THE KODI AUGUSTUS DEBACLE

[Razorback_Z71]

I just don't understand how our coaching staff could give out one of our two scholarships when they know we had a great chance on landing KA. I don't mean anthing bad on Nate, but Nate would have still been  available in February.    What an embarrassing mess.

[mossfan3]

If I was Kodi Arkansas wouldn't be on my list after this crap.  This is bush league.  Just this morning I was thrilled about getting this kid to commit.  Oh well, we did get Grant Cook and that is very good news

[firecampbell]

does anyone have a line on him?  i keep reading about him and i have no idea what he's done.

[The_Bionic_Pig]

Great we finally get a BB recruit out of TX and we screw it up!

Actually he is a Louisiana bred just relocated.....

[werehog]

Hell, Nate would still be available in May unless he took a scholly from A State or UCA.

[Highway Hog Sign]

Please tell him we're sorry for our coaches jerking his chain around.

[HotRodHog]

RG,
This is a risky hand Heath is playing between Anderson and Augustus. One that could result in us landing neither player. I tend to lean towards the bird-in-the-hand philosophy. My understanding is Augustus has several offers from quality schools and we were high on him until Anderson entered into the equation. If Stan doesn't get a commitment from Anderson within a week, I think this could well blow up in his face. So, what do you think? Should we go ahead and give Augustus the love he has shown us, or do you like Stan's plan to try and get Anderson? Is Anderson, in your opinion, really better than Augustus? Urghh

[HotRodHog]

Please tell him we're sorry for our coaches jerking his chain around.

Yeah, I heard that. Is there any character left in the coaching profession?

[Highway Hog Sign]

Please tell him we're sorry for our coaches jerking his chain around.

Yeah, I heard that. Is there any character left in the coaching profession?

I don't know if it's character as much as being too liberal with our schollie offers, (or incompetence, if you're really upset).  I'm just guessing here, but I don't think we were aware of where we stood with Augustus.  I think maybe the coaches were caught be surprise with his impending commitment and had to scramble to keep Augustus from publicly accepting a scholarship that we had earmarked for someone else.

If you're a glass-is-half-full kind of person, you'd take this as a sign that we're close to locking up Anderson.  Why else would we tell a coveted recruit to piss-off unless we knew we were about to get a player we wanted even more.  If you think our glass is half empty, you see this as complete ineptitude by our coaching staff and the beginning of the staff's unraveling in the recruiting world.

And, finally, I'd like for someone clear this up for me.  Only tell me if you know for sure: how many scholarships will we have to give in this class, 2 or 3?  Count Rakestraw as one and the coaches are holding a second open for Anderson.  So, is that it or is there a third?  If so, who are we holding that for and why didn't Augustus wind up with that one??  We know one thing, we have completely fallen off Augustus' radar, as we should have.  Rivals and Scouts both confirm that.

Just my two cents on this, I hope we do have a third and it's earmarked for Sanchez.  He's fallen off a bit in the eyes of Rivals and Scouts but this kid's a player.  Plus, I will always prefer homegrown talent to players from other states, (assuming talent is comparable).

[CarolinaHog1176]

anybody else who should be on the list?  my vote would have to be for vincent hunter.  supposedly has a good 3 point shot, but he can't make jack in games.... not really strong enough to bang down low, and as a result he's the most expendable IMO

[Cresthog]

Charles Thomas are you freaking serious? The hardest working player on the team? The only Hog on the floor that plays with a tremendous amount of intensity? How about Cranford...or someone else who never plays and has a schollie being wasted on them.

[UnionChristian#3]

I agree with Hunter. McGowan still has a chance to be a dominate rebounder and defensive presence. Charles Thomas could be a 18 and 10 guy next year. But what does Hunter really give us that we cant get in the fowards we have or in Kodi Aug.? I really dont think Hunter is that good of a player. He has his moments, but i wouldnt mind if they let him go.

[Cresthog]

Sammy Munsey? Luke Allen? Preston Cranford?

Is Cranford the only one on schollie with this group?

[hogsmaster]

I definitely agree that Cranford as the most logical choice.  He is on scholarship, but haven't played any meaningful minutes since he enrolled.

[UnionChristian#3]

Cranfords scholly is included in the 2 available for next year. So its the 3rd one we are debating about.

