Miller once again does it again!

[Russ Smith]

It's only seems weird because this is not a new rumor, and that people are reporting it as if it just came out this morning. Brian Snow from Scout was the first to report, probably a month or two ago, that overseas was a possibility for Ferguson. I think it's funny that people are all of a sudden jumping on the bandwagon.

The coaches are proceeding as if Ferguson will be on the team this season, though the allure of getting a seven-figure contract might kick in.

It's definitely a wait-and-see situation at this point and nothing will be concrete until August.

Again I've been saying since his name first surfaced with UA not to get too excited until he actually qualifies so it's not new to me. That isn't the weird part. The weird part is the delay in him signing an NLI became signing a scholarship agreement and then less than 2 weeks later he's probably going pro.

The old stuff was different, nobody was reporting he was LIKELY going pro or naming the league and the team. And the Under Armour rumor is completely new, he played for an Under Armour sponsored AAU team but to go from that to he's going to sign an endorsement deal with him is weird.

There are 3 likely outcomes here IMO.

1) the rumor is false, other people got it from Jerry Meyer and added on to it and it's false.

2) He's not going to qualify or as the Kansas guy said partial qualifier has to sit out a year and decided he'd rather get paid.

3) He got hit up by agents after his big Hoop Summit event and had apparently decided one of them is telling him the truth and he needs to get paid now.

of the 3 to me the most likely is #2 since it was always obvious his Prime Prep stuff was going to be a major hurdle to overcome.

 

[TJ]

Again I've been saying since his name first surfaced with UA not to get too excited until he actually qualifies so it's not new to me. That isn't the weird part. The weird part is the delay in him signing an NLI became signing a scholarship agreement and then less than 2 weeks later he's probably going pro.

The old stuff was different, nobody was reporting he was LIKELY going pro or naming the league and the team. And the Under Armour rumor is completely new, he played for an Under Armour sponsored AAU team but to go from that to he's going to sign an endorsement deal with him is weird.

There are 3 likely outcomes here IMO.

1) the rumor is false, other people got it from Jerry Meyer and added on to it and it's false.

2) He's not going to qualify or as the Kansas guy said partial qualifier has to sit out a year and decided he'd rather get paid.

3) He got hit up by agents after his big Hoop Summit event and had apparently decided one of them is telling him the truth and he needs to get paid now.

of the 3 to me the most likely is #2 since it was always obvious his Prime Prep stuff was going to be a major hurdle to overcome.

Signing or not signing his NLI has nothing to do with anything as he could've gone pro with or without it signed.

It goes back to the age of this rumor. It's not new. Someone rehashed it to make it seem like this is new information and it caught on like wildfire. Meyer is the same guy who had a hissy fit on Twitter when Ferguson said he was going to commit on April 1 and then called "April Fools", which begs the question: how much 'in the know' is Meyer really w/r/t Ferguson's recruitment?

Not saying that Ferguson isn't going overseas, but it's not as imminent as people would lead you to believe.

 

[Russ Smith]

Terrance Ferguson isn't Josh Jackson. He's not even Jennings or Mudiay who would've been lotto pick out of HS. He will probably regret this move.

Yeah which is why scenario 2 in my list makes the most sense. He knows he won't qualify or will have to sit a year and he'd rather get paid.

I was skeptical until the ESPN guy Fraschilla not only said probably Australia, but named the team there he'd play for. That implies someone either really made up a lie, or someone who has inside knowledge of discussions leaked it.

it's not that easy for even a Mickey D's player to hook up with a foreign team it usually takes an agent.

 

[Russ Smith]

Signing or not signing his NLI has nothing to do with anything as he could've gone pro with or without it signed.

It goes back to the age of this rumor. It's not new. Someone rehashed it to make it seem like this is new information and it caught on like wildfire. Meyer is the same guy who had a hissy fit on Twitter when Ferguson said he was going to commit on April 1 and then called "April Fools", which begs the question: how much 'in the know' is Meyer really w/r/t Ferguson's recruitment?

Not saying that Ferguson isn't going overseas, but it's not as imminent as people would lead you to believe.

You missed my point. not that long ago they interviewed him on tv during the McD's game when everyone expected him to verbal to UA on air. Instead he started babbling about how he had to sign an NLI soon because of signing day coming up. If you go back in this thread you'll see where I pointed out it was strange he apparently had no idea what the rules are and I didn't get why more kids don't just sign scholarship agreements.

