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2023 PG Simeon Wilcher -> UNC->St John

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millerhusker
millerhusker

I don't mean to start a rumor, but this morning Robin Washut talked about how the 2022 recruiting class will shake out. Said the only 2022 recruits we're after now are Traudt and Green. Mentioned tran

hhcmatt
hhcmatt

That's our jam!

hhcmatt
hhcmatt

Whichever one says yes first

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fred1212

fred1212

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Article...

 

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N.J. basketball star turns down big money to stay in high school

Boys Basketball: No.7 Roselle Catholic defeats No.9 Elizabeth 63-50.

Roselle Catholic's Simeon Wilcher (4) looks to get past Elizabeth's Evan Perez (2) during the boys basketball game at Roselle Catholic High School on 2/26/21.Tom Horak | For NJ Advance Media

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Simeon Wilcher, a Plainfield native and rising junior guard at Roselle Catholic, is only 17 years old, but he already has turned down a high-six-figure offer to play professional basketball for the next two years with the fledgling Overtime Elite League based in Atlanta, his father said.

 

“The Overtime Elite thing, it sounds amazing,” Wilcher said Monday by phone. “It sounds like some stuff where if you take it serious, you could become whatever you were looking forward to being.”

 
 

Wilcher — 6-foot-5 and 185 pounds — is ranked the No. 2 combo guard nationally in the Class of 2023 by 247Sports.com, and holds scholarship offers from Kansas, Syracuse, UConn, Oklahoma State, Memphis, Illinois, Oregon, UCLA, Iowa and Auburn, among others. Last month, he helped lead his NY Rens to the semifinals of the prestigious Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C., with a slew of high-major coaches watching.

 
 

Wilcher ultimately looks forward to playing in the NBA. But for now, he and his family have decided that college is his best path toward that goal — and so they said thanks, but no thanks, to Brandon Williams, Overtime Elite’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations.

 
 

“I told them no. They’re still going to try to get me to say yeah, but I’m not changing my mind,” said Sergio Wilcher, who has four sons, including, C.J. Wilcher, a 6-5 freshman guard at Nebraska, and Simeon.

 
 

He added of Simeon: “He’s still a child, a 17-year-old junior, and you’re still learning how to navigate life in itself, all the way around. Last year, we weren’t having dating conversations, now it’s a topic of conversation. ... Yes, I do believe my kids are going to play basketball for money, so you have to have a different type of sense of who you are before you go in the world. You have to learn how to say no because you can’t spread yourself too thin. You have people who are trying to professionally get at you and take what you have and take advantage of that situation.”

 
 

WHAT IS OVERTIME ELITE?

 
 

Announced in March, Overtime Elite initially raised $140 million in funding from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Canadian hip hop star Drake and more than 25 current and former NBA players, including Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony.

 
 

The pro league — aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds — was an outgrowth of Overtime, which was founded in 2016 and distributes original sports content to an audience of nearly 50 million followers across its social media platforms. The company, which has more than 125 employees, said in April its programming is viewed more than 14 billion times a year.

 
 

After a slow start, Overtime Elite has signed 15 players from the U.S. and overseas for its inaugural season in 2021-22, most recently including Bryce Griggs, a a 6-foot-2 Class of 2022 point guard from Missouri City, Texas.

 
 

In April, the league hired former UConn coach Kevin Ollie as its head coach and in May, Overtime announced it is constructing a 103,000-square-foot complex in Atlanta, where prep players will train, study and compete. Overtime is building a school that it says will have a 4-to-1 teacher-to-student ratio and will focus on professional skill training, like financial literacy and social media education.

 
 

“The platform is great, I’m about everything they’re doing,” Sergio Wilcher said. “The reason they’re doing it, it makes sense. They’re talking about giving kids development and making them ready [for the pros].”

 
 

The league says in its releases that “every Overtime player will earn a six-figure salary, with a guaranteed minimum salary of at least $100,000 per year, plus bonuses and shares of equity in Overtime. In addition, players will participate in revenue from use of their name, image and likeness, including through sales of custom jerseys, trading cards, video games and NFTs.”

