‘19 F Anthony Walker (Miami ---> Indiana)

[DC_Rams]

Until a member of the staff or DC_URI says we are out, I will consider us still in.
I've been running potential lineups through my head for a month...not ready to give up hope.

I was told that URI made the choice to stop recruiting him after he didn’t commit during his official visit to Kingston. They reached out to him when MM verbal to tell him thank you they moving on.
I was also told that the mother was upset because she told her son to go to URI at that time after all his visits. And the staff just wasn’t respecting the family times table. So yes URI is out and it’s not AW choice it was URI choice...So stop bashing the kid.

Pretty sure no one ever bashed him. There isn't a fan here that did not want him.

Two perspectives on the same situation:
URI's perspective: get an early visit and hope for a commitment.
In my mind, that was still a better strategy than taking the last visit and hoping he does not commit before then.
That did not work out. It's a calculated risk the team took.

AW perspective: He had his timeline, and even though he liked URI, he was going to take all his visits and hope URI waited.
He knows that teams all have their own timelines, too. It is the risk AW took.

If URI did reach out to him after MM signed, good for them. That way everyone knows where they stand.
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, it just does not work out.

Your last sentence sums it all up. Let’s move on. Wish him the best, he would’ve been a great player here!

[RamStock]

No way am I buying that. From what we have seen from URI under Cox they wouldn’t conduct themselves like that. This kind of talent isn’t told to move on from URI. We are not Duke and he would be hands down the best player of the class. Not even close.

Yeah RamStock, I'm with you on this. no offense DC_URI but calling BS on this

Cox and crew do not pass on a top 100 talent, thats just not his style and they seem to have a good relationship with the mother and would not have this approach which could piss her off. I do think getting him will be tough and Miami is the front runner that is why we need to get a verbal from McLeod after Rhody Madness

It might not have gone down as bluntly as DC_URI said, but I wouldn't be that surprised if the staff told Walker, "hey man, you are our top choice, but just a heads up, I know you want to take all your visits, and that's completely up to you, but there is a really good chance that we'll run out of spots by the end of October, so keep that in mind. We can't hold your spot forever." I do staffing at my current job, and that's how 90% of those conversations go.

I'm no recruiting expert, but there are a couple things said commonly on this board that I'm skeptical of. One is that we could just open up 5 spots in this class easy-peasy. That would mean cutting ties with a current player that we've invested in like CT or Tertsea or both. I think we'd have to do one of them anyway with a 4 person class. That's a kind of shitty thing to do when you talk about this being such a family, tight knit group. The other players might start to wonder about their own spots being up for grabs, and pretty soon all the family talk wears out. The other line of thinking that I don't quite get is that we can just tell kids that we're recruiting, "hey bud (think Mading or McLeod), we like you, but we're not going to accept your commitment right now because we're waiting on this other guy who we like more than you (Walker)." That sounds like a sure-fire way to guarantee you're not going to get that kid. Who wants to be told they are second choice? Especially 17 year old's with fragile ego's? I think it's more likely that you try to time your offers and visits to allow your top choices the first crack at it.

I agree with you. I know the board has said repeatedly that we might be recruiting up to 5 spots which only works out in one of three cases -Aris is here short term and filled a practice guy spot for this year with a free scholarship for him, Thompson graduates on time and plans to leave skipping his last year or Tertsea is leaving after this year(if true why didn’t he transfer this year). I believe that one of these scenarios will happen and we still can land McLeod, but not two. They must have gotten word from Walker that he was going to go to the ACC. I don’t think Cox and his staff would push anyone out as usually spots 11-13 are mainly “practice player” spots anyway and would take away the tight knit family approach we preach. I am also surprised on signing Aris as it took away flexibility for us which may makes me think he may not be here long. If Walker wanted or still wants a spot they would have one for him with no questions asked even if it meant letting McLeod go.

[Rhody83]

I respect DC_URI's insight. It is different than what I was told. I was told there would be a spot for Walker at URI.
I have messaged with DC_URI and understand that he is hearing a different story.
There are a lot that has been posted today to respond to.
Aris - they didn't want to go into the year with just 10 scholarship players and were short at Forward with the departure of Akele and Mike. They didn't want to risk sacrificing this year's team to have an additional scholarship for next year's team.

