Good morning subscribers.
As I type this message at 3:46 am awaiting the snow to start falling here in Midlothian, VA; my house is quiet. Both of my daughters are asleep in their beds. My wife may or may not be snoring and I am awake. WIDE AWAKE. All because of Zion Williamson. I woke up at 3:11 am and was actually having a dream about Williamson at his press conference.
Pathetic, right?
The majority of my THI work this week has been behind the scenes. Texting sources. Talking to people close to many of the programs involved with the 6-foot-6 freak of nature who is as big as he is explosive. I have an article I should've finished last night and sent over for publishing, but I've been all about Zion this week.
(Below is a photo I took of Williamson in June of 2016 at the NBA Top 100 camp before he was a famous nationally-known high school sensation)
For those who don't know, THI isn't a full-time job for me. I am in medical sales. I travel around to doctor's offices, hospitals and skilled nursing/rehab centers working with doctors, practioners, medical assistants and social workers/case managers. I am constantly in and out of my car, chasing home health business. So during my down time, waiting for a nurse to come out and give me paperwork on a patient, I am texting people in my network about these basketball prospects that I cover. Sometimes, I will have a 30-35 minute drive and I'll spend the entire drive talking to a recruit, a parent, an AAU or college coach. Or another recruiting writer, who happens to be closer to another program. And I am on this message board more than any grown man should ever admit.
It's a labor of love and something that I've been passionate about since I was 16-17 years old. Simply put, I've always been a recruitnik.
I've now been in the business for over 20-years and while I am still quite fortunate to have a full head of hair, at 43-years old, it ain't all brown anymore. Some of the white hairs now mixed in are due to covering some of these five-star recruits.
This week has been all about chasing Zion Williamson intel and I wanted to post this message to give an update on what we've uncovered this week, albeit still with a lot of fluid situations.
The Spartanburg, SC senior will make his decision later this week on the 20th. And last week, I polled seven very trusted sources; five of them picked Clemson and two were still holding strong with Kentucky. But every one of them, when pressed, wasn't quite sure that they'd be right. They're all merely reading the tea leaves as we all do in this industry from time to time.
(Man reading tea leaves)
Having the experience in the recruiting media has allowed me to make a lot of life long connections with people across the country and they've been invaluable to helping me over the years. And many times, several of us in the media may know about a kid's decision long before the announcement is made.
THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH ZION.
I cannot stress this enough. Everyone who is following this recruitment, including practically our entire staff: Deana King, Andrew Jones, Rob Jones and Jarrod Hardy, has certainly helped the site cover this recruitment. I am fortunate that THI has a great staff.
The buzz over the past month with the athletic phenom has been that Clemson may be the leader. Little chance was given to Duke, North Carolina or South Carolina. My best Kentucky source told me last week that his confidence that John Calipari would land Williamson had gone down over the previous two weeks. ESPN's Paul Biancardi, came out with a Gamecock prediction earlier this week, making him the first credible media person to lend chances to Frank Martin's program. If I am to be honest, I have heard nothing to lend credibility to his selection over the last six months to a year, so if Zion does indeed pick South Carolina; someone should buy Paul a beer. Or maybe four beers.
Earlier this week, I spoke with our publisher, Andrew Jones, and he had a conversation with Deana King, who is on our staff. And for those who know Deana, they love her. Not just due to her genuine, compassionate love for the kids that she covers or her infamous North Cackalacky twang, but she can really dig up some good intel sometimes. Especially with kids in her region; football and basketball.
She had been hearing some pro-UNC rumblings and whispers. And to be completely transparent; I had not heard any of it. But since she's uncovered good stuff in the past, I would be an idiot not to fully vet out any intel leads from her.
So throughout the earlier part of the week, I got to sniffing out everything I could. I learned that Roy Williams was planning to go see Zion and his family this week for one last in-home visit. I also learned that Duke and Clemson were going back in this week as well. And Mike Krzyzewski and Nate James visited him on Tuesday. There has been another report that Frank Martin will be going in one last time as well, but I haven't personally confirmed that.
In what we've been able to extract from some of our sources, the UNC staff hasn't been given the impression that Clemson is the leader, and Roy Williams, as he always does, continues to fight until the end.
The Williamson camp has not only done a marvelous job of keeping the media, such as myself, on an investigative reporting hunt, but the college coaches are also right there beside us.
To our knowledge, no staff has been told that they've won the signature of Zion, but there are some potentially valid whispers that UNC has a better chance that many of us have given them.
Last night, before I fell asleep, one of those original seven sources told me that he believed UNC is one of Zion's top two schools. Could that intel be valid? It may. It may also be manufactured suspense as well. Sometimes we don't know until it's over. But I did want to share what I was told.
Now I'm not saying slide all of your poker chips over to the Tar Heels on this one, but maybe we should say that Williams and his staff have a better chance here than anyone is giving them credit for.
Or maybe it'll be Clemson in the end, as so many of my sources feel it will be. There's definitely a 100-percent chance of more white hairs in 2018 for this recruiting reporter though. But hell, I love this stuff.
