Some of the 411 I get comes from people who still do what I did for 13 years, that is, travel around Florida getting inside information on potential targets. It started with Pitino, ended with Smith in 2004.
For instance, I was asked to explore why Desmond Allison was kicked out of four football games. Dez was on helluva football player. I interviewed Scotty Wagers, the high school basketball coach, and even Dez's pastor Sims. Turns out Dez, the most popular guy in school, didn't show to pick up his prom date. The date's father was a football referee and the one who disqualified him from those four games. It was a vendetta. Problem solved.
A lot of stories like that one. Fitch's is the most intriguing and heartwarming. That for another time.
Anyhow, there are still quite a few guys out there that form a net of information. We used the same evaluation sheets when watching a kid play and faxed them to the basketball office.
In Cade Cunningham's case, there is a fellow I used to rub shoulders with who is tight with the Montverde program. Lives close by and takes in alot of their games. His son played there. Last I saw him we were looking at Dakari Johnson play a tourney in Ft.Myers. By the way, I faxed his stats to UK with a note that he was slow on his feet. So I called my buddy during the recruitment of Cunningham. He was the one damn near guaranteeing that CC would shock the world by picking Kentucky. On that fateful Monday evening he called me and said Cade would choose via television on Wednesday, but then that was moved forward to Tuesday because the word was getting out and Cade wanted it to be a surprise. At the time, it was Kentucky. That's when Cade's dad slowed the whole process down, telling Cade he was acting rashly and to consider putting it off to Christmas as was the plan.
So Cade's dad called a meeting with Calipari just two days later. They met. It fell apart for Kentucky during that meeting, though I did'n't know it then. I was suspicious that immediately after the Calipari meeting that Mike White came in for a visit. I thought...uh oh, but didn't say anything about it publicly. It was about two weeks later that my buddy close to the Montverde program told me what he THOUGHT happened, that is, that Cannen, the brother, be given a future job at UK. That is speculation on his part and therefore on mine too. Of course Cal would have shot that down. He doesn't negotiate.
So that's how it went down. All the way some others were warning me that it would not happen for UK, but I went with it anyway, knowing that nothing is ever guaranteed in the recruiting business.
As far as Banchero, I have no idea where the kid will play. I just thought it strange that so much net information came in on the same day. Probably a round robin effect, but I posted it on here just to say I found it strange.
For instance, I was asked to explore why Desmond Allison was kicked out of four football games. Dez was on helluva football player. I interviewed Scotty Wagers, the high school basketball coach, and even Dez's pastor Sims. Turns out Dez, the most popular guy in school, didn't show to pick up his prom date. The date's father was a football referee and the one who disqualified him from those four games. It was a vendetta. Problem solved.
A lot of stories like that one. Fitch's is the most intriguing and heartwarming. That for another time.
Anyhow, there are still quite a few guys out there that form a net of information. We used the same evaluation sheets when watching a kid play and faxed them to the basketball office.
In Cade Cunningham's case, there is a fellow I used to rub shoulders with who is tight with the Montverde program. Lives close by and takes in alot of their games. His son played there. Last I saw him we were looking at Dakari Johnson play a tourney in Ft.Myers. By the way, I faxed his stats to UK with a note that he was slow on his feet. So I called my buddy during the recruitment of Cunningham. He was the one damn near guaranteeing that CC would shock the world by picking Kentucky. On that fateful Monday evening he called me and said Cade would choose via television on Wednesday, but then that was moved forward to Tuesday because the word was getting out and Cade wanted it to be a surprise. At the time, it was Kentucky. That's when Cade's dad slowed the whole process down, telling Cade he was acting rashly and to consider putting it off to Christmas as was the plan.
So Cade's dad called a meeting with Calipari just two days later. They met. It fell apart for Kentucky during that meeting, though I did'n't know it then. I was suspicious that immediately after the Calipari meeting that Mike White came in for a visit. I thought...uh oh, but didn't say anything about it publicly. It was about two weeks later that my buddy close to the Montverde program told me what he THOUGHT happened, that is, that Cannen, the brother, be given a future job at UK. That is speculation on his part and therefore on mine too. Of course Cal would have shot that down. He doesn't negotiate.
So that's how it went down. All the way some others were warning me that it would not happen for UK, but I went with it anyway, knowing that nothing is ever guaranteed in the recruiting business.
As far as Banchero, I have no idea where the kid will play. I just thought it strange that so much net information came in on the same day. Probably a round robin effect, but I posted it on here just to say I found it strange.
![[eyeroll]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/rolleye/rolleye0011.r191677.gif "Eye roll [eyeroll]")
