Wired Wednesday With Wilson 10-14-20

<p>The weekly column is back discussing the potential of some conferences not playing college basketball this year, prospects challenges during the pandemic and Will Wade continues to reel in talent.</p> <p><strong>“If any, what conference would postpone their season first? ”- Wesley Edwards</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Well if we were to have learned anything from the year 2020, it is to trust the Ivy League. They were the first conference to cancel their conference tournament right before the pandemic hit and soon after all 31 other conferences went on to cancel. Right now the plan for the IVY League is to start games no earlier than January 1st as are a few other smaller conferences. The only conference that has yet to announce any of their plans for a season is the Horizon league. So with that being said, I would predict the Horizon league, Ivy League or some other smaller conferences to cancel first but right now it is too early to tell what exactly will happen as things are changing by the week because of the pandemic. The college basketball season is set to tip off the day before Thanksgiving on November 25th.</span></p> <p><strong>“What do you think the biggest challenge for recruits that aren’t necessarily a 4 or 5 star right now with an upcomiing shortened basketball season? Do you expect to see any reclassifications, postgrad options or even pay to play options for high school recruits in order to further improve their recruitment? ”-@mowentz (Instagram)</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The biggest challenge is exposure. Right now it is harder than ever to be seen in front of college coaches but in a lot of states, fall leagues and fall exposure camps are being put on to help prospects. Different types of media services and scouting services are allowed to attend these events and a lot are being streamed for college coaches. I know locally in the DMV, there is no shortage of being able to be seen as there are a lot of different types of events going on.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reclassification and post grad opportunities continue to be popular year after year so those two possibilities are definitely in play as is junior college.</span></p> <p><strong>“How is coach Wade able to recruit guys like [player_tooltip player_id="714771" first="Alex" last="Fudge"] given the current circumstances of that program? ”- Nate Braquet</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you are looking for something else we learned in 2020, it is that Will Wade is going to still get whatever recruit he wants as the Tigers just landed [player_tooltip player_id="714771" first="Alex" last="Fudge"] who is ranked 57th in our class of 2021 rankings. Fudge had a tremendous summer with Team Parsons and is another heavily touted prospect Will Wade has landed even though their program has been tied up in the FBI probe investigation. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As of right now, it does not really seem like the investigation is playing any effect on recruiting and until we learn of any sanctions from the NCAA, I do not really see this high level recruiting slowing down for Will Wade and his program. There has been nothing pointing towards Will Wade losing his job or anything along those lines so right now everything seems to be going on completely normal down in Baton Rouge except for their football team!</span></p>