Gregory's call made Emanuel Sharp 'feel good'
Since the clock struck midnight on June 15, Emanuel Sharp’s phone has been ringing off the hook with college coaches hoping to get in touch with him.
Texas Tech was the first to call, followed by texts from Georgia Tech, Georgia, Ohio State and Florida State. Each of those schools made contact with Sharp by 12:50 a.m. By lunch time Sharp had heard from SMU, Houston (head coach Kelvin Sampson), USF (head coach Brian Gregory) and Florida.
Calls and texts kept coming the rest of the day including one from Rick Pitino at Iona, in the afternoon, and offer from Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner at after 10:30 p.m.
Sharp, the No. 54 ranked prospect in the Rivals150 for the 2022 class, told BullsInsider.com that the conversation he had with Gregory made him feel “good.”
“It lets me know that he really cares,” said Sharp. “He called to check up on me even though he already offered. He just wanted to see how I was doing, how I was doing during the break with this pandemic, and it was really nice to know that he personally called me to see how I was.”
We asked Sharp, a four-star shooting guard, what it was like to finally have direct contact with Division I coaches.
“It feels great. I’ve been waiting for this day. I didn’t actually know it was going to be this hectic. I thought it was just going to be a few coaches calling me. I didn’t know it would be a bunch of coaches contacting me and it feels good to know that I’m being recognized by other coaches.
Between high school games, Nike EYBL games, camps and playing for the Israeli National Team in the FIBA U16 European Championship in Italy; Sharp played a basketball game every month from November 2018 to August 2019 and with quite a bit of travel to boot. Then it was workouts and open gyms in September, Fall League in October and then in November his 2019-2020 season began.
So the “break” Sharp is getting now, due to the global pandemic, is somewhat appreciated by the rising junior.
“It’s year round,” Sharp said about his basketball schedule. “Most of the players never really get a break. I know I was exhausted at the end of the summer last year. So, like, this break I can work on what I really need to work on instead of constant basketball, basketball, basketball. Now, I can sit down and really, like, look at the things I need to improve on like my body or whatever. Now, I can work on that and then come into the next season prepared.
Sharp has transferred from Blake High School to Bishop McLaughlin as have his Blake teammate Anthony Davis Jr. and Sickles forward Dillon Mitchell.
“We haven’t gone to see the rest of my teammates because of the break. We haven’t been practicing because we’re trying to (social) distance ourselves as much as possible, but we’ve gone into the gym, at least, to get shots up and stuff.
RUSS’ REACTION
As we reported on Sunday, we expected USF to call Sharp on the first day they were allowed to -- and they did. Scott Wagers is leading the Bulls’ recruitment efforts to land Sharp but each member of the coaching staff went out to see Sharp play at some point this season. Strap yourself in because there is a long way to go in Sharp’s recruitment but Gregory and his staff have been building a relationship with him, his father/H.S. coach Derrick – who played for the Bulls from 1991 to 1993 – and his mom Justine in an effort to keep Emanuel in Tampa.