1111 Vickroy wrote:

So where does this leave Carry"s brother?

I get the feeling Sincere's brother was brought on, just like John Carroll wasted a scholarship on Justin Stright, son of JO Stright, in a futile attempt to get Danny Fortson to come here.  
 

We don't know with any certainty that Bekelja was on scholarship. Oh I know, he was announced as part of the 2020 recruiting class, signed an LOI, etc. But prior to Norman and Carry leaving, we were two over on scholarships. Even VerbalCommits had us at that, the only A10 school they had over the scholarship limit. So two kids we thought were on scholarship are actually walk-ons (although whether they've since been put on scholarship is a fair question). I suspect Bekelja is one and Mounir Hima, whose signing was never announced and who was always going to be a project (didn't even start on his high school team) is the other. I don't know what his status is, but pretty sure he was in street clothes for the Fordham game. 

I saw all those reports on who had offered him, Phil. I tend to take them with a grain of salt. Here's what his profile on his AAU team's Facebook page said:Made official visits to Rhode Island and UMass.Also considered VCU, Pitt and Texas A&M.

No doubt he got a lot of attention, he's a 6-11 kid who played two years at NJ's top-ranked HS basketball program and one of the top programs in the country. But he's a very raw talent, grew up playing soccer in Africa, still relatively new to the game of basketball. Given that he committed to Duquesne so late in the recruiting process, it's hard for me to believe he really had those other offers. Unless he kept waiting for something better and eventually lost out on them. Regardless, we were one-over on scholarships as it was when he announced he had committed to Duquesne. The school never announced his signing. And now he's yet to see the court and didn't even dress for the last game. Sure seems like he walked on at least to start.

On a side note, Mounir was featured in the docuseries Benedict Men. I believe it's on Quibi if anyone subscribes to that.

 

DennisC91 wrote:

We don't know with any certainty that Bekelja was on scholarship. Oh I know, he was announced as part of the 2020 recruiting class, signed an LOI, etc. But prior to Norman and Carry leaving, we were two over on scholarships. Even VerbalCommits had us at that, the only A10 school they had over the scholarship limit. So two kids we thought were on scholarship are actually walk-ons (although whether they've since been put on scholarship is a fair question). I suspect Bekelja is one and Mounir Hima, whose signing was never announced and who was always going to be a project (didn't even start on his high school team) is the other. I don't know what his status is, but pretty sure he was in street clothes for the Fordham game. 

Without any sort of official verification, I have no doubt Hima is a walk-on. The coaches were very careful about talking about him before he enrolled, he never signed an LOI, and like you mentioned we were over the limit. Bekelja on the other hand signed an LOI, which means he can't walk-on. Quoting directly from the LOI website: "At the time I sign this NLI, I must receive a written offer of athletics financial aid for the entire academic year from the institution named in this document. The offer must list the terms, conditions and amount of the athletics aid award." 

DennisC91 wrote:

You're absolutely right about what an NLI entails, Lucky. The question is did he actually sign one that went through the NCAA clearinghouse or did Duquesne just put that in a press release?

If he didn't sign an LOI, then Duquesne committed a different NCAA violation. Coaches can't talk about a recruit by name until they sign their LOI. In the release announcing the signed LOIs:"Mike has a burning desire to be great," said Dambrot. "He really wants to prove people wrong. He's very similar to his brother in that respect. He's physically strong and has a good skill level in addition to good shooting ability. He's just a winner." The only exception would be if  "the institution receives his or her financial deposit in response to its offer of admission" but that would be pretty unlikely in April before freshman year while he was still in prep school. Notice that when Hima committed no one from the university discussed him. Any quotes were directly from Hima.