Moreno off the board
- Thread starter kkott
- Start date
He was reportedly the organizer of the group visit. The funny thing about the big 3 when you look at styles of play, Mullins really fits the archetype of a Mark Pope guard. Moreno, however being a center that would start day one for us would fit better at IU. Mullins going anywhere but IU would come as a shock, but it would be less of a shock now.
I know there's two camps inside the iu recruiting apparatus and one is Woodys that wants to spend money on players that grade out as future NBA players. Haralson, Ament, Brown, Tiller....then theres the group that likes Sisley, Moreno and Mullins. Players that absolutely could develop into pros. With the heat on his seat I think it's 2 or 3 immediate helpers or the portal.
I don't think anyone is an IU lean anymore.
I know there's two camps inside the iu recruiting apparatus and one is Woodys that wants to spend money on players that grade out as future NBA players. Haralson, Ament, Brown, Tiller....then theres the group that likes Sisley, Moreno and Mullins. Players that absolutely could develop into pros. With the heat on his seat I think it's 2 or 3 immediate helpers or the portal.
I don't think anyone is an IU lean anymore.
My strong guess is you have no clue that there are "2 camps" inside the IU recruiting apparatus.
Galloway, and Leal, and Race Thompson, and Gabe Cubbs, and Jakai Newton, and Miller Kopp...none of them are future NBA players. Woodson was, and is, actively recruiting all of them... He very easily could have showed any/all of those guys the door if he truly desired more NBA level guys over them.
If he didn't want Mullins, or Sisley, or whoever else he's recruiting that isn't a likely NBA prospect...he probably wouldn't recruit them.
I suspect there's a 25 kid, or even a current college/future portal kid, or two, that are "IU leans" right now. But I think less and less kids are committing early, and less and less kids are tipping their hands because there's money to be made by leveraging indecision. So it does seem like there aren't any likely commits, right now.
In the end, he'll get good players to replace whoever leaves. Hopefully he can coach them well.
Glimpse in to the power of Kentucky basketball NIL war chest... The bag he must have gotten to commit before the IU visit, must have been pretty large. And logic says larger than what IU had been offering. Seems like most logical reasons would have led to him taking that IU visit with his IE buddies, uncommitted. Even if he were certain he was going to UK.
The numbers thrown around for UK total NIL don’t seem better than IU’s, but it’s hard to know much for certain. They could have got more aggressive and allocated more to him with a larger comp package. Who knows.
My best guess is he always liked UK and he felt he was a good fit with Pope. After that, just needed a competitive NIL offer and that was enough to commit.
My best guess is he always liked UK and he felt he was a good fit with Pope. After that, just needed a competitive NIL offer and that was enough to commit.
I think NIL totals are likely very, very vague and flexible right now. Probably more so for schools like UK. If the top 5 recruits, and top 5 Portal kids all got together and said they wanted to play for UK...but all needed 2 million...someone or someones would step up and make it happen. As an extreme example of how "flexible" I'm guessing the major programs NIL capacity is. Obviously there's a limit somewhere. But I doubt the limits are captured by estimated NIL evaluations.
TBF, only one of them (Newton) committed solely to Woody. Yes, the Kopp transfer was a grab by Woodson, but it was a transfer and Woodson was just starting.
Remind me, how many times have KY and Indiana have been on probation since 1995?
It’s not a big deal. Many top bball programs paid players pre-NIL. Same with football. Just how the recruiting game worked.
Truth. I just have an issue when fans want to act holier than thou. I'm sure IU was sliding dough too.
I get the sense we weren’t very good at it and didn’t do it much — after all we self reported too many texts and phone calls. NIL era helped us better get our donor $ to players.
AD was only $200-300K. What a steal. He would be closer to $2M nowadays.
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In this day and age, you’re re recruiting players every offseason.
Feels like KY had a "pledge drive" of their NIL in recent days to get Moreno and make a last ditch run at Jasper Johnson. That would be a great haul for Pope. I don't think they had all their boosters in line after Calipari left and maybe some uncertainty or displeasure with Pope but seems like they got things together this week, sort of like our boosters seemed to rally around Woody in April to get our portal guys. Only saw Moreno in 1 game, but he was not impressive to me with his play, although an athletic specimen. I also just didn't think IE was looking for him, as I think the other team didn't really have any rotation guys over 6'8", but they didn't appear dedicated to getting it to him on the block and he didn't appear to be a threat with the ball on the perimeter. I think he'll be there 2-3 years, of not 4. Sleepers said something like UK has had 18 center commits in the last 13 years and Moreno would be the 13 or 14th highest rated, so who knows, he may be recruited over and probably will be if he doesn't show a lot of promise. Never going to fault a kid for sticking with the home state team.