And guess what, he didn't sign well after the signing day and then signed a scholarship agreement. That's when it became pretty apparent something was going on when he very clearly became aware of the rules and did something that he clearly didn't know was even an option not that long ago. Someone is advising him.

I strongly suspect he's got enough feedback from the NCAA that he thinks he has to sit out a year and doesn't want to. He probably looked into whether it mattered what school he picked and when he found out it didn't matter it wasn't a UA admissions thing it was an NCAA clearance thing, he started strongly considering going pro.

The Under Armour thing is completely new, nobody was saying he was going to sign an endorsement deal that's what Mudiay did once it became apparent he was not going to clear and started looking for money. it's also what Jennings did when he realized he wasn't going to UA, he got an agent to find him a spot overseas, and got an endorsement deal.

We don't know yet but it seems pretty clear something has materially changed in the last few weeks.

 

[TJ]

For the grain of rice that it's worth, these two tweets were liked by Ferguson on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/uofapointguardu/status/739859886608023558

https://twitter.com/uofalec/status/739857112361107456

 

[Russ Smith]

For the grain of rice that it's worth, these two tweets were liked by Ferguson on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/uofapointguardu/status/739859886608023558

https://twitter.com/uofalec/status/739857112361107456

Interesting. One of the UA fans who posts on BRO said that Ferguson posted on twitter like a day ago a horoscope that said something about new ways to earn money will come into play and he wondered if that was where that story came from.

I would add there's now a lot of information coming out about him in Australia. It depends how you take this link but it almost implies what I said yesterday that you almost need an agent to get placed overseas and it sort of sounds like he has in fact been pursuing this for over a month.


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport...e/news-story/28cc93c456554b198bad5a40044527e2

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI Fox Sports picked up the story about Ferguson and Adelaide and that guy U of Alec has the story on his twitter page now saying "keep an eye on this."

Generally speaking this much smoke = fire.

 

[overseascardfan]

Worst case, a schollie opens up. If the dude doesn't want to be here then let him go.

 

[Russ Smith]

Worst case, a schollie opens up. If the dude doesn't want to be here then let him go.

I suspect he wants to but knows he can't because of academics or something else.

 

[TJ]

Interesting. One of the UA fans who posts on BRO said that Ferguson posted on twitter like a day ago a horoscope that said something about new ways to earn money will come into play and he wondered if that was where that story came from.

I would add there's now a lot of information coming out about him in Australia. It depends how you take this link but it almost implies what I said yesterday that you almost need an agent to get placed overseas and it sort of sounds like he has in fact been pursuing this for over a month.

Ferguson has an automatic horoscope generator on his Twitter page that generates frequent horoscope quotes.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport...e/news-story/28cc93c456554b198bad5a40044527e2
FYI Fox Sports picked up the story about Ferguson and Adelaide and that guy U of Alec has the story on his twitter page now saying "keep an eye on this."

Generally speaking this much smoke = fire.

The article indicated that a "US report confirmed the story." There was no US report that confirmed this story, but speculated that it's a possibility.

Again, this could be true, but the smoke you're reference is nothing more than a story that's been around for far longer than your assumptions begin. This is either setting up for Ferguson to play overseas or for a number of journalists to be looking like buffoons.

What's funny is that the Scout guys, who were the first to purport that this was a possibility a long while ago, haven't publicly commented on the story at all, which leads me to believe that there's no new information.

 

[Russ Smith]

Ferguson has an automatic horoscope generator on his Twitter page that generates frequent horoscope quotes.




The article indicated that a "US report confirmed the story." There was no US report that confirmed this story, but speculated that it's a possibility.

Again, this could be true, but the smoke you're reference is nothing more than a story that's been around for far longer than your assumptions begin. This is either setting up for Ferguson to play overseas or for a number of journalists to be looking like buffoons.

What's funny is that the Scout guys, who were the first to purport that this was a possibility a long while ago, haven't publicly commented on the story at all, which leads me to believe that there's no new information.

Evan daniels said on BRO today that it's not a done deal but it's definitely a possibility. He was not aware of the report from the Australian side he hadn't seen that article yet.

Confirmed is definitely not true but fwiw I saw the story early this morning. Couldn't sleep logged in to read work email and my google filter sends me recruiting news and had that link. I googled the reporters email and sent him a message asking if his source was Fran Fraschilla who is the one who said Australia and Adelaide and he responded a few hours later and said no, they had been aware of the story for weeks but hadn't reported it because it wasn't official.

