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2021 5* UNC Transfer C Walker Kessler (4/12/21: Commits To AU!)


AuburnArch13

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15 offers including: Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Creighton, Florida, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Xavier, Illinois, Memphis, Ole Miss, Saint Johns, Stanford, Texas A&M, and Virginia.

 

Also being recruiting by Kentucky and Duke. 

Not sure how to properly do the 247 profile embed. Any help is appreciated.

Edited by ellitor
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From Keith Niebuhr 

https://247sports.com/Article/Can-Auburn-Tigers-basketball-coach-Bruce-Pearl-land-5-star

If you followed SEC basketball in the 1980s, the name “Kessler” almost certainly rings a bell.

Alec Kessler, a power-forward/center, is one of the legends of Georgia Bulldogs basketball. He not only was an all-conference performer, but left as the program’s all-time leading scorer and was drafted in the first round. His older brother, Chad Kessler, was himself a fine player and led the team in rebounding as as senior. Today, there’s another Kessler — and he’s darn good.

Walker Kessler, a 2020 center and Chad Kessler's son, already is 6-feet-10, 205 pounds and boasts a 5-star rating in the industry generated 247Sports Composite. He’s on the radar of many programs, including Auburn. In fact, Tigers coach Bruce Pearl and the Auburn staff got in on Kessler early. Really early. “I love Auburn,” Kessler told 247Sports’ Billy Embody. “They offered me the first a long time ago out of everyone.”

Even though his father, uncle and older brother played for Georgia, Kessler maintained he is “open to everyone. I’m not just limited to one school.” “I don’t feel any pressure to go there at all,” Kessler said of Georgia. “Obviously, I’m still going to look at it. Coach [Tom] Crean is a great coach, I’m not eliminating it but I’m not just going to go there because my dad went there.”

Kessler claims offers from several SEC schools, along with other nationally known programs such as Virginia and Xavier. Duke, Michigan and North Carolina are three other schools involved.

Per Evan Daniels of 247Sports, Kessler has made unofficial visits to Auburn, Georgia and Vanderbilt and wants to schedule visits to Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and Xavier. “It’s going well,” Kessler said. “Really well. Seeing from all the schools I want to see from. Possibly some new schools I want to see from. Everything is going great.”

As for Auburn, Pearl himself appears to be a big selling point.

“Love Coach Pearl, the program is close to home. And distance isn’t really a big factor for me but still it’s sort of a plus,” Kessler said.

According to Kessler, he is impressed with the Tigers, especially coming off a successful 2017-18 season in which they won the SEC title and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“Love Auburn, love Coach Pearl. And they did great this past year for sure with that program,” Kessler said.

Edited by AuburnArch13
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When was the last time that Auburn had offered a 5* Center and point guard in the same year?. The answer is never Bruce is really working. I don't know if we will get either but I love the fact that we are going after this level of talent and from reading what the players are saying we are in serious consideration. Go get them Bruce and staff.

Edited by AuburnNTexas
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4 hours ago, AuburnArch13 said:

Not sure how to properly do the 247 profile embed. Any help is appreciated

You needed to hit source then  paste The embed code. There was no media frame that needed to be involved.

Also This guy is going to be very tough to land.

Edited by ellitor
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I'm just happy we are in the mix for this type of player to be honest. Not getting my hopes up but the fact that we are even being considered shows how far we have come

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18 hours ago, ellitor said:

You needed to hit source then  paste The embed code. There was no media frame that needed to be involved.

Also This guy is going to be very tough to land.

Hopefully UGA continues to struggle a bit in the SEC and he sees more chance of winning a title at AU

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4 hours ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

Hopefully UGA continues to struggle a bit in the SEC and he sees more chance of winning a title at AU

Don’t think we’ll have to worry as much about UGA as the blue bloods if this kid is truly elite.

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4 hours ago, ellitor said:

Don’t think we’ll have to worry as much about UGA as the blue bloods if this kid is truly elite.

