****Official Class Of 2025 Recruiting Thread****
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I agree it’s weird they brought him in early unless they felt he would contribute this year but it probably better for him if he develops into being draft worthy. The league considers age and potential so getting that semester at 17 definitely helps. He’s not in the rotation but he looks like he knows what he’s doing in mop up minutes so as long as the progression continues he just might get there. Yes it cost us a year but does anyone at this point worry about TJ finding players?
Both Mitchell and Bateman are in the mix for WI Mr. BB. Nice mention that Bateman has become the best defender in Wisconsin.
The Rock conversation is weird to me. Yes, he "started his clock" a year early. But that's only true if he would have come in this year as a true freshman and still redshirted. Given the transfers of Jackson, Chatfield, and Jefferson, we know now that he wasn't going to make an impact this season and could have redshirted. But we don't know if Rock would have wanted to redshirt this season, and until last spring, it was impossible to know what the front court was going to look like for this year.
If we had whiffed on the front court transfers and Rock needed to play this season, I'm certain he's in a better position to contribute than if he had not joined the program a year early. Bringing in Rock early added some level of certainty and gave the staff a better idea of what they needed to look for in the portal. Seeing him on the bench and thinking he could have waited, come in, and redshirted this season is looking at it with the benefit of hindsight.
If we had whiffed on the front court transfers and Rock needed to play this season, I'm certain he's in a better position to contribute than if he had not joined the program a year early. Bringing in Rock early added some level of certainty and gave the staff a better idea of what they needed to look for in the portal. Seeing him on the bench and thinking he could have waited, come in, and redshirted this season is looking at it with the benefit of hindsight.
No hindsight is needed to know starting the clock early on Rock most likely reduces his collective college impact. No hindsight is needed to know trading a 17 year old year for 23 year old isn’t increasing his collective production
I just don’t think we cared. If he developed quickly, he’d play. If not, we’d recruit over him and he’s a little used depth piece for most of his eligibility
The question was never whether that reduction wasn’t acceptable to the program. Rosters are year to year. Rock was just one of many freshman we take a chance on, that we know will need, at best, to develop before getting on the court.
I’m optimistic about Rock. Enough so that I’m betting when he’s a senior we’ll regret he doesn’t have another season
I think coming early was absolutely the correct decision. Age is one thing, experience is another. He was not going to improve much vs the competition in SD ( no disrespect intended). A year of weightlifting, nutrition services and learning from and being knocked around by fifth year seniors is of more value - imo.
The hindsight isn't about whether Rock would be better at 17 or 23. It's about whether he still would've redshirted to give himself a chance to play at 23.
In the summer of 2023, Otz and staff knew that Rock was willing to enroll early and redshirt in the 2023/24 season. At that time, for the 2024/25 season that was supposed to be Rock's true freshman year, they could not know (1) whether Rock would still be willing to redshirt a year or (2) whether Rock's stage of development and the roster construction would make it make sense for Rock to redshirt.
We now have the hindsight to know that Rock could have come in and redshirted this year if he wanted to and it wouldn't have negatively affected the team. But if he hadn't, he'd have the same number of playing years as he has now (4 years starting this season), just without a year of Big 12 training and nutrition prefacing it.
Like a Robert Jones with skill. Loved what Jones brought to the team. Just wish he had a bit more skill.
Jackson is also tough. Is a little more skilled. Way better free throw shooter and rebounds better. Jones was probably a little better defending on the perimeter. I'd take another one of either Jones or Jackson next year though.
In my opinion Jackson’s biggest weakness is his non toughness around the rim. No doubt he does stuff better than BRE free throws and such. However, I really think he is soft compared to Jones.
Ergo, what you said re: development of 7’ players applies to ALL players. Perhaps you meant to say 7’ players generally take longer to develop than shorter players, which is more meaningful. I can only go by what was actually written.
Well said.
The idea that “Rock started his clock early” and lost a year is really silly. He redshirted because he came early, and solely this reason. He very likely would not have redshirted this season if this was his first season (as rarely do players freshman redshirt in general anymore - even developmental bigs).
I was impressed, especially with one of the later drives to the basket where he hung and switched the ball to his left hand for the lay-up. Follows the mode of our current guards as a good finisher at the rim. The dunk earlier showed hops.
