I wonder if this is all the changes we'll see. That's 6 out (5 seniors and 1 transfer) and 6 in (2 Juco and 4 freshman).

Love the athleticism of Harris. Much needed if the Aggies want to compete with the top teams

Sure looks a lot like China to me. I would much rather have a 6’6” athletic leaper than a 6’10” stand around guy. Did you see his offensive rebound stats? Thats muscle and guts. Lots to like there. 2019/2020 looking much better now.

And here's more size up front. Looks like a stretch forward, which we desperately need with AJ John graduating.

Koehler averaged 19p/10r /2a this past year at JC, recording 22 double-doubles. Before that, he mostly rode the bench at UCSD. He had a slew of mid-major offers before selecting UCD. A lot of minutes are available for him in the aggie lineup.

http://njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2018-19/div2/players/kennedykoehleryvve

Gotta love this

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgFGgzgHSOY/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=o9lwkq9f9qzl

I think he's just messing around, that's like a 9' hoop

David Skogman to Buffalo

I just saw that on the verbal commits site. I didn't think we had much of a chance to land him and, with all of the recent commits Les has gotten, I think we're done for the upcoming season.

I swear I saw something on Facebook a little while announcing the signing of a guy from Europe. Was part of his national team. But now I can’t find it

Whoops, page on webpage no longer exists. Either that or he will be wearing number 404

It’s back. Big man(6-7) from Sweden

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/5/6/oliver-gehrke-signs-nli-during-spring-window.aspx

Big guy with big strength. Look at the arms on this guy! Good job by Les!

I guess that makes it seven people now.

1. Malcolm Johnson
2. Kennedy Koehler
3. Ezra Manjon
4. Elijah Pepper
5. Aaron Murphy
6. Oliver Gehrke
7. Wesley Harris

Then there are two other people who have redshirted this year:

1. Cameron Ba
2. B.J. Shaw

That's a whole plethora of people that I have no idea on who will make an impact on the team next year.

Does anyone want to crack a guess based on their highlight videos or the like?

i don't see any mention of Malcolm Johnson in the press release for Gehrke. They list him joining ' fall signees Aaron Murphy, Ezra Manjon and Elijah Pepper'. Then there are releases for Harris and and Koehler.

No doubt that next years team is going to look a whole lot different than the last two years. Here's my rundown, with the caveat that I could be completely wrong (I remember telling my son that I didn't expect much from Chima because you usually don't red-shirt a juco transfer...you bring them in to contribute right away. Not my best prediction).

As for impact players, I think part of the impact equation is available minutes. With only one true interior player returning, Neufeld (who is very foul-prone), one returnee who didn't play much at all, Underwood (hoping he gets his game going this year), and one VERY undersized player, Printup (does he move to his natural wing position?), there are a lot of minutes available there. So, I think we'll see Koehler and Johnson on the floor quite a bit. Both will be Juniors, so they've already had time at the college level (though they still have to transition to D1 speed/size), and judging by their videos, it does look like they both have the skill sets to contribute right away. Koehler has good range, good size at 6'8", and put up 22 double-doubles last year for a good juco program. Johnson is a bit smaller, 6'5", but has a nice mid-range game and again put up good numbers on a juco team with a lot of D1 talent. I read an article in March that said he was still coming to UCD, so hopefully the lack of a press release is not a telling sign.
Guessing that the freshman interior players, Murphy and Gehrke, will take some time to develop, possibly even red-shirt one or both.

As for the perimeter, we'll need help at point. I assume Squire steps into the starting role, but there is some minutes available for someone like Manjon to step in. His game looks a lot like Shorts, and he plays for a very high level AAU club out of Oakland, but being asked to play point a substantial number of minutes at D1 as a freshman is tough, so we'll see his what his immediate impact is. Pepper is listed as a PG on verbal commits, but he strikes me as more of a Schneider type player, can handle the ball but is mostly an off guard. Pepper looks like he is ready to step in right away, but with Mooney and Gonzo and Fuller already taking up minutes, he'll have to force his way into the lineup. That leaves Harris, and red shirts Shaw and Ba, as intriguing wings. From his videos, Harris is super athletic but I'm not sure of his range. Assuming that part of his game comes around, he could see a lot of time. Shaw has good length and the lineage, and both he and Ba have a years worth of time with the team learning the system, so they could fight for time. Hard to predict how each will perform as we don't know how much their games have progressed over their red-shirt year.

I really like this years class. There is talent at every position, with a mix of juco's who can contribute right away, and freshman who may take time to adjust but look like they could be cornerstones of the program in the future.

I'd love to hear what others are thinking.

FWIW, Verbalcommits has Underwood, Ba and Shaw as Walk ons.

Two new offers out? Verbalcommits:

5/5/2019 - 2020 C Chad Venning (6-10, 260, 2★) has received an offer from UC Davis.

5/3/2019 - 2020 PF Jacob Ognacevic (6-8, 207, 2★) has received an offer from UC Davis.

Venning and Ognacevic have been offered for 2020. Les made 14 offers already to potential recruits for 2020 according to verbalcommits.com.

https://verbalcommits.com/schools/uc-davis

Interesting, Mikey Henn appears to be on the move again after leaving UC Davis for Cal Baptist. I guess CBU didn't work out either. Hmmmm....

And Gio Nelson has landed at a JUCO in Yuma Arizona (Arizona Western, I think?)

Good luck to both Mikey and Gio.

Nice summary looking ahead this fall. Ezra Manjon looks like he's going to be an exciting player for us and could definitely see minutes as a true freshman. He's only 5'10 and 167 but he has tremendous hops and can drive and dish skillfully. He recently won the dunk contest at the first annual Simply Basketball game held at Chabot College.

Just signed another, this time from the UK. Ade Adebayo. Someone must not be coming back

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/5/9/mens-basketball-uk-standout-ade-adebayo-signs-nli-joins-uc-davis-incoming-class.aspx


Again no mention of Malcolm
Johnson in the list of signees

Well, that is interesting, another player from the UK. He and Fuller should have good chemistry. Adabayo shows committed to Elon (with Montana St as "other offers") on verbalcommits, so something must have fallen through there.

This is from the 17/18 season:



So that is 7 new players in, 6 players out (that we know of), and Malcolm Johnson a question mark.

Well this signing is a surprise but I'm happy that we got him. His highlights video is pretty impressive. Caleb Fuller and Adabayo played together at Barking Abbey.

Les has really stepped up our overall athleticism with this year's recruits and that's something we really need. I think this is a strong recruiting class and, with 7 players signing NLI's, it certainly makes you wonder who isn't coming back. It also appears that something hasn't worked out with Malcolm Johnson.

This kid looks great! I love the growing internationalization of US college basketball. We know the NBA has gone in that direction for a long time, but its great to see it here at UC Davis and coming on strong in college BB. We will have 4+/- in MBB and at least 3 in WBB next year. Many other internationals in the BW as well. Les and Jen are doing a good job with these recruits.

competition level in the video looks a little, ummmmmmm.....lacking?

Yeah, always a problem when watching film of a kid, especially from a region that is not known as a basketball hotbed.

Here is some video from the Deng camp. As a reference point, they ranked Adebayo as the 5th best player at there 2018 camp...Fuller was the top rated player at that camp in 2017.

Deng Camp Video

I had the same feeling. I do like his athleticism. I'm hoping we see a significant improvement from Fuller this year. After seeing his #1 rating from the Deng Camp and seeing how physically strong he is, I expected him to challenge for more playing time. As it was he played very little after the first couple of games.