Isaac Humphries 7'0" 245, 2016 to Kentucky

[ShockdaWorld]

As can I.

Hahaha...I see what you did there.

[wusphlash]

As can I.

Not by Isaac Humphries.

[WSUwatcher]

Well, now that Humphries is down to 6-10, it turns out that WSU already has its version of Humphries. Only he's from Estonia and he goes by Rauno instead -- not as highly acclaimed, maybe, because he was only headed for Mississippi instead of the glorious Bluecats. But he also has international experience, a year in the Shocker program already, considerable additional physical maturity (he turns 22 in November), and reportedly a big upside in the opinion of at least one WSU coach.

Who's to say Rauno, assuming he doesn't get wiped out by illness as he did last season, can't give the Shocks as much this year as Humphries could have? And I certainly agree with the post in Grady's thread suggesting that he's likely to be a bigger contributor than Isaac would have been.

So good luck to Humphries -- and to Mulder for that matter. They chose glitz over playing time, and so be it. As for me, I'm glad WSU has McDuffie rather than Mulder (admittedly, I don't know if that was the choice, but they're full up, so a choice had to be made somewhere), and I'm not going to lament the loss of Humphries any further. This Shocker team figures to be better than last year's, and able to compete against anyone using the guys they do have. If things go their way, they can absolutely still be playing in April, which isn't something too many teams can say; and that's good enough for me.

[ShockerPhi]

Well, now that Humphries is down to 6-10, it turns out that WSU already has its version of Humphries. Only he's from Estonia and he goes by Rauno instead -- not as highly acclaimed, maybe, because he was only headed for Mississippi instead of the glorious Bluecats. But he also has international experience, a year in the Shocker program already, considerable additional physical maturity (he turns 22 in November), and reportedly a big upside in the opinion of at least one WSU coach.

Who's to say Rauno, assuming he doesn't get wiped out by illness as he did last season, can't give the Shocks as much this year as Humphries could have? And I certainly agree with the post in Grady's thread suggesting that he's likely to be a bigger contributor than Isaac would have been.

So good luck to Humphries -- and to Mulder for that matter. They chose glitz over playing time, and so be it. As for me, I'm glad WSU has McDuffie rather than Mulder (admittedly, I don't know if that was the choice, but they're full up, so a choice had to be made somewhere), and I'm not going to lament the loss of Humphries any further. This Shocker team figures to be better than last year's, and able to compete against anyone using the guys they do have. If things go their way, they can absolutely still be playing in April, which isn't something too many teams can say; and that's good enough for me.

Amen to that. Best of luck to Isaac, but I won't get caught wondering "what if" because what we already have is enough for me to dream big for this coming year and many after that.

[AZ Shocker]

Hate to see a kid get caught up in the hype. Especially after visiting with Gregg Marshall and seeing what would've been for him at Wichita St. Geez...playing with two probable All-American guards and the young man still decides to be wooed to Lexington???

I won't pretend to know all the behind the door details...but didn't Kentucky come on super late in the game to get him???

I wouldn't be wondering if something a bit fishy is going on here if Isaac simply wanted to be a Wildcat. Perhaps it was just simply a better fit for the young man. Perhaps it just a simple as that.

But 247 CBS Sports predicted he signs with Wichita St. not too many weeks ago. Wichita St. can't get the NCAA clearinghouse thing pushed through to get Isaac playing time with two future pros and in all likelihood a favorite as National Title contenders.......but Kentucky CAN???? BS!!!

To me...and I could be waaaaaaaaaaaay off here....but Cal signed Isaac not necessarily for Kentucky's needs....but so Isaac wouldn't sign at Wichita St. Cal doesn't want to play a Gregg Marshall team again in March with two pro guards dishing to a legit big all night long.

Idk...something just doesn't sound right.

[Aargh]

To me...and I could be waaaaaaaaaaaay off here....but Cal signed Isaac not necessarily for Kentucky's needs....but so Isaac wouldn't sign at Wichita St. Cal doesn't want to play a Gregg Marshall team again in March with two pro guards dishing to a legit big all night long.

I had been thinking something along these lines for the past several weeks. Calipari would sign Humphries just so no one else could.