Cox tried to get Walker to commit when he was onsite for his official visit. Every good coach tries to do that. I am sure they tried to do that at Pitt and Miami as well. Just look at Xavier with Bishop. I believe they pushed again to try to get him to committing before going to Miami. I think they also wanted a decision after he got back from Miami and before McLeod came on Oct 18th. That wasn't going to happen because Walker is going on his VCU visit.

URI definitely has at least 4 scholarship spots for next year. If they didn't, the would not waste their time with any more '19 recruits (McLeod visit, Somerville visit). As far as potential players that could transfer, I am not going to speculate on names. Losing a player or two to transfer doesn't damage the family atmosphere and doesn't cause concern with the regular rotation players. Over 700 D1 players transfer every year. No one knows the personal situations of the players being speculated about as the potential transfers.

I agree it is time to get a commitment from McLeod before he goes to Florida State on Oct 26th.

[Rhody83]

My guess on the FBI investigation is that Miami did nothing wrong. But if you are a recruit with many good options why would you take a chance with Miami.

Parts of today’s testimony in court on the scandal:
In a recording of a wire-tapped phone call played in court on Thursday, Dawkins told Augustine, “You’re in a contract here. The best thing to do is send the kid (Little) to an Adidas school.”

The effort to get Little to sign with an Adidas school also included Adidas executive Chris Rivers.

Copies of text messages between Code and Gatto from Aug. 11, 2017, entered into evidence on Thursday, show Code said, “Miami wants a kid Nassir Little.”

Gatto replied that he would meet with Rivers about it.

Code said Augustine told him Little “needs some assistance in the same way we were assisting Bowen.”

Code added that, “The problem is Arizona offered the kid 150 (thousand dollars) and we are trying to keep him from going to one of their schools (Nike).”

[TruePoint]

I think saying Miami likely did nothing wrong is probably overstating it. But I’d agree that they will likely not face any repercussions from the NCAA for anything they may have done.

[CT Rhody]

I think saying Miami likely did nothing wrong is probably overstating it. But I’d agree that they will likely not face any repercussions from the NCAA for anything they may have done.

The NCAA needs to save face here, I can see all the schools involved getting multi year show causes from the tournament. No way can they sit back and do nothing about these issues playing out in court.

[rhodyblue12]

Poor Cleveland St is probably going to pay for this

[bkoeppen]

I think saying Miami likely did nothing wrong is probably overstating it. But I’d agree that they will likely not face any repercussions from the NCAA for anything they may have done.

The NCAA needs to save face here, I can see all the schools involved getting multi year show causes from the tournament. No way can they sit back and do nothing about these issues playing out in court.

interesting piece on vernon carey's recruitment and where miami falls to date:

3. Miami
The Hurricanes actually got one first-place vote, and they represent the local choice for the Fort Lauderdale standout. There’s also a family tie with Carey’s father, who was a star football player at Miami before becoming a first-round NFL Draft pick by the Miami Dolphins.

Carey has said that he probably has the best relationship with the Hurricanes coaching staff, and he’s been a regular visitor to the nearby campus for football and basketball games over the past few years.

Before Miami was mentioned in the initial findings of the federal investigation into college basketball, the Hurricanes were seen as a favorite in Carey’s recruitment. Things cooled after that, and new favorites emerged, but there’s obviously some buzz that Miami is again a major player in this recruitment.

https://www.kentucky.com/sports/college ... 03355.html

[rambone 78]

Haha good one......the NCAA can and will do nothing until these investigations are complete, however long it takes.

It will be interesting to see how a lot of these NCAA cash cows manage to weasel out of any sanctions, if at all possible.

The NCAA's reputation is in the dumpster anyway, so what's new?

[Rhody83]

Heard again tonight that Rhody is still active with Walker. It is between Rhody, Pitt & Miami. There is definitely a spot for Walker when he decides. The negative post aren’t doing any good.

[ace]

also, who has been bashing him on this board???

Is it becasue some have said he likes the bright lights of a P5...

i think you're being a little sensitive

Implying he’s delusional and immature is not a great look.