Nate, James, and hopefully Kodi will be our 2007 recruiting class. Then our team will be...

PG-Ervin, McCurdy
SG- Welsh, Beverly, Nate
SF-Weems, Anderson
PF-Thomas, Kodi A., Washington
C- Hill, Townes, McGowan

[HotRodHog]

On Sanchez - Prob will wait a year and attend a prep school to rehab some nagging physical problems. On the rest, I am not sure.

[Jim Harris]

Here is what I got to say about this and have posted this on another topic.

All I got to say is Nate better be one helluva player because we have lost out on Augustus! On top of that we have hurt recruiting ties into Texas and with the AAU coach that coached Kodi's team.

Please tell us more about what you know & how you know it?

I don't know anymore than what I have heard on the radio and read. It seems kinda like common sense that the kid was ready to commit and we tell him we don't want him that he would be highly pissed. Dawson or who ever the hell was on Sportsrap today says his AAU coach is very upset and that there are feelings hurt. They are saying though that Arkansas is still in it but that they have moved way down his list. The bridges that have been burnt today would have to be rebuilt before we could get him now. I gotta say though, if it was me that this had happened to and if they where to come back after me I would flip them the bird and tell them where they could go.

Great, we're burning bridges in Texas.

Wonderful.

If a top 100 player wants to come to Arkansas, TAKE HIM!

He plays at a need position.

Only thing i can think of is that we are waiting for James Anderson.

But we took Rakestraw over Augustus?

Dudley told Heath he just had to have Rakestraw.

[leavenworth1]

Would a coach really pull a schollie from a Junior/Senior, like Vincent Hunter?  Did Nolan ever do that?

[hogfan33]

Hopefully no one already on scholarship, other than cranford, has to "get the axe". I would hope they could get rakestraw, if he really wants to be a hog, to walk-on for a year adn then go from there

[mtownhog]

heath loves vincent hunter, if he took a schollie away it would be from someone in his doghouse like townes

[The_Bionic_Pig]

Numbers always find a way to work themselves out.... 

[thahawg]

None of those guys are getting the axe because Heath didn't let Kodi commit.

[The real Hogules]

Hunter, McGowan, Thomas, are you serious?
The player that contributed the least (of the returning players), IMHO is McCurdy.
Yes, I know he was injured before he arrived and missed most of his Sr. year of basketball, but he produced less positive stats than any of the returners.
I'm not saying cut McCurdy, but the three you've mentioned make absolutely NO sense to me.
Maybe a soph-Jr. will ask for a release to go someplace else and start and play lots of minutes, as opposed to being burried on the Razorbacks depth chart.

[Nutts and Bolts]

Thomas is going to be a starter and you think he is a possible scollie pull? Where have ya been son?

[Cresthog]

Thomas is a beast and my favorite current Razorback. He plays with emotion and his heart right on his sleeve. There is no way his schollie would ever get pulled. I dont know that much about this situation but i do know that Nate has one schollie and we want Anderson a lot more than we do Augustus. IMO we should have waited for NR and given his schollie to KA. NR could walk on if he really wanted to be a hog, but our main focus is Mr. Anderson.

[hog caller]

thermon nandn muncie would be my guess

[jkcrunch]

Call me crazy but you all saw this years draft if Hill or Townes improves the other half of their games they will be talked about as potential draftees.   Hill can get 10 pts 10 boards 4 blocks a game this year the scout will look at him and he may get drafted based on potential, you can not coach 7 ft tall.   Townes get to double digit boards and maintains his scoring presence and finds 4 or so blocks a game then he too could get some looks but he has to toughen up both physically and emotionally, put Thomas' heart in that body and he would have been a number one pick

[wrightobe]

Would a coach really pull a schollie from a Junior/Senior, like Vincent Hunter?  Did Nolan ever do that?

No way would they do that, and no Nolan Richardson did not do that.

Some might transfer, etc, but actually take a scholarship, and say "butt out", No.

[bigred7987]

By NCAA rules you are not allowed to pull a scholarship for poor performance.  Now you can tell them they wont play another minute and influence them to transfer or change how much scholarship money they get

[pioneerhog]

Like Stewie said, These number things always have a way to work themselves out.

[outlawhogeywells]

this is why you should never have offered Rakestraw this early......
You could have gotten Rakestraw on the last of of signing
No one else was going to take him...
In my opinion a very poor choice for Heath to offer him this early with Anderson and now it seems Augustus out there....

