Gotta love all these guys we’re after. Different philosophy from what we’ve been used to and very interesting.
From what I have observed…
Old: More focused on A list, neglected B list, and settled for C list.
New: Cast a big net and if your A list doesn’t come, the B list might. I think it also is about hustle. Not saying the old staff didn’t but making basically every game TL has played this summer is pretty unbelievable.
Can’t say that I agree. I’ve withheld my opinions on Major’s recruiting because it’s way too early to criticize or praise. But if Coach Chris Mack arrived at Xavier and said that the Musketeers were going to be less selective in their recruiting - I don’t think it would go over too well with fans. I do agree with the last part and it’s very cool that we are putting a lot of effort into landing TL. That excites me more than casting a big net and giving out offers to 20 Jerrell Lewises as our Plan B
Lets just wait and see what kind of kids actually sign for 2011 before we assign grades. His 1st real class will be very important. So far, we’ve got Mayfield on deck.
I think early on you see everyone you can and then you become more selective. Remember, we have 5 to give next year.
Just as a quick follow-up, I know that La Salle’s coach always impresses me by not showing any intimidation from state (or city) rival schools by going out and signing a 4-star or 5-star kid each year. Yet, Temple’s Fran Dunphy wins each year by evaluating and targeting the underappreciated 2-star like Dionte Christmas. Now, if Coach Major wins by recruiting like Dunphy I will honor our coach with pride - but just like with Christmas/Dunphy, it will take time to know how well Major did (or didn’t do) with his recruiting. Right now, we have Voncina, Mayfield, and two open schollies under Major. That’s it. It’s too premature to judge one way or the other. But I’ll also say this: I noticed this morning that one of our recruiting targets under Major is about to decide upon the University of Saskatchawan! That’s not even an ncaa school! (since it’s in Canada and all) I just hope that we’re not being all willy nilly about who we target.
Who beside Aaric Murray has Dr. G signed at the 4-star and 5-star level?
Run - I’m on my phone so I can’t look it up easily. But by memory - I know the Miss St transfer was once a Top 50 or so kid, Jerrell Williams was a 4 star, and Dr. G got a verbal from a 4 star pg a year or two ago that didn’t pan out. How sad is it that I can recall La Salle recruiting by memory?!? That does it! I’m hitting the bars tonight and I’m going to pretend that I’m not a sad, pathetic recruiting nerd.
[quote=“survivor45, post:7, topic:23623”]Run - I’m on my phone so I can’t look it up easily. But by memory - I know the Miss St transfer was once a Top 50 or so kid, Jerrell Williams was a 4 star, and Dr. G got a verbal from a 4 star pg a year or two ago that didn’t pan out. How sad is it that I can recall La Salle recruiting by memory?!?[/quote]Not sure I would count Vernon Goodridge as a 4/5-star signing since La Salle took him as a transfer who underperformed at MSU and pretty much disappointed in his one season at La Salle. Looked up Jerrell Williams and Nurideen Lindsay - both 3-star per Rivals and 2-star per Scout.
I agree that Dr. G doesn’t shy away from recruiting, but Murray has been his only notable signing at La Salle. Does a good job of attracting 3-star players and finding an unheralded one in Rodney Green who turned out to be an All-A-10 performer.
who just decided on the university of saschawan(spelling)?
bigfoot
This is true…but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to debate in the meantime.
Can't say that I agree. I've withheld my opinions on Major's recruiting because it's way too early to criticize or praise. But if Coach Chris Mack arrived at Xavier and said that the Musketeers were going to be less selective in their recruiting - I don't think it would go over too well with fans. I do agree with the last part and it's very cool that we are putting a lot of effort into landing TL. That excites me more than casting a big net and giving out offers to 20 Jerrell Lewises as our Plan B
I think the whole point of Lefty’s post was that Jerrell Lewis would be considered a Plan C guy, and we hope to avoid him, Tyler Best, etc… (although Lewis was decently rated I believe, he just didn’t fit in).
