Florida guard Riley Kugel, (possibly) commited to the Cowbells.......we'll see.....

From Tuscon.com….


“Former Florida guard Riley Kugel says Arizona is one of four schools he's considering transferring to, along with UConn, Houston and Kansas.


However, the Wildcats are not believed to be recruiting Kugel, an all-freshman SEC pick in 2022-23 “

Source may not know what team is doing but they did report this today

 

I agree with you but I'm wondering what other teams might have promised him.

 

Dang. Great post. I didn't know about almost any of that. Thanks.

 

lol. The obligatory out of left field dig at Mike White. Nembhard was already a fringe 2nd round draft pick before he transferred. Yes, he was going pro under Mike White, just like Tre Mann did.

 

I suspect this is an NIL tactic. Feign interests from other larger schools to try to leverage a bigger NIL for yourself.

Coaches do the same thing through agents. (And by agents I mainly mean Sexton) When contract negotiations come around, its not uncommon to hear rumors of the same coach negotiating getting interest from some other school. This is usually a deliberate rumor started by the agent to attempt to have more leverage in the negotiations. A great example of this was FSU Norvell's "interest" from Alabama this past cycle. I suspect Alabama never considered him, but instead that was just a straight rumor started by Sexton for contract negotiation leverage.

So I suspect we'll see more of this and this is what Kugel is doing.

 

As I said… I don’t think Riley will end up at any one of those schools.

 

it would make more sense.

 

What is your point, then?

 

I would say that it’s a given that Nembhard would not have had a great college career if he had stayed at UF.

 

He's considering them, sure, but are they considering HIM?

 

Talent is more than just athleticism. RK was a below-average ballhandler and shooter. And way below-average basketball IQ.

 

I don't think so. How much better was he really at Gonzaga for you to say it's a given?

2018-2019 Florida 8.0 ppg / 5.4 apg / 2.9 reb
2019-2020 Florida 11.2 ppg / 5.6 apg / 3.0 reb
2020-2021 Gonzaga 9.2 ppg / 4.4 apg / 2.4 reb
2021-2022 Gonzaga 11.8 ppg / 5.8 apg / 3.4 reb

 

For RK's future success, I hope he ends up at Houston. I think Sampson and his coaches specializes in the atheletic type players

 

Of all those players who I want to keep and agree we have got to keep, Aberdeen is the one I worry about. I guess it may boil down to what he hears from CTG about the plan to replace ZP.

 

He will be back.

 

I'm not as keen on the individual players potential, strengths and weaknesses as the more savvy members are but given the reports of his work ethic in practice and witnessing his effort and physical ability on the court I can see him making a huge jump next year. Would live to see it happen.

 

I was hoping Aberdeen would claim his spot early when Pullin was out, but he struggled offensively. Glad to see him get minutes late, when he looked good on both ends. He reminds me of a typical Pearl-Auburn guard: physical, athletic, versatile defender who can get to the rim and get out in transition.

I don’t necessarily see him running the offense, but he could easily fill the role Kugel eventually had coming off the bench as a multi position defender and secondary ball handler. In that case, we still need a point guard.

 

The handwriting was on the wall wrt Kugel.

 

I was happy to see Aberdeen's sophomore jump start to show up in the last few weeks. I was beginning to think it was never going to happen for him.

 

His 4 programs of stated interest would likely have no interest in him after watching his tape. Connecticut, Houston, Kansas and Arizona. I thought he was going to transfer somewhere for playing time. LOL