2015 G Khyri Thomas (Signed)

[fritzpointer]

Have a great Christmas with your family Khyri. Go Jays!

[CUJAYFANATIC]

What is our chance of getting Khyri? Does his family still reside in Omaha? Can someone keep us updated on his current season statistics. What position would he project to play? I assume a 1-2 similar to what we already have however I don't think we can have too many athletic players like this.

[Chicagojayfan]

What is our chance of getting Khyri? Does his family still reside in Omaha? Can someone keep us updated on his current season statistics. What position would he project to play? I assume a 1-2 similar to what we already have however I don't think we can have too many athletic players like this.

No inside info from me, but this is what Piv said in his chat yesterday "They are very interested in Thomas, and it sounds like for the most part he's interested in them. "

[JacobPadilla]

I'm going to do a recruiting story on him at some point coming up here in the next month for Nebraska High School Hoops.

I've seen multiple photos of him in Jays gear recently, not that that means much. But based on the factors I see now (without getting any inside info at this point) I feel pretty decent about him coming home to Omaha. I think it will come down to who else takes an interest in him, because Creighton is his best offer to this point that I've heard.

[Paul Silas]

That seems to be a problem. Are we are getting guys just because Creighton is their "best offer" ? I certainly hope not, because that is not going to cut it in the Big East.

[Oldfan]

Bingo - we need to start beating out other BE and Football 5 schools for recruits or we aren't going to make it in the BE. This isn't the Valley anymore.

[LynchMob]

Yeah, I agree, the staff should just let Rivals or 24/7 do the recruiting for them.

[AttyAlum]

Khyri's lack of offers is related to concerns about academic eligibility, not lack of talent.

[R Jay]

Part of recruiting is beating teams to extremely talented kids. As long as they can compete in the Big East (or as long as our coaches believe they can compete), it doesn't matter who is recruiting them or how many stars they have.
By using the logic that we need to get heavily recruited and highly ranked players, a lot of you would take Alex Illikainen over Justin Patton.
Our staff happens to be really good at identifying under the radar kids. We were one of the first teams on guys like Chris Clarke, Henry Ellenson, and Justin Robinson, all players who exploded into heavily recruited top 150 kids. I think we all would agree that those guys could compete in the Big East, so why aren't we giving the same benefit of the doubt to Justin, Martin, Marlon, and our other recruits, including Khyri?

[Chicagojayfan]

Bingo - we need to start beating out other BE and Football 5 schools for recruits or we aren't going to make it in the BE. This isn't the Valley anymore.

This canard again?

2015:

Patton - We saw him, recognized his talent and got his commitment before anyone else could get involved. Other teams recruit local guys and use their location as an advantage.. why shouldn't have we used it. I swear some people think we should have waited until he was a top 50 recruit before we offered.

Stewart - blew up in an AAU tourney in Chicago, but then hurt his hand. We liked him so when he was healthy we brought him in and for a visit and when he performed in practice and saw he was healthy we offered and got his commitment. Note the timing on this one. We left it to close to before signing day to minimize other visits, got his commitment and signed him so nobody else could get to him Bossi on Rivals thinks he can be top 150 before all is said and done

Krampelj - we beat out West Virginia and Virginia Tech.. If you don't think Buzz and Huggins are top competition, I can't help you.

2014:
Harrell - a mini version of Patton, ended up top 100 (84 on rivals). Again, some people act like we should have waited until he got his ranking before landing him. We landed him early because we evaluated him and saw his talent
Gilmore - Nebraska, Oklahoma, UNLV, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU offers.. what do you want to wait until Louisville offers before it's OK for us?

Let's not forget the transfers:

Huff - Michigan, Iowa and Dayton had visits lined up. Good enough for you people?
Watson - Just about everyone was interested or wanted him ... Illinois, Wichita State, UConn, Kansas, Vanderbilt, Temple, Purdue, Penn State, Xavier -- maybe not enough as UCONN isn't a football 5 school really...

But lest people think our roster is devoid of talent:

Hanson - Gonzaga, Arizona State, Missouri, Nebraska, offers
Hegner - Marquette, Dayton, Iowa State, Northwestern offers
Even Groselle had offers from Colorado, Iowa, and Northwestern.

Pretty much everyone since we announced the Big East has been a nationally regarded recruit with multiple P5/BE/major offers or has exploded on the scene after we landed them and they proved themselves on the court. FURTHER, we've backed off of a number of highly ranked recruits that we may have been able to land who later were seen as having dropped in the rankings and not been as good as people thought. The idea that we are just landing anyone who will take our offer and who ends up with us as our best offer is simply.. stupid.

Thomas can play. He's the kind of guy we hated playing against at Wichita or against St. Johns (but hopefully he can shoot unlike the St. Johns guys). He's long, athletic and can defend multiple spots on the floor with his long arms and physical play. He can play a bit of the point, can handle and get to the rim to score.. Oh yeah, he shoots 3's well enough to keep people honest. He'd have a ton more offers if his eligibility questions were answered (Indiana, Oregon and Nebraska have all taken looks at him). I really hope we land him --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9aPpupNM-8

a bit old, but worth a watch