[TruePoint]

I brought up the idea of maturity, so if that was directed at me, that’s fine. I did not mean my comment to be pejorative; I think it is a truism that URI will do better with kids who value culture, fit, relationships, etc., more than brand name, glitz, fancy facilities, etc. That isn’t to say that a kid who does value the former over the latter couldn’t decide some other school is a better fit for him on that criteria; sometimes there is sizzle and steak, hat and cattle. I think Dahmir Bishop found that at Xavier.

I think it does take some level of what I would call maturity to sift through the surface level sales pitch and be thoughtful about how your decision is going to impact not only the next four years of your life, but the next forty. You can call it something different if you want, but I don’t think I’m being controversial in saying that not every kid approaches it that way. I’m also not myopic enough to think that if a kid picks URI he had a mature decision making process and if he doesn’t then he didn’t. But if the decision making process is putting value in other aspects, then URI just isn’t going to win a ton of those. It’s not who we are. I don’t think that is controversial, either.

It goes without saying that I don’t know Anthony Walker at all. I have no idea what conversations he’s having with his people and what they are focusing on in the process. All I have to go by is what he’s said during the process and what he has chosen to highlight in the process via social media. Based on that, I haven’t had a ton of confidence in our chances with him and it seems like that is bearing out. It’s not meant to be insulting to the kid or his people in any way. He has the right to run his process any way he wants and he should do it in a way that is true to himself and his values. I am just trying to map my observations onto my general thoughts about the type of kids URI tends to do better with. I don’t know if I could have caveated any more than I did that it’s just my impression and that I could be totally wrong about it.

[CT Rhody]

Heard again tonight that Rhody is still active with Walker. It is between Rhody, Pitt & Miami. There is definitely a spot for Walker when he decides. The negative post aren’t doing any good.

Well this is great to hear! Really all I needed to hear! Let’s stay positive folks because he is a perfect fit for what we need for next year.

[rhodylaw]

Heard again tonight that Rhody is still active with Walker. It is between Rhody, Pitt & Miami. There is definitely a spot for Walker when he decides. The negative post aren’t doing any good.

Well this is great to hear! Really all I needed to hear! Let’s stay positive folks because he is a perfect fit for what we need for next year.

100% - his freshmen year would be Langevine, Harris and AW splitting the minutes at the 4/5 spot which will be dominant in the A10 and probably one the better front courts in all college basketball. Add to that Fatts, Dowtin and whoever else emerges this year on the wings and we are looking at a top 25, maybe even top 15 team in the country.

Plenty of exposure on a team like that!

[wpbrown8267]

also, who has been bashing him on this board???

Is it becasue some have said he likes the bright lights of a P5...

i think you're being a little sensitive

Implying he’s delusional and immature is not a great look.

Maybe I missed the posts I’d soneone saying he was immature, i didn’t see that.I for one have never bashed the kid on this board, I think he’s a very good kid

[rhodyblue12]

TP made perhaps a poor choice in words which he explains in great detail above.
He didn't mean to be pejorative or myopic.

Let's move on.

[DC_Rams]

Heard again tonight that Rhody is still active with Walker. It is between Rhody, Pitt & Miami. There is definitely a spot for Walker when he decides. The negative post aren’t doing any good.

We will see!

[Billyboy78]

So, who has the better sources, Rhody 83 or DC Rams?

[RamStock]

Let’s be realistic here. Walker isn’t coming to URI. It sounds nice to talk about pairing him up with Harris, Langevine and everyone else, but isn’t reality. We did a great job in presenting what URI has to offer, but it wasn’t what he wanted. He likes the idea of playing in the ACC. We are probably still in contact with Walker, but behind both Miami and Pittsburgh and the staff knows that it is very, very unlikely we get him. It is just too much to expect on getting players the talent level of Harris and Walker in back to back classes at their position. I hope we are focused on McLeod 100% at this point.

[bkoeppen]

So, who has the better sources, Rhody 83 or DC Rams?

gonna go out on limb and say neither has a great source. at best people on this board have friends of friends of somebody that may know the situation. but I'm in the camp that walker is not going to URI - our front court is too crowded now for the next 3-4 years.

[DC_Rams]

So, who has the better sources, Rhody 83 or DC Rams?

gonna go out on limb and say neither has a great source. at best people on this board have friends of friends of somebody that may know the situation. but I'm in the camp that walker is not going to URI - our front court is too crowded now for the next 3-4 years.

