It is lunchtime somewhere. So, welcome back to the lunch hour read of the Meat & Three. Every weekday I dive into a big picture topic and three things to get you through a quarantine spring. Let’s dive into the junior college class of 2020, some Florida commitments of note, the stream of the day, and, of course, the Ty Freeman photo of the day. 

THE MEAT: THE JUCO RUSH 

To understand recruiting, you have to understand recruiting economics. Furthermore, you have to understand the recruiting calendar. 

College coaches have been actively sifting through the 700 names of Division I transfers. It is biggest supply of players in recruiting. From there, the junior college ranks has available players that range from 300 to 400 players for the Division I level. Then the high school ranks of available players in the spring is low, maybe no more than 100 legitimate college players nationally. 

We’ve talked a lot about the transfer portal, so let brings us to the JUCO level. 

Of the top 100 players on the JUCORecruiting.com top 100 national rankings, only five players remain uncommitted. That surge in early JUCO commitments is something a bit out of the ordinary, according to JUCORecruiting National Director Brendan Walker. 

“In the last three weeks, the amount of guys have been committing is high,” Walker said. “They are flying off the board.” 

Let’s understand the JUCO recruiting calendar for a bit. The post-season matters here. Division I schools converge on Hutchinson, Kansas for the national tournament. Then April comes around and there are key available JUCO player camps during the NCAA Live Period. Then come the April commits/signings. 

Well, none of those recruiting events happened in 2020. So, a recruiting pivot happened. More film, more phone calls, more networking. And through all of that, we have seen a shift in the calendar. It has sped up. 

“We have to be ahead of where we were last year,” Walker said. “There are almost 300 junior college commitments (to Division I). There were 330 by the end of July last year.” 

So, why is that happening? 

“Everything happened so fast,” Walker said. “There were a couple of kids who were offered one day, had a Zoom visits and then committed a day after. That's a credit to the JUCO coaches encouraging their guys to take opportunities.” 

Just how good is the talent at the JUCO level that is entering the Division I level from the 2020 class? Good, Walker says. The class of 2021 is better. But remains is the transition time from the JUCO level to the Division I level. 

“I think there is a steep learning curve for JUCO kids going to Division I prior to all of this. But now we have some players who are being offered only off of what coaches have seen from the film, so their curve is even higher,” Walker said. “You could make a case that some are going to be steals but for the most part, a JUCO kid has a big curve to climb. That’s after having a solid relationship already formed.” 

THE NOTE

There were a pair of commitments since our last Meat & Three from the state of Florida that could grow into impact decisions. 

Devin Carter, one of the most impactful players in the class of 2020, committed to South Carolina and then pivoted with the announcement that he will take a post-grad season at Brewster Academy. I’ll go ahead and call it - Carter will be a top 50 national prospect nationally after his time at Brewster. Carter could be one of the most important commitments during the Frank Martin era at South Carolina. 

Promising big man Ernest Ross, a class of 2021 forward, committed to NC State. He’s one of the few players in the class of 2021 who could have really used the spring to catapult his game to the next level. NC State jumped ahead of what could have been a spring rush to recruit Ross seriously and locked him up with a big commitment. Also, check that Ty Freeman Photo of the Day of the big man in action. 

THE STREAM 

The Other Dream Team is a doc worth spending some time with. The hour and a half long documentary takes you back to the time we’re about to see on The Last Dance and the American Dream Team. This story follows the 1992 Lithuanian basketball team that competed in the historic Olympics. Former NBA stars Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis and the Grateful Dead all come together. You can find the film on Amazon. 

THE TY FREEMAN PHOTO OF THE DAY 

The lens of Ty Freeman catches it all. This week we look take a look at the perspective that Ty brought from the 2019 Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions, including newly committed NC State forward Ernest Ross.