[yraciv]

RG,
This is a risky hand Heath is playing between Anderson and Augustus. One that could result in us landing neither player. I tend to lean towards the bird-in-the-hand philosophy. My understanding is Augustus has several offers from quality schools and we were high on him until Anderson entered into the equation. If Stan doesn't get a commitment from Anderson within a week, I think this could well blow up in his face. So, what do you think? Should we go ahead and give Augustus the love he has shown us, or do you like Stan's plan to try and get Anderson? Is Anderson, in your opinion, really better than Augustus? Urghh

Anderson is easily better then this guy, and one of the top rising players. I'm one of Rakestraw's biggest supporters, but I would have rather had Augustus.  Don't know what Heath is doing there, but with his recruiting past I trust him on Anderson.

[yraciv]

Please tell him we're sorry for our coaches jerking his chain around.

Yeah, I heard that. Is there any character left in the coaching profession?

I don't know if it's character as much as being too liberal with our schollie offers, (or incompetence, if you're really upset).  I'm just guessing here, but I don't think we were aware of where we stood with Augustus.  I think maybe the coaches were caught be surprise with his impending commitment and had to scramble to keep Augustus from publicly accepting a scholarship that we had earmarked for someone else.

If you're a glass-is-half-full kind of person, you'd take this as a sign that we're close to locking up Anderson.  Why else would we tell a coveted recruit to piss-off unless we knew we were about to get a player we wanted even more.  If you think our glass is half empty, you see this as complete ineptitude by our coaching staff and the beginning of the staff's unraveling in the recruiting world.

And, finally, I'd like for someone clear this up for me.  Only tell me if you know for sure: how many scholarships will we have to give in this class, 2 or 3?  Count Rakestraw as one and the coaches are holding a second open for Anderson.  So, is that it or is there a third?  If so, who are we holding that for and why didn't Augustus wind up with that one??  We know one thing, we have completely fallen off Augustus' radar, as we should have.  Rivals and Scouts both confirm that.

Just my two cents on this, I hope we do have a third and it's earmarked for Sanchez.  He's fallen off a bit in the eyes of Rivals and Scouts but this kid's a player.  Plus, I will always prefer homegrown talent to players from other states, (assuming talent is comparable).

Sanchez is strongly considering prep school next year, and I think his fall off has been due to his injury.

[mtownhog]

Call me crazy but you all saw this years draft if Hill or Townes improves the other half of their games they will be talked about as potential draftees.   Hill can get 10 pts 10 boards 4 blocks a game this year the scout will look at him and he may get drafted based on potential, you can not coach 7 ft tall.   Townes get to double digit boards and maintains his scoring presence and finds 4 or so blocks a game then he too could get some looks but he has to toughen up both physically and emotionally, put Thomas' heart in that body and he would have been a number one pick

i think hill could be talked about as a possible draft pick next year.  its a lot easier for a big man to learn how  to play offense then defense.

[CarolinaHog1176]

there was actually only one that I could think of getting the axe, and that's v. hunter.  cranford's on an academic scholarship, is he not?  if you can only have 13 scholarship players, then he couldn't be on a basketball scholaship (we've got ervin, mccurdy, hunter, townes, mcgown, thomas, hill = 7... + 4 incoming recruits = 11... so that leaves us with 2 scholarships to offer).

SH and the staff aren't going to cut mccurdy loose just because he didn't perform very well last year.  he was coming off of injury... if that's the case then olu would've been cut after his first year.

and I don't think it really matters to a d1 head coach what year you are... I can't imagine them cutting someone like r. sulivan before last year (his SR. year) and keeping v. hunter?  who helped our team more?  POTENTIALLY I see an upside to v. hunter, but if I had to pick one person on scholarship to get it pulled so that we could sign 3 instead of 2, it would be him

[Hawgballz]

Offically we have 1 scholarship available for 2007 and that is Brewer's, but we also have Preston Cranford's which he has offered to give back if it is needed, so realistically we have 2 scholarships for 2007.  We have a commitment from Rakestraw for one of them, so that leaves 1 scholarship if we pull Cranford's.  First and foremost I want to make it clear that I am glad we have Rakestraw committed to the program, but with that said I have to wonder where the program got lost in the recruitment of Kodi Augustus.  Did we not know that he was as interested as he was or did we think we had lost out on Jason Anderson & then at the last moment did Anderson give us hope again or did we offer Rakestraw way too early in an effort to not end up with "Zack Pianalto egg on our face"?  I certainly hope that we are getting ready to hear some really great news from Jason Anderson, because I would be very disappointed to find out that we had a Top 100 player ready to commit and didn't even realize it, but either way I think it is obvious that we offered Rakestraw a little earlier than we had to or should have.