The general feeling around here, whether based in reality or not, seemed to be that Lutz and co. would target 4 and 5 star guys heavily, we would lose out on 99% of them and then we would be left scrambling to fill scholarships. It seems thus far that Major and co. are casting a wider net early on so when the 4 and 5 star guys don’t work out, we aren’t left scrambling because we have been working the 3 star guys the whole time.
Again, a lot of this might just be that we have moss keeping track of recruiting (and, as he points out, Twitter helps tremendously) so we are seeing more names than we have in the past few years since bhl (or blh?) stopped heavily tracking recruiting here, but it is really hard to argue with the countless names we are after at this point. They range from multiple top 100 guys to 2 star/unranked guys, on the surface it appears as though Major is covering all the bases.
A couple of hilarious scenes in Grown Ups that reference Saskatoon, which is where the U of S is located. FWIW, Saskatchewan Huskies were the 2010 national champs in Canadian college hoops. Like the Niners, colors also green and white.
I read seveal years ago that Lutz narrowed his recruiting to 6-8 players and tried to focus all his energy on these players. The problems that we all know is that we missed so many times and was left with Plan C players that did not work out. I would rather be like Temple and get several of 3 star recruits that can play together, then what we have had over the past several years.
[quote=“woodniner, post:13, topic:23623”]I read seveal years ago that Lutz narrowed his recruiting to 6-8 players and tried to focus all his energy on these players. The problems that we all know is that we missed so many times and was left with Plan C players that did not work out. I would rather be like Temple and get several of 3 star recruits that can play together, then what we have had over the past several years.[/quote]This definitely seemed to be the case, hence falling back on Jucos, but it’s hard to be 100% certain about it.
Jamelle aka ‘Bigfoot’, aka ‘Sasquatch’ Barrett was the kid I was thinking of. I probably shouldn’t have said anything - I know when I saw that he was ‘90% sure that he would pick U of S’, I did think to myself that that was a little too embarrassing to bring up on the board. Oops. Forget I said anything.
Run - I’d bet money that Jerrell Williams was once a 4 star. I remember my “Wow - La Salle is battling with Marquette for a 4-star” turned into “WOW! La Salle beat out Marquette for a 4-star!” (It kinda helped that La Salle had also signed Jerrell’s identical twin to a schollie). I’d also bet money that Ge’Lawn Guyn was a Top 150 kid when Lutz got a verbal from him - but I know recruiting rankings are constantly changing and I have no idea where Guyn is ranked at the moment. I have no way to prove it except for the recollections of my own faulty, alcohol-soaked memory.
I’m pretty sure that Lindsey (the La Salle pg) was among the best commits to the A10 at one time. It was something like Aaric (also to La Salle), Braswell, Vinson, a couple players I’m forgetting and then the La Salle pg. I want to say that he was a Top 20 pg when La Salle got him but I simply don’t remember for sure.
Dr. G’s recruiting stands out. He can do a better job than I could ever do at landing high profile recruits at La Salle (which is also why he gets paid more than I do). Chris Mack’s recruiting stands out, too (as well as all of his predecessors at Xavier). Unlike his Philly neighbor Dr. G, Fran Dunphy knows how to win with his modestly rated recruits. Dunphy has a rare ability to know that Dionte Christmas is actually a 4 or a 5 star talent (which is the reason why he gets paid more than the fools at rivals or scout that graded Dionte Christmas as a two star recruit).
I hope than Coach Major will likewise soon be recognized as a brilliant recruiter, too. But I just don’t know enough about him yet to give him praise or not.
To the original point of the thread, it’s obvious that Lefty prefers the ‘shotgun’ approach over the ‘rifle’ approach to recruiting. I really don’t care - just as long as whatever weapon you use gets the job done. It’s too early to stand up and applaud Major for ‘getting the job done’ in July when the man got hired in April. Let’s wait and see if his shotgun approach works, first.
Did anyone expect anything different out of a brand new HC & staff?