 
 

The offer to Wilcher was originally in the mid-six-figures before Overtime upped it to the high-six-figures, excluding the bonuses and equity, his father said.

 
 

The NBA G League, which is separate from Overtime and has not yet offered Wilcher, also has made waves in the last year or so by signing several top high school stars to six-figure deals for its NBA pathway. For instance, former Patrick School star Jonathan Kuminga, who became the No. 7 pick in last month’s NBA Draft, has been excelling for the Golden State Warriors in NBA Summer League.

 
 

“With the G League stuff, I feel like that’s very beneficial for guys,” Simeon Wilcher said. “With Jonathan, you can see he changed from where he was playing against us junior year of high school [during the 2019-20 season] and now what he’s doing in the Summer League.”

 
 

‘I NEED A LITTLE BIT MORE TIME’

 
 

Simeon Wilcher said his family turned down Overtime for several reasons.

 
 

First, Simeon wants to enjoy the remainder of his high school experience, which will include going to the prom (he picked out his suit in the sixth grade) and potentially playing in the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2023.

 
 

“Stuff like that matters. I know my family wants to see me walk across that stage in senior year when I graduate,” Simeon said. “Just doing regular high-school teenage things, those experiences matter and you can never get them back.”

 
 

He added that he’s not quite ready to leave home and live the life of a professional — no matter the money involved.

 
 

“I feel like I would do well in the [Overtime] situation, I just feel like I need a little bit more time before I can really put myself out there like that,” he said. “When you sign things like that, it goes straight from childhood to you’re a man. Now you’ve got to deal with all different aspects that come with dealing with that type of money and not only being away from home because you’re going to have to be away from home sooner or later. But you still have things you have to learn and grow before you can make a step like that.”

 
 

Second, due to the new name, image and likeness rules that will allow high school and college athletes to profit off themselves, Wilcher can earn money without going the pro route as a teenager.

 
 

PREP SCHOOLS ARE CALLING, TOO

 
 

Overtime isn’t the only one blowing up Sergio Wilcher’s phone, either. The top national prep schools text him on a regular basis, trying to get Simeon to transfer out of Roselle Catholic to play a national schedule and focus even more on basketball.

 
 

“I get a call every day from every prep school, just name them,” Sergio said.

 
 

But even though Roselle Catholic doesn’t play a national schedule, the three-time Tournament of Champions winners play in some of the top national events, and this year will play in the Metro Classic in New Jersey and the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.

 
 

“I understand everywhere else they play super-high major schedules but I just feel like why can’t I do that here?” Simeon said of Roselle Catholic. “Why can’t I stay here and play against everybody?”

 
 

With his teammate Corey Floyd Jr. reclassifying and heading to UConn for the upcoming season, Wilcher will be counted on even more to be a leader and he’s looking forward to that.

 
 

“With this being my full high school season, I feel like this is the perfect chance for me to really become that leader I always thought I could be and help lead my team to the TOC, to help give coach Boff his fourth one,” he said.

 
 

Sergio keeps in touch with Roselle Catholic coach Dave Boff and Andy Borman, the coach of the Rens, about Simeon’s options. Boff, of course, is glad Wilcher is staying put.

 
 

“We are obviously thrilled that Simeon and his family see the value in Roselle Catholic and our basketball program and continue trust us with his development,” he said. “Simeon is a unique talent with unlimited potential and together with his family we will work tirelessly to help him become the best player he can be. The job we do to prepare kids both in the classroom and on the court is something we take great pride in and we work hard at every day for Simeon and the other kids in our program.”

 
 

Still, Simeon is not ruling out the chance that in a year from now he might reevaluate his options if the pro offers are still there.

 
 

“Yes, I’ll reevaluate it because who knows what the future holds?” he said. “It might be a better situation at that time. But not for right now.”

 
 

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

 
 

Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.

atskooc

atskooc

Posted
Posted
  On 8/21/2021 at 2:51 PM, BirdsOnTheBat said:

can't read the damn thing that small anyway so why post it unless it in article form.  Just saying, some of us just can't read such things so, unless the important points are summarized and typed in, the posted article(s) are of no use.  Sorry for the rant about this but............

