A Couple of Hoops Recruiting Notes
AAU program Team Hardwork based out of San Antonio is hosting a two-day scrimmage-based tourney format with 4-5 other teams. The games were live streamed for fans and college coaches today.If you read my Class of 2022 breakdown a couple of weeks ago, you know that Team Hardwork has emerged as one of the top 3-4 AAU programs in the state. Texas A&M 2021 commit Manny Obaseki has joined Team Hardwork for the summer. In addition, the program also has Top 100 national 2022 point guard Austin Nunez whose dad runs the Team Hardwork program. Nunez was also the very first call the A&M coaches made at midnight when the 2022 contact period opened in mid-June. For reference, the midnight call A&M made last year was to Hassan Diarra who eventually signed with A&M and will be a freshman this fall. A&M has also offered Team Hardwork post Vincent Iwuchukwu who is a Top 30 national 2022 prospect. They also have Top 25 national 2021 prospect Jerrell Colbert who has already committed to LSU.So I watched a couple of games that were broadcast live on YouTube. Tomorrow's games will be broadcast live as well starting at 3:00 PM. Here is the YouTube URL presented on the Silver Wave Media page for those hardcore hoops fans - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vk1UK6tpYw&t=1175s . You can find the schedule and roster w/ numbers here:https://twitter.com/LupeNunezSA/status/1278389562511953923?s=20OK, with those formalities out of the way, here are my brief thoughts of the players I watched:Manny ObasekiThe most impressive aspect to Manny is his body and his physical development for his age. He is a loose, natural athlete and his movements are not only smooth but explosive when needed. At between 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-4 with his quickness and explosiveness, he's one of the most dynamic, natural athletes I've watched play AAU ball in several years. Because of his size and athleticism, he can comfortably play point guard to a wing. His strength right now is attacking the rim, his passing, and his attention to defense (which is usually an after-thought at these AAU events). There were several 4-star prospects and one 5-star recruit, and a strong argument can be made that Manny was the best player in the building. He will make an immediate impact on the A&M program in the fall of 2021.Austin Nunez He was the primary point guard on the Team Hardwork 17 team. But, while he was the primary ball handler to initiate an offensive set, the 2022 prospect from San Antonio made everything his shot from beyond the arc. The book on him last year...an efficient point guard with an emerging perimeter shot. Well, if Wednesday is any indication, that shot has not only emerged but it's a big weapon. He also has a quick, efficient stroke that is tough to defend given the range he consistently showed. I now know why Nunez was the first 2022 prospect the entire A&M coaching staff called him at midnight on the first day of 2022 contact. I saw several basketball pundits tweet last night that after watching him at this event, he'll definitely move up in their national rankings. He would be a great get for the A&M staff, and it's clear the staff sees him as a top priority in the 2022 class.Jerrell Colbert Unfortunately for A&M hoops fans, the LSU 2021 commit looked very good. He's an athletic, slim 6-foot-10 prospect that is very comfortable playing inside-out, hitting a couple of 3-pointers and being very productive around the basket. Some services rate him a 5-star, and I'm not going to necessarily disagree with that. He definitely looks like a Top 30 national prospect. He'll be a load for future A&M teams to defend.Vince IwuchukwuThe 2022 6-11 prospect from San Antonio actually played on the Team Hardwork 16's team since Colbert played most of the time on the 17's team. Tremendously long and athletic, he's still a bit raw but he dominated in the paint making a wide array of post-up, short turnaround jumpers, short runners, and made a great baseline move and effectively attacked the rim and got a 3-point play out of it. Here he is in this video (yellow shoes). Go to the 1:30 mark and you'll see that baseline drive and another bucket in about 60 seconds. Remember, he still has two years of high school left, so he could be a real monster in the paint in college. He could very well be a 5-star prospect this time next year.There were some other very good prospects out there, but I wanted to stick to those already offered by A&M. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here.
