NCAA Basketball: Which of the 6 finalists will 2021 wing Brandon Weston pick?
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
New head coach Steve Forbes did a good job trying to rebuild the Wake Forest roster on short notice, including adding a trio of grad transfer shooting guards (Jonah Antonio, Jalen Johnson, and Ian DuBose) for next season. He also brought with him former ETSU combo guard Daivien Williamson, while adding point guard Robert McCray to be the first commit in the 2021 class.
Similar to Pittsburgh, there’s a clear-cut pathway for Weston to play big minutes for an ACC program, one that’s rebuilding and could lose plenty of games more before finally taking that next step. The top-60 prospect could potentially be the focal piece for the Deacons if he wanted to but without other top-tier recruits joining, it’ll be hard to make the case for Weston to pick them.
Western Illinois Leathernecks
After winning just five total games last season, the Summit League program made a coaching change and hired Minnesota assistant Rob Jeter, whose midwest connections immediately came to benefit the team. That included adding Marcus Watson Jr. a former three-star recruit who left Wake Forest after their coaching move.
Adding four-star guard Ramean Hinton also was a noteworthy move, as Coach Jeter’s ability to add power conference-caliber talent has been a major boost in the early months. And with Watson being another former Morgan Park teammate of Weston’s there would be some familiarity for this prospect as well.
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The obvious issue here is whether a top-60 overall recruit will make a decision to go to a rebuilding program in the Summit League. Not only has Western Illinois never made the NCAA Tournament in its 39-year history as a D-I program, but they also haven’t won more than 12 games in eight seasons.
We’ve seen five-star recruits pick mid-major programs before but this would be as big an upset pick as we’ve seen in modern-day history.