UNC's Need For Elite Recruits - IC Daily | Inside Carolina Analysis | College Basketball

0:00Insurance says it's on one side's fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they'll make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive cards will see insurance and company and affiliates, price and coverage matched limited by state law. Welcome in now. I see daily four Wednesday September 9th. I'm telling you actually that's Rob Harrington. That means this basketball talk. Shout out to Johnny T-shirt for all your Carolina needs, seasonal needs, football needs, basketball needs, get to them, support local, do it. And one reason you can support local and another way you can support local is being inside Carolina Premium Member and getting 10% off your Johnny T-shirt order. And being inside Premium Members is relevant to this discussion because we're going to talk basketball. We're not going to talk football for the next couple of days on these I see daily. We're going to go

1:01clean slate, no more Rob Summer Series, but Rob I see daily. Rob Shereman Millen continues to just lay it out on the inside Carolina Premium side. And on Tuesday drop a great article on elite front court recruiting or elite recruiting in general. So as the scroll at the bottom says, I'll open it up to Michael Malone who's done a great job putting together a roster. They need to take the next step. How important is it to take that next step with an elite high school class slash prospect or prospects? That's right. I think it's sort of three prongs to talk about. One is the impact of getting a great player on next year's team. If we generally agree that the second year team probably will be or should be more talented than the first year team, obviously getting a top high school guy is a critical component of that. They'd also give to think about the same thing we're talking about with Caleb Wilson right now is if you start to

2:02bring in these top guys out of high school, that's by far your best bet of having NBA representatives who matter, you know, matter who matter to recruits, you know, the people who move the needle, who get sponsorship deals who are in commercials who play big roles for good teams and the playoffs. Carolina, as we know, has suffered from a positive of that caliber of player for the past 15 to 20 years. And so it's important for Michael Malone to turn that around. And I think there's the other more immediate issue is that they as Sherelle has reported, Carolina is doing well with some really good guys in the front court and the back court. And it's important for them to capitalize on that momentum going into the season as a further piece of evidence that this NBA coach can get the job done at the college level as a parallel, Tommy. I think the in 2003 when Roy Williams took the job obviously not exactly the same situation

3:04because he was coming from another elite college program, but there's still some minor questions about how his recruiting would translate because a lot of what he had done at Kansas was Midwest and west of the Mississippi. And so when he got to Carolina in the spring of 2003 by that summer, he transferred the recruitment of Marvin Williams from Seattle area at Burmerton to from Kansas to Carolina and he got to commit from Marvin Williams. And at that moment for me as someone who was following recruiting full time back then, I said, okay, this is going to work because if he can do it that quickly, if he's able to get a player of this caliber all the way to the East Coast, just imagine what he'll do with the local prospects and the guys from Tidewater, Virginia, down in Georgia and Florida and all of that turned out to be true. So I think Michael Malone would benefit similarly, keeping in mind the thing that you got and I discussed all summer, which was the fundraising was there this year as Greg Barnes reported,

4:07the fundraising was there. It went over my expectations for this first year considering where they started that keeps the money flowing from the fans because it further shows that he can do the job. Yeah, and when you look at it, yes, fundraising is a very important factor in this. We've seen what money and what NIL does. Kids will have colleges that weren't really blue bloods on their list and they may end up there and they go and they follow some money, but success also matters as well, Rob. And when you look at the recruiting, it helps or does it help in this day and age? I think this is a valid question. I know it used to help and it was a big deal. But does it help to have guys locally to North Carolina in state? A few of these are, is that as big a deal anymore to in your mind? We've talked about why I think it's important,

5:11especially on the football side for transfer portal questions. You won't guys that are close to home, won't stay close to home, but on the basketball side is landing in-state players beyond the best in the state should represent the Flag Ship or the University. Is it a huge deal for Malone to land these guys in particular? These couple in-state guys, or is it just whoever didn't matter, just make sure it's in the league? From a team building perspective, it may not matter as much as it used to, but I still think it's good to have some locals for culture building because they already have absorbed a lot of what Carolina basketball is about. And I think that's having this four-year players, if they can get some to stay two or three years at least, that could be important. I also, I just think it's important from the fan point of view that as fans have a harder and harder time identifying with the players who are not getting paid and they're transient and even someone like Seth Trimble who plays four years now goes to a conference rival who will play

6:16at the Smith Center this year. You know, it's weird. And so I think when you sign in-state players, there's just a natural hook because obviously a lot of the Carolina fan bases located within North Carolina. So if you get the Kobe White type of freshman, even if the only place one year, he was, Kobe White was immensely popular. And most of that was his talent, his personality, but it helped that he was from Wilson. He's a local guy and you may, if you're not from there, you're probably familiar with it or you've drove through it. I think that stuff is important and I know it has been an issue on the football side. I can't speak to that, but in basketball, I do think it's important. At least they have representation from the state. They don't have to get everyone, I think the way that they used to where you'd want to be, you want to get all the top guys. But I do think they need to keep a steady pipeline flowing. Now on the flip side of that, and this is just a question I was thinking about, in-state guys are one thing, but a couple of these, Rosser, Blazor Orlando,

