He committed over the weekend, but Jalen Harris to the Lobos didn’t become official until yesterday, when he put ink to paper and – more importantly – announced his signing on Twitter. The point guard out of Word of God Christian Academy in North Carolina takes up the last available scholarship and should help fill the void left by Cullen Neal’s transfer to Ole Miss. By the sounds of it, he’s a quick, pass-first point guard who is willing to score when needed, which sounds like a great fit for the Lobos. With those abilities, if he can get up to speed quickly, he should see plenty of action next season. So, what does his signing mean to the team as a whole?
There’s Competition for the Starting PG Spot
It was pretty clear that Coach Neal was going to bring in another point guard once Cullen transferred, but it was unclear what route he was going to take to do it. There were certainly arguments to make for bringing in a graduate transfer or a junior college transfer who would have likely slid into the starting role to give Jordan Hunter a little more time to develop before handing him the reins. In my opinion, that Noodles didn’t go in that direction shows how confident he is in Jordan’s abilities to run the team.
Instead, they decided to find an available incoming freshman who can be here for four years and develop in the program. That was risky in itself, as at this point in the process, the pickings are a little slim. Most of the players who are unsigned at this point are unsigned for a reason. However, there are a few guys out there who had committed elsewhere previously and – whether it was because the coach they committed to left or because they felt like their heart just wasn’t with that school anymore for whatever reason – had since reopened their recruiting. The Lobos have lucked out before with this sort of thing, when Sam Logwood became a really late commit a couple of years ago, and it looks like they lucked out again. By all accounts, Jalen seems like the sort of player we would have been excited about signing in the fall and, given that we really needed someone like him, are ecstatic about signing now.
So, that means that the Lobos are bringing in a capable freshman point guard next year with only a sophomore standing in his way for the starting role. To me, that indicates that we’ll see a real battle for a spot in the starting lineup between the two JH’s this summer and fall. Now, I think that Jordan certainly has the inside track, and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what he will do with more playing time, but that he actually has some competition now makes me feel much more comfortable about the position than I did a few weeks ago.
The Roster is (Probably) Set
Barring an unexpected transfer or the addition of a walk-on, we now know what the Lobos will look like next year:
Guards: Jordan Hunter, Elijah Brown, Jalen Harris, Anthony Mathis, Damien Jefferson
Wings: Sam Logwood, Xavier Adams, Dane Kuiper, Aher Uguak
Posts: Tim Williams, Obij Ajet, Joe Furstinger, Connor MacDougall
That’s a pretty good-looking team! It’s got some size, shooting, ball-handling, and the potential to be good defensively. The real question with this team is how much of a step forward are all of the young players going to take? We know that the team has a couple of stars in EB and Tim, but as we saw this year, that’s not enough by itself. I think that there are a few guys who are likely candidates to take a leap (which is probably better served for a different post), so if we seem them do that, it could be a really fun season next year.
Some Big Recruits Next Year
And I mean that literally. Of the four posts on the team, two of them are seniors. That’s going to leave Joe and Connor as the only two big men on the roster after this year, which obviously isn’t ideal. That means that we’ll likely hear the Lobos connected to a bunch of power forwards and centers that would come in for the 2017-18 season. Because coaches now have to basically expect to fill a couple of extra slots each year, I’m sure that we’ll also hear a few other names bandied about, but going in to this upcoming recruiting class, it’s clear that posts are going to be the priority.