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Recruiting - 2018 class


NextYearBill

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Top 300 to Top 100 to Top 50 describes the evolution of Gonzaga's recruiting over the last 15 years. They started out winning with unheralded recruits like Casey Calvary. A few years later they were able to bring in a top 150 guy like Adam Morrison . A few years later they were bringing in their fair share of top 100 recruits. In the last couple of years they've been able to recruit on equal footing with the Pac 12 powers for top 50 players. Some folks to want to skip right to the Top 50 recruiting without going through the first two stages first.

We started the first stage. Mitchell, Loe, Evans, etc. We just never continued it into the second.

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We started the first stage. Mitchell, Loe, Evans, etc. We just never continued it into the second.

Yeah, this. Weren't we already getting it done with top 100-150 guys? Three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and then our talent level dropped off precipitously. We should already be at the stage where we aren't hesitant to offer top-50 local kids. The regression is unacceptable.

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I've heard from Vianney people that he's heading back there. Played all of his high school summer ball with the Griffins.

So what's the deal here? I heard the Webster Groves rumor a few weeks back, then that it was a done deal, then that people aren't so sure, and now that he's going back to Vianney. I guess the more correct thing to do is list him under his last school attended unless we can confirm otherwise. I'll show him as attending Vianney on the next update.

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Yeah, this. Weren't we already getting it done with top 100-150 guys? Three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and then our talent level dropped off precipitously. We should already be at the stage where we aren't hesitant to offer top-50 local kids. The regression is unacceptable.

We might want to keep in mind our head coach got sick then died. Plus his last two recruiting classes were not good. It left the basketball program in a tough situation.

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So....that makes it okay? Because it started to tail off when Majerus was still around and he's no longer with us? Some of the guys on the current staff worked for Majerus. And Majerus didn't do much on the recruiting trail himself.

I don't buy the excuses.

We shouldn't be afraid to offer 15-year-old basketball players from our own area, regardless of how good people think they're going to be. That's ridiculous. Some of them are probably better than the guys we have now. "Hey, want minutes right away on a D-I team in your hometown in front of 10,000 people?" I'd have to think that's appealing to some kids.

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Just so I know. When are we allowed to start judging Crews' ability to coach and recruit? It's 100% his team now. The Majerus excuse is tiring. Coming off back to back A10 titles, multiple weeks in the top 10, 3 ncaa tourney victories, 2 A10 COY awards and a national COY award, I would think that would be able to offset the death of Majerus and that we should be able to bring in 4 year impact guys such as Mitchell, Jett, Evans, McCall, Loe, Ellis. Also which years of Crews' career can we look at? Only the two good years at SLU or can we look at Evansville and Army too?

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We shouldn't be afraid to offer 15-year-old basketball players from our own area, regardless of how good people think they're going to be. That's ridiculous. Some of them are probably better than the guys we have now. "Hey, want minutes right away on a D-I team in your hometown in front of 10,000 people?" I'd have to think that's appealing to some kids.

I'm just saying that Gonzaga didn't even bother offering elite local recruits when they were building their program. If your philosophy is different, that's fine.

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How many "elite local" recruits are in Spokane? I'll even throw in eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Northwestern Montana to give you a greater metro. (Seattle is 4 hours west.)

The Gonzaga analogy doesn't really work for me.

Rick didn't help us with his failing health and some weak players on the way out. But how has Crews not picked up the slack at all since then?

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How many "elite local" recruits are in Spokane? I'll even throw in eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Northwestern Montana to give you a greater metro. (Seattle is 4 hours west.)

The Gonzaga analogy doesn't really work for me.

Rick didn't help us with his failing health and some weak players on the way out. But how has Crews not picked up the slack at all since then?

Xavier is really the model. I don't want to be like Dayton. They had a flukey Tourney run a couple years ago, but we should aspire to be better and more consistent. Butler I'm not convinced is sustainable in the post-Stevens era.

