Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Menzies finds success in recruiting, lands key prospects Amauri Hardy, Shakur Juiston

One day earlier, McDonald’s All-American Brandon McCoy also committed to the Rebels’ second-year coach

UNLV Basketball Versus Wyoming

L.E. Baskow

UNLV head coach Marvin Menzies does his best to keep his players dialed in versus Wyoming during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016.

Updated Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | 5:33 p.m.

Less than 24 hours after securing a game-changing commitment from Class of 2017 center Brandon McCoy, UNLV announced the signing of two more impact recruits in Amauri Hardy and Shakur Juiston.

McCoy, Hardy and Juiston have all signed letters of intent, and at a Wednesday afternoon press conference head coach Marvin Menzies said it was a significant day for the program.

"I'm really proud of my staff. I think that we collectively have done a phenomenal job in this late signing period of putting together a group of young men that are really, really going to be good for us," Menzies said. "Because of the character of the young men we're bringing in, the athleticism, the versatility, [they'll give us] the ability to win soon."

Hardy, a 6-foot-3 point guard from Michigan, scored nearly 30 points per game for his high school team last season. Juiston is a 6-foot-7 power forward who led his junior college team to a national championship last season while posting 17.3 points and 12.1 rebounds per game and earning Player of the Year honors.

UNLV also announced that already-committed recruits Mbacke Diong, Tervell Beck and Anthony Smith have signed letters of intent.

Buzz is back

It was known that the Rebels were close on Hardy and Juiston, but nailing them down on the same day — and so shortly after McCoy's commitment — is a huge boost for UNLV. A program that was bereft of talent 12 months ago now finds itself with a five-star center (McCoy), a four-star point guard (Hardy), a juco Player of the Year (Juiston) and a four-star power forward (Diong) all coming in as part of the same recruiting class. Add them to former top-30 prospect Dwayne Morgan, an experienced point guard in Jordan Johnson and last year's leading scorer in Jovan Mooring, and all of a sudden UNLV has a very talented roster in place for the 2017-18 season.

Expectations will rise accordingly, and Menzies understands that. On Wednesday, he was already embracing the positive buzz and imploring fans to buy season tickets. This is a team that has all the parts necessary to contend for a Mountain West title, and considering where UNLV was at this time last year, that's an amazing feat. Give credit for Menzies and his staff for getting McCoy, Hardy and Juiston to buy in to the rebuilding effort.

Recruiting momentum

Momentum is a hotly debated topic in sports, with a lot of skeptics who doubt its existence on the field of play. But momentum absolutely exists in recruiting, and the Rebels have a ton of it right now.

Landing McCoy was the big domino. Getting a Top-10 caliber player to commit makes UNLV a more acceptable destination among other elite recruits, and Menzies admitted as much on Wednesday when he said that McCoy's pledge "undoubtedly played a big role" in getting Juiston and Hardy to commit. Now, Menzies will turn to the Classes of 2018, 2019 and 2020 to try to keep the positive vibes going. The Rebels are targeting blue-chip players in each of those classes, and given Menzies' prowess on the recruiting trail, it's reasonable to expect more prep stars to follow in the Las Vegas-bound footsteps of McCoy, Hardy and Juiston.

Scholarship math

Menzies said he is now finished recruiting for the Class of 2017, but that doesn't mean the roster is set just yet. UNLV currently has 14 players under scholarship for next year, one over the NCAA limit of 13. That means the Rebels will have to free up a scholarship somehow.

On Wednesday, Menzies said there were options for making the numbers work, including asking a current player to give up his scholarship and pay his way through school for a year. The more likely route is another transfer; the Rebels have already seen three players leave the program this offseason (Jalen Poyser, Troy Baxter and Zion Morgan), and now that the talent level has been upgraded significantly, bench players such as Djordjije Sljivancanin or Ben Coupet could choose to leave for a situation that promises more playing time.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy