:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/33286141/showtime_ballers.0.jpg)
Virginia Tech has offered 2015 Showtime Ballers (FL) duo Dwayne Bacon & Jeantal Cylla, their coach announced.
— Alex Kline (@TheRecruitScoop) May 20, 2014
Per the above tweet, it appears that Buzz Williams continued his tireless work on the recruiting trail for 2015 in offering two small forward prospects offers to come join the Hokies basketball team for 2015-2016. Dwayne Bacon and Jeantal Cylla, who both play for the Showtime Ballers (Orlando, Florida) AAU team look like outstanding prospects.
Virginia Tech offers Showtime Ballers 2015 Jeantal Cylla and Dwayne Bacon pic.twitter.com/AtWB5WgGuz
— DEM SHOWTIME BOYZ (@ShowtimeBaller1) May 20, 2014
Dwayne Bacon
Bacon a 6'7/205 lb. big wing (Bradenton IMG Academy) is the more highly touted of the two prospects, ranking currently as 247's #33 prospect nationally, and third-best player in the State of Florida. This makes him a very highly ranked four-star prospect. He has a feather soft touch on runners and tear-drops, and he has a nice tight rotation on his three ball. He takes the ball strong to the hoop when he has a clear path, but will need to learn to eliminate that intermediate hop step on his college takes. Mostly the taller high school kids develop this bad habit in order to avoid trampling their smaller counterparts. He looks every bit as advertised. I'll let you watch it for yourself:
He has a nice handle too, exhibiting a crossover that gets past much smaller defenders. He gets where he wants to on the floor. And these are AAU games so he's supposedly playing better talent. He would be a welcome addition for sure, as he looks more talented than anyone the Hokies have recruited to Tech since joining the ACC; beyond maybe Malcolm Delaney and Montrezl Harrell. His game looks similar to Harrison Barnes, if you'd like my humble comparison.
He currently has offers from well, everyone. And if having the usual cast of big-time coaches wasn't enough, this is the second straight recruit Buzz has offered where I've seen Larry Brown and SMU on the list (Jawun Evans). But right now, the experts at 247 have him as a Florida State lean. We certainly weren't in on him early, as 247 lists over 25 "interests". In the ACC, we would be fending off FSU, NC State, Miami, Clemson, and Georgia Tech right now.
Offering two big wings like this after just having secured Justin Bibbs, Ahmed Hill, and Jalen Hudson; and with Ben Emelogu still having two years of eligibility is a bit of a head-scratcher if Buzz plans for ALL of them to stay.
But not quite as odd as offering a scholarship to a guy the same height and weight and from the same state and AAU team, like Williams reportedly has done with Jeantal Cylla.
Jeantal Cylla
With Jeantal it's all unbridled athleticism and activity. He can finish, but he's more limited than many of the other members of the Showtime Ballers, even though he can knock down the open three when he's not pressured. He definitely looks as though he has the length to learn and effect elite defense. But at this point I'd expect Terrell Bell levels of offensive production out of him at best, nothing consistent, as he looks like he has a slower release on his shot that defenders will close out on. Cylla is not ranked at all in 247s composite rankings at this point.
In football you see a lot of tandem agreements to leverage high-profile talent to your school, for VT you might remember it best as when Brenden Hill came with Marcus Vick way back when. Of course, Brenden turned out to be one of the most out-of-nowhere surprises in his 5th season as a WHIP LB, but you just don't see this kind of thing in basketball where scholarships are jewels to be protected. So does Buzz really have an interest in BOTH, or is he appeasing Bacon somehow? Is he just saying, whichever of you calls me first gets the scholarship? It's just a fascinating strange brew at this point. Will we sport a team of all small forwards as we approach the 2020s?
OK, I'm done being silly.....here is some video of the Showtime Ballers, well....putting on a show. And another video of Cylla follows.
Look at the kid at the :41 second mark! You guys realize they stopped the game after that one right?! Everyone just went to McDonald's to talk about that dunk, and watched it on someone's phone on a loop til the battery ran out.
Cylla, who attends Lake Worth Christian School (Boynton Beach) looks fairly dominant against smaller competition, and definitely has the makings of a D1 player, but right now his offers in the ACC are limited to in-state FSU and Miami. Aside from that the most attractive other offer he has is from Memphis, or maybe Georgia State (where VT transfer Manny Atkins had success after leaving the Hokies). But we can likely expect the list of suitors to grow as more and more recruiters line up at Showtime Ballers games this summer.
Shane Henry To Visit VT
You can read more about Shane Henry here in Cates' excellent profile, but per this tweet response below, he is planning on visiting Blacksburg on the weekend of June 6th.
Shane Henry (6'8/F/2014) of Georgia Perimeter will take an official to Virginia Tech June 6.
— juco offers (@Juco_Offers) May 20, 2014
He was just on his visit to Texas Tech where he partook of Tubby Smith's hospitality. Smart move by Smith getting him in there before the Texas heat begins to bear down and convince him otherwise. I can't even believe there'd be a legitimate hesitation on anyone's choice in choosing between living in Blacksburg, VA and Lubbock, TX. Nonetheless, it's our sincere hope that Shane enjoys his visit and rounds out the 2014 class with his very active inside game.
Stay with us here at Gobbler Country where we try to stay on top of this new higher-level recruiting pool Buzz has tossed us into! Hope you are enjoying the steady content. Think we got another hoop grade for y'all later tonight too....
Mi Cassell es su Cassell.