He even posted on that same twitter page, the U of Alec one and replied to the comment that said keep an eye on this and said something like this is really happening. I have no idea who he is, never heard of him or the paper before, but from looking at that page they cover Australian hoops and he said from what he hears Ferguson has been negotiating with Adelaide for weeks.

Fraschilla's comment was too specific he has lots of connections overseas and when he named the country and the team that set off alarm bells for me that he knew something.

One of the guys on BRO joked that UCLA switching to Under Armour next year is already paying off if they sign Ferguson to an endorsement deal.

 

[Russ Smith]

More fuel to the rumor, Billy Preston is leaving API and going to Oak Hill next year. His mom is apparently telling people they got concerned about the NCAA and academics with API(he went to Prime Prep the year before too) and decided to put him at a school they knew the NCAA would approve of.

He of course played with Ferguson the last 2 years so people are assuming there's a connection.

 

[Russ Smith]

FWIW, Pascoe says Ferguson dropped off the US team and is assumed to be heading overseas. Jason Scheer says the coaches still expect him on campus 6/20. the claim from others is that Ferguson is telling UA he doesn't want to wind up waiting months and then find out he doesn't clear or has to sit out 9 games or something so if they can't guarantee him he clears, he'll go pro. Scheer is telling people he dropped off team USA to focus on the online courses he's taking trying to qualify(what I said 2 weeks ago).

Also, Snow and others are reporting the NCAA is saying Alkins last year at Word of God was his fifth year of HS, he didn't meet the core class requirement in 4 years, and he passed too many core classes in year 5(there's a limit to how many you can do in one year to stop the diploma mill prepschool stuff.)

So the NCAA currently considers Alkins a partial qualifier(like Jonah Bolden) and he has to sit a year unless he can successfully lobby that he completed the core classes in 4 years.

Snow says it's not a lock that neither kid qualifies but that very few schools that recruited Alkins did so expecting him to qualify most of them assumed he'd have to sit out his freshman year in college.

Snow says we won't know for months, he thinks it's possible one of them somehow qualifies he highly doubts both do. Evan Daniels said the same thing and said Miller knew this all along and still chose going after them because if it works he gets 2 great players.

 

[TJ]

For a non-UofA fan, you sure do pay very close attention to what's going on in Tucson. Shouldn't you be in front of Alford's house with a torch and pitchfork?

Scheer is more connected to the coaching staff than Pascoe. Pascoe may have the reputation, but Scheer's sources come from people within the coaching ranks.

I'll keep it short and sweet: Sean Miller is no idiot. He knew who he was recruiting, but he also did his homework. The coaching staff believes both will qualify, although from the reports, it'll be by the skin of their teeth. Ristic had similar issues with classes, but it was resolved by the NCAA. I mean Alkins had the same opportunity as Thon Maker to declare for the draft, but opted not to.

Both of these are fluid situations, so anything's possible, but the coaching staff remains optimistic on both, and it's possible both are on campus as early as this weekend.

 

[Russ Smith]

For a non-UofA fan, you sure do pay very close attention to what's going on in Tucson. Shouldn't you be in front of Alford's house with a torch and pitchfork?

Scheer is more connected to the coaching staff than Pascoe. Pascoe may have the reputation, but Scheer's sources come from people within the coaching ranks.

I'll keep it short and sweet: Sean Miller is no idiot. He knew who he was recruiting, but he also did his homework. The coaching staff believes both will qualify, although from the reports, it'll be by the skin of their teeth. Ristic had similar issues with classes, but it was resolved by the NCAA. I mean Alkins had the same opportunity as Thon Maker to declare for the draft, but opted not to.

Both of these are fluid situations, so anything's possible, but the coaching staff remains optimistic on both, and it's possible both are on campus as early as this weekend.

I think it's a fascinating case study.

Miller did something in this class he's not done before he went after multiple kids that were going to be tough to get in. I'm sure you know this but Evan Daniels said if you had asked me 6 months ago what players have the least chance of qualifying in this class 3 of the top 4 would have been Ferguson, Alkins and Josh Jackson. Daniels didn't elaborate on Jackson but he has good grades so must be something else with him. But on the other 2 he said everyone that recruited them knew they were going to take months and might not clear.

It was also fairly well known that after Markkanen blew up at the camp as a junior he was strongly considering going straight to the NBA. So Miller had a situation where his top 4 recruits could potentially have ended up with just Kobi Simmons and had he gotten Jackson he'd be sweating out 3 of them right now. See what I did there.