[Hawgballz]

At this point it is mute as KA was not allowed to commit and I do not believe he will come now even if he was re-offered.  Preston Cranford's scholarship will have to be pulled in order for us to have 2 for 2007 (Nate Rakestraw and hopefully Jason Anderson).  None of the remaining players will have their scollies pulled or be "pushed from the program", if that was going to happen Stan would have gladly accepted KA's commitment.

[HogFanLR]

this is why you should never have offered Rakestraw this early......
You could have gotten Rakestraw on the last of of signing
No one else was going to take him...
In my opinion a very poor choice for Heath to offer him this early with Anderson and now it seems Augustus out there....

Not a good idea to talk about a recruit.  And the info I hear is Nate has blown up in the rankings because of his AAU play and was about to get or already had an offer from Tennessee as well as a few others. 

As I understand it Kodi was wanting to committ earlier in the summer and the coaches told him to hold off.  Then tries to committ again and the coaches had to make a choice.  Accept Kodi and have a severe number problem with some other recruits or go for Anderson, Dar or some other higher profile committ. 

And back to Nate....He is a hog and be glad of it.   

[SultanofSwine]

IF KA is as good as advertised then we stuff in our nest pure and simple.

[Tomhog™]

IF KA is as good as advertised then we stuff in our nest pure and simple.

That's one way to put it... 

[98hogs]

Thomas gets my Eric Poerske award if anyone remebrs what that was all about!

[mountainhog]

Maybe someones family who can afford it , will voluntarily give up their schollie.

[Hoggle]

Would a coach really pull a schollie from a Junior/Senior, like Vincent Hunter?  Did Nolan ever do that?

No way would they do that, and no Nolan Richardson did not do that.

Some might transfer, etc, but actually take a scholarship, and say "butt out", No.

Nolan did it all the time.  Nolan coined the term "the numbers will work themselves out."  He ran a TON of people off.  Antwain Hall???  Larry Marks???  Plenty of Eddie's recruits.  I not sure of the details, but I would be willing to bet that Nolan did it way more than Stan.

[wrightobe]

Would a coach really pull a schollie from a Junior/Senior, like Vincent Hunter?  Did Nolan ever do that?

No way would they do that, and no Nolan Richardson did not do that.

Some might transfer, etc, but actually take a scholarship, and say "butt out", No.

Nolan did it all the time.  Nolan coined the term "the numbers will work themselves out."  He ran a TON of people off.  Antwain Hall???  Larry Marks???  Plenty of Eddie's recruits.  I not sure of the details, but I would be willing to bet that Nolan did it way more than Stan.

That question came up when it was suggested that Notes Richardson was trying to run off the kid from Mountain View, I believe it was, who eventually transferred to what is now Missouri State in Springfield, Mo., and Nolan was quoted that "we do not ask kids to give up their scholarship".

[vbgonz46]

get rid of hunter, and cranford,, do whats best for the program..  Sign Anderson, Augustus, & Rakestraw.

[hogsmaster]

By NCAA rules you are not allowed to pull a scholarship for poor performance.  Now you can tell them they wont play another minute and influence them to transfer or change how much scholarship money they get

I may be wrong, but I thought a player' scholarship, whether it is BB, FB, or whatever, is on a year by year basis.  While it may not be a good PR move, but a school has the right to not renew it.  I am certain that Rick Pitino did that to a player at Kentucky one year.

[Foshodo]

so what? the only player we have smart enough to get an academic Scholly is Preston?.... thats kind of sad.

[hogsmaster]

Since the communication mix-up last week, how likely is he to still end up as a hog?

[GrizzledHogFan]

There's exactly a 67.83% chance.

[The real Hogules]

We have about as much of a chance of landing Kodi Augustus as a snowball does in Hades.
And that's probably even a little on the optimistic side.
Stick a fork in us, we're done.