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I think we have a unique situation but right now the path I think we're closest to going down is SIUC. They had a great stretch that was even better that ours, but they faded fast. Lowery did work with Weber/Painter's players and his first recruiting class or so and then he showed what kind of coach he really was and SIUC didn't give up on him fast enough.

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Xavier is really the model. I don't want to be like Dayton. They had a flukey Tourney run a couple years ago, but we should aspire to be better and more consistent. Butler I'm not convinced is sustainable in the post-Stevens era.

Xavier is the same deal, but an even longer cycle. Years of winning with top 300 players (like a decade of winning), followed by the occasional Top 150 recruit. After 25 years of consistent winning and an upgrade in conference affiliation, they regularly land top 150 players, but the majority of their roster is still composed of top 300 types. I don't think they've managed to snag a top 50 recruit yet.

Dayton is recruiting at a slightly higher level than we are. The difference is that Dayton's program has an identity and they recruit to that identity. We, on the other hand, were recruiting a mishmash of players that really didn't fit into a motion offense. The staff has finally picked up on that fact. Every "Plan B" recruit the staff has offered since last year is a good shooter, a good passer and ballhandler for their position and has at least decent athleticism. Some of them even have experience using, gasp, screens.

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Looking at scout, Xavier recruits at a pretty high level:

2014 - 4 4-stars (Bluiett, Macura, London, and Sumner) and 2 3-stars (O'Mara, Austin)

2013 - 1 4-star (Randolph) and 1 3-star (Richards)

2012 - 1 5-star (Semaj Christon), 1 4-star (Jalen Reynolds), and 2 3-stars (Myles Davis, Farr)

2011 - 2 4-stars (Dez Wells, Dee Davis)

2010 - 3 4-stars (Justin Martin, Canty, Latham) and 1 3-star (McKenzie)

2009 - 1 3-star (Robinson)

2008 - 1 4-stars (Frease) and 4 3-stars (Lyons, Holloway, Redford, Walsch)

That is 24 commitments with 1 5-star, 12 4-stars, and 11 3-stars. I would say that is more than the occasional top 150 recruit.

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Looking at scout, Xavier recruits at a pretty high level:

2014 - 4 4-stars (Bluiett, Macura, London, and Sumner) and 2 3-stars (O'Mara, Austin)

2013 - 1 4-star (Randolph) and 1 3-star (Richards)

2012 - 1 5-star (Semaj Christon), 1 4-star (Jalen Reynolds), and 2 3-stars (Myles Davis, Farr)

2011 - 2 4-stars (Dez Wells, Dee Davis)

2010 - 3 4-stars (Justin Martin, Canty, Latham) and 1 3-star (McKenzie)

2009 - 1 3-star (Robinson)

2008 - 1 4-stars (Frease) and 4 3-stars (Lyons, Holloway, Redford, Walsch)

That is 24 commitments with 1 5-star, 12 4-stars, and 11 3-stars. I would say that is more than the occasional top 150 recruit.

Which is why I said in the post above yours that they now regularly land top 150 players. Thanks on the correction on their lone 5 star. And I count 7 3 stars (Top 300) on their current roster. But who's counting? :-)

The main gist of my post it that it took a looong time before Xavier could recruit at a blue chip level. We had a nice 3-4 year run of winning seasons but we have a long way to go.

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Which is why I said in the post above yours that they now regularly land top 150 players. Thanks on the correction on their lone 5 star. And I count 7 3 stars (Top 300) on their current roster. But who's counting? :-)

The main gist of my post it that it took a looong time before Xavier could recruit at a blue chip level. We had a nice 3-4 year run of winning seasons but we have a long way to go.

Yeah, I missed that and now see that I took a long way to get to them having 1 elite recruit in their past 7 recruiting classes. I just read the 1st sentence and thought that Xavier was recruiting at a high level and quickly grabbed their commitments, so I just furthered your second sentence that I didn't read that they have elevated their recruiting with their consistent success. Xavier is recruiting at a level I think many of us hoped we would be at coming off our recent string of success and improved facilities.

