Temple Basketball: 3 decommited players McKie should target for 2019 recruiting class

With several formerly committed players announcing their intention to reopen their recruitment, these are some players Temple basketball should target this off-season.

With the usual coaching carousel going on around college hoops, the committed players recruited by terminated coaches and their staffs begin to announce their decisions reopen their recruitment. These kids become major stories throughout March and April every season, but this year offers a particular opportunity for Temple Basketball to make another pitch to players it initially missed out on, and to go after other big names that are back on the market.

Josh Pierre-Louis

Does that name ring a bell? Josh is Temple guard Nate’s younger brother. Josh, despite being recruited by Temple and given the opportunity to join his brother on North Broad, chose to commit to Marvin Menzies and UNLV. Menzies was terminated by UNLV last week, and Josh announced his intention to reopen his recruitment shortly thereafter. I’m not sure whether Josh doesn’t want to stay local, or if he wants to get out from his older brother’s shadow, or if he is willing to hear another pitch from Aaron McKie and the Owls. What I do know is that his stock has skyrocketed during his senior season, and he’ll likely have plenty of high-major offers this spring.

Hakim Hart

The Roman Catholic product was committed to Phil Martelli and St. Joseph’s before it was announced Martelli was let go last week. It’s reported he’s open to recommitting to the Hawks, and he’ll probably be the first contact made by any newly hired coach on Hawk Hill. If Hart decides to look elsewhere, it’s probably down to Temple, just up Broad Street from his current campus, or Penn State, who has a strong pipeline from Roman.

Elijah Wood

The four-star guard was committed to play for Mike Dunleavy at Tulane before his departure from the school. Wood is a DC area product, and although Temple wasn’t in on him during his initial recruitment process, they could be in a good position to make him a pitch; he was already committed to an AAC school, so he’s clearly willing to play in the league, and Temple is the closest conference school to his hometown. Wood is obviously much less likely to land with Temple than the first two players highlighted, and I might be making deductions based on completely irrelevant factors, but I don’t see a reason for McKie not to gauge his interest.

A couple more players that Temple might want to take a look at that either have or might unexpectedly hit the market are Penn State commit Seth Lundy and LSU commit James Bishop.

It seems unlikely that Pat Chambers will be let go by Penn State, so Lundy’s commitment, one brought by that Penn State/Roman Catholic pipeline, is probably safe. But with all of the controversy surrounding Will Wade, the only thing certain about LSU hoops right now is that they’ll be playing this weekend. James Bishop was recruited by the Owls before he committed to Wade and the Tigers. Temple was in on both players the first time around.