Actually had the ITLR written and sent to Jeff for quick proof when the Max Hoetzel transfer broke. Here's a rewrite:
The week after a season ending loss brings the year-end meetings with the staff. That in turn often brings a transfer or two if such a "performance-review" ends with the parties on a different page.
From all indications that's what happened with Stanford Robinson and now today with Max Hoetzel. With Robinson we had heard he was predisposed to leaving before the year-end 1-on-1 and about 24 hours after it a press release went out about his transfer. In his case when you have multiple off the court incidents and are coming off a season where your numbers dropped significantly, one has to think there wasn't going to be a big push to talk him out of leaving.
Similar deal with Hoetzel and heard there was some effort to talk him out of it over the last two days. As I wrote yesterday, he has some solid long term potential if he could ever learn to be a better defender.
The feeling is Max really misses California and is likely to transfer to a school on the West coast.
The question now is will there be more? Certainly could be since Indiana is oversigned by two and has a firm offer out to Thomas Bryant and are seriously recruiting Thon Maker and Mychal Mulder. But right now we're not hearing of a likely transfer as we were with Robinson and Hoetzel.
Indiana is doing all they can to jump in heavily with Mulder, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who would have two years of eligibility. Yesterday's trip by IU to Vincennes represented the third visit to watch Mulder here recently.
While he may be playing in Indiana right now, Mulder is originally from Canada and has offers from Wichita State, Creighton, Missouri, Minnesota and a couple other high majors. Louisville is recruiting him as well. The Hoosiers haven't offered yet, so obviously waiting to see if there is more roster shakeout. Robinson was a 6-foot-4 guard but a much different player than Mulder, a knockdown outside shooter.
The Thon Maker situation is murkier. The priority for his guardian Ed Smith is going to be getting him into his best NBA situation. IU can point to what they did with Zeller and Vonleh but he may want to play quite a bit away from the basket. And then he'll have options overseas and not being from America, he may be pretty open to that at the end of the day. And that's not even getting into his reclassification process. So murkier.
Not a lot new on the Thomas Bryant situation other than the fact that two scholarships have opened at Syracuse due to transfers and the Orange staff has made it clear he's still a spring signing priority. As a reminder Syracuse is down three grants due to NCAA penalties but is appealing that ruling. The school also can defer the lost scholarships for a season (to 2016-17). Landing Bryant would probably mean they've decided to go that route if the appeal doesn't work out.
Kentucky and Missouri are still involved. Nobody has a clue on how UK's roster will look like next year but in 3-4 weeks that may become clear. As of a couple weeks ago there seemed to be a consensus that IU was the current leader, although far from a lock. Don't believe that has changed but like UK and Syracuse, Indiana does have its own roster shakeout issues still to play out. So it makes sense for the Bryant camp to at least wait till the start of the spring signing period before considering a decision. The period begins April 15th.
Steve McClain was the lead recruiter among the assistants with De'Ron Davis since he coached in that area for so long. So his loss won't help with that recruitment. At the same time Indiana has recruited Davis long enough for him to have built a good relationship with Tom Crean and other assistants, and certainly expect Davis to remain at the top of Indiana's recruiting priority list from the Class of 2016.
As far as where Stanford Robinson may end up, most early buzz has a Maurice Creek type scenario where he goes back near home to a DC area program.
No decisions yet from Troy Williams and Yogi Ferrell as both analyze their professional opportunities. It does sound more and more like Williams will return. Draft Express is reasonably well connected and has him currently going No. 20 overall in the 2016 draft. ESPN lists him as 50/50 and as a 2nd round pick if he does come out now and No. 48 overall.
Ferrell's situation sounds more iffy, much closer in reality to 50-50. Could be influenced in part by Bryant's decision but if Bryant comes and Yogi stays, at least one more scholarship has to open.
As far as his draft status, Draft Express has Ferrell going No. 41 overall to Utah in the 2nd round.
There are a fair amount of point guards expected to be in the draft. D'Angelo Russell, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jerian Grant, Cameron Payne, Delon Wright, Kris Dunn and Tyus Jones all could go first round. Next year might not be much better, however, with Melo Trimble, Demetrius Jackson, Marcus Paige, Malik Newman, Fred VanVleet, Isaiah Briscoe, Gary Payton Jr., Isaiah Taylor and others.
The last day that underclassmen can declare for the draft is April 26th.
Mark down the dates of April 10th and April 11th, especially if you're in the SE Indiana or Louisville area. Indiana signees O.G. Anunoby and Juwan Morgan along with IU target Thomas Bryant will be participating in the Derby Festival Basketball Classic. Friday the 10th is the Night of the Future Stars at New Albany High at 7 pm ET and Saturday at 7 pm ET is the Deby All-Star game at Freedom Hall.
Bryant will be on the same Purple team with Anunoby and Morgan.
Full rosters
That Derby game just added top 10 ranked center Diamond Stone. The Milwaukee native appears headed to the Big Ten as most of the recent speculation has him at Maryland or Wisconsin.