Overview - Class of 2022 Hoops Recruiting
I know you see tweets posted about a specific hoops recruit that has been offered, but for most of you that doesn't mean much to understand the bigger picture and what each info. nugget means. I'm here to change that...hopefully.I'll do something similar for the Class of 2021, although I've talked about the 2021 class quite a bit over the past months. But why 2022, and why now? Well, yesterday was the first day college coaches could start directly contacting the 2022 class (signing in November 2021) and start the recruiting process in earnest. You can tell by who the staff calls on that first day and who has an offer can give us a pretty good idea of the current targets and priorities. This contact period sets the table for how the class will come together. So it's a good time to see who Buzz Williams and the staff contacted, and then provide you a little context to yesterday's activity.First of all, the state of Texas appears to be loaded in 2022. As many as 12 Texas natives are listed on at least one of the major Top 100 lists. The Aggies have offered all 12. What is also intriguing is that 9 of those 12 come from the DFW metro area, and those prospects all know each other and play together on a couple of high school teams and travel teams. I'll get into that a little later. The staff has also contacted at least three out of state prospects yesterday as well. They probably called more, but these are ones we know about.Here is the full list and a link to their TexAgs profile page...sorted by TexAgs grade (99-100 5-star; 90-98 4-star; Keyonte George 99Dariq Whitehead 99 Lee Dort 98Gradey Dick 98Vincent Iwuchukwu 97Eric Dailey 97Arterio Morris 96Bryce Griggs Rylan Griffen 95Tre White 94Colin Smith 93Brendan Hausen 93Austin Nunez 92Trae Clayton 91Noah Shelby 91Cason Wallace 91Jordan Walsh 90Here is the list organized by position:Point GuardKeyonte George Arterio Morris Bryce Griggs Austin Nunez Noah Shelby Combo GuardBrendan Hausen Shooting GuardGradey Dick Rylan Griffen Cason Wallace Small ForwardDariq Whitehead Tre White Colin Smith Trae Clayton Power ForwardEric Dailey CenterLee Dort Vincent Iwuchukwu Here is this list with just the prospects from Texas. It should be noted that Bryce Griggs is originally from Houston and just moved to San Diego this summer. Tre White is originally from Little Elm, but has moved to Los Angeles. He also played one season of high school ball with Nunez at Cornerstone Academy. I have included both on the Texas list.Keyonte George (DFW)Lee Dort (DFW)Vincent Iwuchukwu (San Antonio)Arterio Morris (DFW)Bryce Griggs (Houston)Rylan Griffen (DFW)Tre White (DFW/SA)Colin Smith (DFW)Brendan Hausen (Amarillo)Austin Nunez (San Antonio)Trae Clayton (DFW)Noah Shelby (DFW)Cason Wallace (DFW)Jordan Walsh (DFW)Based on Twitter sources and info. from our F5 partner, Jake Weingarten of Stock Risers, it appears the entire A&M staff called San Antonio point guard Austin Nunez right at midnight. He's a nice, quick ambidextrous point guard. He's not rated up there with the elite point guards mainly because he's still a little under-developed physically...remember, he's only a sophomore (about to be a junior). So that should happen naturally, Austin's father is the coach and mentor for the elite travel team in the San Antonio area, Texas Hardwork. 6-11 power forward/center Vincent Iwuchukwu also plays for Texas Hardwork. Nunez goes to high school at SA Wagner and Iwuchukwu at San Antonio Cole. If the staff were to land these two, that would be huge. Nunez is a consensus Top 75 national prospect. Iwuchukwu is a Top 30 national prospect. Here's an interesting note. St. Mark's Colin Smith (teammate of A&M target 2021 Harrison Ingram) actually played on Team Hardwork with Nunez as an 8th grader, but has played in high school with Drive Nation.The mother lode of 2022 DFW talent either currently plays for (or has played for at one time) travel team Drive Nation including elite 5-star prospects Keyonte George and the best big man in the state Lee Dort. Others who have played together on Drive Nation since 2019 include Trae Clayton, Noah Shelby, Jordan Walsh, Cason Wallace, Rylan Griffen, Arterio Morris, and Colin Smith. The outlier in the state is Amarillo's Brendan Hausen. This kid can shoot and has incredible range behind the 3-point line. He plays travel ball with the Dallas Mustangs. Of course, you have to worry about Chris Beard and Tech being in that part of the state, and he's visited there a couple of times.So it's really interesting that most of these guys are interrelated and in some cases that relationship has a third dimension. Of the guys listed, I think A&M has a good, early position with Nunez, Iwuchukwu, Clayton, Smith, and Shelby. Nunez has already been on-campus and is a top priority. But remember, these guys are only sophomores. Some of these guys will fall down the priority list and some will move up the list, and there will certainly be new names that emerge on the scene. This is just a snapshot in time...a VERY early snapshot. But this should give you some context to the news we'll be hearing in the coming months as these prospects start to narrow their lists and identify their top 4-5 schools.It should also be noted that there's a pretty decent chance A&M lands 2021 high four-star center Franck Kepnang in the coming weeks/months. There is also a real chance that he reclassifies to 2020, but nothing is official on that. Get him in the 2020 class, and the roster will be very inviting to the two elite 2022 post prospects Dort and Iwuchukwu. I've mentioned this before, but Kepnang played travel team with A&M signee Hassan Diarra. The staff and Kepnang have conducted at least three virtual visits in the past couple of months.I hope this Class of 2022 Hoops Recruiting 101 summary helps put everything in context. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here.
