Weekend Recap – Secret Scrimmages & Recruiting

We’re two weeks away from the start of another college basketball season and we’re finally starting to see some action on the floor. Mix that in with a little recruiting news and there’s plenty to talk about in our weekend recap.

Secret Scrimmage Season

One innocent secret scrimmage score tweet opened the floodgates of what ended up being an action packed weekend around college hoops.

Georgia beat NC State 80-72 in a secret scrimmage this morning, per source.

— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) October 21, 2023

A completely retooled Georgia team took down a NC State squad that didn’t have MJ Rice or DJ Burns. It was the first of a triple-header of scrimmages on campus at Queens University in Charlotte. In the other games, Max Shulga hit a buzzer beater to give VCU a victory over South Carolina and Chris Ashby hit eight threes to give Queens (NC) a resounding win over VMI.

North Carolina “had no issues” handling Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton. The Owls were without star guard Alijah Martin, but that didn’t stop anyone on the internet from having some hot takes about the results.

Some other intriguing results include Youngstown State’s drubbing of Akron, St. Bonaventure beating Kent State by 22 and Houston narrowly escaping Ole Miss by four.

We don’t put much stock into these scrimmage results, but one stood out more than the rest.

Colorado State beat Minnesota 87-49 in a scrimmage today, per source.

Six Rams in double figures including 15pts, 6asts & 3stls from Isaiah Stevens.

Dawson Garcia with 13pts and 6rebs.

— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) October 21, 2023

Niko Medved’s crew absolutely took it to his alma mater and we explained the significance of that here. Again, it’s just a meaningless scrimmage, but that one raised some eyebrows across the sport.

We’ve got one more weekend of scrimmages before the lights get turned on for real. The remaining headliner is Duke vs. Villanova on 10/28. We also put together a list of televised exhibitions from the high major conferences over the next two weeks.

Recruiting Nuggets

Duke’s Big Weekend

The Blue Devils hosted Cooper Flagg, Pat Ngongba and VJ Edgecombe this weekend as part of their Countdown to Craziness. Visit festivities included the blue/white scrimmage, campus tours, watching practice, photoshoots and an elegant, multi-course meal on the court at Cameron Indoor.

Quite the picture from the weekend posted by Patrick Ngongba’s mom. pic.twitter.com/aQFBaJJpg1

— TheDevilsDen.com (@TheDevilsDen) October 22, 2023

Flagg is done with his visit schedule and will likely announce his destination in the next 7-10 days. Expect an official prediction on the site later this week.

On Flagg, I took to bluesky to reminisce about the time the “droppingdimes” guy messaged me out of no where. We had never spoken before and he deactivated his account immediately after he sent the message. For those unfamiliar, he dropped a bunch of NBA free agency scoops over the summer and deactivates his account between tweets. The post was not meant to be read into and it was not a prediction, just something I found interesting. That DM will not factor into our prediction.

pic.twitter.com/PRsZzFspvQ

— Trilly Donovan (@trillydonovan) October 22, 2023

*Random note on predictions*

Regarding official predictions and “crystal balls” – I don’t know how guys on some of the other sites put in a prediction months out from a commitment. It should be considered malpractice, honestly. There are so many variables and recruiting is never a straight line. Many people (including me at one point) dismissed the idea that Flagg would go anywhere other than Duke. UConn has done a great job here and regardless of whether or not Flagg ends up in Storrs, it should be a lesson learned for all of us to never take a recruitment for granted.

*Back to recruiting*

Ngongba has one more visit scheduled for Kansas State next weekend. The Wildcats are the biggest threat to Duke and UConn in this recruitment and have a chance to make a lasting impression before a decision is made.

Edgecombe’s recruitment is a more wide open than the other two. Alabama and Florida State are set to host him in the next few weeks.

Derrion Reid Visits Alabama

Reid visited Alabama this weekend and will likely make a decision this week. Alabama is still the favorite here, with Georgia and Florida State trailing behind in that order.

Asa Newell Nearing Decision

Newell wrapped up his visits and is close to making a decision. Georgia is still the team to beat, but that hasn’t stopped everyone else from giving up. Look for a prediction on the site later this week.

Brody Kozlowski Set To Announce

The four-star forward will announce tomorrow. USC is the team to beat here.

Zoom Diallo Visits Arizona

Every school that has hosted Zoom Diallo feels like they have a shot and Arizona is no different. It wouldn’t shock us if Diallo took more visits or announced his decision tomorrow.

Boogie Fland Post-Mortem

We received a lot of positive feedback following this post-mortem of the Boogie Fland recruitment. We’ll try to do these more often with high-profile recruits.

Follow @trillydonovan on X (Twitter). Stay tuned to burnerball.com to keep up with all things coaching carousel and transfer portal.

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