Tag: KJ Evans

Roster Outlook: How Dana Altman’s squad could shape up for 2023-24 season

Dana Altman is likely to see some major roster turnover this offseason. Here’s who we think stays and goes for the Ducks.

The Oregon Ducks’ 2023 season has officially come to an end.

With a frustrating finish on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers, an arduous season was put to rest. It felt merciful, on one hand, but also left a lot of questions going forward.

In back-to-back years, Dana Altman and the Ducks have seen their season come to a close in the NIT, rather than the NCAA Tournament. For a program that has seen 5 Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights, and one Final Four run over the past couple of decades, that’s not going to cut it.

“We set the bar at Sweet Sixteens,” Altman told John Canzano on Wednesday.

Now that this season is behind him, Altman plans to dive head-first into evaluations of the program, working day and night to try and figure out how to turn things around and get back to the tournament, reaching that bar once again. Looking ahead, we know that he will have a few nice pieces to work with for sure, but also a lot of unknowns to traverse.

The Ducks have 13 scholarships to work with in 2023-24. A few of those already belong to players who have announced that they will return to Eugene for another year, and a handful of others will go to the three high school recruits who have signed with the Ducks in the 2023 class, with potentially a fourth being reserved for another addition. The rest will be given to “players who want to be here,” as Altman said in a legendarily revealing press conference that he gave on Tuesday night.

So with all of that in mind, what will the Ducks’ roster look like at the start of next season? It’s far too early to know for sure, but here’s our best guess on how things will shape out, and which players decide to do what.

Was Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad snubbed from McDonald’s All-American Game?

The rosters for the McDonald’s All-American Game came out on Tuesday, and Oregon 4-star PG Jackson Shelstad was notably missing.

On Tuesday afternoon, the rosters for the McDonald’s All-American Game were released for 2023. Fans of the Oregon Ducks likely scanned the lists and were happy to see that both 5-star Mookie Cook and 5-star Kwame Evans made the list. They may have even been excited to see that 4-star Bronny James — a high profile recruit who has been strongly considering the Ducks — was in the mix as well.

However, it was a disappointment to see that 4-star Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad was not on the list.

As the best player on the No. 1 ranked team in the nation — West Linn — it seems that Shelstad belongs, especially with the senior season he is having. Earlier this year, Shelstad led West Linn to the Les Schwab Invitational Championship, defeating No. 16 Sierra Canyon — and Bronny James — as well as Duncanville, the previous No. 1 ranked team in the nation.

So was Shelstad snubbed? Does he deserve to be in the All-American showcase this spring? Our guys at SBLive seem to think so:

All we can figure here is that nobody on the selection team watched the Les Schwab Invitational. The Oregon commit was the best player on the floor against Sierra Canyon and Duncanville, both of which will have representatives in the McDonald’s All-American Game in March.

While the best players in the nation will get a chance to showcase their talents on a national stage later this spring, Shelstad won’t get that opportunity, unfortunately. He’ll have to wait until next year in Eugene to show the world what he can really do.

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Trio of Oregon recruits named 2023 McDonald’s All-Americans

Oregon recruits Kwame Evans and Mookie Cook were named McDonald’s All-Americans along with Oregon’s Sofia Bell.

The 46th annual McDonald’s All-American Game will once again feature some of the very best high school basketball players in the country.

Oregon Ducks fans have plenty of reasons to tune in to both the men’s and women’s games, as a trio of Oregon recruits are set to participate in this year’s event.

On the men’s side it is clear Dana Altman’s work as a recruiter has paid off, with two members of Oregon’s 2023 class getting selected for the event in Kwame Evans and Mookie Cook.

Evans comes in at No. 11 overall in 247Sports 2023 class ranking, while Cook is only a few spots behind at No. 22. Jackson Shelstad, the third heralded member of Altman’s 2023 class, did not make the cut despite putting together a monster performance for West Linn at the Les Schwab Invitational this year.

Oregon may have a third member in the men’s game before too long, however, as Bronny James was the only non-committed player selected for the event. James is reportedly down to Oregon, Ohio State, and USC, and there is some belief that he will end up in Eugene next year.

On the women’s side Sofia Bell is the lone representative for Kelly Graves’ recruiting class. Bell is from nearby Jesuit High School and has a 95 grade on ESPN’s recruiting evaluation.

The event will take place on March 28, 2023, in Houston, Texas.

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2023 5-star Kwame Evans encouraging Bronny James to visit Oregon

Bronny James, son of NBA superstar LeBron James, is being recruited to join Oregon’s electric 2023 recruiting class by 5-star Kwame Evans.

It’s hard to be any more in the spotlight as an unsigned high school basketball recruit than Bronny James, the son of NBA superstar LeBron James.

Bronny plays at Sierra Canyon and is currently ranked No. 34 in the class of 2023 at 247Sports, but his recruitment has taken on a life of its own thanks to the celebrity status of his dad – who maintains his goal is to play with his son in the NBA.

James has kept his recruitment process close to the chest, although Oregon – thanks in part to their Nike connection – remain a school squarely in the running for the six-foot-three point guard’s services.

Should James choose to come to Oregon he would join an elite recruiting class that already features Kwame Evans, Mookie Cook, and Jackson Shelstad.

Evans in particular has made it clear he wants Bronny donning the green and yellow next year.

“[Bronny] told me he likes Oregon, and I want him to visit there,” Evans told Yahoo Sports. “Everyone that’s coming in is unselfish. We all cut, move and don’t hold the ball too long, so it’s going to benefit him. Bronny can be more of a playmaker and a shot creator, and I think we would play really well together.”

It’s easy to see the appeal of adding James to this class, even without factoring in the instant boost his arrival would give the program from a watchability perspective.

Dana Altman’s ability to recruit high level talent to Eugene is unmistakable, and adding James to a class as dynamic as the one coming in 2023 would put even more pressure on the Ducks to get back into the NCAA Tournament and make some serious noise in March.

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‘We’re still the University of Oregon;’ Dana Altman breaks down No. 7 ranked 2023 recruiting class

Dana Altman signed the No. 7 class in the nation on Wednesday, and went into detail on what each one offers the Ducks.

With the No. 7 ranked recruiting class in the nation putting pen to paper on Wednesday, Oregon Ducks head coach Dana Altman was free to discuss the additions that his team made to the roster this week, and what the incoming players — 5-star KJ Evans, 5-star Mookie Cook, and 4-star Jackson Shelstad — would offer to the team.

With Cook and Shelstad growing up in Oregon, Altman has been recruiting them for a long time, and was finally able to make the addition official this week. As for Evans, one of the top-ranked players in the nation, it was a signing that has been in the works for a couple of years.

When talking to the media on Thursday about the class, Altman broke down what he liked about each player and a little bit about how the recruitment for each one went. He also broke down some of the new recruiting landscape, touching on the impact that NIL has.

Here is everything Altman had to say about recruiting on Thursday: