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Basketball recruiting

This Donovan thing might be interesting. I think Florida has a couple commits we might be interested in, not sure how much room we have (still waiting on Tevin Mack).
 
Hey bomb did you see that they want to do a conference championship game for football because of all the crap that happened this year.
 
Conflicting reports on Tevin Mack. Some are saying he's down to Kansas and Texas. Others are saying he wants to stay close to home and will pick Georgia. He has no official visits left so not sure if he will be able to visit Kansas or Texas.

Initial reports were that Mack would decide on his birthday (today). I'm not sure what's going down. There's conflicting reports on this now, as some are saying he's no longer deciding on Friday.
 
Don't like our chances so much if he takes a visit to KU. Their fans knew his birthday was a few days back and were inundating him with tweets, for crying out loud.
 
Recognizing Taylor's weaknesses as a player that BLH noted, I still think this would be unequivocally terrific news. TJ or DJ he is not, but I don't see how we're a better team without him than with him next year. Hopefully some better coaching (and perimeter shooting from his teammates) will help to resolve or mitigate some of Taylor's current shortcomings. I expect that we'll see a significant jump in basketball IQ across the roster.


This. I'm glad he is coming back.
 
Sounds like Mack is announcing sometime next week.

I'm not sure Kansas is going to offer Mack. They offered Legarld Vick yesterday who is probably going to classify to 2015.
 
FYI Jerry Meyer changed his crystal ball prediction back to Texas. I'm not sure on this but I think that's where the Mack to Georgia narrative started.
 
Huge news here.

Gerry Hamilton:
#ESPN100 No. 48 Tevin Mack (@sl0wbucks) will be making an unofficial visit to #Texas #Longhorns this weekend. @ESPNRNHoops
 
I gave the MidlandHSSports guy a shout out on Twitter for being ahead of the game on this Mack recruitment. He DM'ed me and told me that Mack is pretty much a lock to Texas and Georgia isn't in the mix. Take that as you will. FYI MidlandHSSports covers Mack's HS basketball team (they cover that area).
 
I hope to hear a Boom Shaka locka

It's a two way race, but the only way UGA can get Mack is if the trip to Austin is a complete trainwreck. Why would Mack spend $1,000+ for a flight, $200+ for hotels, $70 for a rental car and then food all out of pocket if he's trying to see if he'd be interested in going to Texas?

He's more than interested, he just wants to see what he's signing up for, that's all.
 
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Right now, the most popular, among the Texas fan base, 2015 hoops prospect is Tevin Mack . The big news that broke yesterday that the four-star, Rivals150 small forward/wing will be taking an unofficial visit to Texas this weekend.

Obviously, that’s huge news for the Longhorns, who have always remained in good position for the coveted scorer, but have really had to go to battle recently against the likes of Georgia and Kansas. Mack used all five of his official visits already before originally committing to Shaka Smart at VCU, so the fact that he’s traveling to Texas on their own dime can be nothing but a good sign.

Earlier today, we caught up with the South Carolina native, who indicated that the message from Smart and the Texas staff has never changed despite the move – Texas wants the 6-6 prospect to come in and play right away. So why is Mack making the trip to Texas?

“I want to get a feel for the campus life and see how the players interact with coaches and each other. I’ll be there for the weekend. I’ve never been to Austin before, but I heard it’s a nice city with some good BBQ,” he said with a laugh.

When Smart won Mack’s signature the first time, it was a real battle. A lot of people believed the No. 61 prospect overall in the Rivals150 would sign with Georgia. Mack’s brother played under current Georgia head coach Mark Fox while Fox was at Nevada. But the efforts of Smart and point man Mike Morrell won out. Mack explained why.

“The way Shaka plays fits how I play really well. He allows his guys freedom on offense and they get after it on defense,” he said. “And the way he treats his guys was a factor as well.”

Now, the wing scorer is weighing a number of factors when making another commitment after being released from his signed Letter of Intent to VCU.

“Factors I’m weighing most are playing time, system, style, and league and competition,” he stated.

