Arlington Seguin's Greg Wesley (22) is fouled by Kimball's D'Angelo Allen during a game at Grand Prairie High earlier this season. Wesley is one of UNT's top incoming recruits. (The Dallas Morning News/Louis DeLuca)
We have been taking a look ahead to the 2013-14 basketball season over the last few days in the wake of UNT’s first round exit in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.
We’ve examined who’s coming back (or at least we think is coming back) and the impact the departure of four key seniors will have on the team.
Today, we look at who is arriving next year in terms of incoming recruits.
When you look at college athletics, there might not be a sport where one player — and by extension one recruiting class — can make as big a difference than basketball.
UNT head coach Tony Benford did the smart thing right off the bat when he took over the program and capitalized on the momentum it had by signing three key high school recruits. UNT also picked up commitments from junior college center Arthur Casimiro and forward Anthony Norris.
Unfortunately for UNT, both Casimiro and Norris dropped out of school.
UNT has announced that three players have signed letters of intent thus far. Here’s a look at the trio:
SF/PF Greg Wesley (6-foot-7) — Ninth-ranked player in TexasHoops.com’s 2013 rankings, averaged 13.6 points and 6.0 rebounds a game and led Arlington Seguin to the regional final
C Tony Nunn (6-foot-9) — Ranked No. 58 among centers nationally by ESPN
PF Josh Friar (6-foot-7) — Ranked No. 46 on TexasHoops.com’s 2013 rankings
For the sake of the argument here, we will assume all three of the players who have signed with UNT qualify academically.
UNT desperately needs help in the frontcourt. UNT has just one forward or center who is scheduled to be back that it seems safe to assume that this point will be back, and that’s Keith Coleman. The 6-10 center looks the part, but has yet to capitalize on his athletic ability and played sparingly last season.
There is no telling at this point if Tony Mitchell will return.
Wesley should make an immediate impact. Benford said that he is a player who can play inside and outside and create matchup problems. UNT sold him on the idea of replacing Mitchell when he leaves for the NBA. Wesley is supposed to be an all-around player who can score, rebound and impact a game defensively.
Friar is a guy with size who played for a pretty good high school program. He is supposed to be good on the glass.
Nunn is a bit of a mystery. He’s a good prospect who has size. He spent this season at Oldsmar Christian Academy in Florida. UNT has never had a whole lot of luck recruiting players from outside of the state other than maybe Oklahoma in football over the years. UNT made a brief effort to tap into Louisiana and the Mississippi in football, but that is about it. And neither of those experiments worked out very well.
Will Nunn be the exception to the rule? We will have to see.
The Wesley-Nunn-Friar trio is a pretty good haul overall on the high school end of it. Wesley is a steal for a program like UNT, which is going to have to improve its talent level to compete in Conference USA. He’s the type of player who could have gone just about anywhere he wanted in the region outside of the elite Big 12 programs. Friar is in among the top 50 players in the state and Nunn is a national level recruit.
The issue UNT faces now is finding a way to complement that haul with some immediate JUCO help for its front line. Rolling the dice on heading into next season with the high school trio and Keith Coleman at the center/forward spots seems like too big of a gamble, even for a team that runs a three-guard offense.
The problem at this point is that a lot of the top junior college players have already signed or committed to other schools.
The regional tournaments are already over. The top teams in the country are headed to Hutchinson, Kan., for the national tournament on March 18-23. The Final Four is the big coaching convention in college basketball, but the annual pilgrimage to “Hutch” as it is known for dozens and dozens of coaches isn’t too far behind. Benford will be there for the first tournament in JUCO history with a 24-team seeded bracket.
There will be more talent than ever before at the event.
There is less than a month before the late signing period begins on April 17. The next few weeks could be huge when it comes to UNT’s future.
It was only a few years ago that UNT picked up a forward who played in the NJCAA national tournament.
Eric Tramiel went on to be the Most Outstanding Player of the 2010 Sun Belt tournament, where Johnny Jones and his guys picked up their second NCAA bid.
Imagine what another guy of that caliber would do for UNT heading into next season.
UNT has a good base to build from with its three high school signees, but still has some work to do.
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Source:
http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/03/unt-mens-basketball-look-ahead-part-iii-incoming-recruits.html/
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