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Recruiting - 2016


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I think after a year in college that most players have had their eyes open as to how programs work these days. Hence, you get the stat mentioned above of 2 transfers per program. These kids come out of HS and AAU ball thinking the sun rises and sets on them when they are signed. Then reality starts to take hold, ie they may not play much at their school of choice for a host of reasons. In the day and age of "everyone gets a trophy" and instant gratification, it becomes time to look elsewhere for their ego boost. Am sure most coaches know who's happy and who's not, so why not over commit your LOIs to protect your roster?

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I think after a year in college that most players have had their eyes open as to how programs work these days. Hence, you get the stat mentioned above of 2 transfers per program. These kids come out of HS and AAU ball thinking the sun rises and sets on them when they are signed. Then reality starts to take hold, ie they may not play much at their school of choice for a host of reasons. In the day and age of "everyone gets a trophy" and instant gratification, it becomes time to look elsewhere for their ego boost. Am sure most coaches know who's happy and who's not, so why not over commit your LOIs to protect your roster?

I haven't seen any evidence that overcommiting your LOIs actually helps for programs who are not blue bloods. The kid who agrees to be the 14th scholarship at a mid-major program is usually a fringe player himself. You can get those guys anytime, you don't have to sign them in the fall.

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I think after a year in college that most players have had their eyes open as to how programs work these days. Hence, you get the stat mentioned above of 2 transfers per program. These kids come out of HS and AAU ball thinking the sun rises and sets on them when they are signed. Then reality starts to take hold, ie they may not play much at their school of choice for a host of reasons. In the day and age of "everyone gets a trophy" and instant gratification, it becomes time to look elsewhere for their ego boost. Am sure most coaches know who's happy and who's not, so why not over commit your LOIs to protect your roster?

Because of the chilling effect on the bottom half of the roster who think they might be the one without a scholarship the next year. Even with RM (who did not over commit), we were not bringing in Top 100 kids who made huge immediate impact (except, of course, by default when RM ran off the older kids his first year making us have to rely on the youngsters). Instead, our recruits needed time to mature and develop. Our bottom half won't mature and develop as well or as quickly if they are overly worried about their status with the team. Playing time is already incentive enough to play hard and work extra. So then, if Crews tells the 1 or 2 kids who will not be coming back, then yes, the others can relax but now we have 1 or 2 disgruntled kids or cancers on the team/in the locker room. This negativity does not seem like it is worth the incremental benefit of signing an extra kid or 2 in the Fall rather than in the Spring. I am not suggesting that Crews be stuck with underperforming kids or "mistakes" for 4 years -- but just let the kids have that year to improve and/or change -- and if not, let them go in the Spring while you help them find a new team/school and/or guarantee that they can finish their 4 years of academics at SLU (for free) even if not on the team.

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People overrated that factor, big time. It might matter to some of their parents, but the oldest HS kids now were born in 1997. Cheaney was starting his fifth NBA season by then. Hell, I was born in 1983 and only have the faintest memory of Cheaney at Indiana. I remember him more as a couple Washington Bullets trading cards I had.

Does anyone know for sure whether or not Cheaney hits the recruiting trail hard? I admittedly know nothing about this, but it seems to me that it would be difficult to motivate a guy who has lived a catered to NBA lifestyle to suddenly go driving around the Midwest and watch kids play basketball in high school gyms. It seems to me that the best recruiters in college basketball probably don't start out millionaires.

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Does anyone know for sure whether or not Cheaney hits the recruiting trail hard? I admittedly know nothing about this, but it seems to me that it would be difficult to motivate a guy who has lived a catered to NBA lifestyle to suddenly go driving around the Midwest and watch kids play basketball in high school gyms. It seems to me that the best recruiters in college basketball probably don't start out millionaires.

That's an interesting point - motivation. Tanner Bronson and Danny Brown are hungrier than the retired NBA player. At the same time, he has to do his job, and going into Indiana gyms and hobnobbing with coaches has to be easier for Cheaney than almost anyone else in the world.