There's also this thing about scholarships. WSU doesn't have any. Didn't have any when Mulder tried to commit. Everybody out here was saying, "don't worry, Marshall will figure it out". Maybe Marshall figured it out and told Mulder and Humphries that he couldn't give them a scholarship for '15-'16.

[vancedave56]

The bad thing is we are recruiting against Kentucky; the good thing is we're recruiting against Kentucky. :)

[60Shock]

Wish the kid well, but it's a bummer no matter how you slice it

[WSUwatcher]

Yes, it's a disappointing outcome, but Aargh may have hit it on the head when he speculated that a big part of the problem might have been that WSU simply wasn't going to have a scholarship open for this season. (If I'm wrong, shoxlax, please feel free to enlighten me and explain why, either in the open or via PM.) No doubt they had a plan for a spot if they were able to get Humphries reclassified, or else they wouldn't have been trying. But maybe this year -- unlike last when Hamilton proved to be a suitable candidate for a prep season, thus creating the opening we all speculated about -- maybe this time, the plan simply didn't come through, in which the reclassification really was no longer an issue, so why bother?

Contrary to many posts on here, Marshall can count, and he can divide -- and he knows that 14 doesn't go into 13. As the bumper stickers say, stuff happens. But life goes on, and you just try to win the whole damn thing anyway. You da man, Rauno!

[ShockdaWorld]

From everything I've heard lately, I'm not sure that UK isn't the best place for this kid. I'm not sure he'd be capable of the entire MTXE/Play Angry Shocker mantra. I know when he visited, the goal was to see if we could get him reclassified and to WSU for tihis coming season. I'm not so sure that we didn't decide after the visit that we were better off with the guys we had plus Grady than we would've been with this guy.

[WSUwatcher]

An interesting theroy, Shockda, and I suppose it's certainly a possibility.

I don't know Humphries, of course, but I do know that just as important to the Shocks in their recent run of success as the talent they have is the combination of intensity, attitude, and chemistry that characterizes their play. Fit is important for most players and programs, but it's probably as important at WSU as anywhere in the country -- maybe even more so. And if Humphries may have appeared to be not a great fit while the guys who ARE there are willing to buy in 100% and play accordingly, there's a legitimate question as to whether the Big Aussie could have lived up at WSU to the potential suggested by his skill and talent.

It's possible for a guy to be a convert to Play Angry Marshallism, obviously; JT Durley took a while but became one, and Shaq Morris appears well on his way at this point to becoming another. But it might be harder for an acclaimed recruit who could go anywhere he wants to, and doesn't already have that mindset, to accept it rather than just moving on to someplace where not so much is demanded of him. If 100 other schools had been eager to latch onto Shaq after his come-to-Jesus (or maybe come-to-Fred) moment when WSU left him home from the trip to Drake, would he still be a Shocker? Maybe some of that same thinking applied to Humphries; who knows?

[Ricardo del Rio]

I would not be unhappy, if this thread was deep sixed in its entirety.

[1972Shocker]

It is entirely possible that with his scholarship situation that 3G and staff were actually encouraging Isaac to not reclassify to 2015 and then join the Shockers next year when they would have a scholarship for him and that Isaac decided he did not want to wait another year, especially when the Kentucky situation opened up for him.

It certainly doesn't make Isaac a bad guy and I'm sure 3G would loved to have had him in the Shocker fold. Not the end of the world. When one door closes, another one opens.

[WSUwatcher]

Also a perfectly valid possibility, 1972. Lots of things could have happened; and regardless of whether Humphries was or wasn't a fit for WSU, none of the scenarios discussed here -- or whatever other series of events may have occurred -- necessarily speaks ill of Humphries, or for that matter of Kentucky.

I've been thinking about WSU's roster for next season even without the Big Aussie, just as other posters have, and it looks to me as though a far bigger challenge than the absence of one particular recruit is going to be finding enough playing time out of 200 total minutes per game for all the quality guys that ARE here. Hurry, October; hurry, November.

[Aargh]

One scholarship - 2 offers. Grady commits first. That's pretty much the end of WSU recruiting Humphries for '15-'16.

Signing Grady meant giving up a chance that Humphries might reclassify and might sign with WSU. Waiting for the Humphries situation to unfold meant giving up a chance to put a 22-year-old 5th year Sr with 3 years of D1 experience on the floor with Baker and VanVleet.