Three-Point Play: Not much left in 2020, Jordan Nesbitt, two in Chicago

We spent last week covering the most highly ranked available seniors. Who is left in the next tier? Which St. Louis junior was about to have a breakout spring and two Chicago seniors who are flying a little under the radar in today’s Three-Point-Play.

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2020 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position

2021 Rankings: Rivals150 | Position

2022 Rankings: Top 75

Last week, I worked on a Making the Case series where we broke down the recruitments of the top five (now four after Clifford Omoruyi committed to Rutgers) available seniors. So, who else is left from the Rivals150?

Well, not a lot. Especially when No. 48 Marjon Beauchamp is not planning on attending college, No. 50 Kenyon Martin Jr. is entering the NBA Draft and No. 70 Kai Sotto likely pursuing professional options. That leaves only No. 56 J.T. Thor, No. 75 William Jeffress, No. 87 Kerwin Walton, No. 113 Darius Miles, No. 125 Dylan Cardwell, No. 128 Donovan Williams, No. 133 Donte Houston, No. 139 Tyrin Lawrence and No. 144 Vladislav Goldin available from the current 2020 Rivals150.

Let’s look at where they stand in rapid fire fashion.

An athletic freak, Thor has kind of been all over the place but it is looking more and more like it will be college next season. Auburn has come on with some others, but I’m still leaning towards Oklahoma State on that one.

Jeffress is graduating early and moved from 2021, Pittsburgh is right there with him and seems like a solid bet, but word is that he would at least like to take some visits. He could be one that gets held up some because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Walton is the best shooter of the bunch and probably the hardest of all to read. Nobody recruiting him has a great feel for what he might or might do as Arizona, California, Georgetown, Minnesota, North Carolina, Vanderbilt and others remain involved.

Miles just picked up offers from Alabama and Boston College recently with Virginia Tech and Minnesota among those getting more involved. Taking a post grad year and moving to 2021 is very much a possibility.

Cardwell had to sit out his senior season due to a ruling in Georgia. If I had to bet today, I’d wager that Auburn is coming on pretty strong for the mobile big man.

Formerly committed to Nebraska, Williams recovered from a torn ACL to put up big numbers late in his senior season. He’s got a final six of Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M and Villanova. The Cowboys and K-State look to be the most likely landing spots.

Houston is moving to 2021 and will do a prep year at Bel Aire (Kans,) Sunrise Christian which is where Lawrence was this season. Lawrence visited California and Gonzaga officially but corona has delayed visits set up with Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.

Finally there’s Goldin, an import from Russia. He’s always been expected to ultimately end up at Texas Tech but there may be some wiggle room on that one.

This time last year, I was completely sold that 2021 four-star Jordan Nesbitt of St. Louis (Mo.) Christian was primed for a breakout spring and summer. For whatever reason, it didn’t go as expected and he dropped some in the rankings. After seeing him again during the winter, I think we had been a little too harsh in his drop and Nesbitt earned a big move back up the rankings to his current spot of No. 82 in the Rivals150.

I spoke with Nesbitt’s high school coach Casey Autenrieth on Monday and he had high praise for Nesbitt after he averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds per game.

“I think It’s maturity,” said Autenrieth. “He came in and had to make a lot of adjustments physically, personally and basketball-wise last year.

“I had a heart-to-heart with him in October and told him that he’s running out of time and had way too much talent to waste it. We worked with him, he worked and he had a heck of a season.”

A well-built and athletic wing, Nesbitt actually spent most of his junior season playing point guard and his versatility on both ends of the floor is a huge selling point. He took an official visit to Nebraska in the fall, has been to nearby Saint Louis and most recently was at Illinois. They have all offered, as has DePaul, Iowa, New Mexico and Ole Miss. Memphis and Texas have been expressing more interest here lately.

If travel basketball ends up taking place this summer, Nesbitt will play with Bradley Beal Elite in the Nike EYBL. Autenrieth is hoping he gets the chance to show his improvement.

“I just think he’s starting to figure this thing out. It’s scary where he was headed. He was about to really tear things up.”

There isn’t any basketball to go see live these days so I’ve been doing a lot of film watching, when it comes to semi under the radar seniors who are available, there are two in the Chicago area who really have my attention. 6-foot-5 wing Ramean Hinton of Chicago (Ill.) Curie and 6-foot-6 combo forward Christian Shumate of Chicago Heights (Ill.) Bloom Township.

Formerly signed to Southeast Missouri, Hinton would have been a massive steal at that level. I loved watching him play last summer with Team Rose. He’s still considering them after the hiring of Brad Korn (who helped recruit high school teammate Dajuan Gordon to Kansas State a year ago). He has also added offers from Colorado State, New Mexico and Tulsa while Illinois, Iowa State and Murray State have been active to varying degrees. I know that it’s not an easy time to recruit guys right now, but he’s a junkyard dog on the wing who could really help somebody out and at a fairly high level.

As for Shumate -- who I had seen some with his summer team, Team Y&R/Kevon Looney Elite -- I didn’t know quite as much about him prior to watching a few of his high school’s games. But, he sure stood out immediately. He’s a big-time athlete, crashes the glass, blocks shots, plays with a motor and tries to dunk everything.

Tulsa offered during his senior year and he has offers from Chicago State, Detroit, Southern Utah, Tennessee Tech and Northern Kentucky. Others that have also reached out include UC-Riverside, Cal State Fullerton, DePaul, Georgia, Oakland and Wofford. He's been planning to visit Tulsa and Northern Kentucky.

He’s probably best suited for a place that likes to get up and down and pressure defensively to turn the game into a track meet, but he’s being way under recruited right now. If I had a scholarship available and was in need of an athlete who plays hard and can be coached up, Shumate would be pretty high on my list and I'd recommend watching some film and doing some homework on him.