Why do we have trouble landing a top tier shooting guard?!?
Wafer, Weber, Morrow, Neal, Gee all lost.
We run an up tempo offense that allows all the freedom and shots you could want from the 2G. Our coach hardly ever pulls anyone on shot selection. Our shooting guards are always in the top 10 in the nation in 3 point shot attempts. We have all the minutes you could want starting next year and yet we can not land a top 50 shooting guard. Please explain this to me.
Good question ShowDawg. You’d think the Niner program would be a shooting guard’s dream. Maybe this is too much of a generalistic observation, but it seems over the past decade that the college game is less and less dependant on big men. It’s become a guard’s game, so good guards (particularly shooters) are becoming more and more sought after. For schools like Charlotte in terms of recruiting power, the day of the big center are basically over thanks to the NBA. Heck, even the Dukes of the world can’t land a big guy without the NBA ruining it. Therefore the quality of the backcourt becomes critical.
Supply and demand. In general, we just don’t command enough power in the demand side of the equation yet. Maybe with a couple of Sweet 16 runs in the next few years that will change.
I don’t think most of the high schoolers you mentioned take the time to figure all of those details out. They choose based on reputation, and who’s on TV. I believe that our coaches try to sell those points you listed, but with kids they don’t always care. We got Alexander from OU. I don’t know exactly how, but I would bet that he understood how much shooting freedom he would get here, or at least he was told by someone. Plav, and now Alexander, have both come to us via transfer, so somebody has figured it out. We just have to try to make these good high school 2-guards figure it out sooner so we’ll have them for four years.
X - I’ll be shocked if Alexander plays more than 5 mpg as our 2G, unless we have no other options. He’s a 3 in the Basden mold.
I don’t wanna say the obvious, 'cause I hate the negativity, but you have to figure our conference affiliation is being used against us.
And it doesn’t amke a bit of sense. The A10 has its own TV contract so its players are seen all over the media intense east coast (especially the NE), the best teams have had a lot of success in the NCAA tournament very recently, it has John Chaney and Temple’s tradition, and last, but certainly not least, David West & Jameer Nelson, national POYs.
It might not get as much hype as the football conferences, but c’mon, those are all great conference selling points.
It seems that the key to getting talent for us is the volume and availability of in state talent. If there are many in state, then we are going to get one or two and those are usually our stars/players even if we send them to JC first.
The last few years there was many and we were able to land guys like Withers, Drayton, Grier etc… The class those guys came from was awesome for in state talent. If Grier would of stayed for example, 4 of our top 6/7 would of been from in state.
Right now it seems like the state is lacking, hopefully that will change in the next few years.
Having grown up and watched a lot of basketball in the Phila area, I was overjoyed that we are going to the A10. Don’t know how many of you have ever heard of a Phila guard. We are going to play at least 3 Phila schools in A10. If we can dominate, our guard problems will be solved. Hopefully, we will attract a good or several good Phila guards.
[b]X - I'll be shocked if Alexander plays more than 5 mpg as our 2G, unless we have no other options. He's a 3 in the Basden mold.[/b]
If everybody that we expect to depart actually does, I would say you’re probably right. Our size could be an issue if that’s the case. If Withers stays next year, Alexander will see more time at the two than he would otherwise. E.J. would be the full-time 3 if that were to happen. I know it may be a pipe dream that Withers/Iti stays, but you never know.
[i]Originally posted by NinerAdvocate[/i]@Aug 27 2004, 07:12 AM [b] The A10 has its own TV contract so its players are seen all over the media intense east coast (especially the NE), the best teams have had a lot of success in the NCAA tournament very recently, it has John Chaney and Temple's tradition, and last, but certainly not least, David West & Jameer Nelson, national POYs.It might not get as much hype as the football conferences, but c’mon, those are all great conference selling points. [/b]