Franchise Sports Media’s UNLV Men’s Basketball Recruiting Update 10/2/19
TJ Otzelberger and his staff have been on a roll when it comes to recruiting since they landed at UNLV. Right now their 2020 class is ranked in the top 15 nationally. Wing Nick Blake is a 4-Star Top 100 player, and big man Jhaylon Martinez is also ranked as a 4-Star recruit. The other freshmen coming in with that group are guards Donavan Yap and Isaac Lindsey, both of whom are high-end 3-Star talent. Making that coupe even more impressive is that 3 out of those 4 players are Las Vegas locals.
If Otzelberger stopped there, everyone would be more than happy with those results. Except there’s another 2020 wing target for the Rebels who calls Vegas home, and that’s, Mwani Wilkinson. The high flyer from Gorman is being coveted by some big-time programs. LSU, Texas Tech, USC, and Vanderbilt are his other finalists besides UNLV. So that means the competition to land his services are gaudy, to say the least.
I’ve learned that the leader to nab him at the moment is LSU. That being said, I can say that UNLV is right there with the Bayou Bengals. From what I’m being told, the UNLV staff has an incredible relationship in place with Wilkinson and his family. Also, the 2020 UNLV class is recruiting him non-stop, and all the players that are coming to play for the Rebels have a fantastic relationship with him as well. The thing that might help Otzelberger the most is that Wilkinson will visit UNLV last, so they’ll have the final say after he tours his other options.
In other news, the 2021 class has a superstar locally. Jaden Hardy of Coronado is the younger brother of UNLV star, Amauri Hardy, and he’s a consensus top 3 player. All the heavy hitters out there want him, including Kentucky and Arizona. Calipari has been in to see him, and Sean Miller spent the weekend with Hardy recently.
UNLV isn’t letting that deter them. The Rebel staff has a gameplan in place for the scoring phenom, and they have prioritized him. Otzelberger and crew may not get Hardy to stay home when it’s all said and done, but I can assure my readers that they’ll do everything in their power to make him a Runnin’ Rebel.
Speaking of Coronado, they recently had UNLV pledge Jhaylon Martinez leave the program so he could prep in Arizona for his senior season, but they have a nice replacement in the wings. 2022 big man, Jaxon Kohler, is one of the most fundamentally sound bigs you will see at any level. The 6’8 post presence has caught the eye of Kevin Kruger and Otzelberger already. Kruger (who is an invaluable asset for this Rebel program), in particular, has a rock-solid relationship in place with Kohler, so that’s a recruitment to keep an extremely close eye on moving forward.
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UNLV Men’s Basketball Recruiting
UNLV Men’s Basketball Recruiting
Joe Arrigo
Joe Arrigo is the co-founder and VP of Franchise Sports Media. Joe has been in media since 2004 when he became the morning host on KKUU and mid-days co-host on KXPS in Pam Springs. After his time in Palm Springs, Joe became the operations manager when he built, programmed, and was on-air for KQCM. He has also had stints on-air in various markets, including Fresno. Joe became the producer and co-host for The Beast 980 (KFWB), a sports talk station in Los Angeles, before moving to Vegas in 2015. In 2019 he founded Franchise Sports Media with TQ.
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