Offer Mr. Green! Class of 2018

[UNIhoops]

Virginia does scare me a little bit. My guess is Iowa State has had just as many players transfer out in the last few years as Virginia? I'm guessing that applies to most schools with the crazy transfer numbers going on right now. My hope is none of the Iowa State players are giving Green any advice at all. Jespersen is the one I'd want talking to Green. As stated before Green knows exactly what UNI is about. I remember watching him shoot from deep before games back when I sat in the student section over 10 years ago. He had to have grown up wanting to be a Panther. I'd assume he's been at almost every tournament appearence we have had with Jacobson and Mac. He knows we've never had a 4 star recruit and hopefully is thinking with him we can get to the next level.

My biggest fear is that whatever team Joey Hauser commits to offers AJ and he decides to continue to play with his 5 star AAU teammate. I've seen Tyrese Halliburton tweet about AJ. I'm hoping that means they have a connection and they both sign at UNI to be solid teammates for the next four years. The next couple of months will be big for the future of UNI.

Article from the Virginia message board. http://virginia.sportswar.com/articl...n-lands-offer/

[BCPanther]

It's a crapshoot at this point. I'm at the point where I won't be real surprised either way.

The only school on his list that I would possibly be upset at is Clemson. They haven't been good, they've got very little history and it's not the world's most prestigious academic institution.

Green and Haliburton to go with McCloud, Pickford, McDonnell, Brown and Phyfe sets us up to be really really good through 2023...

[claw]

Virginia is getting into the realm of what worries me.

There's nothing UNI can do/say more than they have. It's literally just sit and wait to see if a real big name comes after him, and if they do hope it is one that is passable without much regret. AJ has spent all but like 3 years of his life in Cedar Falls, in the dome, in the McLeod, in the offices, going to NCAA games, Arch Madness. UNI's best recruiting pitch isn't happening right now - it happened between 2005-2015, when he was a little kid. Lincoln Conrey - obviously a different level recruit - had scholarship offers to play D2 ball (maybe some lower D1 offers), but he grew up a Panther and wanted nothing other than to be a Panther in the end. Best hope is that the desire to be the Panther he grew up as is too much to pass on.

It sounds like he wants to end it sometime shortly after July - per a DSM article. The UVa offer might be the drop of water that opens the damn on offers. The thought was everyone was holding out because they weren't convinced, but when it comes to recruiting all it takes is one "name" school to offer for others to "panic" and decide they need to get in on it.

As UNIhoops mentioned, Haliburton and AJ seem to have a "thing" on twitter. I'm not sure how recruiting sites do their predictions but almost all have Haliburton as a 100% UNI commit. If he commits that gives us SGs of Brown, Pickford and Haliburton - wow.

Add AJ in there with McCloud and Haldeman plus whatever guys come in because of AJ - I'd bet there is one.

We need to land AJ soon after July if we are going to land him. It would fill out 2018 class real quick and peak interest in a couple 2019s. I would love to get Shea Mitchell in 2018 as well. A 2018 class of AJ, Shea Mitchell, Haliburton and anyone else to fill that 4th spot (probably Brinkmeyer or a grad transfer) would be amazing. 2 of those 3 will be fantastic. Imagine if Green commits to UNI before Hauser decides and that somehow convinces Hauser to come along.

Okay, I'll stop now.

He's not gone, but UVa is the start of the area where we can start to worry about the level of offer coming in.

As for the UVa transfers, oh well. Iowa State has had more, I would guess. Iowa State, and playing against dad, would be more of a reason to avoid it than the transfers out.

TL;DR, I'm not worried....yet.

[domedays]

I would personally place the Virginia offer ahead of ISU. Virginia was down a little last year but had a great 3 year run prior. They won 2 ACC regular season titles, second place finish in 15-16. Went to the elite 8 in 15-16. ISU seems to have things going pretty well right now as well. Pace of offensive style would probably be the biggest difference.
Obviously the only answer I want is AJ to UNI, but I think it would be a bigger blow to us if he goes to ISU. I would not be as upset if he went to Virginia.

[claw]

I would personally place the Virginia offer ahead of ISU. Virginia was down a little last year but had a great 3 year run prior. They won 2 ACC regular season titles, second place finish in 15-16. Went to the elite 8 in 15-16. ISU seems to have things going pretty well right now as well. Pace of offensive style would probably be the biggest difference.
Obviously the only answer I want is AJ to UNI, but I think it would be a bigger blow to us if he goes to ISU. I would not be as upset if he went to Virginia.