Although Mack told us he doesn’t have a true timetable for making a decision, I joked with him to rate on a scale of 1-10 how ready he is for all of this to be over, with 10 being “I’m sick of this and want to end it as soon as possible.”

“I’d say about an eight or nine,” he replied. There has been speculation that Mack will make a decision soon after the Texas visit, but Mack, obviously, didn’t indicate that.

When Mack was first released from his LOI to VCU, multiple sources told us that the Longhorns were the heavy favorite to land the 6-6 scorer. Since then, the process has stalled some as Texas has really had to go to battle against Kansas, after it entered the race late and Georgia, who, like Smart and his staff, has been after Mack for years. A source on the Kansas side indicated that when Bill Self offered Mack, he made it clear that Kansas “desperately” needed him. Interestingly, Kansas, just this week, offered 2015 guard LeGerald Vick after he reclassified from the 2016 class. Kansas was feeling good about its chances before the Texas visit was scheduled. During the earlier portion of his recruitment, Mack did visit Georgia officially.

So now, we’ll have to wait and see. But Texas getting Mack – it’s pretty clear there is a serious bond there between Mack and the Texas coaching staff, and that he’s really into the style the Longhorns will run – on campus on his own dime is a chance for it to close. (McComas)

*********

As the recruiting news has come in hot and heavy during the always-busy summer recruiting and evaluation period, the Longhorns have showed interest in and offered a lot of hoops prospects. Here are some of the names to really keep an eye on right now in each class:

2015

Seems like Texas is in wait-and-see mode regarding Mack. Texas did watch former VCU signee Jordan Murphy, a three-star big man from San Antonio, recently but that was in a game against Jarrett Allen. It’s possible that Texas could make a move on Murphy down the road, but that’s unclear at this time. Currently, Texas has two open scholarships for the 2015 class.

2016
The obvious targets:

PG De’Aaron Fox (five-star from Houston)
C Jarrett Allen (five-star from St. Stephens in Austin)
C Marques Bolden (highly-rated four-star from DeSoto)
SG Terrance Feguson (five-star home school/Prime U in Dallas area)

All Texas prospects. There’s zero doubt that Texas is definitely interested in, and is heavily recruiting these players. Fox is tough to get a read on at this stage, but Texas has generated a lot of momentum recently, which included an unofficial visit. Texas is in good shape with Allen, and it feels like Bolden is going to be a Kansas-Texas battle with Duke, who has yet to offer but is close, lurking in the distance. As for Ferguson, he recently started considering Texas again after Smart was hired and immediately reached out. That one is tough to read as well, and will include Kansas, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and others as big-time competition.

Texas has definite interest in, and has offered these guys as well:

SG Markelle Fultz
PG Alterique Gilbert
SF Braxton Blackwell
PG Devearl Ramsey
C Aric Holman
PF Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier
SF Kameron McGusty

Gilbert was recently offered, and Texas is pushing to try to get him on campus. In our update posted earlier today, the four-star point guard indicated he still wants to take some visits this month, but has yet to schedule them. Texas is one of the possible destinations, and is part of his top five. Some people believe UConn, who he’s visited already, is the team to beat. We covered Montgomery-DeLaurier this week, and Texas was one of the three schools he mentioned that was showing him the most attention along with Virginia Tech and Princeton. Texas was one of the first BCS-level programs to offer McGusty, who is taking it slow as the offers continue to pour in. Blackwell and Holman were two very early offers, and players the Texas staff had a previous relationship with.olHo

A couple more 2016 names Texas has watched and is showing interest in:

PG Quentin Goodin
SF Jonathan Isaac

Isaac is blowing up, and Texas has watched him multiple times. Wouldn’t surprise me if an offer comes in the near future. Goodin is a really, really talented point guard that a lot of programs have showed a ton of interest in, but the offers haven’t rolled in yet. (McComas)
 
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Sounds like the North Carolina stuff is about to get serious. I wonder if we see some defections? If so, will Texas be interested in any of the players that are looking at a different landing spot? There's some serious talent on that UNC roster.
 
I guess Im out of the loop, whats going on at UNC? Just typical bball allegations?
 
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