7:18Henry is Compass Prep in Arizona. Does that matter? Is it still a North Carolina guy? Do you think people will attach to because of the Charlotte kid or it's a Rocky Mount kid? I mean, Kobe obviously played at Greenfield and I believe he's originally from Goldsboro. I could be mistaken, but Eastern North Carolina, regardless. So does that aspect of it sort of changed the game? I agree. I look, I'm all in on having North Carolina, young men represent the University of North Carolina, young women on that side. I get it on some sports. I mean, it just doesn't work out, but drives me nuts when I see a local player playing for some other university. You see, so and so from Salisbury, the kid running back from Nebraska is going off. Where's he from? Salisbury, North Carolina. I mean, I'd act grass, but you get my point here, even though they've gone away to play elsewhere. Still that North Carolina bond, I think that is,

8:22especially old people like older people like me. What a cling to I guess, is that fair? I do. It's still it's the same for me. I mean, maybe not identical. Certainly from my high school perspective, I mean, my preference is always going to be the guys who represent their local community because it means so much. You go to those games, it's a packed house, tons of passion because you aren't used to seeing an elite player grow up in just some town and they stand out so much at that level. When they go to prep school, it starts to look more corporate. As it going back away, I mean, look at Jerry Sackhaus, though, he left for Oak Hill, but I never, I don't think anyone ever thought of him as anything other than a North Carolina guy, state of North Carolina guy. He was still a Kensen kid, even though he left for Oak Hill, very controversial at the time. I got criticized by the state because of how much revenue it costs. I'm probably not great comments for someone with the state to make, but you know, and then he comes

9:22back and it's it's almost like a blip. Nowadays, it's expected that these guys are going to max out their ability at these academies. I completely understand it and it is effective from a scouting point of view because you're seeing them with anagats to top competition, but yeah, it is more fun. I think when they stay with their original team, but I still think that given all the years, they would have spent their beforehand before leaving, they would understand the Carolina culture, the tobacco road thing, and that's worth a lot. Yeah, I remember saying Oak Hill come to Derm, play Derm Hill side at Central back whenever Stackhaus and McKinnis McTar in Jai were there. That was that was epic to see that team put together, but yeah, you're right. That's the Kensen fight line it always was. Definitely Kinnis from Charlotte and all that. Donald Williams from Garner used to go see him play in Garner. So yeah, I get it, but it's a different age, but just still think the the ties that bind are North Carolina young folks. If you're watching this, let us know what you think,

10:24think of it matters. I mean, a lot of Carolina fans away from North Carolina, but the ones in North Carolina, how do you how do you feel about local local young men or playing for the team you pull for talking about Rob Harrington here on IC Daily for Wednesday the 9th. Last question on this, we'd like to keep these short Greg and Aaron notorious notorious for running along. We're going to keep it fairly short here. Given the nature of the portal, the transfer portal does it make this aspect, this question we're asking any less important. I mean, certainly you can soften the blow, but you've talked about the NBA aspirations, the localness, all of that. But does the portal, I feel like the portal gives coaches an out maybe. I don't know if that's a fair way of putting it, and it's maybe has some negative connotations, but the portal has changed this aspect of it. Has it or has it not? Well, we talked in the beginning about the team building aspect and filling out a roster,

11:30the portal gives you a second bite at the apple. I will never favor a strategy that pushes the most important recruiting to the portal because you just don't know what the portal marketplace will look like for a year to year. It's too variable because if you have NBA decisions in there, I mean, you know in a given high school class with thousands and thousands of players, there are going to be some really good guys and it's going to be spread and you have a long time to figure out the people you can get in seriously with and those who are not worth your time. I love the portal for rounding out, for addressing weaknesses, for adding a fourth or fifth starter, or even a second or third starter, but I still think the bread and butter of an elite program needs to be high school. And then you get back into the other stuff we discuss about the timing. The portal will be at the end of the season. I think especially in year one, probably will be some bumps in the road relatively early in the season, although it's sort of a soft start from a schedule point of view. But I think if Michael Malone has, say, one elite prospect and his hip pocket who's committed, who signed up,

12:36that will certainly enable him to weather any storm to early criticism or concerns about how this team plays. I think it would do wonders for the families just to see it because everyone's been so hungry to see the heels get back in with these top guys. It's fun. Especially after Kale, Wilson, it was like catnip. They saw some of the other portal guys have been great. The four-year Baycott and our Jake Davis, but man, Kale, Wilson was fun to watch. And now you get to watch him as a Carolina basketball alumnus, or however many years he's in the NBA, hopefully is a very prominent player. And I think that reminded people of how important that is to the program. You want to get hyped up, go watch Kale, Wilson, Carolina highlights. It went by so fast. You almost forget it, but then you go back and watch that Kansas game again. And at first turn around jumper and all that. And those winged jumpers are like, oh, this guy was really good. And he's probably

13:37going to be really good for a really long time. And it's a high school player. Rob Harrington, that I'm going to wrap it here. What you've done there at the end of that is you sort of segue to send to tomorrow's discussion about most anticipated season since the link. But that'll be tomorrow's I say daily. That's Rob Harrington. I'm Tommy. Actually, have a good Wednesday. Shout out to Johnny T. Sherry. Go see him on Franklin Street. Go see him online. Support local support, Johnny T. Sherry. And get your insight, Carolina Premium subscription. So you can read all the sherellment millens work. Memes, and they're looking at CJ Rosser's segment. And it's just loaded with nuggets and loaded with information. And that's just one of many players that sherell. And inside Carolina going on and on and on about especially there and on the message boards. Join us. Join us in the party. Thanks Rob. Thank you.