How good is Moreno? He got cut from the US U18 team, and Purdues 7'-4" freshman Daniel Jackobson made that team and started!
There is really only one camp. And that is the head coach and his staff who need to show a lot more than what they did last year if they want to be around much longer.
That would be relevant... except it's not. Never seen a fanbase work so hard to pat themselves on the back.
Missing out on one big or one fresman is not the end of the world. Continuing to miss out on your top priorities and hoping to fix it with transfers each offseason... that's a nightmare waiting to happen.
Why have they struck out so much over the past two recruiting cycles? I know they added one top rated freshman this offseason, but he wasn't a top target for years where they worked to build a relationship.
Is NIL working against them with freshmen? Maybe freshmen see IU will be pulling in someone else to compete with them. Does it matter? Probably not until you can't buy your way out of it as they've been doing. Again, nightmare waiting to happen.
Why have they struck out so much over the past two recruiting cycles? I know they added one top rated freshman this offseason, but he wasn't a top target for years where they worked to build a relationship.
Is NIL working against them with freshmen? Maybe freshmen see IU will be pulling in someone else to compete with them. Does it matter? Probably not until you can't buy your way out of it as they've been doing. Again, nightmare waiting to happen.
This kid is in Kentucky's backyard. It would be much more alarming for UK to miss out on him than Indiana.
As far as Moreno goes, he's an ultra-talented kid with a very high ceiling but also disappears way too much for a player of his size. He has the potential to be a very good 2-3 year collegiate player but is likely going to struggle for long stretches next year especially if he's a day 1 starter. I didn't like the idea of him being sold as a day 1 starter if in fact that was the plan. Kid could have developed very nicely under Woodson but ultimately ended up choosing the hometown team.
VanPastorMan
Hall of Famer
Can someone explain why the line "he's a KY kid" is a legitimate reason he opts for UK, but when he's an IN kid, wide open recruiting is the rule (MSU, UK, UM, UNC, etc.)? And I don't think it's because IN kids are better B-ball option from a talent or understanding the game perspective.
I think we lost either our Mojo or Juju a long time ago
Anytime IU loses a 5* recruit within 45 minutes of campus it’s always puzzling. Kentucky missing out on Moreno would be like IU missing out on TJD. IU doesn’t miss out often on 5* in their back yard. Not that hard to understand.
UK paid Davis? I didn’t hear that. I remember hearing an Illinois fan radio guy claim it then disappear. If that’s true it kind of taints the title. Do you have a link I can show UK fans? Those UK fans……
I don’t have proof…but I know they paid him a lot of money. Someone I know lived in the Cats Den with him.
I don't think UK paid Davis anything. Nike on the other hand, funneled a ton of money to AD and his family to ensure he ended up at Kentucky.
I believe "they" did. He was going to get shoe money no matter what, lots of kids got/get shoe money. Obviously The University of Kentucky didn't directly pay him...but "Big Blue Nation" did...at least I believe they did based off what my friends kid told me.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported the well known $200K figure. Then UK and AD's family denied it.
"Sources from three separate universities told the Sun-Times that Davis Sr. asked for money in return for his son's commitment, with the amounts ranging from $125,000 to $150,000."
Link to ESPN Story
Of course I don't know exactly what happened, but it would be surprising if AD didn't get cash for his commitment.
As an aside, that's a great deal. AD would be $2M+ in today's NIL market.
"Sources from three separate universities told the Sun-Times that Davis Sr. asked for money in return for his son's commitment, with the amounts ranging from $125,000 to $150,000."
Link to ESPN Story
Of course I don't know exactly what happened, but it would be surprising if AD didn't get cash for his commitment.
As an aside, that's a great deal. AD would be $2M+ in today's NIL market.
If the person I know is to be believed...he got a big lump sum the summer right before he arrived on campus, and then quite a lot of money continuously throughout the season. And the NBA/Agent/Endorsement activity started basically as soon as he arrived on campus.
I’ve never lost anything in my life except against cheaters. Damn cheaters. I’d be 72,453,432-0 but for the cheaters.
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