Twitter Tuesday: Ziaire Williams, Hunter Dickinson, Michigan State
In this week's Twitter Tuesday mailbag, Rivals.com Basketball Analyst Corey Evans looks at potential landing spots for Ziaire Williams, predicts when Hunter Dickinson and Jalen Terry will commit and more.
If Ziaire Williams' recruitment ended today, I think he would end up at Arizona. I do not expect him to leave the West Coast, especially with North Carolina seemingly out of scholarships at this point.
Oregon has a chance, but the Ducks are playing catch-up. UCLA is also in the hunt but the Bruins are in a similar position.
That brings us to Arizona, Stanford and USC. The Trojans picked up a lot of steam earlier this fall and are viewed by many as the favorite. No one has recruited him longer than Stanford and if he were to commit to the Cardinal, it would be one of the program’s greatest recruiting wins to date.
However, Arizona currently has the momentum in Williams' recruitment, and the Wildcats' up-and-down playing style and need for someone like Williams to step in right away has not gone unnoticed.
We are going to have a complete breakdown on Karim Mane tomorrow, but I do believe that he will sign with a college in the spring. Whether he actually sets foot onto campus next fall is the big question, because signing a National Letter of Intent does not guarantee enrollment. He could still test the NBA waters and, if he receives positive feedback, enter the NBA Draft.
Mane has not been willing to speak about the NBA option much, so it's difficult to assess the likelihood of that possibility. His focus remains on his high school season and college recruitment, so we should have a better sense of where things stand once his season ends. I believe he wants to play college basketball next year, but NBA feedback could change that.
Mane will visit Marquette on Jan. 4 and he visited Maryland over a year ago. Both programs dispatched coaches over the weekend to watch him during the National Prep Showcase. Mane could potentially visit DePaul in December, while Alabama, Memphis and Michigan State are also involved.
So, I was wrong. I thought Hunter Dickinson would commit last week. I was told he was not going to sign, so that did not shock me, but I was relatively surprised that he did not end his recruitment. I do believe he knows where he wants to go to college.
Dickinson is down to Duke, Florida State, Michigan and Notre Dame but, in my mind, the Wolverines and Irish are the only two programs that have a legitimate shot at landing his signature. Of the pair, I believe Michigan will ultimately win out.
However, Dickinson has not been the easiest person to read. Heck, Purdue was thought to be the frontrunner and the Boilermakers aren't even a finalist. Take this with a grain of salt, but I believe Dickinson will commit to Michigan in the next several days.
Michigan State could still land Jalen Terry for the second time. The Spartans remain in need of another guard before closing out its 2020 class and while it's rare for a prospect to recommit to a program after decommitting, it's not unheard of.
The competition for Terry is fierce. Immediately after his decommitment last month, Terry took officials visit to LSU and Louisville. There was a feeling that he would commit quickly after and sign last week. That did not happen. Sources indicate that Terry is now in no rush to make his college decision. Originally, it was thought that LSU, Louisville, Ole Miss and and Oregon had a shot with the top-50 guard. Now, Terry has opened things up entirely and is willing to hear any and every program out.
Terry has three official visits to give and I would bet that he visits Oregon at some point. From there, don’t be surprised if a few others enter his recruitment. With Terry now in no hurry, he could be one of the final members of his class to commit, which may see things seep deeper into the 2020 calendar year.
The real question is why are their flips in football recruiting? Unlike in football, committed basketball prospects never, at least publicly, visit other programs. Is there tampering in basketball? Yes, but not as much as there is in football.
The word ‘commitment’ actually means something in basketball and while decommitments do take place, maybe the football side should take a page from its roundball counterparts. Every once in a while, there is a flip on the basketball side, but for the most part commitments are respected.
Looking ahead, I fail to see there ever being a day where basketball recruiting turns into the committing flips found on the football side.