Long time viewer, first time poster.
Wanted to give some context to the Gach conversation and his lack of recruitment from the U out of high school. (I am from Austin). He was an absolute superstar in high school. He and his twin brother were stand outs, both incredibly athletic, very skilled but rail thin at that age (freshman-junior years).
Both was pretty clearly a level or two better than his brother but the two together were lethal. If you get the chance to google them, they put on a show at Target Center his junior year against a very good Marshall team. Throwing fast break alley oops off the back board in transition, it was something.
As for the “character issues” this would be news to me and anyone in Austin. They did however, have widely known academic issues. Two different things. Neither was going to academically qualify as was. Thus, Both made the difficult decision to leave Austin and go to prep school in AZ. That allowed him the opportunity to get proper nutrition, weight room, etc. He also was able to get his grades right. Was widely considered a mid-major kid if he could quality but bulked up substantially in AZ. At that time, some P5 interest started to come and landed at Utah.
As for AAU, he was largely under the radar. Austin is two hours from the Twin Cities and his family had very limited resources. He had bounced around on some elite teams but clearly had some disadvantages out of his own control.
In Austin, many of the athletes do not have access to proper nutrition, etc. Fads (Head Coach) would keep a loaf of bread and peanut butter in his office just so they would have something to eat.
Anyway... I saw him last summer and he was huge, physically imposing, legit 6 foot 6 and thick. He’s matured into a man. I get the sense he would like to come back and being close to his family that still resides in Austin.
247sports.com
