Twitter Tuesday: Florida's drought, Tennessee, Kawhi Leonard
Twitter Tuesday is back again this week, as Southeast recruiting analyst Woody Wommack is answering your questions.
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This is a good question for Florida fans who are clearly a little frustrated with the lack of action on the commitment front over the past few months. Last month’s commitment from four-star Jaelin Humphries aside, it has been since April since the last flurry of commitments have rolled in for Dan Mullen and company.
While this isn’t what Gators fans are used to, I do think it’s a calculated effort by the Gators staff. Because they are new to the state, they want to get fresh evaluations on players at camp and we’ve seen that with a number of top targets making it to Gainesville this month.
The Gators, and other major programs, are pointing to the end of July as the period when they make a major push commitment wise. If I had to wager, I would say that the Gators enter August with at least 15 commitments, which means six more than their current nine.
It seems like we get a Tennessee question every week in this space and that’s because the Vols fans are desperate to get back to their winning ways, especially after a rough year in 2017 when the Vols went 4-8, including 0-8 in the SEC.
As I said when Jeremy Pruitt was hired, Tennessee fans need to be patient when it comes to expectations. Obviously Georgia was a few plays from winning the national title last year and Kirby Smart's program doesn't appear to be going anywhere, so in order to win the conference, the Vols will have to get past the Dawgs. That’s why Tennessee will need three full recruiting classes before that’s even a discussion.
The lack of player development over the past two years really puts the new staff in a hole and as we’ve heard from other coaches in their second or third year, it takes time to re-stock the talent.
If I’m a Tennessee fan, I’m thrilled if the team can get to six wins this year and sign a top 15 recruiting class and then remaining patient before I start booking hotels in for the title game in Atlanta.
Totally off-topic and a totally welcome question this time of year. It was really weird to see how things deteriorated between San Antonio and Kawhi Leonard and there are a lot of a parallels to the recruiting world. Over the years, Leonard has been viewed as the perfect fit in San Antonio and the ultimate disciple of the Gregg Popovich system. But behind the scenes it appears as if things weren’t so tight and the handling of his injury over the past year seems to be the thing that led to his relationship with the team going downhill.
To put it in recruiting terms, Leonard is the in-state kid who gets the dream offer early in the process and quickly commits. He shows no signs of testing the recruiting waters but as the process moves along he realizes he doesn’t get the same type of love as other elite prospects. That leads to the eventual decommitment (Leonard asking for a trade) and it usually plays out with the prospect ending up back in the fold with the original team, or playing for one of its rivals.
That’s where my prediction on Leonard comes into play. The biggest difference is that Leonard can’t leave on his own accord like a recruit might, although it’s clear he’s prepared to sit out if he doesn’t get his wish. That’s why all roads point to him ending up on the Lakers. I’m not sure exactly what package it would take to get it done, but a player like Brandon Ingram is a good place to start.