As to whether he hits it 'hard,' I can't say for sure whether he's more or less present than other NCAA assistants on the trail. I've seen his name plenty on Twitter as being at one open gym or another, sometimes alone, sometimes with Crews or another coach.

(His name can be more challenging in terms of searching than other coaches because most Twitter results aren't about current recruiting, but about past articles and current memorabilia sales.)

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Does anyone know for sure whether or not Cheaney hits the recruiting trail hard? I admittedly know nothing about this, but it seems to me that it would be difficult to motivate a guy who has lived a catered to NBA lifestyle to suddenly go driving around the Midwest and watch kids play basketball in high school gyms. It seems to me that the best recruiters in college basketball probably don't start out millionaires.

There have been numerous reports in the Indy Star of Coach Cheaney watching variuos players. Cheaney's name still has a lot of weight in Indy.

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Back pre-mid 90s, hitting it hard actually mattered. Coaches could outwork other coaches because there was little limit on contact and recruiting periods.

Now I don't know if you can really outwork, it's more that you can't not utilize all your days.

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-was jc fwd Arlando Cook ever on our radar? verbal commits indicates not, he has de-committed from Nevada, 6-9 195 from StL now at Connors State jc

-should he be on our radar now?

6-9 and 195 lbs? Already post high school and still only 195? I am not so sure.

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I think the Arlando Cook actually visited SLU back when he was at Madison. I don't think SLU ever offered him out of high school or JUCO, but they did have contact on both occasions.

We had him on campus a few times when he was at Madison Prep but never offered. He had a few offers out of HS; SIUE, Western Illinois, Tennessee-Martin, and Kent State was the highest-level program to offer. I'm not sure why he went the Juco route instead of one of those. Maybe it was academics, maybe he considered himself a late-bloomer who wanted to be able to transfer more cleanly later. Either way, it's working out for him because the level of programs who have offered has gone way up and he'll be eligible immediately.

I don't know if SLU has a chance to get involved again. If we didn't offer the first time around after being in contact with him, he may not be interested anymore.

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We had him on campus a few times when he was at Madison Prep but never offered. He had a few offers out of HS; SIUE, Western Illinois, Tennessee-Martin, and Kent State was the highest-level program to offer. I'm not sure why he went the Juco route instead of one of those. Maybe it was academics, maybe he considered himself a late-bloomer who wanted to be able to transfer more cleanly later. Either way, it's working out for him because the level of programs who have offered has gone way up and he'll be eligible immediately.

I don't know if SLU has a chance to get involved again. If we didn't offer the first time around after being in contact with him, he may not be interested anymore.

-looks like the kid might have played his cards right, good for him

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FYI: Arlando Cook was 6'8 180 lb as a high school senior.

I hope my commentary wasn't taken as "SLU screwed up on this one." Even if he was eligible coming out of HS, he was a project. Cowboy is right, he played his cards right and developed really well in the past year. Good on him.

How he views SLU now is a mystery to me but the fact that a dozen-plus good programs got involved with his recruitment and SLU was never mentioned after his senior year of HS indicates that he's moved on.

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That's him. He and Tatum have swapped spots within the top 3 of the 2016 class. He was going to be a one-and-done, but this makes the "one" part of that equation interesting. Why commit anywhere if you're going to sit out a year with an injury? Or commit and redshirt somewhere, and then play a season after to prove your stock? His draft stock is going to take a hit either way, but what he does will be very interesting to see.

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That's him. He and Tatum have swapped spots within the top 3 of the 2016 class. He was going to be a one-and-done, but this makes the "one" part of that equation interesting. Why commit anywhere if you're going to sit out a year with an injury? Or commit and redshirt somewhere, and then play a season after to prove your stock? His draft stock is going to take a hit either way, but what he does will be very interesting to see.

He should be able to play next year right? 12 month recovery still puts him on schedule to play the first game

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He should be able to play next year right? 12 month recovery still puts him on schedule to play the first game

Yeah, he'd just miss practice and possibly early games if it were a full tear. But it's being called less serious than that, so he should be all right by the summer. He's making his decision tomorrow. Duke is thought to be the leader and has been all along, but Kentucky has "come on strong lately" - interpret that however you want.

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