this just seems very underwhelming. 

After arguably the best season ever for NT's men's basketball; it seems that NT could have signed a much more proven player.  

This player did not even start at his juco, I don't care how good that juco was that is not a good sign.   

 

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by GrandGreen

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

2 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Overall, I don't know how any NT fan could be thrilled with this signing.

I frankly expected a much bigger splash from McC last signee.

This is apparently a player with a great upside fueled by a growth spurt and who demonstrated progress in a juco tournament for unsigned players.  

Out of the players available in the transfer pool plus the normal sources, this just seems very underwhelming. 

After arguably the best season ever for NT's men's basketball; it seems that NT could have signed a much more proven player.  

This player did not even start at his juco, I don't care how good that juco was that is not a good sign.   

 

 

Well Coach Dowling, guy who recruited him, has landed the likes of Hamlet, Reese, McBride, among others. I’m not doing backflips that we landed him, but I’m not mad. Reem has proved that he can recruit his ass off.

[BillySee58]

6 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Overall, I don't know how any NT fan could be thrilled with this signing.

I frankly expected a much bigger splash from McC last signee.

This is apparently a player with a great upside fueled by a growth spurt and who demonstrated progress in a juco tournament for unsigned players.  

Out of the players available in the transfer pool plus the normal sources, this just seems very underwhelming. 

After arguably the best season ever for NT's men's basketball; it seems that NT could have signed a much more proven player.  

This player did not even start at his juco, I don't care how good that juco was that is not a good sign.   

Yeah it seems like Mccasland has not really raised his standards in recruiting, both with regards to players he is pursuing and landing. Hoping that changes with the 2022 class but so far the caliber of players we are recruiting is pretty much the same as what it has been in previous classes.

[BillySee58]

4 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Well Coach Dowling, guy who recruited him, has landed the likes of Hamlet, Reese, McBride, among others. I’m not doing backflips that we landed him, but I’m not mad. Reem has proved that he can recruit his ass off.

Recruiting and evaluating are two different things though. This is conflating the two.

Hamlet, Reese, and McBride were all fairly highly recruited coming out of JUCO. It didn’t take tremendous evaluation to recognize they were solid CUSA talent. It took strong recruiting ability to land those other guys. Zephir’s the opposite. It didn’t take much recruiting ability to get him but it did take some keen evaluation to identify him as a worthy guy when other schools weren’t.

If Zephir works out it’s because they did a good job evaluating and picking out an under-the-radar guy. Hopefully that’s the case and I think the staff has a solid track record there.

[meangreen11]

20 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Well Coach Dowling, guy who recruited him, has landed the likes of Hamlet, Reese, McBride, among others. I’m not doing backflips that we landed him, but I’m not mad. Reem has proved that he can recruit his ass off.

The offers are the issue.

[MeanGreen13]

I was hoping for another bigger player to form a rotation down low... Thomas Bell is going to have to do a lot this year. 

[BillySee58]

2 hours ago, MeanGreen13 said:

I was hoping for another bigger player to form a rotation down low... Thomas Bell is going to have to do a lot this year. 

80 minutes at the 4 and the 5 between Bell, Wright, and Ousmane will be plenty. Similar to Bell, Geu, and Simmons splitting the 80 minutes at the 4 and the 5 in 2019-2020. Wright and Bell will be capable of close to 30 minutes each then Ousmane can handle the other 20 or so.

[akriesman]

Grant has earned my complete trust.  The man has a system that works and can coach his butt off.   If he thinks a guy is a good fit, I am onboard 100%.       

Benford could recruit some pretty highly regarded players.   Look where that got us.