It’s no competition, Rhody is plugged, give him the credit until proven otherwise.

I will wait until AW announces to comment again here on this particular thread.

[Billyboy78]

In this case, it seems like Rhody 83 is getting info from URI's side while DC Rams is getting info from Walker’s side. Both could be true. We might still be recruiting him but Walker is no longer interested. Of course there's always a chance he'll change his mind. It could be true that it's down to Pitt, Miami and URI, with our chances being .0001%.

[Ramrod]

I would also bet my paycheck that these kids do NOT come on this board. We’ve never had one comment, except for Will Martell and that was after he was on the team or maybe even after he was done. With Snapchat and Instagram and MyFace and InstantFace and all the others, this board may as well be the dark web to them.

[TruePoint]

I don’t know about the recruits themselves, but many family members and friends of players and recruits do read everything they can find on their guy. If you google a player and we have a thread on them, it will be in the search results. I wouldn’t say anything here that you wouldn’t say to a player’s friend or family member’s face, just to be safe (if you’re interested in URI’s recruiting going well). That’s why I felt the need to make a long-winded clarification in response to ace. I’m NOT trying to bag on anyone or be disrespectful, but at the same time I was just giving an honest opinion/observation that I would stand by in person in real life.

[DC_Rams]

Bottom line, the fans would go crazy if AW committed to URI, but we’ve been stood up one too many times to get excited over a “possibility”.

[Running Ram]

There is a board out there for like every team in creation, even probably CYO teams/leagues. The kids know they exist some check them and others don't. Having said that, I think the negativity in this thread is negligible, it's more just folks reading tea leaves and giving their analysis. Check some other threads for negativity...people saying things like "Just say not to" so and so and it would be a huge disappointment to land so and so instead of Walker, even the McLeod thread go back to the beginning and notice a handful that thought we should take a hard pass on him. Sometimes the negativity that goes out at kids is harsh, most often because they don't have enough stars next to their names. I don't see it in this thread. I agree with most of TP's analysis here.

[Billyboy78]

Bottom line, the fans would go crazy if AW committed to URI, but we’ve been stood up one too many times to get excited over a “possibility”.

That's why I estimated our chances at being one thousandth of one percent. I don't think anybody would be excited about those chances. But it's still better than zero. A commitment now would go under the category of thrilled and extremely pleasantly surprised.

[DC_Rams]

Good thing Mading doesn’t read some of the BS posted here. Better yet, hopefully, he hasn’t.

[CT Rhody]

Bottom line, the fans would go crazy if AW committed to URI, but we’ve been stood up one too many times to get excited over a “possibility”.

This would be an understatement! His fit is so perfect for the roster we currently have constructed. Come on Anthony, come sell out the Ryan every night!

[Rhody83]

Regarding DC_Rams’ contacts vs my contacts. I am not saying one is better than the other. My contacts are on the Rhody side and I believe DC Rams’ are from the DC AAU connections. I haven’t stated anything about the probability of Walker committing to URI. My post was that URI is still recruiting him and has a spot for him. To say Rhody’s chances are 1 in a million is obviously crazy. They are one of three teams in the running.

DC Rams knew early about Bishop. I am not questioning his connections.

[Rhody74]

It’s good to have both you guys here.

[bkoeppen]

In this case, it seems like Rhody 83 is getting info from URI's side while DC Rams is getting info from Walker’s side. Both could be true. We might still be recruiting him but Walker is no longer interested. Of course there's always a chance he'll change his mind. It could be true that it's down to Pitt, Miami and URI, with our chances being .0001%.

What's made this recruitment all the more frustrating is that there is a football player on the Colts named Anthony Walker, trying to search for Anthony Walker on social media brings up a million things to sort through. At least when you search for Naheem McLeod there hasn't been much risk of finding anything else besides the recruit!

[reef]

Sounds like this is a long shot at best say 20 %

If we get him that would be great but I am not counting on it at all

[ace]

In this case, it seems like Rhody 83 is getting info from URI's side while DC Rams is getting info from Walker’s side. Both could be true. We might still be recruiting him but Walker is no longer interested. Of course there's always a chance he'll change his mind. It could be true that it's down to Pitt, Miami and URI, with our chances being .0001%.

