An old recruiting story from 1990 (long)

[3star_recruit]

Recruiting Coup Proves Timely For Billikens

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

December 9, 1990

Author: By Dave Dorr

Estimated printed pages: 4

DePaul, St. Louis University and Memphis State - in that order - dominated November recruiting in the burgeoning Great Midwest Conference.

The timing of what is St. Louis U.'s finest November class ever could not have been better for Billikens coach Rich Grawer. Based on the league's first collective effort, the impression among the coaches is that recruiting could be so intense every year the schools will inevitably push each other to higher levels. If that happens and the league also becomes the beneficiary of a lucrative television contract, the cycle will bring increasingly better talent into the conference.

''Everyone seems to have done a good job,'' said DePaul coach Joey Meyer. ''The competitiveness of the league is underestimated. I don't think people realize that yet. They will.''

One publication, Basketball Weekly, was quick to recognize the significance of the November signings. In its ranking of the 20 national recruiting leaders, DePaul was placed No. 4 and St. Louis U. No. 17, an unprecedented position for the Bills. There are long-suffering St. Louis U. fans who thought they'd go a lifetime and never see the Bills get that type of attention.

Grawer alluded to this when he said ''we're the oddball in the group.''

The Bills were listed just below the likes of Notre Dame (No. 14), Kentucky (No. 15) and Tennessee (No. 16) and ahead of Iowa State (No. 18), LSU (No. 19) and Pittsburgh (No. 20). Pretty fancy company, that.

Meanwhile, Memphis State and Marquette were assigned spots by Basketball Weekly in ''best of the rest,'' meaning that four of the six Great Midwest teams hit the jackpot.

The premier high school players today aren't interested as much in allegiances when considering colleges as they are the number of appearances they can make on TV. They see it as the quickest avenue to the National Basketball Association. You can argue those dreams are naive or foolhardy for most players, but they are dreams nonetheless. That's why TV is crucial to a new conference. Case in point: The Big East. Television turned the Big East from a gathering of schools with high hopes into a giant.

''You couldn't have told me 15 years ago that kids would leave Los Angeles to go to the East Coast,'' Memphis State coach Larry Finch said. ''If our conference is to hold its own, we need to market it aggressively. Just like Dave Gavitt did with the Big East.''

When the guys calling the shots at CBS, ABC and ESPN get a look at players the ilk of DePaul's Tom Kleinschmidt and Howard Nathan and Memphis State's Anfernee Hardaway and David Vaughn and St. Louis U.'s Julian Winfield, the Great Midwest's opportunities for national exposure are certain to improve.

DePaul has a built-in recruiting advantage the other league schools don't own. DePaul's games are on WGN, a cable outlet seen virtually nationwide. Meyer says DePaul's primary focus will be the Chicago area, but the cable could prove to be a magnet for the league as a whole.

Whither Rich: Grawer's position in the Great Midwest mix is fragile and he knows it. Although schools don't publicly release the size of recruiting budgets, the likelihood is good that St. Louis U. falls short of several teams in the league.

Beyond this, the St. Louis metropolitan area does not come close to producing the talent annually that Chicago and Memphis do. If you put St. Louis U. side-by-side with the rest of the Great Midwest in recruiting potential, the Bills might be No. 5 - behind DePaul, Memphis State, Marquette and Alabama-Birmingham. Grawer warns not to overlook Cincinnati, which will be playing in a new campus facility.

''That's an edge the rest of us don't have,'' said Grawer, who understands how critical his judgment and that of his staff is going to be in talent evaluation in the years ahead.

''We've gotten by in the past with marginal recruiting,'' Grawer said. ''Marginal recruiting will get us sixth place in this league. We're under the gun.''

Grawer placed such high priority on signing the 6-foot-4 Winfield, 6-1 Erwin Claggett, 6-5 Scott Highmark, 6-10 Eric Bickel and 6-9 Brian Smith that he said he altered completely his offensive philosophy to achieve his objective. He bit the bullet. Negative recruiting by opposing coaches scared Grawer.

''If the kids were to hear from other coaches that they'd be playing in 60-55 games by going to St. Louis U., that would have hurt us,'' Grawer said. ''There was a method to our madness. The method was: Get these five kids signed.

''We knew we weren't going to be a great team this season. I also knew the kids we wanted to sign preferred to play uptempo. The chance to shoot without Grawer benching them just for shooting was important to these recruits.''

They'd heard about the sharp Grawer hook. The new league will force Grawer to widen his scope of recruiting. There's no way he can survive with a roster that has a majority of players from this area. The depth of quality isn't there every year.

''We'll make St. Louis our base,'' Grawer said. ''We've got to get two of the top three players out of St. Louis every year, but we've got to expand. We can use the league as a selling point.''

How They Rank: Recruiting guru Bob Gibbons numerically lists the nation's premier high school prospects. Here is his assessment of the Great Midwest signees on his list with the number he says they rate nationally:

DePaul - 6-5 Kleinschmidt (19), 5-11 Nathan (20), 6-7 Will Macon (70).

St. Louis U. - Winfield (49), Bickel (109), Claggett (131). Both Claggett and Smith are concensus choices among the top 50 players in the state of Illinois.

Memphis State - 6-10 Vaughn (5). The 6-7 Hardaway was considered by many to be the nation's top high school player last season. Hardaway is sitting out this season as a Proposition 48 casualty. Hardaway, Vaughn and five sophomores Finch has this season could turn Memphis State into the league's most feared team and nationally in the top 10 in 1991-92. Vaughn is Finch's nephew.

''I know Vaughn,'' Meyer said. ''They'll have Hardaway eligible. Those are two great players - two lottery picks if they develop the way they should.''

