He tweeted “big news coming today” - liked by Nima and Graham our assistant coaches. Chance it’s a commitment to somewhere or maybe the big news is what he’s having for dinner haha

Per his Twitter

Committing on Thursday at Noon!👀

dmv, there is a question, IMO, if we are still recruiting tall wings for 2021 (or even any bigs at all) after the 6'9" Gapare commitment.  We have a bunch of PG offers out for that year as well, so we could be focusing on those guys for the last spot.  Hicks, AJ Williams and (to a lesser extent) Brayon Freeman seem to be in play from the offers we know of.

Of course, any coach would be nuts to turn down a future star, even if we are loaded at his position, but I'm guessing (and the roster seems to agree) that PG would be a high priority for the last spot as he'll be an understudy to Bishop for a year or two before taking over the reigns.

Good question BM. I definitely feel like there was a changing of priority after Tafara committed. I think definitely right now in terms of mutual interest, I would say Devon Savage is the highest. He was offered by Byington at JMU (who just came over from Georgia Southern) but otherwise his recruitment has been relatively quiet recently. Loyola Chicago, Charlotte, East Carolina, and others showed interest along the way but none offered for whatever reason (maybe wanted to watch him in person during AAU season). Savage definitely has a pretty good reputation as a shooter and is one of the leaders at Riverdale Baptist. I don't know how good of a shooter Tafara is (I think he is continuing to develop), but we will definitely have to replace Maceo's 80+ made threes somehow (of course, Ball, Brelsford, and Bishop can all take some of that on).

I know Coach Omidvar has been on Brayon Freeman a lot the past month or so. He was another guy who I'm surprised didn't blow up even more, especially after he made the move to a program like Huntington Prep in WV. He would be a steal if we could get him. It seems us and Ole Miss have been in contact a lot, according to this interview. The same guy interviewed Tyler recently for those who haven't seen it.

According to an interview that I think is on his recruiting page on this site, our top priority is Poulakidas, but I didn't get the sense that we were frontrunners from reading it. He mentioned that he wanted to take visits to the other three schools that were mentioned (Minnesota, Butler, and Yale) but not us which didn't strike me as encouraging.

As for Lincoln/Tyler, I definitely got the sense that both are combo guards that can play multiple positions. I have watched several of Tyler's MSJ games the past few weeks (they are available on YouTube, shoutout Dye Sporting Network - you can also see how he fares with James on the floor as well from the previous year's games; I got the sense that James was more of a score first guy than pass but that might have been his designated role at MSJ). Tyler had moments where he brought the ball up, especially late in games, but MSJ often had multiple ball handlers on the floor at once, with Crawley as the PG many times. Tyler is a really good passer and has great vision (sometimes opts to be pass first), especially with his ability to get to the hoop and kick it out or find the roll man (I think MSJ's scheme will be an easier transition to JC's offense because the Gaels deploy a PnR based system). I also have to say that Tyler's growth from his junior year to senior year in terms of playmaking was considerable, he truly took on an alpha role his final year, while in his junior year he tended to defer to James a bit more. I think his senior year experience will give him a chance to play some important minutes off the bench for us, although of course the transition to the college game has to be factored in as well. I only watched Lincoln's game against Seneca Valley, and while the competition was definitely not on the same level as Tyler's at MSJ, he showed the ability to make really good passes in tight windows and was clearly the leader of the team. Both seem to have good mechanics on their shots, and could definitely play some off the ball. I think Tyler in particular could be deadly off the ball with less attention on him than high school (he shot I think 48% from deep during the live session last year).

JNJ's ability to make shots from the outside may also play a role in this. Assuming he will be shifting over to the point next year, it may be beneficial to have Lincoln and Tyler play off the ball and play to their shooting strengths. Next year at least, I would assume JNJ to get the majority of the point minutes, so I think Lincoln and Tyler can definitely handle spot minutes, assuming James is not eligible (which I still expect him to be).

Boise State
DMVprinaha you might have been 100% on the mark with this one