It’ll be an uphill battle for sure. I think it’s somewhat encouraging though that UVA doesn’t appear to have jumped up to the top of his list as soon as they offered, so maybe we can compete with at least some of the blue bloods. I know he’s spoken highly of Kentucky and said that they’d be very much in the picture if they offer. It seems for the moment like they’re more enamoured with N’valy Dante, so maybe we’ll get a little help there. Not sure what the Duke and UNC pictures look like, and granted it’s super early. But it sounds like we’ll have at least a puncher’s chance, which is pretty new territory for us. 

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44 minutes ago, AuburnArch13 said:

 I think it’s somewhat encouraging though that UVA doesn’t appear to have jumped up to the top of his list as soon as they offered, so maybe we can compete with at least some of the blue bloods.

I don’t consider Virginia to be a blue blood. They’ve just recently become good.

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On 8/8/2018 at 11:29 PM, ellitor said:

They’ve just recently become good.

Trying to decide if that's supposed to be a joke. Maybe your definition of "recently" is different from mine. But I agree, they are not a true "blue blood" in the class of UK, UNC, Duke and KU.

 

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10 hours ago, AURex said:

Trying to decide if that's supposed to be a joke. Maybe your definition of "recently" is different from mine. But I agree, they are not a true "blue blood" in the class of UK, UNC, Duke and KU.

 

Right, there are only 4 true blue bloods in basketball. Those 4 programs are both the only ones in D1 with more than 2,000 overall wins and win percentages over .700.

 

For reference, I have only been able to find top 50 wins all time and win percentages and Virginia is on neither list.

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14 hours ago, WDEKC said:

Right, there are only 4 true blue bloods in basketball. Those 4 programs are both the only ones in D1 with more than 2,000 overall wins and win percentages over .700.

 

For reference, I have only been able to find top 50 wins all time and win percentages and Virginia is on neither list.

UCLA has got to be on any list of historical “blue bloods”. With a win percentage just a hair under .700 and with 11 championships, the most all time and as many as Duke and UNC combined, they are arguably the most successful program of all time (though I think I’d give Kentucky that nod). 

As for Virginia, no they aren’t a blue blood in the historical, traditional sense. But with 3 of the last 5 ACC championships, and the #1 overall tournament seed last year, they are certainly one of college basketball’s current powerhouses. 

This was the sentiment that I was trying to get at in the original post where I referenced them. If you were making a list of Kessler’s current “top offers”, they’d probably be up there along with Xavier. But neither school appears to be at the top of his actual list. We don’t know for certain what happens if Kansans, Duke, UNC, or UCLA comes calling (I think if UK wants him they’ll get him). But the evidence we have so far seems to indicate, albeit weakly, that they wouldn’t automatically knock us out of the running.

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Historically you could definitely say UCLA is a blue blood, but of those 11 national champs 10 of them were won over a 12 year period that ended over 40 years ago. Since Wooden retired, I'd put them in the good-great program area and just a tier under elite, but not on the level of the other 4.

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6' 10"/ 205

Lots of room to add muscle.

Right now built like Manute Bol?

 

Stoked to hear he loves us!

Edited by AUGoo
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  • 1 month later...
On 8/14/2018 at 1:59 PM, AUGoo said:

6' 10"/ 205

Lots of room to add muscle.

Right now built like Manute Bol? 

  

Stoked to hear he loves us!

You mean Mamadou N'Diaye.

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  • 7 months later...

Well this is interesting. Hooks says getting Justin Powell yesterday supposedly

Quote

has big Kessler implications which are very good.

IDK. A lot of what I've read lately has the Dukie's trending for Kessler.

Edited by ellitor
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Kid may have to make a decision soon with Cliff Omoruyi on campus soon. It’s kind of like Hooks said that we now have to ability to pressure five star guys to commit or get off the pot. Still think Bruce takes 2 big men but one will probably be Rongie Gordon

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Well this just got interesting.  

I have heard the word “Auburn” in the same sentence as the words “Duke” and “Kentucky” in the context of basketball an awful lot lately.  

That is something I never expected, but it is AUsome!!!

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1 hour ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Stephen Hooks > the field 

He gets great info but it's not always on point cuz as Gene said he can be a homer at times.

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