This kid is amazing. From Dalzell, SC. So, the two best basketball players in the country are from South Carolina. Understand Zion going to Duke, but cannot for the life of me figure out how we missed on Morant.
Morant of Murray State
- Thread starter GandBinNC
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Lost to Murray State?? We've been screwed twice now by Murray State. First, Steve Newton, now Ja Morant.
He’s a GREAT story and wished we had him; but he was UNRANKED coming out of high school by all the recruiting services. People on here would’ve been RIPPING Coach Martin for bringing this unranked guy in for a spot out of high school. If you say “no we wouldn’t” you’re lying...
Easy call now to say we should have gotten him, but all the other bigger schools missed on him as well. Regardless, outside of Zion, he might be the best player in the country. But I want to see him play FSU and really see. Marquette is eternally slow
Hopefully, Trae Hannibal, AJ Lawson and Jermaine Couisnard will be our "Ja Morants".
Frank will probably be proven right when David Beatty leads La Salle to the elite 8 next year.
You do realize that we were the only Power 5 school to offer him a scholarship don`t you? I`m pretty sure he visited us before going to Murray St. So we did our part - don`t know why he picked them. It makes me sick to think what he and Zion on this team would have resulted in. Final Four again, maybe more. I can`t even watch him or Zion play makes me want to puke.
I had read that in The State a week or so ago. Others are right that Martin would have been crucified for bringing in an unranked guy. But good Lord, what a talented young man.
Zion was never going to come to Carolina. If he had stayed in state, all indications pointed toward Clemson. But can you imagine Zion, Morant and Silva on the same team?? One day I'm going to write an alternate history of South Carolina basketball, and its going to be amazing.
Your point is correct! I don't care about all the other school. That talent was a stone's throw from our campus! Missing out on him simply inexcusable! It's not like Frank was reeling in five star talent. All the other big schools missed on Cudd and Gueye!
You write that so definitively. That's an assumption which reflects your anti-Martin bias, unless you have some inside information on his recruiting to inform your answer. Who knows what goes on inside the head of a 17/18 year old kid. Sounds like USC was the only Div I school to offer him, so credit Martin for that. Maybe his girlfriend went to Murray State. Who the hell knows.
Didn't Ray Allen also come out of Dalzell? Who knows, maybe the Hillcrest-Dalzell coach has an anti-USC bias.
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Murray St offered him well before we did! I think the late offer and general lack of interest hurt the kids pride! How the heck does Murray St spot him before Frank? Inexcusable! I saw him play AAU ball and went wow! While everyone was going gaga over Zion, I saw Ja Morant and went WOW!
I think you missed your calling. Somehow all the Division I schools missed on him (except USC, which offered him), and evidently he had no stars, so all of the recruiting gurus missed on him too.
I can only speculate that someone on the Murray State staff has connections in the Sumter area who tipped them off to this kid, who was obviously a late bloomer operating under the radar. They snuck in and stole one from under our noses. That happens sometimes.
Look, I'm not happy we missed him, but I think the situation was probably a little more nuanced than "two words... FRANK MARTIN!".
This would be an awesome superpower to have. I'd go back to the late 80s and start from there. Instead of allowing Brent Price to get frustrated with the bone-headed role George Felton would give him, leading Price to transfer to Oklahoma, I'd can Felton and replace him with John Calipari, right before he took the UMASS job. I'd make sure Cal hired Stanley Roberts' high school coach (Jim Childrers?) before LSU got him, we'd sign Stanley and Cal's charisma convinces Everick Sullivan to stay home, rather than sign than sign with Louisville. We'd get all the home-grown talent, plus some. Right about the time Cal decides to leave the college game for the NBA, I'd head to Oral Roberts and get Bill Self. In the meantime, we pre-emptively gut, renovate, and restore the Coliseum, never building CLA.
Perhaps...but it is called E-V-A-L-U-A-T-I-O-N. Martin is supposed to know more than the recruiting services. If Martin can't do that and can't get us the star players, we are sunk.
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Simply, we got outrecruited. They did a better job selling their program, than we did ours.
Aren't those the connections our staff is supposed to be building in our own state? Our football coaching staff has, why not our basketball staff?
Sooner or later, Martin has to be responsible for something in this basketball program.
Agree with all. I'd go back even further and start in the late '60s. Mike Grosso would have a qualifying SAT score and then Roche would avoid the sprained ankle against Wake in the 1970 ACC tourney. Carolina would go on to win the '70 ACC title and defeat UCLA for the national title, followed by a repeat in '71.
Cooler heads would prevail and Carolina wouldn't leave the ACC in '71, and would go onto several more ACC championships in the 70's and 80's. A young Bobby Cremins would replace McGuire in 1980, and he would win another national title in 1982 (sorry, Jordan), defeating UNC in both the ACC and National title games behind the dominant talents of Jimmy Foster, Xavier McDaniel and Tyrone Corbin.
In 1992, USC would bolt for the SEC after being courted agresively in an effort to enhance that conference's basketball bonafides. Much glory in the SEC would follow, as Carolina would challenge Kentucky annually, and that rivalry would become as rousing as the old ACC rivalries (sans the truly nasty stuff).
Frank McGuire Arena would become known as the most intimidating venue in all of college basketball, and there would be a beautiful, verdant park stretching all the way to the Congaree where the CLA now sits.
More championships would follow, and banners would crowd the mighty rafters of "The Frank", and the words "South Carolina Basketball" would be spoken with reverence. And South Carolina would be included with Kansas, Kentucky, UNC and Duke, among the holy grail of college basketball.
Amen.
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I think Hannibal is going to be a baller.
Many will not understand this post
Beatty played for La Salle this year. I don't understand how he was eligible without sitting out a year but he averaged 7.7 points per game.
Took me a few minutes to find it, but here’s a nice article from Sports Illustrated on Ja Morant from about two months ago:
https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/01/23/ja-morant-murray-state-racers
https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/01/23/ja-morant-murray-state-racers
Thanks for posting. Great kid. Missed opportunity (for us). Would have loved to have seen him in the garnet & black.
I believe we may have been wasting time trying to get Brian Bowen instead of this guy. I might have the time period off but this year the state had a lot of recruits and they are going elsewhere except for Hannibal. Spending time recruiting Bowen was really strange
Sounds similar to an alternate reality around 1996 or 97, if we would've had Jermaine O'neal and Kevin Garnett to go along with the 3 guards.
I think the kid is better than Zion. His skills will transfer better in today’s NBA. I would take JA over Zion any day. Zion will be good but JA is going to be great like a Westbrook or Harden. Zion’s shot is broke. It’s god awful! It’s very difficult to succeed in the NBA now without a really good midrange or 3 ball skill because he will be one dimensional and post play is almost nonexistent now. Call me crazy but I just don’t see it with Zion and the NBA.
You may be right about Ja, but no way Zion will not be successful barring injury. His ball handling, size, and energy will make him an All-Star Level player. You can't hand check in the NBA. So, just like the Greek Freak, a big kid that can handle the ball can get rolling downhill and you won't be able to stop him. Actually, I think it will be easier for Zion in the NBA than in college because all those borderline charges they call in college will be blocks in the NBA. I see Zion as a Charles Barkley level talent at the very least.
Ja's dad played with Ray Allen at Hillcrest Dalzell on that '93 state title team. They beat Irmo in the playoffs. BJ scored 35 points in that game, Ray Allen had 25.
Back to Ja, once he fills out...look out. Already dunks over big guys at 175 pounds.
Back to Ja, once he fills out...look out. Already dunks over big guys at 175 pounds.
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