Utah Basketball: The Preview… Part Three… The Freshmen
If you missed Part One… The Guys Coming Back, here it is.
If you missed Part Two… The Transfers, here it is.
So here we are on day three of the hoops preview, this time its the freshmen, and since we’ve got a whole slew of them. Let us waste no more time.
Jordan Loveridge– West Jordan, UT
Loveridge is the crown jewel in this class. He is one of the few players in the program who was wanted seriously by other Pac-12 schools. He will be a very nice player for Utah. My fear for him is this. Utah fans are already acting like his name is going to be retired next to Miller and Van Horn. If he’s only Alex Jensen, I wouldn’t put it past Ute fans to call him a bust. You know I’m right about this.
Justin Seymour– Marietta, GA
Justin Seymour can play ball and had some name schools after him. But here is the great big red flag, and apparently one the Utah Bio people are leaving off. Justin transferred high schools from his junior to his senior years because he flunked out. He also didn’t finish at Wheeler High, because he flunked out and spent his last semester at a prep school in North Carolina getting the grades. Is there a reason I should see this working out?
Brandon Taylor– West Hollywood, CA
I have to believe Mr. Taylor will be a transfer. He is not big. He can’t play the two and our staff seems to be forcefully recruiting at this position. Also the teams interested in him were WCC and lower.
Dakari Tucker– Gardena, CA
Dakari is another player whom I wonder about his future at Utah. He was another kid with only WCC schools looking after him. He plays a position where we seem to be looking for talent better than him. I wouldn’t be shocked to see another transfer out of him.
Thoughts
Out of this group, Jordan Loveridge is the only one who is nearly a lock to at least make contributions at Utah. The coaches themselves, despite what the supposed insiders will scream later today at me, are clearly recruiting over Taylor and Tucker right now. If Seymour works out that will be a very pleasant surprise, but two high schools and a prep school just to get grades doesn’t exactly translate to getting it done with college academics.
So let’s don’t be shocked if Larry’s first two recruiting classes yield us exactly one freshmen.
Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the outlook for 2012-12 Ute Cagers (why have they stopped calling basketball players cagers anyway?)