Wired Wednesday With Wilson 7-8-20
Welcome back to the weekly column and it is hard to believe we are already in the second week of July. This week I discussed recruiting during the pandemic, programs facing NCAA violations and what Virginia’s 2021 class could look like. Enjoy and thank you to everyone for their continued support!
“Talk about how Covid has changed the recruiting process. And give an example or two of how a college program has been able to stand out/be creative in a zoom or presentation to a recruit and their family”-@pr0ia
Well we certainly have not seen anything like this before and I hope it is something that we never have to go through again. The first change that comes to mind is that coaches are not allowed to go out on the road to evaluate kids which has only allowed coaches to watch old game film and now live streams of certain events that are happening in some states. The second thing is kids being able to take visits to school. The summer time is usually when kids will go to different campuses for unofficial visits which help prospects decide where they would like to take official visits in the fall. With no visits able to happen until further notice, we could possibly see multiple prospects commit without taking any visits to school which rarely ever happens.
When it comes to talking about certain programs having success recruiting during this time, no schools really stand out more than others but I think we could possibly see more kids stay local because of uncertainty in the near future and with that being said I am going to go with Maryland. Maryland has two commits so far in their 2021 class and they are both local. Ike Cornish is originally from Maryland and transferred to Legacy Early College in South Carolina. Being from Maryland, Cornish is very familiar with the campus and program. The other 2021 commit the Terps have is Julian Reese. The 6’9 center goes to St. Frances in Baltimore and the Terrapins staff did a tremendous job keeping him close to home and having it done before his senior season.
“What kind of penalties should we expect to be levied against the schools currently under NCAA investigation?”-@UVA_HOOS
If Oklahoma State got hit with a postseason ban by only having level one violations, I can only imagine that the other schools that have level two and level three violations will get anything less than a postseason ban. If I were to guess, the schools that have level two or three violations will get a postseason ban for more than one year and a reduction in recruiting activity which certainly hurts the program for future years.
“Who will the VA Cavaliers add in 21?”-@richan34
Right now I feel pretty confident in guessing that Virginia will land either Trevor Keels Trevor Keels 6'4" | SG Paul VI | 2021 State #18 Nation VA or Efton Reid Efton Reid 7'0" | C The Steward School | 2021 #27 Nation FL . They are two products from the state of Virginia and the Cavaliers have been recruiting them harder and longer than anyone from the 2021 class. After that, it is a toss up. They have made good progress with Jalen Warley Jalen Warley 6'4" | CG Westtown School | 2021 State #25 Nation PA but would not consider them to lead for him but like I said, they have made good ground with him. If they do not land Keels, look for the staff to ramp it up with Jordan Longino Jordan Longino 6'5" | CG Germantown Academy | 2021 State #67 Nation PA . A dark horse candidate is Trey Kaufman Trey Kaufman 6'8" | PF Silver Creek | 2021 State #39 Nation IN who is probably a Indiana lean right now but nothing is finalized yet.