Welcome Austin Ball

Quentin Daniels

Hall of Famer
I’m glad that apparently P5 coaches only recruit from top-100 lists because Austin is a 4-star talent who somehow fell through the cracks
I’m not sure that’s an entirely accurate statement. Whether he should have 3 or 4 imaginary star emojis next to his name on a website I don’t know and don’t really give a shite about. But I don’t think this one fell through the cracks. He had P5 offers apparently and at the very least, he was on their radars and having conversations. CKE just did a great job on selling him on the vision of where Mason Basketball is heading and where he fits into that, and Austin chose what he felt was the best situation for himself.
 

gmujim92

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
I’m not sure that’s an entirely accurate statement. Whether he should have 3 or 4 imaginary star emojis next to his name on a website I don’t know and don’t really give a shite about. But I don’t think this one fell through the cracks. He had P5 offers apparently and at the very least, he was on their radars and having conversations. CKE just did a great job on selling him on the vision of where Mason Basketball is heading and where he fits into that, and Austin chose what he felt was the best situation for himself.
Q, I had a hard time sleeping last night so I did some reading on young Mr. Ball’s recruitment. At one point LAST FALL, he was ranked in the top 100 by both Rivals and 247, and was being recruited hard by Danny Manning at Maryland and an assistant at Okie State to go along with WVU and VT.

Then all he did last winter was lead his team to the state semifinals while earning first-team all-state honors. Did he suffer a serious injury? No. Academic issues? With Richmond in the mix, highly doubtful. Legal/off-court problems? None that I found online.

But even after having a good spring and very good summer, Austin somehow was no longer on the radar of any P5 schools … other than Mason, the other 2 programs most interested were Richmond and JMU.

I’ve never seen a kid plummet in the rankings like him while being fully healthy and playing well. The closest comp I can think of for a Mason recruit was Sherrod Wright, who also had multiple P5 offers and yet somehow was still available in the spring to take a scholarship offer from L.

It’s kind of mind-boggling, in this day and age where there’s more information available on recruits than ever before, that a bouncy 6-7 guard with limitless shooting range was even available to be scooped up by our excellent head coach.
 

GMUgemini

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Reminds me a lot of Elvis, to be honest. I remember Rohland asking English about his recruitment (since he also had some really good offers that seemed to just dry up) and English saying they looked into it to make sure there weren’t any issues there.

Glad they’re both here. Hopefully they’ll terrorize the A10 for four years.
 

Quentin Daniels

Hall of Famer
The closest comp I can think of for a Mason recruit was Sherrod Wright, who also had multiple P5 offers and yet somehow was still available in the spring to take a scholarship offer from L.

Damn I hope so. One of the best but most overlooked guys we've ever had since he followed the years of success w/the L era by playing in the Hewitt anger years.

His 34 points against St. Louis in the 2014 season ranks 4th all-time for the program.
 

GMU79

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
Q, I had a hard time sleeping last night so I did some reading on young Mr. Ball’s recruitment. At one point LAST FALL, he was ranked in the top 100 by both Rivals and 247, and was being recruited hard by Danny Manning at Maryland and an assistant at Okie State to go along with WVU and VT.

Then all he did last winter was lead his team to the state semifinals while earning first-team all-state honors. Did he suffer a serious injury? No. Academic issues? With Richmond in the mix, highly doubtful. Legal/off-court problems? None that I found online.

But even after having a good spring and very good summer, Austin somehow was no longer on the radar of any P5 schools … other than Mason, the other 2 programs most interested were Richmond and JMU.

I’ve never seen a kid plummet in the rankings like him while being fully healthy and playing well. The closest comp I can think of for a Mason recruit was Sherrod Wright, who also had multiple P5 offers and yet somehow was still available in the spring to take a scholarship offer from L.

It’s kind of mind-boggling, in this day and age where there’s more information available on recruits than ever before, that a bouncy 6-7 guard with limitless shooting range was even available to be scooped up by our excellent head coach.
Thanks. Good run down (or, rundown, as the case may be.)
 

GMU79

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
For years upon years upon years we have not recruited enough adequately-sized shooting...

Very happy Austin chose us, more specifically me, to watch him play basketball Saturdays and perhaps also some other days.
Completely agree. I can't remember the last time we had a big-time shooter...after Carlos Yates, of course.
 
If I were the student body, I would put up ball-sacks drawn on posterboard everytime this child prodigy drained a three. Like the first one would be a set of balls with the number one on it, the second with the number two and so on

Each balls would have progressively more hair on it until the 10th ball, which would have like 70's-style stag movie hair almost completely obscuring the 10. Then we'd go out to the parking lot and celebrate another win over vcu with some hairy buffalos

I wish I was the student body or at least controlled that robot that delivers pizzas
 
Top