Gotta completely develop their network and see lots of kids.
Its easy to recruit when the program& coach are known commodities. Lots of stability there and a well defined and developed pipeline.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:16, topic:23623”]Did anyone expect anything different out of a brand new HC & staff?
Gotta completely develop their network and see lots of kids.
Its easy to recruit when the program& coach are known commodities. Lots of stability there and a well defined and developed pipeline.[/quote]
Great point. His method’s will evolve over the next few years.
[quote=“survivor45, post:15, topic:23623”]Run - I’d bet money that Jerrell Williams was once a 4 star. I remember my “Wow - La Salle is battling with Marquette for a 4-star” turned into “WOW! La Salle beat out Marquette for a 4-star!” (It kinda helped that La Salle had also signed Jerrell’s identical twin to a schollie). I’d also bet money that Ge’Lawn Guyn was a Top 150 kid when Lutz got a verbal from him - but I know recruiting rankings are constantly changing and I have no idea where Guyn is ranked at the moment. I have no way to prove it except for the recollections of my own faulty, alcohol-soaked memory.
I’m pretty sure that Lindsey (the La Salle pg) was among the best commits to the A10 at one time. It was something like Aaric (also to La Salle), Braswell, Vinson, a couple players I’m forgetting and then the La Salle pg. I want to say that he was a Top 20 pg when La Salle got him but I simply don’t remember for sure.
Dr. G’s recruiting stands out. He can do a better job than I could ever do at landing high profile recruits at La Salle (which is also why he gets paid more than I do).[/quote]
Survivor, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I think Dr. G does a good job of finding fairly decent 2- and 3-star players willing to play at La Salle in that excuse for an arena. He got lucky with Murray, who will probably be gone to the NBA after this coming season.
When I went back to look at the official announcements of signings since Dr. G took over in August 2004, there are quite a number of names that either never played a game or left after a season: Karon Burton, Nurideen Lindsay, Kyle Griffin, Marshall Taylor, T.T. Carey, Brian Grimes, Jameson Keefe, Parish Grant, David Baroum, and Darryl Partin.
I would think that if Dr. G were consistently pulling in 4- and 5-star talent and not even whiffing the NIT, much less an NCAA bid, then he’d be gone by now.
Anyway, keep on posting!
I guess a number of posters expected Major to bring several recruits with him from Ohio St., and the assistants from their colleges. That rarely seems to work when coaches are coming from big programs going to smaller programs, but it will often work in reverse (going small to big).
This first class is not going to be Major’s make-or-break class in my view. That will come over the next 2 or 3 years. If he can show progress on the court with the current players and progress in recruiting in the next 2 to 3 years, he will probably end up getting retained. The current players should give him a shot at showcasing the program, as long as he is able to smoothly transition from the older coaches (not always easy coming after someone that wasn’t a strong disciplinarian).
Jerrell Lewis is often thrown out as the waste of a scholarship, but he never really got a chance to do much. The short leash he was on was mystifying to me (not knowing what was going on in practices of course). There must have been some bad blood there somewhere.
[quote=“9erken, post:19, topic:23623”]I guess a number of posters expected Major to bring several recruits with him from Ohio St., and the assistants from their colleges. That rarely seems to work when coaches are coming from big programs going to smaller programs, but it will often work in reverse (going small to big).
This first class is not going to be Major’s make-or-break class in my view. That will come over the next 2 or 3 years. If he can show progress on the court with the current players and progress in recruiting in the next 2 to 3 years, he will probably end up getting retained. The current players should give him a shot at showcasing the program, as long as he is able to smoothly transition from the older coaches (not always easy coming after someone that wasn’t a strong disciplinarian).
Jerrell Lewis is often thrown out as the waste of a scholarship, but he never really got a chance to do much. The short leash he was on was mystifying to me (not knowing what was going on in practices of course). There must have been some bad blood there somewhere.[/quote]
Lutz doghouse was one of the more frustrating things about his tenure.