Great news
- Thread starter gary2
- Start date
Cook's scholarship offers besides Pitt are:
Virginia Tech
East Tennessee State
Appalachian State
Drexel
I know nothing about the kid but based on that, I'd say "save" the scholarship. Remember, these are 4 year deals now so if Cook is as good as his offers says he is, you're stuck with him for 4/5 years. No more reaches, please.
Virginia Tech
East Tennessee State
Appalachian State
Drexel
I know nothing about the kid but based on that, I'd say "save" the scholarship. Remember, these are 4 year deals now so if Cook is as good as his offers says he is, you're stuck with him for 4/5 years. No more reaches, please.
Pitt needs him. Pitt NEEDS developmental guys at the 1. He may not play valuable minutes for a couple years if Nix is worth anything - but we need him in the system asap.
Why wouldn't you just save the scholarship? You would figure Pitt could out-recruit bad mid-majors anytime they want.
not for nothing..but ESPN has him with a scholarship offer from WVU, as well.
they also have him as a 4-star player, the #35 ranked center and the #40 ranked player in his region.
they also have him as a 4-star player, the #35 ranked center and the #40 ranked player in his region.
He committed to WVU as an underclassman, then went to prep school. Based on his offers, I'm guessing Huggy's offer doesn't still stand and he's a deep fallback. Cook would become one of the lowest-recruited players (based on offers) to ever play here. Those aren't even good mid-majors.
247 sports crystal ball has him going to Mizzou, VT, or Michigan. Could just be the case that the high majors will be offering this spring. Either way, Pitt desperately needs developmental bigs. I don't see the harm in essentially replacing Haughton with this kid. You still have another scholarship to give for 2015 or 2016 with the Uchebo scholarship. You also have to think there are some guys on the current roster who could be moving on.
I don't get hung up on offers. He was a WVU commit, there's clearly talent there. I also don't think beating out Buzz at VT is the easiest thing to do, that guy can recruit. If Pitt gets him they can say we landed a 4 star big, someone who won't have to play much next year and they can mold and develop for two seasons while Young/Nix man the 5.
Also, Matt's news could be something totally unrelated, who knows.
I don't get hung up on offers. He was a WVU commit, there's clearly talent there. I also don't think beating out Buzz at VT is the easiest thing to do, that guy can recruit. If Pitt gets him they can say we landed a 4 star big, someone who won't have to play much next year and they can mold and develop for two seasons while Young/Nix man the 5.
Also, Matt's news could be something totally unrelated, who knows.
Pitt has taken 3 flyers in 3 years on Uchebo, Randall, and Haughton and it has cost this team dearly in terms of productions and scholarship cloggage.
Pitt has 3 big man flyers that wasted scholarships with Uchebo, Randal, and Haughton. No more flyers, please.
That's not really true. We don't have any Centers on the roster who I would call a developmental big. Uchebos knees are shot, Haughton is leaving. Our C spot is basically Young and Nix, which is still an upgrade over this year.
A developmental Center doesn't have to be a reach. A four star center, or high 3 star, as Cook is, is not a reach.
A developmental Center doesn't have to be a reach. A four star center, or high 3 star, as Cook is, is not a reach.
None of those are clogging scholarships.
I'd be surprised if at least 2 were gone next year and wouldn't be shocked at all 3.
None of those are clogging scholarships.
I'd be surprised if at least 2 were gone next year and wouldn't be shocked at all 3.
Cook's not a reach. He's a 4-star. Like virtually all big men, he will need a year or two to be effective at the college level. Every big except a very few elite guys do. And as we saw with Adams, anybody who shows any promise as a freshman is possible as an early entry guy. Cook is more likely to be a 3 or 4 year guy here and contribute for a couple years, like an Aaron Grey or a McGhee. He would provide a solid alternative in case Nix is overwhelmed by the speed of the ACC.
Haughton, Uchebo and Randall were reaches. But, even they are understandable. We lost TWO 5-star bigs, Taylor and Adams, and one 4-star big in ONE year and 5 4- or 5-star bigs in two years, counting Birch pushing out Bond and then quitting. Adams and Gilbert were unexpected. Gilbert left after the November signing period and Adams almost at the Spring signing period. We scrambled for Randall as a transfer and Uchebo and unfortunately Joe never really recovered from his surgery. Haughton was a pure reach.
Haughton, Uchebo and Randall were reaches. But, even they are understandable. We lost TWO 5-star bigs, Taylor and Adams, and one 4-star big in ONE year and 5 4- or 5-star bigs in two years, counting Birch pushing out Bond and then quitting. Adams and Gilbert were unexpected. Gilbert left after the November signing period and Adams almost at the Spring signing period. We scrambled for Randall as a transfer and Uchebo and unfortunately Joe never really recovered from his surgery. Haughton was a pure reach.
Got it. I was incorrectly assuming that Cook was just another Haughton. We were outmanned in the paint this year, and don't see that changing much next year. Hopefully Nix will be good enough to see some time, but unless something drastic happens, I still see Young logging all of his time at the Center spot.
I wouldn't call Uchebo a reach. I would call him a high risk recruit.
He's a talented kid. He just has terrible knees.
He's a talented kid. He just has terrible knees.
I don't how anybody could classify Cook as anything but a reach by his offer sheet? 4 really bad mid-majors and Buzz Williams who is building a program from scratch similar to an expansion team. If Cook isn't a reach, who is? The offer sheet can't get much worse than that. Is Dixon that good at evaluating talent that he spotted something in Cook that the rest of mainstream college basketball missed? I get it, I know players like Cook can turn out to be very good.........maybe 10% of the time. The other 90%, they wind up like Diggs, Uchebo, Haughton, Randall, Hudson, Miller, and Richardson.
This post was edited on 3/5 12:36 PM by Sean Miller Fan
One reason for Cook's few offers is his grades were bad and he was viewed as having little chance of qualifying. During that period, he committed to WVU. He decommitted from WVU, got the grades straightened out and others are recruiting him now.
He's probably as good or better prospect than most of the guys Gary had on his list yesterday. Half of them were undersized PF types.
He's probably as good or better prospect than most of the guys Gary had on his list yesterday. Half of them were undersized PF types.
And luckily Pitt is the only Top 200 school in America that got his recent report card so now he can star for us. Lucky us.
Cook was an early Top 50 kid in the country. Played for a tiny school in WV, committed early to the Eers, and then wound up at Huntington Prep this past year. Never got in shape, but still pretty well regarded by some of these sites. He was committed to WVU for a little over 2 years and decommitted about 5 months ago. There has been very little out there around his recruitment since then.
He also has a South Carolina offer, FWIW, and he is expected to take an offiical visit there. Same goes for Iowa.
The offers SMF posted were listed by Zagoria as offers he had received in the past week during one of this updates.
This post was edited on 3/5 12:44 PM by Pittbaseball11
He also has a South Carolina offer, FWIW, and he is expected to take an offiical visit there. Same goes for Iowa.
The offers SMF posted were listed by Zagoria as offers he had received in the past week during one of this updates.
This post was edited on 3/5 12:44 PM by Pittbaseball11
