Nice! He was at my kid’s HS and Utah was 2nd when he chose WF.
1 Like
I wonder if it would be time better spent trying to get Deivon to stay. If I understand the portal correctly, they ain’t gone til they’re gone.
Will Deivon give Utah a chance to match what Kentucky offers on his visit this weekend?
See, now I thought that’s why Cal left UK - NIL was super weak and Arkansas had a better base for recruiting since it’s all about that over making the NBA even after a year now
1 Like
I see Kentucky got a commit from Lamont Butler of San Diego St. He’s more of a combo PG/SG than Deivon, but it’s tying up more money and another scholarship from Kentucky.
I don’t know if Utah can match the NIL payment, straight up, but I hope Deivon & his agent realize his own brand in Utah is pretty impressive, he should be able to attract significant advertising opportunities here, outside of NIL.
UK has had a long stream of freakish athletes, a lot of one-and-done NBA stars. Shaden Sharpe of the Blazers is a 6-5 version of Deivon, athletically. There are enough UK players in the NBA to make a whole team.
He stands out, here.
3 Likes
Deivon would likely be the star of the team if he returns to Utah and just a face in the crowd on a stacked Kentucky squad. Of course would be far more likely to see NCAA tourney action as a Wildcat than on a Ute team in rebuilding mode.
1 Like
I wonder how much longer before Utah will return to the tourney.
- 3 years or less?
- 4 years to 6 years?
- more than 6 years?
I would go with “more than 6”. We are going into a very strong conference that sent 9 teams (given the conference membership next year) to the tournament. I can’t see us finishing anywhere near the top half of the conference anytime soon and I don’t see the committee digging down any deeper than the top half of the conference.
2 Likes
I agree. More than six is most likely. The recruiting isn’t good enough to make the tournament.
2 Likes
UK board is saying that there are transcript issues with Deivon and that after getting the Butler commit may be moving on to another PG. After announcing Smith’s planned visit this last weekend they are now posting on ON3 that Pope is hosting a mysterious “elite” PG this next weekend.
3 Likes
See, here I thought this is mostly what NIL should be.
4 Likes
Me, too. I don’t think Marcus Adams at BYU was ever in any kind of marketing, and played part of one game, but was driving a Tesla.
NIL needs to move toward the original concept, it seems to me. If there is a loss of money in small media markets so a school can be competitive, that’s one thing, but zero marketing is a mockery of the concept.
3 Likes
2 Likes
He wants to go overseas & try to start a pro career.
And he wasn’t killing it on NIL, so why not.
Nice guy, wish him well.
5 Likes
This is a kid that will be successful well beyond his basketball days.
4 Likes
247 reporting Keba Keita to BYU. If accurate, not sure how Smith survives this.
4 Likes
Amazing.
Adding Keita to the departures, we have Gabe Madsen and the pine riders for 2024-25.
We may be actually worse than we were when Coach K took over from Coach “Ball did not go in hoop.”
4 Likes
I’m not sure how he attracts anyone to join Utah now. Who wants to join a decimated program?
1 Like