Bingo. If he goes somewhere other than UNI it needs to be an ACC, eastern Big 10 or PAC12 school. Get him the hell out of the area. Get him somewhere where the chances of running into him, or having to hear about him/deal with rival fan bases using him going elsewhere against us is about zero.

[OhNewby]

I'm not sure how much this matters, but Virginia has offered 7 other PGs and 8 SGs in the Class of 2018

[Gboom23]

Conspiracy theory alert!

Virginia doesn't actually want AJ, but they'll take him if it means Hauser will commit there as well. UVa places a bet that AJ and Hauser want to play together in college and jump at the opportunity of being the "best" place for the two of them to do that.

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

[sevelev711]

Conspiracy theory alert!

Virginia doesn't actually want AJ, but they'll take him if it means Hauser will commit there as well. UVa places a bet that AJ and Hauser want to play together in college and jump at the opportunity of being the "best" place for the two of them to do that.

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

The only obvious answer is both of them coming here, winning every Valley game 80-40.

[UNIdad]

My hope is none of the Iowa State players are giving Green any advice at all. Jespersen is the one I'd want talking to Green.

As stated before Green knows exactly what UNI is about. I remember watching him shoot from deep before games back when I sat in the student section over 10 years ago. He had to have grown up wanting to be a Panther. I'd assume he's been at almost every tournament appearence we have had with Jacobson and Mac. He knows we've never had a 4 star recruit and hopefully is thinking with him we can get to the next level.

I've seen Tyrese Halliburton tweet about AJ. I'm hoping that means they have a connection and they both sign at UNI to be solid teammates for the next four years. The next couple of months will be big for the future of UNI.

Good point about listening to Jespersen. I hope he does.

And I really hope both AJ and Tyrese come to UNI.

[CyCarp]

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but at the end of the day, if he wants to be a Panther bad enough, he will. I really hope he does, it's really a safe bet for him and a quality program, but I could see why he'd pick a place like Virginia. There are good reasons to go to Virginia, but plenty of good reasons to choose UNI over them (playing time, closer to home, dad coaching, etc) not even mentioning how he essentially grew up on campus. I'm glad he's making a decision fairly soon, it'll be good to know early.

[clenz]

Hauser going to Maqutte is very good news for UNI. There was strong potential for AJ and Hauser to be a package to a school bigger schools like Michigan State. AJ and Marquette have no interest in each other, for a variety of reasons.

With the open period ending, AJ stating he wants to commit in early August and Hauser going to a place AJ will not end up I have very few doubts about AJ's future. Chances that a major P5 school that would be a threat - Michigan State, Kansas, Duke, UNC, etc... come calling between now and August 23rd - the day before Cedar Falls starts school and the latest that AJ said he would make his decision (which I know could change) - is very low.

Getting AJ to commit means focus can be shifted to guys like Haliburton and Shae Mitchell. Haliburton (SG) seems to be a UNI lock. I'd bet he'd follow shortly after AJ. That would allow further focus on Shae Mitchell (SF), who is a high 3* on both Rivals and ESPN. He's bounced between a 3 and a 4 on both. He seems to have steadied at a high 3 though, due to the lack of a high major offer.

A class of Green, Haliburton and Mitchell would run the MVC for their entire time on campus. Espeically when paird with Juwan, Brown and Pickford. That would be, by far, the most athletic and best shooting back court this program has ever seen. Add in guys like Haldeman, McDermott, McDonnell who would be freed up to be pure spot up shooters while a guy like Phyfe, Dahl and Betz control the block area. I mean...that would be a team that would have more than rivaled WSU since 2013. Moving forward that type of line up dominates the MVC.

The 4th ride in this years class is either taken by Brinkmeyer or goes to McDermott.

[DownGoesKansas]

I wouldn't throw Iowa State out. A local Big 12 school. Would really be a low blow since they never recruit in state. Man I really hope he comes here

[williebat]

Picking Iowa state would be a crushing **** you to uni. If aj went to Iowa state over UNI the long term ramifications would be huge cementing the erroneous myth among many casual fans that uni is a small fish . It would damage our reputation and hurt our future recruiting. It would be worse than when we lost McDermott.

[Born-a-Panther]

I'm not worried about Iowa State at all.

[MNpanthers]

I feel really good about it right now, but at the same time, I agree that it would be a devastating blow not to land him. The sky is his limit and he is the type of player to bring us back to national relevance. It's gonna really sting if we have to watch him succeed somewhere else.

People can theorize what it means that AJ wants to decide really soon, but no one actually knows what he is thinking. Anxious for the decision one way or another.