Greeting my night owls and/or early risers.
So I'll try to give some updates on where things stand across the board right now for GT.
Deebo Coleman has been working out with Amaree Abram with a private trainer and he intends to enter the transfer portal at some point in the near future per my sources (not news really). He has until May 1st to submit his paperwork and no one is really sure why he is waiting unless he is trying to line up where he is going to land first.
The other guy I'm keeping an eye on right now is Ibrahima Sacko. He doesn't quite fit into what GT is doing with his skill set and lack of height as he is basically a really undersized power forward, but Damon Stoudamire really likes the kid from what I've gathered and is trying to help him figure out his next move. I think he could stay or go. He has some value, but his ceiling is a lot lower than the rest of the guys currently on the roster or coming in IMO.
Ex-Stanford guard Kanaan Carlyle is visiting Indiana and the Hoosiers are putting up an aggressive NIL offer to him that I would be surprised to see GT or UGA match. GT is still trying to get Carlyle per my sources but are less optimistic than they were when he first went in the portal.
That brings us to Javian McCollum the Oklahoma transfer who also played at Siena. McCollum should visit GT next weekend and if that visit goes off smoothly I expect a commitment could come shortly thereafter, but we are in an age where things change on a dime hence why I am not so quick to say I expect GT to land him or not. Let's see if he is on campus and then how that visit goes before we start predicting landing a kid. He struggled in Porter Moser's system and in the Big 12 which is a very strong conference with his numbers going down from Siena, but he was very productive and his FT% for his career is better than Mark freaking Price, McCollum is a career 90.1% free throw shooter, Price was just 85% at GT. Dude was 82/87 at the line at OU, 94.3%. His three-point numbers are trending the wrong way down each season, but his volume has increased and likely the defensive attention as well as the primary scorer in his last two seasons on his team.
GT has taken a keen interest in ECU transfer Ezra Ausar who is an Atlanta native who played his senior HS season at a sports factory in Charlotte but he was at Shiloh HS before that. He is a more gifted version of Ty Claude, or Sacko as a big body 6'8" 250 who can rebound and defend well and averaged 11..4 ppg game and almost five rebounds per game, a steal and half a block per game in 26 minutes per game. What is interesting about Ausar and probably what Stoudamire likes is he can create his own scoring opportunities and is not a bad ball handler at his size. He sort of also does some of what they want Tafara Gapare to do. He kind of reminds me of Grant Williams who Damon coached with the Celtics without the 3-4 3pt attempts per game as an undersized 4 who can play the 3 as well. If you watch Ausar's tape you will even see the same types of spot of threes from the corner that Gapare misses regularly get hit. I don't know enough about ECU hoops to tell you whether he should be shooting more threes, but Ausar shot 37.5% for the season from three and 51.4% from the floor.
GT is still on Justin Pippen, no new news there. They would still take him even if they get a portal guard. I'm hearing that Pippen should have a decision fairly soon.
There are other irons in the fire, but this is the most recent stuff.
So I'll try to give some updates on where things stand across the board right now for GT.
Deebo Coleman has been working out with Amaree Abram with a private trainer and he intends to enter the transfer portal at some point in the near future per my sources (not news really). He has until May 1st to submit his paperwork and no one is really sure why he is waiting unless he is trying to line up where he is going to land first.
The other guy I'm keeping an eye on right now is Ibrahima Sacko. He doesn't quite fit into what GT is doing with his skill set and lack of height as he is basically a really undersized power forward, but Damon Stoudamire really likes the kid from what I've gathered and is trying to help him figure out his next move. I think he could stay or go. He has some value, but his ceiling is a lot lower than the rest of the guys currently on the roster or coming in IMO.
Ex-Stanford guard Kanaan Carlyle is visiting Indiana and the Hoosiers are putting up an aggressive NIL offer to him that I would be surprised to see GT or UGA match. GT is still trying to get Carlyle per my sources but are less optimistic than they were when he first went in the portal.
That brings us to Javian McCollum the Oklahoma transfer who also played at Siena. McCollum should visit GT next weekend and if that visit goes off smoothly I expect a commitment could come shortly thereafter, but we are in an age where things change on a dime hence why I am not so quick to say I expect GT to land him or not. Let's see if he is on campus and then how that visit goes before we start predicting landing a kid. He struggled in Porter Moser's system and in the Big 12 which is a very strong conference with his numbers going down from Siena, but he was very productive and his FT% for his career is better than Mark freaking Price, McCollum is a career 90.1% free throw shooter, Price was just 85% at GT. Dude was 82/87 at the line at OU, 94.3%. His three-point numbers are trending the wrong way down each season, but his volume has increased and likely the defensive attention as well as the primary scorer in his last two seasons on his team.
GT has taken a keen interest in ECU transfer Ezra Ausar who is an Atlanta native who played his senior HS season at a sports factory in Charlotte but he was at Shiloh HS before that. He is a more gifted version of Ty Claude, or Sacko as a big body 6'8" 250 who can rebound and defend well and averaged 11..4 ppg game and almost five rebounds per game, a steal and half a block per game in 26 minutes per game. What is interesting about Ausar and probably what Stoudamire likes is he can create his own scoring opportunities and is not a bad ball handler at his size. He sort of also does some of what they want Tafara Gapare to do. He kind of reminds me of Grant Williams who Damon coached with the Celtics without the 3-4 3pt attempts per game as an undersized 4 who can play the 3 as well. If you watch Ausar's tape you will even see the same types of spot of threes from the corner that Gapare misses regularly get hit. I don't know enough about ECU hoops to tell you whether he should be shooting more threes, but Ausar shot 37.5% for the season from three and 51.4% from the floor.
GT is still on Justin Pippen, no new news there. They would still take him even if they get a portal guard. I'm hearing that Pippen should have a decision fairly soon.
There are other irons in the fire, but this is the most recent stuff.