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Another name to add to the list of interest is Tim Finke from Champaign. Jason Thompson tweeted that coaches from SLU, NW, Wisconsin were there watching him the other day.

We spend more time watching unrealistic recruits from out of the area than we do in the area.

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Looking at scout, Xavier recruits at a pretty high level:

2014 - 4 4-stars (Bluiett, Macura, London, and Sumner) and 2 3-stars (O'Mara, Austin)

2013 - 1 4-star (Randolph) and 1 3-star (Richards)

2012 - 1 5-star (Semaj Christon), 1 4-star (Jalen Reynolds), and 2 3-stars (Myles Davis, Farr)

2011 - 2 4-stars (Dez Wells, Dee Davis)

2010 - 3 4-stars (Justin Martin, Canty, Latham) and 1 3-star (McKenzie)

2009 - 1 3-star (Robinson)

2008 - 1 4-stars (Frease) and 4 3-stars (Lyons, Holloway, Redford, Walsch)

That is 24 commitments with 1 5-star, 12 4-stars, and 11 3-stars. I would say that is more than the occasional top 150 recruit.

-Xavier's success goes back 30 years when they were beating our Bills with Bonner, Douglas and Gray - in those 30 years they have made 24 tourneys (1 period of back to back misses) and 7 sweet 16's, a record we would kill for, so looking at the last 7 years of recruiting for them is perhaps where we can be in 2033

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Just so I know. When are we allowed to start judging Crews' ability to coach and recruit? It's 100% his team now. The Majerus excuse is tiring. Coming off back to back A10 titles, multiple weeks in the top 10, 3 ncaa tourney victories, 2 A10 COY awards and a national COY award, I would think that would be able to offset the death of Majerus and that we should be able to bring in 4 year impact guys such as Mitchell, Jett, Evans, McCall, Loe, Ellis. Also which years of Crews' career can we look at? Only the two good years at SLU or can we look at Evansville and Army too?

I think it's fair to judge Crews on the frosh class last year ... I don't want to give a complete pass for soph class but also realize some factors were obviously in play which hindered his ability. I also remember how excited we all were about TL and RA at the time of their signing. I'd also say it's hard to judge a class after 1 year. I'd like to see growth this year (and a lot of it) from last years frosh. A .500 record will slide me from 65-35 positive to believing it's just not working. Different from many on here though I believe these guys can get it done and get 18-20 wins. We'll see

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I think it's fair to judge Crews on the frosh class last year ... I don't want to give a complete pass for soph class but also realize some factors were obviously in play which hindered his ability. I also remember how excited we all were about TL and RA at the time of their signing. I'd also say it's hard to judge a class after 1 year. I'd like to see growth this year (and a lot of it) from last years frosh. A .500 record will slide me from 65-35 positive to believing it's just not working. Different from many on here though I believe these guys can get it done and get 18-20 wins. We'll see

There had to be something else going on with TL. He looked promising his first year and even got minutes in the tournament. Last year he looked to lose confidence and the only reason I can think of why he isn't at another school that I've heard of is he doesn't want to be so he must have just lost the motivation to play. RA shows the skills at times but he has only been playing organized basketball for a few years. Bigs take time normally so it makes sense he is taking even more time.

As bonwich posted in the other thread, this is the big year for Crews in my opinion. Another terrible year and he should be gone. It'll be interesting to see.

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Another name to add to the list of interest is Tim Finke from Champaign. Jason Thompson tweeted that coaches from SLU, NW, Wisconsin were there watching him the other day.

I don't think Tim Finke is a very realistic target. He holds an UIUC offer, his dad and brother attended UIUC, and he lives in Champaign.

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Finke is currently a top 75 recruit, not a 5 star recruit. He's 3 hours from here and has already been to SLU's campus. Whether he's realistic or not depends on how good we are vs how good Illinois is in 2 years. And Top 75 freshmen have been known to slide to top 150 recruits, especially at the wing position.

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