With the most of Basketball team’s remaining ACC schedule against the bottom half of the league and getting some tougher games at home, do you see any chance of putting together a decent record down the stretch and getting to around .500 or better by the end of the year? Give the fans some hope for next season?
KQ- So it is interesting and I think the ACC Standings are very fluid right now with a lot of teams slotted based on their first month schedule more than how good or bad they are. I don't think BC will finish top 10 for example, but they are 9th right now.
GT opened with based on the current rankings, #6, 7, at 3, 4, at 9, at 6 and 5 which was WF.
Up next they played 2 FSU and 1 Miami this week, then starting in Feb they play the back half of the league at 13, 10, at 1, at 8, 12, at 14, at 11, 13, at 4, at 10 and 9 again. They should've beat ND the first time and would've beaten Duke if not for the lousy officiating so I think a decent run is a strong possibility, but they have to figure out how to defend at the rim and since Howard isn't giving them anything on offense, they need to play Meka or Saba IMO.
Noticed in first workout video no or very little signage in Indoor Facility. Plus looked like players dressed in all grey with only Adidas Emblem on front of T Shirt. What’s up. Thanks
KQ- The indoor footage is from angles where you would not likely see anything anyway on the weights side or east side of the indoor. All the signs are either high up or on the North/South and West sides of the indoor as I recall. You have me really thinking about that.
On the clothing, yeah I think it is a clear message about how they've performed over the last few years.
Jeremiah Telander. I’m I wrong in thinking that he could arguably be one of the be LBs in the state, with a tremendous jump in the rankings?
RJ- Not wrong at all. Especially with the new coaches there at Gainesville, he will have every opportunity to impress and raise both his ranking and his profile nationally.
He has to be pumped.
Would we have a legit shot at getting tyron hopper
KQ- He entered the portal, withdrew his name and just re-entered the portal again. Not sure what the hell is happening with him.
While GT might not have been the dream school for Jullian Lewis like another FL recruit, is it fair to say that he has a strong desire to be part of the team even after they parted ways? I’m surprised in a good way in how we got back in the mix so quick to have FCs in.
RJ- Yes
He kept track of everything happening through the season, and playing all season with a GT commit (Jaylin Marshall) in the locker room with him certainly did not hurt either. Other schools tried to get in the mix, Washington State offered him anyway. He was committed before he even took the OV.It is not uncommon for a recruit to say X school is recruiting them the hardest. Given that in person visits by a coach are heavily restricted in number what does “recruiting me the hardest” typically mean?
RJ- Sending the most edits, talking to them the most, sending them the most mail, having the most members of the staff hitting them up on a consistent basis, things like that.
What HS guys do we have our eyes on for signing in the last signing period for basketball? Are we trying to leverage Jose’s success with any NYC players?
KQ- The focus is more on the transfer portal at the moment, they want to add a big who is a shot-blocker and can score and they want another scoring guard type because I think the jury is still out on Tristan Maxwell and his toughness to play every day. Could it end up being a HS kid? Maybe, they are not on a lot though at the moment.
Catawba! Those were the good days. But serious is there a sense of the big man transfer market for next season or is it still to early? Just wondering if it’s like football were the back channels seem to be always working.
KQ- Let's be real, how would you know right now. The season is still going on. I get the anxiety of GT fans wanting to know how they will get a big man, but you have to use some common sense too. Even in football, you don't typically see anyone go into the portal who is playing mid-season.
Is there any hope for regulations regarding NIL and other things? I know the NCAA is obsolete but I think most see how crazy this is already and it’s just getting started. These boosters will really start competing for fake deals if we don’t get some kind of enforcement. Just feels like it’s a little Wild West out there right now and would hope there was some talk about putting some parameters on it.
KQ- I mean it is being used to the opposite intent because the NCAA rushed into it to avoid having to pay salaries to SAs which they thought was going to happen with the path they were on. Like everything they do it was ham-fisted and not done properly with no oversight really. You have boosters basically just making up companies to sign NIL deals to buy players. Alabama bitched about it but they certainly are up to something having allegedly used it to help land Jahmyr Gibbs and Jermaine Burton from schools where both players were starting per my sources.
Will there be any oversight, maybe when the IRS gets involved? I'm guessing not all of the money is clean and I'm not sure these young men understand what it means to file to a tax return either.
When the dead period ends like it has now, how to HS coaches manage college coaches coming to their school to see kids....do coaches ever over-lap? Does it get awkward? Do HS's usually have a single person that schedules college coaches visits? Seems like our guys are all over the place right now, so I'm sure other college coaches are too...just wondering how the sausage is made.
RJ- Honestly, it depends how big your school is, your relationship with the staff, and whether or not you want your kids to actually potentially go to the college that is coming to see them.
Coaches run into each other all the time, but to answer your question yes sometimes things do get awkward.
Two un-named SEC schools were at the same school at the same time a few years back. The recruit they were there to see was committed to one of the two schools that were there to see him. The school he was not committed to at the time got into it with the other coach, and said that they were going to do everything in their power to make sure that the recruit didn't sign with their school.
He later flipped to the other school, and is now in the NFL.
As for the second part of your question, yes usually it is one person. Crazy to think that a HS staff needs a recruiting coordinator, but that's where we are at here in 2022.
They coordinate visits, facilitate film, etc. and play such a vital role in the process.
Whatever came of the experiment of four quarters in mens basketball?
KQ- The coaches all hated it and the idea of it. Pastner didn't like it, I asked him about it before and he said there was little support for changing to four quarters among the coaches.
If a position coach has had an unsuccessful stint as a coordinator, is it realistic for them to hope for a head coaching job? Were there any extenuating circumstances surrounding CBK’s run as OC at UCF?
KQ- I can't speak to Brent Key's deal at UCF other than to say they had a large amount of issues at the time, O'Leary became of the AD which was ludicrous, showing how dysfunctional things got and it took a lot of cleaning up by Danny White to fix the issues there. Key was not really responsible for any of that stuff as he was just an assistant on O'Leary's staff.
There are a ton of failed coordinators who became successful head coaches, Dino Babers immediately pops into my mind, he had been an OC at TAMU and then was only a position coach for like the next decade before he got a shot as a head coach. The MAC coach of the year last year and a guy who beat GT Thomas Hammock is another failed OC who has become a successful head coach. East of him Tim Lester at Western Michigan was a failed OC who became a good HC. I don't think Karl Dorrell is that great of a coach, but he was a shitty OC. There are plenty of other examples if I wanted to do digging. There are also guys who have never been coordinators at all that can become good head coaches. Does that mean IF GT made a change that Brent should be the guy? I have no idea, but I will say he never wants to be an OC again, he knew it was a mistake and he wants to be a head coach one day somewhere. I think he is capable of running a program for whatever that is worth.
RJ & KQ, when you log off of JOL, what are your favorite series to binge watch?
KQ- I enjoy all the superhero stuff, right now I'm enjoying Peacemaker on HBO Max with John Cena playing basically DC's douche/bro version of Captain America. I like the HBO Max DC content, I watch all the Marvel/Star Wars shows as well and all the Star Trek stuff on Paramount+. The Book of Boba Fett is pretty good. I also like watching Youtube videos with crazy people in Canada camping like Steve Wallis and Foresty Forest.
RJ- I don't watch too much TV honestly. I did watch Scandal back in the day, but never got the chance to finish that or Designated Survivor.
I watch the brain drain reality TV stuff with my wife too, but I wouldn't say we binge watch it or anything.
