Nigel Johnson is a complete two way basketball player on both ends of the court....Parker needs to take his time and get to that point in his career after the knee injury and to me, RU was the perfect place to refine his skills to become that player. A highlight reel waiting to happen really didn't materialize this summer and fall and immensely talented player will need to develop more beyond his freakish athletic ability. I stayed off the other post on why his ranking dropped from 4* to 3*, but he has not completely shown the same flashes he had before the injury....that means other parts of his game need to be reliable beyond his legs.
After watching Johnson practice a couple of weeks ago, RU on paper entered 2016-17 with what I believed would have been 4 true legitimate 2 way guards that could play both ends of the court in Sanders, Johnson, Parker and Mike Williams....they are all a little undersized but not Myles Mack short, but 6'1 to 6'3"...Parker would have been the icing on the cake, making RU a legitimate backcourt that could matchup on paper, short and long term.
This one is a body blow for certain, but make no mistake, Parker while immensely gifted, is not Sanders and not as good as Nigel Johnson is today, This is a shot that hurts the perception of momentum and secured some things that took some of the pressure of what may be another long season this year.....With Parker, you could point to next year as the year where you have a lot of pieces in place, now, we need something along the lines of a Nigel Johnson type transfer/player to replace Parker.
Parker would have been a 3rd piece with Mike Williams and ideally, Parker would have been the longer term guard that with Sanders provides a bridge to a longer term future of what should be better guard play. I believe RU did as much as they could, they waited, worked, worked some more, stayed EXTREMELY patient multiple times this spring and summer and got the verbal. It took longer than it should because other schools just weren't sure about Parker being a little unsure about a lot of things with us and other schools that recruited him as well.......and obviously, in the knee deep pool of recruiting, things always are changing.
Parker (I assume) has other suitors but I'll reserve comments on whether this is a huge hit, by determining whatever else develops between now and spring of 2016. As of today, no spin at all, it's a hit you definitely don't want, but if Sanders and Johnson are 100% the guards to look forward to in 2016-1017 as your starters, mixed with Mike Williams whose development now goes from gradual to now important. RU is back to finding another short term fix (JUCO shooter), or transfer or another guard that can be that 4th player or better in that rotation.
The staff can absorb this hit long term, they just need the right piece and perhaps the recruitment of JUCO Niem Stevenson was a signal that a wing player, longer shooting guard was being considered. It's not sure how players or parents AAU handlers are able to absorb recruiting of other players, but Stevenson apparently was also here for the Ohio State game as well. While I view Stevenson as a wing or Small Forward, he's definitely also capable as a shooting guard as well. I think we offered Parker the fastest path towards playing time as a freshmen, but perhaps earning that time or seeing other pieces targeted, perhaps scared him away......I felt RU held that advantage over Wake Forest, because RU pretty much didn't have the depth recruited as incoming underclassmen like Wake Forest did. Johnson and Williams would have been juniors with Parker arriving as a freshman, so to me it made sense. But at the end of the day, regardless of where a kid like Parker goes, he has to put in the time and compete, if he is going to impact a program the way we hoped/expected. Maybe he reconsiders, maybe the ship has sailed......