2022 Recruiting - WBB

5’11” Juco guard.

 

Auburn receives commitment from junior college All-American guard JaKayla Johnson. (worldexposurereport.com)

 

Northwest Florida State has a lot of talent it would seem:

2022 Juco Player Rankings (worldexposurereport.com)

 

Will be interesting to see if Carleigh Wenzel out of San Antonio signs with Virginia Tech in November. Something seems off in Blacksburg . . .

 

Last-Tear Poa is a 5'11 forward/wing on the Northwest Florida State team (2nd year freshman) by way of Melbourne, Australia (wonder if she knows Kobe?). Ranked #1 on World Exposure Report's top JUCO's for 2022.

Last-Tear Poa - Northwest Florida State College (nwfraiders.com)

She is following Coach Calamity out on Instagram, and vice verse. Guessing that means we've shown interest.

 

Blacksburg is in the middle of nowhere between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains. Beautifully breathtaking indeed, but nothing there but Va Tech and not exactly the most diverse place on earth. I can see where some youngsters wouldn't like it. Hell, I'm not a youngster and I couldn't do it...

 

Amina Muhammad working hard:

 

My hunch was wrong; Little-Page Buggs had an official visit to Alabama this weekend (I thought it would be A&M).

She has two official visits remaining. I hope we are in line to get one of her last two visits.

 

Oct 16th seems to be a huge recruiting week across all Texas sports so if we get a visit it will be that weekend.

 

Looked at the site's rankings and they're much higher on Ndjakalenga than ESPN - #17 vs. ESPN #33. They also have Amina at #52 (ESPN #62) and Jordana at #67 (ESPN #66).

 

Flurry of commitments over the past 24 hours but this is the only 1 that I know had a Texas offer…

 

Appears Darianna was at atm for the bama game.

 

Hate to even mention it, but whomever she chooses, this young lady picked a great game to make a visit.

 

She did visit A&M. Fingers crossed we get her final official visit next weekend. It would be great to be her last visit and freshest memory. She frequently “likes” Tweets from Aaliyah Moore, a fellow Oklahoman (Oklahowoman?). So it may be helpful that she has a connection to our current roster.

 

I'm actually confident she will make her way to Texas this weekend. This is a huge recruiting weekend for many sports with some big time talent coming to campus for everyone. I expect us to host a few big names on the wbb side of things

 

Darianna's first four official visits went to Florida (still can't grasp that one since they have no permanent head coach yet), Baylor, Alabama, and Texas A&M.

I don't have a feel for whether her last official visit will be to Texas. If not, I'd guess it will be to Ole Miss or Auburn.

 

Of the remaining schools on DLP’s list, I believe only Texas and Penn St have home football games. That’s not 100% predictive on where she’ll visit next but coaches typically want a recruiting visit to coincide with a home football game. With that said, I can’t get a good feel for what’s she’s looking for in a coach or college. I would be disappointed if she didn’t visit but it wouldn’t surprise me.

 

Texas didn’t make her final 4. Surprised Baylor did.

 

I guess we didn't make it

 

Well, her final 4 consists of the schools she recently visited officially: Florida, Baylor, Alabama, and Texas A&M. Perhaps she tired of the process and decided not to use her fifth and final official visit.

I don't see her going to Florida (with no permanent head coach named yet). Would be surprised if it's Alabama. Baylor loses so many players after this season, and doesn't have any 2022 verbal commitments yet (so, who does she "bond" with in her own class?). That leads me to predict she'll sign with A&M.

 

Getting Mwenentanada pretty much gave us a clue of where the recruitment was with Texas and Buggs IMO. I think Buggs is better than Mwenentanda and she's going to be a very good/ great player.

Since Texas already had the commitment of a player that plays the same position, I would have preferred to get a big, athletic, versatile guard with Johnson anyway. Although I don't think Texas gets her either. But with Buggs, I also think she'll end up at a&m. My thinking is that these players already know where they want to go before the visits and the school that they choose is usually the first or the last visit.

 

I agree with your prediction. The A&M visit may have made such a strong impression on her that there was no need to visit Texas.

We also have commitments from two other 2022, 6’1” Guards; Mwenentanda and Codio. I saw on IG that Codio will take her official visit to Texas this weekend.

By my count, we have one remaining 2022 offer outstanding; to Flau’jae.

 

I just found some games of Mwenentanda from high school last season and I can honestly predict with confidence she will be the next big star at Texas! Her game and basketball I.Q is unlike any player I've seen in quite some time. Just a few things that really stood out to me....

1. Her rebounding is at an elite level! On the defensive end as well as the offensive end. She can easily average a double double.

2. If you didn't see her shoot, you wouldn't be able to tell if she is right handed or left handed which is a great thing. One game I watched, I would say over 90% of her shots were left handed floaters/layups. She can shoot the ball but prefers to attack and get to the free throw line or finish with her left.

3. The best part of her game that I absolutely love and is very rare is, she is the player that other teams gameplan around besides a post player they had. With that being said she is not the type of player who forces up shots to get going. She really finds ways to get her teammates involved and will attack and score when she needs to. On top of that she runs track and from the games I've watched she is non stop the entire game. She will get about 30 seconds of rest and check right back in. She will do just fine with Vic's style of play.

I'm very excited about this commitment along with our other 2022 commits. The future is definitely bright and I can't wait for the season to begin

 

I really wanted DLB no secret about that. But it's a really good place to be when you can miss on a coveted recruit and still be in really good shape without worries. With the young talented roster we have and our staff's ability to develop players, honestly I'm not worried about much at all. It will be interesting to see whether she picks Baylor or A&M.

 

Tough to know how similar recruits like Ndjakalenga, Jordana, Darianna, Flau'jae, Amina Muhammad, and Kiersten Johnston are skill-wise. But, I knew we couldn't sign them all based on numbers and needs.

They all have great length and athleticism, and I think they are all very versatile both offensively and defensively. So, that definitely seems to be what Vic was wanting for his 2022 recruiting class.

In looking back on how the dominoes falling might have changed, I look back to when Jordana Codio decommitted from Wisconsin, and eventually verbally committed to Texas. That change of direction (for us and her) might have resulted in the numbers/needs changing for the 2022 class. Then, the very late and unexpected signing of Latasha Lattimore for the 2021 class also lessened the 2022 available 'ships by one.

Recruits who waited too long to make visits/decisions might have lost an opportunity at Texas.

 

I'd agree on everyone but Amina Muhammad. In my head, I think of her as a Nneka type PF only slightly taller - a very good rebounder and player in the paint but not someone you want to have more than 10-12 feet from the basket on offense. I'm probably projecting that onto her because I don't know how good a midrange/distance shooter she may be.

 

ASGR is much higher on Ndjakalenga (#10 overall) and Amina (#29) than ESPN. Same neighborhood on Jordana (#52).

 

LSU supposedly also hosting JUCO Last-Tear Poa from Northwest Florida

 

It’s good to get confirmation that Flau’jae is visiting LSU this weekend. Mikaylah Williams is the top recruit in the 2023 class so getting her on campus for an unofficial visit is noteworthy (even though LSU is in her backyard).

I assume Flau’jae’s family will record the LSU visit on IG like they did for their visits to Miami and Texas. I’ll be curious to see how Kim orchestrates her recruiting visits.