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The important point had already been posted (he turned down six figures to stay in high school). 

millerhusker

millerhusker

Posted
Posted
  On 8/21/2021 at 4:36 PM, fred1212 said:

 

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Simeon Wilcher, a Plainfield native and rising junior guard at Roselle Catholic, is only 17 years old, but he already has turned down a high-six-figure offer to play professional basketball for the next two years with the fledgling Overtime Elite League based in Atlanta, his father said.

 
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Interesting... Simeon turned 17 in January (halfway through his sophomore year). Will turn 18 as a junior and would be 19.5 by the time he graduated high school. Another reason for me to hold out hope that he's the mystery "re-classifier". Official visit is set to Lincoln in October. 

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
OmahaHusker

OmahaHusker

Posted
Posted
  On 9/29/2021 at 8:45 PM, 49r said:

NGL, this seems like an extreme long shot for us.

 

He sounds like he's already a Tar Heel and is just trying to get Hubert Davis as interested in him as he is in Carolina at this point.

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Idk I think the allure of playing with this brother is going to be hard to pass up. But who knows. 

Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

Posted
Posted
  On 9/29/2021 at 8:45 PM, 49r said:

NGL, this seems like an extreme long shot for us.

 

He sounds like he's already a Tar Heel and is just trying to get Hubert Davis as interested in him as he is in Carolina at this point.

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If this is all just about status for him, he takes the pro contract and you never see him in college at all.

 

Getting a UNC offer might be feather-in-the-cap enough for him. Where does he *want* to play? Where will he have the best college experience as a ball player? We've got a lot going for us, including his brother being here already.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • hhcmatt changed the title to 2023 PG Simeon Wilcher -> UNC
MitchMcGaryMunchies

MitchMcGaryMunchies

Posted
Posted (edited)
  On 10/17/2021 at 5:30 PM, Dean Smith said:

Adidas does now have the Yeezy name. Still not $10,000 worth of shoe but still a nice chunk of change.

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tl;dr

Yeezy isn't giving Nebraska (or anyone else) anything

 

Yeezy functions much more like an independent brand than Jordan.  Yeezy has a very minimal marketing budget and it is largely Kanye's choice what it is spent on.  He chose to spend the vast majority of last year's budget on his Sunday Service touring operations.  He outfits those around them in the Yeezy brand and relies on their status as social media influencers for more grassroots promotion.

 

Also at this point Yeezy is a lifestyle brand, not a sports brand.  They've made one pair of football cleats that were absolutely terrible and have produced one model of basketball-focused sneaker but those have largely been ignored by the sports world and have minimal resell value.  The latter was released during NBA ASW in Chicago but little has come of it since then.  I would expect this to change very soon though given that Kanye has recently purchased the former Stoneridge Prep in Simi Valley, CA and opened-up The Donda Academy, a tuition-free school that is seeking to teach K-12.  They've already signed several 3 and 4-star basketball recruits and they are of course outfitted by Yeezy.

 

Currently, there is a dearth of Yeezy products on the bodies of student-athletes and coaches at Adidas schools.  Back when he was still at Louisville, Rick Pitino would sometimes wear Yeezy 350s when scouting recruits.  Immediately after signing-on as coach of Nebraska, Scott Frost was seen wearing some Copper Yeezy 350 V2s.  These were clearly purchased by him personally to try to stunt at his press conference and I've never seen him wearing any other Yeezy products.  His Lincoln home was robbed shortly afterwards and his sneaker collection was stolen so that may have contributed to his lower profile lol

 

Similarly, if you ever see any of our basketball players in the real world you will rarely see them wearing Yeezy.  Most actually wear Jordan sneakers, even at Husker sports events.  The only player I've ever spotted rocking Yeezy was Thor once when I saw him show up to a football game at Memorial wearing some Blue Tint Yeezy 350 V2s.  Everyone that has been at the football games this season have been wearing Jordans or Nikes.  Trey McGowens has a pair of Off-White Nike Dunks he likes to wear, but so far the undisputed sneaker king of the team has been Lat Mayen who showed-up in some Off-White Sail Jordan 4 that resell for $3,000+ in larger sizes.  NIL money, baby!

Edited by MitchMcGaryMunchies

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