I think there were a variety of factors that led to this result (not just one) including ability to be admitted to GW  now, other people in his ear about whether he should attend GW, the view that maybe he is not quite as good as once thought, and that you may be able to get a better player who would not come to GW if he was enrolled, etc. I think at the end of the day it was decision that may benefit both sides. We will see in time..

Not that I am holding out hope, but still waiting to hear from JC.

Yeah, not hearing from leadership on this at all really stinks. And I know that GWRising must raise those buff and blue pompoms like it's his job (is it your job), but I really cant see how losing a promising and much heralded international recruit can be spun as a positive. Obviously I could be proven wrong - but if other people were so in his ear, I at least hope we were in his ear as well and that we did all we could to avoid this result.

You can only control your control-ables, but it feels like we are nowhere in the narrative around this kid and his process (from what little info is out there).

Steve wrote:

Yeah, not hearing from leadership on this at all really stinks. And I know that GWRising must raise those buff and blue pompoms like it's his job (is it your job), but I really cant see how losing a promising and much heralded international recruit can be spun as a positive. Obviously I could be proven wrong - but if other people were so in his ear, I at least hope we were in his ear as well and that we did all we could to avoid this result.

You can only control your control-ables, but it feels like we are nowhere in the narrative around this kid and his process (from what little info is out there).

Yeah Steve, JC should comment which would be an NCAA violation. I already alluded to what happened above. That's all you need to know. Move on. You can't lose something you never had. Commitments aren't binding. LOIs are. JC is not commenting so you and others will just have to live with whatever information is already out there.

By the way, how do you know he was a promising recruit? Ever seen him play live? Or are you just going off of what others wrote about him?

That said, all recruits are by their definition theoretically "promising". Otherwise, why would a coach recruit them? Yet the transfer portal is full of guys who were once "promising" but never panned out. I have no idea whether Gapare will pan out but I do know one thing: the only guy who has seen him play "live" doesn't seem as devastated as some here on the board who have never seen him and know nothing or very little about him. Go figure.

Last edited by GWRising (11/03/2021 9:34 am)

GWRising wrote:

I think there were a variety of factors that led to this result (not just one) including ability to be admitted to GW  now, other people in his ear about whether he should attend GW, the view that maybe he is not quite as good as once thought, and that you may be able to get a better player who would not come to GW if he was enrolled, etc. I think at the end of the day it was decision that may benefit both sides. We will see in time..

There is a possibility that this could turn out well in the future.  But to try to spin this as a potential positive is just insane.  We haven't had a four year recruit with this type of hype and this highly ranked in a long time. Of course, maybe his play declined, and maybe GW can fill his slot with a player that winds up better than him. However, this is not a positive. Just like it wasn't a positive when players left in the middle of the year. JC wanted a player. He left a spot open for him. The player chose not to come. That's fine. He's entitled. But it's infuriating to hear how this could be better for everybody. 

danjsport - What's more infuriating is people with no knowledge of the situation spinning it to fit their narrative. You say the player "chose" not to come. You have no idea. Maybe you should think about why as such a heralded international recruit he is at IMG instead of playing for another college this year. That's all I'm going to say.

Last edited by GWRising (11/03/2021 10:38 am)

Mentz.  I agree it shouldn't be spun as good news but Rising's correct that Gapare is propbably the most "unknown" 4 star prospect out there.  I posted a podcast a few weeks back that went deep on Gapare starting at 49:45:

Gapare was described both as the highest ever prospect coming out of NZ capable of going pro out of high school and also someone who has stagnated because he hasn't challenged himself in the last few years and is still quite scrawny.  Another scout has said Gapare probably has one of the highest deltas between his floor and ceiling.  Right now he is a 6'9" kid playing against 5 foot nothing competition.   It will be interesting to see how he does at prep school in the US going against kids day-in and day-out who are bigger and stronger than who he's played against in NZ.  I will say he seemed to hold his own when he played against Bronny James' team.

It's a similar situation to Giannis before the NBA draft.  There was no guarantee he'd turn out to become the Greek Freak when Milwaukee drafted him.  Other NBA teams were not flogging themselves on draft night for not drafting him.  Like Gapare, Giannis was playing against nobodies in Greece.  Yet he blossomed into the best player in the NBA.  Milwaukee tried the same strategy a few years later with Thon Maker and he turned into a bust.

I don't agree with Rising that this isn't a loss for GW because we need to take shots on kids who may blossom into all-conference players.  He seriously had the potential to be an Giannis-esque transformational player for us.  But he's not wrong in saying that there's enough unknown that he very well could've ended up as our version of Thon Maker.
 

Last edited by GW0509 (11/03/2021 10:49 am)

It would have been nice to find out if he was “OUR” bust or transformational player.I just can’t see any upside 
on his not coming here.Rising-I’m a huge fan of yours-but it’s OK to take a loss once in a while.

GW literally lost a commit. In the range of possible outcomes, obviously this could yield a net positive result. Theoretically one of our guys could have a career ending injury (god forbid) and that opens a door for another player/recruit which could yield a net positive. We would still say that is a loss even if the eventual replacement was better, wouldn't we? 

If we just look at the recent news, it is, almost by definition, a loss. Not saying it wont all work out even better.

danjsport wrote:

GWRising wrote:

I think there were a variety of factors that led to this result (not just one) including ability to be admitted to GW  now, other people in his ear about whether he should attend GW, the view that maybe he is not quite as good as once thought, and that you may be able to get a better player who would not come to GW if he was enrolled, etc. I think at the end of the day it was decision that may benefit both sides. We will see in time..

There is a possibility that this could turn out well in the future.  But to try to spin this as a potential positive is just insane.  We haven't had a four year recruit with this type of hype and this highly ranked in a long time. Of course, maybe his play declined, and maybe GW can fill his slot with a player that winds up better than him. However, this is not a positive. Just like it wasn't a positive when players left in the middle of the year. JC wanted a player. He left a spot open for him. The player chose not to come. That's fine. He's entitled. But it's infuriating to hear how this could be better for everybody. 

  We have been literally saving a spot for this guy for what: a year and a half or more. Didn't Nima recruit him with numerous international trips? Didn't they cost money?
Realize there may be more than basketball here, but if something like academics let's say politely from a foreign system, played a role, we should have certainly known that too by now. 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?
   JC has touted him as a recruit coming, without naming Gapare. And he can comment in general on lost recruits without naming him, as other GW coaches have done.
   This guy was supposed to be a linchpin of a freshman recruiting class. Everyone here was salivating for him. Sure he seemed like he was playing against teams that comparatively in size were like us against Hood. But Gapare was supposed be good in international competition and here. If someone still here saw him play live and he wasn't that good, why wasn't the offer withdrawn, especially after he started putting out rumors? Or why was the offer made in the first place if we had doubts he could play in the A-10?
    We are down a big man now and were thin to begin with, assuming we are not playing 27 times against Hood.. Not that this guy was a center or anything, but he was 6'9 and theoretically could grab some rebounds. This wasn't a surprise, given the hints, etc.  So are we full up this year. Didn't we have spots open. So if we didn't want him or like him or couldn't count on him, why didn't we fill that position? This wasn't a real surprise, certainly to coaches, yet wasn't his position left open?
  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.