OTHERS JOIN TIGERS IN CHASING GUARD
Zhaire Smith looked around the gym last week at Lakeview Centennial High School and, upon noticing the coaches from Memphis, Oregon and Stephen F. Austin sitting in the crowd, was reminded again he made the right call.
Unlike many 2017 recruits, the 6-foot-5 guard from Garland, Texas, hadn’t been ready to make a college decision entering his senior year. He had scholarship offers from a bevy of lowmajor and mid-major schools and envisioned himself accepting one. If, in the process of waiting, a more prominent school joined the fray, that would be a bonus. Smith just wanted to make sure he picked the right fit.
But over the past month, Memphis, Georgia Tech, Kansas State and Texas Who: Memphis (18-9, 8-6) at No. 15 Cincinnati (24-3, 13-1) When, where: 6 p.m. Thursday; Fifth Third Arena TV, radio: ESPN; WREC-AM 600, WEGR-FM 102.7 Tech each offered scholarships. The sudden surge in interest caught him by surprise.
“I expected some, but not this much,” Smith said in a telephone interview this past weekend. “It just kind of happened.”
These are the dynamics Memphis is navigating as it simultaneously finishes Coach Tubby Smith’s first season and searches for players to bolster next year’s team through college basketball’s late signing period. There are a limited amount of quality prospects remaining and plenty of schools chasing after them.
Though the Tigers already have three players signed for their 2017 recruiting class, they also have at least one scholarship available for the 201718 campaign. It could be more depending on whether sophomore Dedric Lawson leaves for the professional ranks and forward Chad Rykhoek receives a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA after this season. Regardless, Smith plans to bring in reinforcements, whether it’s an incoming freshman, a junior college transfer or a graduate transfer.
So following last Thursday’s loss at Connecticut, Smith and assistants Joe Esposito and Saul Smith did not return with the team to Memphis. Instead, they were out canvassing the Eastern seaboard, from Massachusetts to North Carolina to Florida, for late additions.
This strategy doesn’t come without risks. Only seven of ESPN’s top 100 players remain unsigned and none are players Memphis is seriously recruiting at this point. As ESPN recruiting insider Jeff Borzello noted, “if you look at the transfer rate, a lot of them come from players that signed in May that were considered mid-major prospects for most of their high school season.”
“It’s definitely harder from the sense of the pool is smaller, but you still have
the possibility of getting somebody that can help your team,” added Evan Daniels, Scout.com’s director of basketball recruiting. “The longer they wait, the more valuable they become because needs become apparent.”
Smith, for instance, admitted Monday on his weekly radio show that the Tigers want to add more bulk since they’ve struggled to compete inside most of this season. It’s why he spent last Friday night watching 6-foot-10 forward Malik Ondigo, an Arizona native who is currently in the midst of a post-graduate year at Putnam Science Prep (Conn.).
Ondigo is a classic example of a prospect who bided his time and then saw his recruitment take off. While Ondigo had a few high-major scholarship offers after last season, including from Smith when he coached at Texas Tech, he blossomed this winter into one of the most coveted big men left on the board now that Memphis, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Minnesota, Boston College and Kansas State have all joined the fray.
“My experience is we’ve had bigs that are basically getting offers from low and mid majors and if they wait, they end up signing with a high-major school,” Putnam Science Prep Coach Tom Espinosa said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Who Memphis ends up snagging, though, is very much in flux.
Zhaire Smith said he elevated his game in recent months by trusting his jump shot more, adding to the athleticism and versatility he relied on previously. When Memphis assistant Pooh Williamson called to offer a scholarship last week, he pitched the possibility of earning immediate playing time on the wing. But Smith said Saturday he would set up official visits when his high school season ended and hasn’t decided yet whether one of them will be to Memphis.
Ondigo, meanwhile, developed a goto post move competing with Putnam Science Prep’s 10 Division-I prospects and “runs the floor like a deer,” said Espinosa, adding Memphis “definitely has a shot.” Ondigo, however, plans to use all five of his official visits after the season ends next month and will make a decision soon thereafter.
Memphis also looked at junior college prospects such as 6-foot-10 forward Dequon Lake, a Newport News, Virginia, product currently playing at Iowa Western Community College, over the past week. The burgeoning graduate transfer market will be an intriguing route as well —the Tigers added Rykhoek and senior Christian Kessee last offseason this way — and the offseason coaching carousel could net even more possibilities. Some prospects will likely reopen their recruitment if the coach they committed to gets fired.
If there’s one thing certain about the late signing period, it’s that the possibilities can be endless.
“There are still a lot of dominoes left to play out,” Borzello said. “If you need somebody now and there’s nobody you find, you can wait a few weeks and you’ll see somebody transfer that you can get. There’s still a lot of avenues that Memphis can look for a player.”