Dang, but this has felt inevitable honestly for some time now. Given we already had 1 scholarship open including Gapare it would have been nice to have filled the 12th scholarship earlier. I hope Bryan ends up taking one of the open ones now at least.

After Buchanan took his official to Pitt this past weekend, I think it's pretty much a matter of time before we hear his commitment there. Having a teammate from Team Durant going there seemed to have made a difference.

Coach Devlin was in Memphis yesterday so wonder if we're pursuing Amarr Knox who recently decommitted from Memphis as Penny Hardaway continues to stock up on top HS talent. Maybe some HS recruiting too.
 

GW0509 wrote:

jf wrote:

[What are the NCAA rules for recruits from New Zealand? Do they always have to wait until the start of the year to sign a letter of intent? Do other schools with New Zealand recruits always have them supposedly coming in mid year without signing? And in any case, shouldn't we have known what we are getting into?
   
  A verbal commit can have a change of heart, but this was a long, long, probably expensive recruiting process that tied up our recruiting. Or if it didn't tie up recruiting, and we knew it, we didn't take advantage by signing someone else this year.
      Bottom line appears to be: either by Gapare or ourselves, it seems like we got played. 
 

1. Yeah, unless they come over early to align with our schedule, they are typically mid-year eligible.  Nima signed another kiwi at Fordham by the name of Zach Riley (same birth year as Gapare) and he will be enrolling in December. 

2.  I think your bottom line is where I'm at. For all parties involved it would've been much better had the decision to not honor his verbal been known months ago so we all could move on. 

 

Perhaps JC knew months ago. That's all that matters.

How are you disappointed in losing something you never had and only heard about second hand?  This is the business of recruiting ... offers aren't commitments, commitments aren't binding and even LOIs can be defeated. It's a dirty nasty business and if you take the position that you will only be invested once the recruit dons a GW jersey in a game, I promise you won't be that disappointed. I'm more disappointed in guys who transfer than guys who never come to GW. This is especially true in this case when you know why a recruit is no longer coming to GW. Time to move on and find someone else. I promise that is what JC is doing (and should be doing) and isn't looking in the rearview mirror. Not sure why it is so hard here to do that. Wish the kid well and let's get back to discussing who is actually playing for us.

Last edited by GWRising (11/04/2021 3:48 pm)

I could not have said it better.So I won’t.Colonoscopy today.TMI?

While this was indeed not a surprise, there are a number of questions:
If we are now arguing Gapare's not that good, why did we offer him and accept his commit and honor it for so long, while he didn't?
  Let's face it, he had looked like a giant among munchkins in some clips, but then was said to have New Zealand (not exactly the NBA) pro potential, be good in international competition and an AAU tournament. Did we misjudge his talent level? That happens as we all know, but usually after a player gets here. It's not a plus for a recruit we considerable time and money on recruiting.
    If it was academics for a player that's let's say for graciousness was in a foreign educational system, in the year and a half or whatever long engagement with Gapare that was broken, why didn't we realize that?
   Since we knew Gapare wasn't coming, why was his spot left open? Seems like there are only 11 scholarship players on the roster.  Now, at least 4 were injured (Lee, Lindo, Bamisile) or not apparently playing at full strength (Harris) at the start of the season, including a key big man.
         True, it's just one recruit. But we need all the help we can get. And the whole situation doesn't cover us in glory.
    
     
 

danjsport wrote:

As of August 23, Rising, you said that he was still committed to GW.  And there was lots to be excited about--just as we get about almost every prospect--then, in November that commitment is out the window. I'm not upset with him. I'm not even upset with GW. It's part of the game. I am upset as a fan because I was looking forward to watching him play for the team I root for. Of course JC has to move on, as does the team. They have to prepare to put the best team out there that they can. Of course I will root for whoever is in the jersey on game day. But I'm not the coach or the team. I'm a fan, and having spent time learning about him and watching highlights, it's disappointing I won't get to see him in a GW uniform.  Not sure why that's hard to grasp.

On August 23 he was still committed to GW. Things changed. Maybe it's me but I don't get too upset at 18-19 year olds changing their minds and realize that with every recruit there is a fluid situation until they arrive on campus. If you have kids who have gone through those years you will probably understand what I am talking about. Best not to get too committed to the commits these days as they often say.

Last edited by GWRising (11/05/2021 3:28 pm)

I don’t get upset at the kid.  Just like I don’t get upset at jammer jr leaving or battle leaving. I get upset because it negatively impacts the team I root for.  Lots of recruits could have come while we waited on a guy to come, who you now paint as maybe not good enough. So then I’m upset we held out for a player not good enough. And, if he’s good, I’m upset a good one got away.  Kids also get injured.  I’m still upset ira Lee got hurt

Stop trying to get Rising to understand.He will not budge ever..He must have the last word.
Let him have it.It doesn’t change what we all know to be true.——-Gapara not coming is disappointing.

Promise-my last post on this. Poog your post both in tone and content was pitch perfect.My only-and very 
significant difference between us is that I wanted to find out if he was our bust,transformational 
player or something in between.The example of Copes is I believe a straw argument.By the way ,I really 
enjoy your careful,caring and well written posts.Never feels combative.

Another waste of time talking about someone who is not coming. Ala Nigel. Until a recruit actually is here we should just stop talking about him. A superstar has committed, yeah, sure. What is the word, bullshit. And UT got screwed by ACC refs the other day. Anyway I wish everyone a happy New Year. Stay safe and healthy.