Gerry Hamilton

UPDATE: John Meredith III OnTexasFootball is going to continue to report Texas is in the top 2 for 5-star John Meredith III (Fort Worth, Texas/North Crowley). A source close to the recruitment continues to stick with the Longhorns and Texas A&M being the top 2 at the end of the day for the 6-2, 170-pound cornerback. Meredith III and family are working to set up official visits right now. OTF can report that Texas wants the first visit. That would be June 5-7, assuming it gets locked in. Texas A&M prefers the last weekend of June. Will Muschamp and Mark Orphey are leading the recruitment for Texas. They remain in constant contact with the circle. The other two programs that OTF believes will receive official visits are Alabama and Ohio State. The top ranked prospect in the Lone Star State in the 2027 cycle will make a numb er of unofficial visits this spring. Those are expected to be Texas, Texas A&M, Notre and Miami for sure. The Fighting Irish and Hurricanes are battling hard for an official visit.

Extremely well done!

@Joe Zurais just what you would imagine in person

I bet he's in the ball park, but don't know about hitting 4.20. That's such a running a perfect race number

No, just the fan base with unrealistic expectations in a super duper, hyper speed instant gratification mode

https://x.com/_ryanfowler_/status/2027063691602956436?s=46

That’s a 3-4 year build of a program you watched Hough was a 3-star (3rd year in program) Condon was ranked a 3-star out of Aussie (3rd year in program) Reuben C. Lightly recruiting out of HS to Washington state out of NBA Africa I believe (2nd year in program) SG Klavchar off bench was a 3-star out of Slovakia (3rd year in program). Their NC team didn’t have a McDonald’s AA It didn’t happen overnight … Golden was 16-17 in year one (Florida fans thought he was a bust hire) Lost in Round of 64 year two (when Hough, Condon were freshman) Will Texas fans afford the time for Miller to build? I already see signs of no, just being 100% real.

All LB’s at combine

Todd Golden at UF: year 1: not in NCAA Tournament year 2: Round of 64 Florida fan base thought he was a bust after year one. Danny Hurley at UConn: year 1: not in NCAA Tournament year 2: not in NCAA Tournament UConn fan base wanted him gone after two years. There are others very similar. It's the fan bases you are referencing, not the recruits IMO. Fan bases want super duper, hyper speed instant gratification these days. Recruits are all about NIL at the high-end level or portal. It's simply a transactional business. They want to go where they can get paid, and hopefully fulfill the dream of playing pro. Being brutally honest, a lot of these guys are cool with making the tournament and if they make a run with a team is icing on the cake. But so many of these guys don't live and die with the NCAA Tournament anymore. So the key questions is striking that balance if you aren't a blue blood or have the NIL spend of a blue blood (Louisville and Arkansas two in that type of category). You want to build a program the right way, which still takes time. But the fan bases these days have absolutely zero patience for that. And from an NIL perspective, where do you sit in line. You may have to build it in a slow advancement way (or try to) - but fan bases will move away from a coach before he builds the program in that scenario.

This is why I've been saying NCAA Tournament isn't a guarantee in year one First year high-major coaches making the NCAA Tournament in the portal era... 2017-18: 2 of 6 (high-major schools) 2018-19: 1 of 6 (high-major schools) 2019-20 (covid year no tournament) 2020-21: 0-1 (high-major schools) 2021-22: 6 of 14 (high-major schools) 2022-23: 6 of 14 (high-major schools) 2023-24: 2 of 9 (high-major schools) 2024-25: 6 of 14 (high-major schools) That was a blue blood or near it carousel (Kentucky, Louisville, Arkansas with Cal, etc…) 23 of 64 total. When you take away the blue blood/near blue blood (with blue blood NIL ability) changes on this list … those numbers go down even more, and considerably. This year as of today looks like … 5 of 11, with 4 in the balance

Not saying you ... but many people in these threads say Texas can't shoot, or doesn't have shooters from three ... and that tells me people aren't realistic or don't truly watch/follow college hoops ... Texas is 35.4% from three ... Arizona 35.4% BYU 35.3% Michigan State 35.2% Tennessee 34.9% DUKE 34.8% Kentucky 34.8% St. John's 34.2% Gonzaga 33.9% UNC 33.7% Miami 33.7% Houston 33.6% Georgia 32.9% Three-point shooting isn't actually a weakness. I think for some reason there is an expectation that the best teams fire 38-40% from three. There isn't a top team that is at 40% this season. A couple in the 39%'s, but most are under 38% and closer to mid-36%'s to 33.5%

I'm not saying Texas will move on from Miller. Texas literally can't hire a better coach IMO. Miller was brought in to legitimately build a program ... not just chase as many seniors as possible (as some others have done in year one's). The fan base, however, will be totally out by year three if it's a NIT and Round of 64 first two years. I said in another thread the other day ... the NIL era Texas wouldn't have signed KD (would have been AJ Dybansta NIL level), Aldridge (nearly same as KD), Tristan Thompson (nearly same as KD), Avery Bradley, Corey Joseph, etc... Texas isn't in that NIL playground. Texas only got Austin Goosby because he's a UT family and took half to turn down BYU and Duke. That wouldn't have happened with any other the guys mentioned above. Unless things change on an NIL front for Texas basketball, they have to play in a different sandbox in terms of building a roster the correct way. He's going to have to likely catch lightening in a bottle a few times in the tier 2-3 NIL world of college hoops. The problem with the job at Texas is there is an expectation of signing the top high school prospect, or a couple in the state on annual basis. Those are expensive, and will take away from portal NIL funds on some level. A Texas A&M doesn't have that expectation on the HS level, so they can approach things differently. Imagine if Texas had decided to not go on Austin Goosby and save more for portal NIL ... reaction would have been pretty negative. Texas is expected to be right there for Marcus Spears Jr. ... the pressure will build to sign him, and it won't be cheap. That could well hurt Texas total roster build for that year, as things currently stand. It's why I'm so frustrated with these threads ... the expectations are truly out of whack in year one, and maybe over time. Why do people think Sean Miller didn't bring Swain and Ryan Conwell with him? Only had the juice for one of them. L'ville NIL'ed Conwell for 2.4 mill plus a signing bonus. Texas doesn't have near that level of NIL to work with to invest up to 6-7 mill in top three players, and still be able to retain or truly build a program.

Recruiting in the Peach State is even more interesting now. Florida is going to hit the state incredibly hard. They are in on all those guys (except Albright), Travis Williams at Texas A&M is going to be a potential problem in recruiting, and he's all over the state (recruited the state hard for a decade and good at it). Muschamp and Kenny Baker all over the state, and Auburn's new staff is absolutely all in on the state as always Georgia will get the majority of guys they want, as long as Kirby is there. Then it comes down to which schools can snag the right guys.