It might work, nobody knows. The reason btw it's a "fluid situation" is that the kids don't know yet if they're qualifying or not. Contrary to what Scheer et al are saying it's not about whether they want to go to college or not, both of them understand a year in college would do them a world of good for the NBA, but if they can't qualify they can't qualify. Ferguson from multiple people has people in his circle that want him to go pro out of HS, in fact the same people that pushed him to go to Prime Prep when people were warning him he shouldn't.


As for Alkins he didn't have the same situation Maker did, maker is probably going to be a first rounder and get a guaranteed contract, I love Alkins but he would not get drafted if he were in the NBA draft, he's just not good enough yet to go NBA out of HS. they had completely different decisions to make.

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out, if they get in Miller's gamble worked, if they don't you have a situation where he loses 2 key recruits and then you have to wonder did he cost himself other recruits or transfers because they didn't commit seeing Ferguson and Alkins on the projected roster.

If it works out great he has a huge recruiting class and they only have to keep them eligible for 8 months, if it doesn't, he has a shorter roster.

I think it's the most interesting offseason story in college hoops this year.

Other thanI guess the doofuses flying banners at UCLA.

 

[Russ Smith]

http://tucson.com/news/local/educat...tm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&id=201408


From the sound of it Miller did exactly the right thing waited for more facts and then dismissed him.

 

[TJ]

http://tucson.com/news/local/educat...tm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&id=201408


From the sound of it Miller did exactly the right thing waited for more facts and then dismissed him.

True, but some of the reasons Pitts was removed was because of who the alleged victim was and that he was not an impact player on the team.

As sh!tty as it sounds, if this were to happen to a guy like Allonzo Trier, I'm not 100% convinced the outcome would be the same.

 

[Russ Smith]

True, but some of the reasons Pitts was removed was because of who the alleged victim was and that he was not an impact player on the team.

As sh!tty as it sounds, if this were to happen to a guy like Allonzo Trier, I'm not 100% convinced the outcome would be the same.

I don't know the whole story but reading between the lines if the school list of wrongdoings includes stalking and making a student feel unsafe it suggests Pitts continued to contact the girl after this happened potentially to try and convince her to not talk or something. So that is potentially why Miller went from suspended to off the team when he found that out.

I know I was one of the loudest complainers on UCLA boards that they let Jerime Anderson back on the team after stealing the laptop, I'm convinced Ben did that because he was short on guards.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

True, but some of the reasons Pitts was removed was because of who the alleged victim was and that he was not an impact player on the team.

As sh!tty as it sounds, if this were to happen to a guy like Allonzo Trier, I'm not 100% convinced the outcome would be the same.

Who the alleged victim was? That's ominous.

 

[overseascardfan]

Who the alleged victim was? That's ominous.

Maybe a prominent booster or a coaches daughter????

 

[TJ]

Who the alleged victim was? That's ominous.

With respect, because that info hasn't been made public, I'd rather not say. I'll just say that it wasn't a random person, which added an extra variable to the situation.

 

[Lefty]

Maybe a prominent booster or a coaches daughter????

From what I was told, I won't say a name but it was another athlete.

 

[TJ]

From what I was told, I won't say a name but it was another athlete.

Yes

 

[Russ Smith]

It's public now inluding a letter from the victims parents that reveals all the names involved. I'll leave it to others to post it but it's publicly available. The father is definitely not happy with Miller and Byrne over how it was handled but I guess it still depends on what Miller knew and when. Plus the Dean of Students made it clear it was her decision not Miller, on how to handle Pitts.

Basically the father says Miller never publicly disclosed why Pitts was suspended, I'm not sure he's even allowed to unless criminal charges had been filed. Even now Pitts is saying he might take legal action to clear his name.

But I guess I'm more on the fence now but still sounds like not knowing exactly what and when Miller knew stuff he did what he had to do. Maybe he shouldn't have made any public statements but he almost had to because of all the rumors out there which proved to be untrue. But I guess the fathers point is the statement he made supported Pitts and helped vilify the victim and his family.

 

[TJ]

What more could Miller have done? As soon as the staff found out, he was suspended and never played again. The investigation was inconclusive, but the team moved forward with pulling his scholarship. It's not like they let him play while the investigation was ongoing. Miller never made the situation known to the public, but media is naturally going to ask why Pitts is sitting on the bench in a polo shirt instead of playing.

Pitts may sue the university for defamation of character, but beyond that, I'm not much more that could happen with the exception of unmerited public scrutiny.