This is fun, right?
As I type this message at 3:46 am awaiting the snow to start falling here in Midlothian, VA; my house is quiet. Both of my daughters are asleep in their beds. My wife may or may not be snoring and I am awake. WIDE AWAKE. All because of Zion Williamson. I woke up at 3:11 am and was actually having a dream about Williamson at his press conference.
Pathetic, right?
The majority of my THI work this week has been behind the scenes. Texting sources. Talking to people close to many of the programs involved with the 6-foot-6 freak of nature who is as big as he is explosive. I have an article I should've finished last night and sent over for publishing, but I've been all about Zion this week.
(Below is a photo I took of Williamson in June of 2016 at the NBA Top 100 camp before he was a famous nationally-known high school sensation)
For those who don't know, THI isn't a full-time job for me. I am in medical sales. I travel around to doctor's offices, hospitals and skilled nursing/rehab centers working with doctors, practioners, medical assistants and social workers/case managers. I am constantly in and out of my car, chasing home health business. So during my down time, waiting for a nurse to come out and give me paperwork on a patient, I am texting people in my network about these basketball prospects that I cover. Sometimes, I will have a 30-35 minute drive and I'll spend the entire drive talking to a recruit, a parent, an AAU or college coach. Or another recruiting writer, who happens to be closer to another program. And I am on this message board more than any grown man should ever admit.
It's a labor of love and something that I've been passionate about since I was 16-17 years old. Simply put, I've always been a recruitnik.
I've now been in the business for over 20-years and while I am still quite fortunate to have a full head of hair, at 43-years old, it ain't all brown anymore. Some of the white hairs now mixed in are due to covering some of these five-star recruits.
This week has been all about chasing Zion Williamson intel and I wanted to post this message to give an update on what we've uncovered this week, albeit still with a lot of fluid situations.
The Spartanburg, SC senior will make his decision later this week on the 20th. And last week, I polled seven very trusted sources; five of them picked Clemson and two were still holding strong with Kentucky. But every one of them, when pressed, wasn't quite sure that they'd be right. They're all merely reading the tea leaves as we all do in this industry from time to time.
(Man reading tea leaves)
Having the experience in the recruiting media has allowed me to make a lot of life long connections with people across the country and they've been invaluable to helping me over the years. And many times, several of us in the media may know about a kid's decision long before the announcement is made.
THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH ZION.
I cannot stress this enough. Everyone who is following this recruitment, including practically our entire staff: Deana King, Andrew Jones, Rob Jones and Jarrod Hardy, has certainly helped the site cover this recruitment. I am fortunate that THI has a great staff.
The buzz over the past month with the athletic phenom has been that Clemson may be the leader. Little chance was given to Duke, North Carolina or South Carolina. My best Kentucky source told me last week that his confidence that John Calipari would land Williamson had gone down over the previous two weeks. ESPN's Paul Biancardi, came out with a Gamecock prediction earlier this week, making him the first credible media person to lend chances to Frank Martin's program. If I am to be honest, I have heard nothing to lend credibility to his selection over the last six months to a year, so if Zion does indeed pick South Carolina; someone should buy Paul a beer. Or maybe four beers.
Earlier this week, I spoke with our publisher, Andrew Jones, and he had a conversation with Deana King, who is on our staff. And for those who know Deana, they love her. Not just due to her genuine, compassionate love for the kids that she covers or her infamous North Cackalacky twang, but she can really dig up some good intel sometimes. Especially with kids in her region; football and basketball.
She had been hearing some pro-UNC rumblings and whispers. And to be completely transparent; I had not heard any of it. But since she's uncovered good stuff in the past, I would be an idiot not to fully vet out any intel leads from her.
So throughout the earlier part of the week, I got to sniffing out everything I could. I learned that Roy Williams was planning to go see Zion and his family this week for one last in-home visit. I also learned that Duke and Clemson were going back in this week as well. And Mike Krzyzewski and Nate James visited him on Tuesday. There has been another report that Frank Martin will be going in one last time as well, but I haven't personally confirmed that.
In what we've been able to extract from some of our sources, the UNC staff hasn't been given the impression that Clemson is the leader, and Roy Williams, as he always does, continues to fight until the end.
The Williamson camp has not only done a marvelous job of keeping the media, such as myself, on an investigative reporting hunt, but the college coaches are also right there beside us.
To our knowledge, no staff has been told that they've won the signature of Zion, but there are some potentially valid whispers that UNC has a better chance that many of us have given them.
Last night, before I fell asleep, one of those original seven sources told me that he believed UNC is one of Zion's top two schools. Could that intel be valid? It may. It may also be manufactured suspense as well. Sometimes we don't know until it's over. But I did want to share what I was told.
Now I'm not saying slide all of your poker chips over to the Tar Heels on this one, but maybe we should say that Williams and his staff have a better chance here than anyone is giving them credit for.
Or maybe it'll be Clemson in the end, as so many of my sources feel it will be. There's definitely a 100-percent chance of more white hairs in 2018 for this recruiting reporter though. But hell, I love this stuff.
This is fun, right?
