Eric Davis and Kerwin Roach JR

[utisdabomb12]

The new ESPN basketball recruiting rankings are out. 

Davis is the #45 player in the country and Roach is the #34 player in the country. 

Davis is criminally underrated. I haven't been this excited about a recruit, including Myles Turner. Texas hasn't had a scorer in several years, and Davis can flat out score. 

 

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[MikeV73]

Where did Mack rank in the latest list? Hope Shaka can reel him in as well.

 

[Chris Flanagan]

247Sports has Mack at 51 but all three players are similar types. 3-4 year players who can contribute in their freshman year.

How much? I don't know.

 

[MikeV73]

Wonder if Barnett will put it together next season. Maybe the coaching change will be good for his game. Is his style considered similar to the guys above?

 

[utisdabomb12]

Wonder if Barnett will put it together next season. Maybe the coaching change will be good for his game. Is his style considered similar to the guys above?

All fairly different IMO. 

Davis is a scorer. Likes to shoot on the perimeter/mid range more than take it to the basket (he can drive though). Not the most athletic player but is crafty. He's a combo guard but IMO is best utilized on the wing. Reminds me a bit of AJ Abrams. 

Roach is a completely different mold. Roach is more athletic and likes to take the ball to the rim. Roach reminds me a ton of a younger Russell Westbrook. Roach is better on the ball, more of a PG instead of a wing. 

I'm interested to see what another year in the weight room does for Barnett. I think he actually ends up being more of small forward similar to Holmes in his JR and SO years. IMO he's best utilized where you let him use his athleticism on the boards and quickness near the low block. I can see Barnett on the perimeter/wing though. Barnett is one of those tweeners where it's going to depend on his weight and/or ability to hit a jumper on where he plays. 

Mack is a SG/SF. His game isn't similar at all to the above 3 players. Mack's idol is Durant and his game is pretty similar to Durant. 

I agree that they are probably all 3 to 4 year types. 

 

[coolhorn]

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Smart does with this talent.  I don't expect UT to look like his old team exactly, but I also don't expect UT to look much like they did under Barnes.  I think it's gonna be instructive what Smart does with the "bigs" this coming season, especially as it applies to recruiting the big players going forward.  I'd love, if nothing else, to see Smart and UT become a major pain in the butt to KU and Self.