What's made this recruitment all the more frustrating is that there is a football player on the Colts named Anthony Walker, trying to search for Anthony Walker on social media brings up a million things to sort through. At least when you search for Naheem McLeod there hasn't been much risk of finding anything else besides the recruit!

There’s also a soccer player named Hassan Martin who’s really messing up my search efforts.

[CT Rhody]

This thread is turning into Jared Terrel like in terms of pages, this must mean we are going to land Walker and Rhody nation goes crazy!

[Billyboy78]

Nah, Jared's was 72 pages. We've still got a ways to go to catch up to Jermaine Harris.

[CT Rhody]

Well in that case, let’s go people, let’s show the love!

[Surfri72]

We’re out on him. Didn’t make the final four

[RamStock]

Wow. I guess all that talk about his mom liking URI and everything else was overblown. Biggest slap is BC

[adam914]

Not ideal to miss out on your top two targets in the same cycle. McLeod is a must have at this point.

[reckless jake]

Candidly, I think his decision says more about the perception of the A10 Conference then it does about playing basketball at URI.

Clearly he wants to play in a Power 5 conference and he favors the ACC. He's not even going to take his official visit to VCU.

It hurts the ego but it's not the end of the world.

[CT Rhody]

Apparently us not recruiting him anymore we’re true, otherwise he would of at least left us in the final 4-5 schools.

[RamStock]

Apparently us not recruiting him anymore we’re true, otherwise he would of at least left us in the final 4-5 schools.

This could be true, but makes no sense. We don’t have anybody close to his talent coming in or that we are still recruiting. This is very surprising if true. They could easily have Walker and Mading and make it fit on this team.

[4Diffs]

Apparently us not recruiting him anymore we’re true, otherwise he would of at least left us in the final 4-5 schools.

Correct. Of course Ram Stock thinks this makes no sense because he thinks Mading sucks. Staff feels differently. Walker is off to Miami. And based on that, I think the staff made the correct decision.

[RamStock]

Apparently us not recruiting him anymore we’re true, otherwise he would of at least left us in the final 4-5 schools.

Correct. Of course Ram Stock thinks this makes no sense because he thinks Mading sucks. Staff feels differently. Walker is off to Miami. And based on that, I think the staff made the correct decision.

Not the reason at all. I haven’t been the biggest fan on Mading, but he has potential. I think they could have fit Mading and Walker in the rotation. Walker just didn’t want to come to URI. He wanted to play in the ACC. We just have to secure McLeod now.

[ace]

Not ideal to miss out on your top two targets in the same cycle. McLeod is a must have at this point.

Hard to sugarcoat it- it sucks to not get an official visit from Bishop and to not make Walker’s final four. McLeod seems like a lock, or as much as one can be without actually committing. The positive is that the resulting class potentially has a high ceiling, but there also seems to be a much lower floor.

There’s always two sides to every recruiting story, but I can’t imagine URI cutting him off over a week’s time. With that list, it seems like Walker wants a different path.

[DC_Rams]

I’m glad he put some of you out of your misery.

Let’s move on, good luck AW. He will do well. The chances of him heading to the A10 after all his peers were headed to P5’s was also unlikely. There was a calculated approach to his recruitment. The staff was prepared and secured Mading. There is nothing left to discuss unless you just want to keep throwing out baseless assumptions because your feelings might be hurt because the staff didn’t focus on who you felt they should focus on.

[DC_Rams]

Not ideal to miss out on your top two targets in the same cycle. McLeod is a must have at this point.

Hard to sugarcoat it- it sucks to not get an official visit from Bishop and to not make Walker’s final four. McLeod seems like a lock, or as much as one can be without actually committing. The positive is that the resulting class potentially has a high ceiling, but there also seems to be a much lower floor.

There’s always two sides to every recruiting story, but I can’t imagine URI cutting him off over a week’s time. With that list, it seems like Walker wants a different path.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

When we start winning under a new regime, the recruits will come.

[TruePoint]

Lol BC

[rhodylaw]

I actually think BC may be a good fit for him. Not a total rebuild like Pitt, probably the best player they will recruit so not a huge threat to be over-recruited.

Too bad he didn’t choose us, but it it would have been hard to follow our best recruiting class in 2 decades with a better class (which it would be on paper if Walker came here). As it stands, if McLeod comes then it this is the third best class in 25 years.