Jacob Padilla

Drake was his first D-I offer, in April of 2018. Ole Miss was his first high-major offer, in August. Then Creighton, then Iowa State, then Nebraska all in the span of 9-10 days in late August/early September. Then the rest of the offers started flooding in this past summer.

Obviously things can always change, but I talked to Thor at media day about this. He said he probably thought about going home when Miles first got fired (he didn't have any interest in transferring elsewhere and redshirting) but that went away after he talked with Hoiberg. How important is the school part?

He's listed at 6' on Ranger's website and that tracks with the height in the story from when he committed to Ranger (I believe it was 185 centimeters which is just over 6'). For some reason, Ranger only has box scores for 7 of their 11 games, and they also included a game with a box score full of zeroes in the player averages. In those 7 games with stats, Tominaga is averaging 17.2 points, I believe. I've looked at 21 stat lines from FIBA U16, U18 and JUCO play. He's 65-158 (41.1%) from 3 and has five assists (with 11 turnovers). Straight gunner.

They also have Kwat Abdelkarim, a 2021 guard/wing who has gotten a bit of mid-major interest after a good summer with the Iowa Barnstormers. Should have a much bigger role with them than he did last year as a sophomore (I thought he was underutilized then anyway).

I didn't get to see any of the five-on-five work but Derek Peterson mentioned he saw Banton initiating offense with a group featuring Kavas and Stevenson as the frontcourt. Lot of versatility with this roster and we could end up seeing some odd lineups. Banton's got a lot of work to do with that jumper before he can be truly effective as an initiator though.

He's definitely put on some mass since the end of the high school season.

Hunter may have to play some point guard for MN this year, but that's not his natural position at all. He's an off-guard, or even better a wing if he keeps growing.

Torn ACL. Terrible.

That is correct. Carl Brown is the one who hit the shot for Westside, which came right after Porter scored the go-ahead bucket for MN. I was at that game. Donovan did hit the game-winner at Kearney in the district final.

She's heading to Northwest Missouri State. Her name's Jayna.

I've only ever seen/talked to Jasen's dad, so I'm not sure how tall his mom is. But he said this weekend he's up to 6'7" now (hard to tell with his hair). From what I heard, Jasen shot the ball really well at the Midwest Showcase down in KC this weekend. He only play Saturday though because of a stomach bug. I don't love his form, but he's got the ability to make shots at least. He shot 10-32 from 3 as a freshman and 64% from the free-throw line, so not great but not terrible for a 15-year-old kid playing varsity basketball for the first time. He's definitely the top in-state prospect in that 2022 class based on his physical tools alone; the question is how much he can refine those skills. He's playing with MoKan Elite this summer.

The offers are coming from the Midwest Showcase. Team Factory plays on the second division of the Under Armour circuit, so he hasn't really been exposed to a lot of high-major coaches for the most part. The UMKC offer was his first and came after he performed well at their elite camp; UMKC fired that coaching staff, however. He received offers from UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Davis, William & Mary and Boston after a strong weekend at the UAA Rise (the second division) in KC back in May. The last 9 offers are all from this weekend including all the high-major ones. He needs to add a lot of weight to his frame but he's a really good athlete and can shoot out to the 3-point line, plus he's a great shot-blocker. He's a really smart kid too.

Jeff Watts is Xavier's dad. Great family.

I believe Omaha has one open scholarship for next season, but they recently picked up a commitment from 2019 big man from Minnesota. Hansen has reached out to Brady.

"No cap" means no lie. "Cap" means the opposite.

He shot 35.6% (26-73) during the high school season. Certainly not the strength of his game, but I don't think he's as bad as he showed last weekend.

Here's what Harris told LJS assistant sports editor Alec McChesney. Alec was the first one who got ahold of him from what I saw.

Talking with someone who is very close with him. I'm not saying they're hurting for money, it just doesn't sound like walking on anywhere is something he's looking to do other than as a last option.

Sallis is pretty clearly the top prospect of that group. He's still growing and could get to 6'6" or 6'7", he's an incredibly smooth scorer and he's already a good defender with even more potential on that end. His growth over the past two years since the first time I saw him play has been incredible.

College is expensive and he has a lot of siblings back home.

FWIW, I don't believe he's in a position to walk on anywhere.

Three of the four Nebraska targets (Arop, Williams, Hepburn) made it to state, and it too a miraculous buzzer-beater to keep the fourth out.

As for the Mike Daum situation, he is a wonderful story and a great get for South Dakota State. Nebraska missing on him isn't necessarily the issue because he wasn't anywhere close to what he is now (or even what he was as a redshirt freshman) in high school. The problem is that from what I've heard, Nebraska basically took one look at him, he had a bad day and that was it. They didn't even really give themselves a chance to recognize the diamond in the rough. In their defense, Kimball is much closer to Denver than it is to Lincoln, so it's not like they could just drive down the road and see him play in high school like they can with Donovan Williams. Even so, it doesn't seem like they truly did their due diligence on him.

Goodman was supporting a guy he likes in Miles by basically saying Nebraska can't get anyone better because it's nearly impossible to build a good roster there. The talent in Nebraska is the part Erin highlighted for the headline, but in the story I responded to every part of what he said in that clip because it's a lazy argument. A few different people have echoed my point about there being players who have come out of the state that very likely would have contributed more than the empty scholarships or bottom-of-the-roster guys Nebraska has had over the years. That isn't so much a criticism of local recruiting under Miles as much as I meant it to be an argument that there are rosterable players that come out of this state. Goodman said there's no talent in the state, no talent in the area and that Nebraska has to go into other schools' backyards to recruit. He mentioned Detroit and California specifically, for some reason. Well, there's a good bit of talent in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas/Missouri and other similar states, or "the area." As I wrote in the story, the coaches you have on your staff determine where you can recruit as much or more than where your school is. North Carolina was a pretty fertile recruiting ground for the Huskers with Kenya Hunter. Michael Lewis has dipped the Huskers' feet into Indiana and landed a pretty darn good player in D'Andre Davis. Is Nebraska harder to recruit to than a lot of places? Sure. But with where the program is at the moment, it can be done. Getting talent to Lincoln isn't where Miles has failed; it's retaining and developing that talent that has let him down.

Creighton took several looks at Akol (including right before he committed to Nebraska). They just didn't see enough from a fit standpoint to pull the trigger. You are correct about Brady; they offered him for the 2019 class but not the 2018 class like Nebraska did. With the way Ed Chang's recruitment fizzled out, Hunter Sallis looks to be the first true battle between the schools for quite a while. Creighton is still evaluating Chucky Hepburn but isn't ready to pull the trigger yet. Creighton isn't interested in Donovan Williams and he's the only high-major player in the 2020 class.