Haven't said much so wanted to give an update on what I have heard.

Last update was the Wilkinson update. Good get.

Since then, Blue and Dylan James both confirmed they were staying, however no surprise there.

As I was typing this Kanon Catchings literally just committed to us, lol what a late night announcement. The word had been good for us after he took a visit to UNC and did not commit there. Apparently I have been told it was something along the lines of a Hubert Davis issue. Heard it was anything from Huebert did not make him feel like a priority to he did not like Huebert as a coach and his recruitment of him, whatever it was, no need to speculate anymore as he has committed here and it is a good get! Kanon is a kid with great upside, has 1st round potential written all over him, uber athletic, skilled, is a great addition from the portal.

The next update is Derrion Reid. The former 5 start freshman from Dutchtown, GA played last year at Bama where he played in waves, battled some injuries here and there, but showed good potential and also an extreme athlete who can jump out the gym. The story behind Reid is long story short his mother forced him out of Bama. It sounds like he might have tried to stay another year, but his mom did not like Nate Oats and thought he should be playing more, and wants him close to home in Athens, both his parents especially his mom are DGDs. However, do not let this fool you, he is the same kid who very much almost committed to UGA out of HS, he was very torn on the choice to go to Bama. We offered him a mid 6 figure deal that I think Bama one upped us on in HS. I have heard NCST thrown around as someone who wants him bad and wants to spend the money, but do not have any confirmation on that. Take that situation as you will, regardless, there is a VERY good chance he will be a Georgia Bulldog soon. This would be an all time fumble from Mike White if he was not in Athens next season IMO.

Update on Somto- Good reason to believe that he will be returning soon. I would say 75-80% chance he is back. I would say in regards to Abson, he will be back on maybe a restructured NIL deal with a little pay bump. Those are predictions from what I am being told.

We still need a PG, it seems like we have fumbled and lost Malachi Smith, the PG from Dayton. He had a few calls with us but no real progress in our favor so far. A PG is a MUST get, and really the last 1 or 2 piece we need for this team.

Our roster looks like this:

PG- ?, Wilkinson, Key
SG- Blue, Bailey, Wilkinson, Key
SF- Catchings, Dylan James, Jacob Wilkins
PF- Reid (Going to log a prediction he commits), Kareem Stagg, James
C- Somto, Abson, Jackson McVey

We desperately need a PG and some depth pieces to help for sure. Look out for McVey to redshirt. Many more names will be circulating around as teams look to finalize their rosters, but overall, we are in an OK spot with potential to put ourselves in a spot to take a step forward again this year.

If they add Reid from Bama and a solid PG. then it's a tourney team.

Blue, Abson, Wilkinson, and Bailey are the only people who have proven they can perform and the value that they bring. Yes a lot of this roster looks like it is going to be building off potential flashed in previous seasons (Somto, James, Reid and Catchings) and guys who have not even had to chance to prove they can flash potential (McVey, Stagg, Wilkins, Key).

The reality is we know what we will get from Blue, Abson, Wilkinson, and Bailey. Regardless of what their numbers/stats "say", they are already coming into the offseason with carved out roles. These 4 you really will lead on for leadership, production, experience, very early on in the season and offseason practices.

These guys are safe bets, does not mean low ceiling high floor, but players Mike white can already start to craft his gameplan around.

Guys like Somto, James, Reid and Catchings, are guys that honestly have shown lots of potential and have some experience, some more than others, but have known areas they can provide value/cannot provide value and areas that are completely untapped/unknown as to what they can provide to us.

This is where Mike White will make or break this team. The hardest and most important part of this roster that the staff has to focus on if we want to succeed is those 4 guys. We need to develop them and find value in them for this team. Dylan James a little less than the rest, but the other 3 guys have genuine NBA level talent, and we HAVE HAVE HAVE to take advantage of this. These are the guys that will be the most swing and miss, but if Mike White and staff can develop this talent and really take advantage of the year (or two in Dylan James case) of experience they have, they will be able to not only mesh really well with the experienced, proven players, this team can be good. These guys have the most raw talent out of anyone else on the roster, just untapped fully yet.

The remaining 4 at the moment, Stagg, Wilkins, McVey, Key are going to have to fight and struggle for minutes. if I had to guess Stagg gets the most minutes freshman year, but Wilkins would not surprise me either. They can be plug and play, give a spark off the bench or a good run of minutes. Anything more than that, we are extremely happy for, and anything else, we have to understand they are unproved freshman. I think Key might get some minutes but I am not sure he is quite SEC caliber just yet, but the kid works really hard and you need that kind of heart in a program. McVey, sounds like it'll be a redshirt year or very limited burn.