Roundtable: Early signing period surprise commitment
With the early signing period now in the books, we wanted to run through the important questions with our HoopSeen.com staff. What commitment surprised you the most these past few days?
Justin Young: Dewan Huell (pictured above). I’m not surprised he committed to Miami. I’m really not. He’s a local product, the Canes have been in there from the get go and he obviously saw the value of being an instant impact level player there. But I thought Florida State and South Carolina both had a legitimate shot of landing him. The five-star 6-foot-10 big man is one of the most important storylines of the 2016 class. He’s the highest rated player to sign with The U in 15 years and one of the best local prospects to stay home for hoops in two decades.
Carter Wilson: Bam Adebayo committing to Kentucky was the big surprise of the early signing period. Adebayo was considered a heavy lean to join travel teammate Dennis Smith at NC State, but instead chose the Wildcats, who came on very strong during the week after being quiet by Kentucky standards before the signing period.
Garrett Tucker: Seventh Woods got the early signing period off to an interesting start when he spurned home-state South Carolina for the North Carolina Tarheels. The general consensus was he would follow on the Under Armour trail from a UA-based travel team to the Gamecocks. However, he made his surprising commitment to UNC Wednesday morning. Frank Martin and South Carolina invested a lot of time into Woods’ recruitment, and many thought it would be a good day for them. Not so fast my friend! – Roy Williams gets a big commitment to go along with Brandon Robinson and Tony Bradley.
Corey Evans: It would have to be Malik Monk. I am not totally surprised that he committed to Kentucky at all, but the timing of it was a bit odd. Sure, he had taken his visits but Monk and his camp had been very silent leading up to his commitment on Wednesday. Out of nowhere, the Arkansas native decided to commit to Kentucky, which didn’t sit too well for the Razorback faithful. Regardless, fellow UK signee De’Aaron Fox had been adamant about teaming up with Monk, but a signing in the early period, that caught me off guard!