This post was edited on 3/27 1:07 PM by Peegs
This post was edited on 3/27 1:26 PM by Peegs
The week after a season ending loss brings the year-end meetings with the staff. That in turn often brings a transfer or two if such a "performance-review" ends with the parties on a different page.
From all indications that's what happened with Stanford Robinson and now today with Max Hoetzel. With Robinson we had heard he was predisposed to leaving before the year-end 1-on-1 and about 24 hours after it a press release went out about his transfer. In his case when you have multiple off the court incidents and are coming off a season where your numbers dropped significantly, one has to think there wasn't going to be a big push to talk him out of leaving.
Similar deal with Hoetzel and heard there was some effort to talk him out of it over the last two days. As I wrote yesterday, he has some solid long term potential if he could ever learn to be a better defender.
The feeling is Max really misses California and is likely to transfer to a school on the West coast.
The question now is will there be more? Certainly could be since Indiana is oversigned by two and has a firm offer out to Thomas Bryant and are seriously recruiting Thon Maker and Mychal Mulder. But right now we're not hearing of a likely transfer as we were with Robinson and Hoetzel.
Indiana is doing all they can to jump in heavily with Mulder, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who would have two years of eligibility. Yesterday's trip by IU to Vincennes represented the third visit to watch Mulder here recently.
While he may be playing in Indiana right now, Mulder is originally from Canada and has offers from Wichita State, Creighton, Missouri, Minnesota and a couple other high majors. Louisville is recruiting him as well. The Hoosiers haven't offered yet, so obviously waiting to see if there is more roster shakeout. Robinson was a 6-foot-4 guard but a much different player than Mulder, a knockdown outside shooter.
The Thon Maker situation is murkier. The priority for his guardian Ed Smith is going to be getting him into his best NBA situation. IU can point to what they did with Zeller and Vonleh but he may want to play quite a bit away from the basket. And then he'll have options overseas and not being from America, he may be pretty open to that at the end of the day. And that's not even getting into his reclassification process. So murkier.
Not a lot new on the Thomas Bryant situation other than the fact that two scholarships have opened at Syracuse due to transfers and the Orange staff has made it clear he's still a spring signing priority. As a reminder Syracuse is down three grants due to NCAA penalties but is appealing that ruling. The school also can defer the lost scholarships for a season (to 2016-17). Landing Bryant would probably mean they've decided to go that route if the appeal doesn't work out.
Kentucky and Missouri are still involved. Nobody has a clue on how UK's roster will look like next year but in 3-4 weeks that may become clear. As of a couple weeks ago there seemed to be a consensus that IU was the current leader, although far from a lock. Don't believe that has changed but like UK and Syracuse, Indiana does have its own roster shakeout issues still to play out. So it makes sense for the Bryant camp to at least wait till the start of the spring signing period before considering a decision. The period begins April 15th.
Steve McClain was the lead recruiter among the assistants with De'Ron Davis since he coached in that area for so long. So his loss won't help with that recruitment. At the same time Indiana has recruited Davis long enough for him to have built a good relationship with Tom Crean and other assistants, and certainly expect Davis to remain at the top of Indiana's recruiting priority list from the Class of 2016.
As far as where Stanford Robinson may end up, most early buzz has a Maurice Creek type scenario where he goes back near home to a DC area program.
No decisions yet from Troy Williams and Yogi Ferrell as both analyze their professional opportunities. It does sound more and more like Williams will return. Draft Express is reasonably well connected and has him currently going No. 20 overall in the 2016 draft. ESPN lists him as 50/50 and as a 2nd round pick if he does come out now and No. 48 overall.
Ferrell's situation sounds more iffy, much closer in reality to 50-50. Could be influenced in part by Bryant's decision but if Bryant comes and Yogi stays, at least one more scholarship has to open.
As far as his draft status, Draft Express has Ferrell going No. 41 overall to Utah in the 2nd round.
There are a fair amount of point guards expected to be in the draft. D'Angelo Russell, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jerian Grant, Cameron Payne, Delon Wright, Kris Dunn and Tyus Jones all could go first round. Next year might not be much better, however, with Melo Trimble, Demetrius Jackson, Marcus Paige, Malik Newman, Fred VanVleet, Isaiah Briscoe, Gary Payton Jr., Isaiah Taylor and others.
The last day that underclassmen can declare for the draft is April 26th.
Mark down the dates of April 10th and April 11th, especially if you're in the SE Indiana or Louisville area. Indiana signees O.G. Anunoby and Juwan Morgan along with IU target Thomas Bryant will be participating in the Derby Festival Basketball Classic. Friday the 10th is the Night of the Future Stars at New Albany High at 7 pm ET and Saturday at 7 pm ET is the Deby All-Star game at Freedom Hall.
Bryant will be on the same Purple team with Anunoby and Morgan.
Full rosters
That Derby game just added top 10 ranked center Diamond Stone. The Milwaukee native appears headed to the Big Ten as most of the recent speculation has him at Maryland or Wisconsin.
This post was edited on 3/27 1:07 PM by Peegs
This post was edited on 3/27 1:26 PM by Peegs