Marquette - 6-5 Shannon Smith (91) and 6-1 William Gates (120).

[Box and Won]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Refresh my memory on Brian Smith - I don't seem to remember him.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Brian Smith was a 6-9 left-handed power forward. He played at SLU for two years: Grawer's last year and Spoon's first year before leaving. I liked him, but he was limited to offense around the basket. I guess he was like a taller, but skinnier version of Justin Tatum.

[thetorch]

Ranked 109 in that class!!!!!!!!!! I watched in HS. He was a great big man in the Sub North. That does not result in much at the next level. Nice call Bob.

[kevinfootes]

.

[kshoe]

No in that the specific players that were ranked high for SLU didn't amount to much but yes in that our highest ranked class ever was the first to take us to the NCAAs in 30+ years. Also, they raved about Memphis and only a year later they were in the Elite 8.

[slu72]

Because we had no high use of the internet back then, who was Winfield? He was the highest ranked recruit, I don't remember him making a name for himself like Clagget and Highmark. What happened there?

[kevinfootes]

Winfield transferred to Mizzou after Grawer and his father got fired. He was a solid player for Mizzou.

[Box and Won]

Here are Winfield's stats from his one year at SLU:

9.5 Points

5.8 Rebounds

80 Assists - led team

[Quality Is Job 1]

Actually, Winfield transferred to Kansas after Grawer and Lee Winfield were dismissed from SLU, but after the season that Julian sat out, Norm Stewart hired Lee to be his assistant coach, so Julian made a family decision to attend Mizzou, instead.

Julian, a Parade All-American, was the most highly touted member of the 1991 recruiting class, and he had a decent, but not spectacular, career. He was extremely athletic and was a very good defender, but he wasn't an especially good point guard (his position) and he lacked a dependable perimeter jumper. In the end Claggett and Highmark wound up with gaudier contributions.

[slufanskip]

Didn't Julian hurt his knee. Also ... though I may be wrong, I think he agreed to transfer to KS but didn't actually do it. I remember the fuss ... as I recall Roy was hot because he had specifically asked Julian if he was going to follow his father and he said no and then did.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[BLIKNS]

I think this was when the Big 8,made it a rule,if a player transfers to another big 8 school they would have to sit out 2 years instead of the normal one.

[Quality Is Job 1]

>Didn't Julian hurt his knee. Also ... though I may be

>wrong, I think he agreed to transfer to KS but didn't

>actually do it. I remember the fuss ... as I recall Roy was

>hot because he had specifically asked Julian if he was going

>to follow his father and he said no and then did.

Yes, now that you mention it, I do recall that Julian injured his knee during the year he sat out while he was at Kansas. He did, indeed, transfer to Kansas and was in attendance there in 1992-93. Julian probably told Roy Williams that he wouldn't follow his dad, but that was BEFORE Lee Winfield was hired by Missouri. The family then decided that Julian would go to Mizzou instead so that Julian wouldn't play against his dad and Lee wouldn't coach against his son. It makes sense to me, and it was a brilliant move by Stewart. If Lee Winfield had taken a position at a Big 10 or SEC school, I'm sure Julian would have remained at Kansas.

[Box and Won]

Agreed - I think the H Bomb was an upgrade over Winfield at the PG position.

[Major Majerus]

More than any other single decision in Grawer's last year, it was the one to give the point to Julian that tanked the season. He had big time athletic ability, but not the hand-eye coordination to be a great shooter; his only shot at the NBA would be at the point. Unfortunately, it wasn't his position. He was a great defender and slasher. It stopped there. However, he probably wouldn't have come to SLU without that promise.

[Schasz]

Happened to be on the basketball court when Tyus Edney made the remarkable end to end layup that broke the Tiger's heart. Of course that was the year the Bruins won the NCAA championship.

[kshoe]

Julian made the bucket that put Mizzou up by 1 in that game.

He had a nice career at Mizzou (and would of SLU too had he stayed) but his basketball skills (shooting, dribbling, etc.) never really matched his pure athleticism which was good enough for the NBA.

[bonwich]

Ask and you shall receive. (What were you, about 14 when that game was played?) Lots of coincidental SLU names from then:

ROMAR'S BEST MEMORY OF MU IS ONE TIGERS WOULD LIKE TO FORGET MU VS. SLU

By Tom TimmermannOf The Post-Dispatch

Wednesday, 12/8/1999

Every now and then, when his family is out shopping and he is alone in his house, St. Louis University basketball coach Lorenzo Romar pops in the videotape.

The tape is a highlight reel of UCLA's 1995 NCAA championship season, and there is one point that Romar says is "like a dream:" Tyus Edney's winning end-to-end dash with 4.8 seconds to play in the second round against Missouri. "I watch every face that's visible on camera from the time (Julian) Winfield made the shot (to put Mizzou ahead by one) until the camera shuts off," Romar said. "A lot of those faces, the only time I've ever seen them is on the tape. When the play is over, Corey Tate is down on all fours, going like this." Romar slowly shakes his head from side to side. "When I came to St. Louis, I met Corey Tate, and when I saw his face, the first thing I thought of was that."

When SLU and Missouri meet Sunday at the Trans World Dome, it will be the first meeting between the schools in 19 years. No one at Mizzou, player or coach, has faced SLU in a game. At SLU, there are two: Romar and one of his assistant coaches, Cameron Dollar. Romar was an assistant coach on that UCLA team and Dollar was one of the UCLA players. It was Dollar who inbounded the ball to Edney for his dash.

"I remember (Anthony) Peeler had a reverse dunk, I remember thinking (Travis) Ford would be a good little player and I remember the student section shouting, 'Look, it's Gregory Hines,' " Romar said.