Swansey to Georgia

[Nate Latsch]

Sorry if this has been posted already.

Rivals.com has a story on Zac Swansey commiting to Georgia.

http://mosports.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=591018

- Nate

[Majerus Magic]

Bummer.

So......... that leaves us with???

Im not being an ass, I just truly don't know anyone else except Eckerle who is even remotely on the screen.

[SLURadioBoy]

I would assume Powell is on the list.

"Praises we sing, to you our alma mater,

Praise to the white and blue.

Our hymn shall ring, in tribute strong to you,

We hail Saint Louis U."

Official Billikens.com sponsor of Andrew Latimer

[Hardball]

I guess I will put Georgia on the list.

Duke

Kentucky

North Carolina

Indiana

Purdue

SIU

Miami of Ohio

Louisville

Iowa

Holy Cross

Kansas State

Georgia

[Box and Won]

Let's start the chant - Eck-er-le! Eck-er-le! Eck-er-le!

Hopefully, we'll have some recruits at Billiken Madness like we did last year.

[BLIKNS]

Goes to show you,Georgia wasn`t even listed at all on his interested list.

[StLouBlue]

Another player that had SLU on his rivals list. Final 3 were Creighton, Iowa St and San Diego St. He is ranked at 133 in rivals top 150 list. A power forward so with getting Dixon this summer not sure how much we were in the picture after that. Just thought I would point this out because it was another top 150 player we were after this summer. Just so everyone doesn't think our coaches are sitting around doing nothing in the off season.

[slu72]

They may not be sitting around...but they ain't closing any deals either.

[3star_recruit]

Based on the total lack of success we've had recruiting in that regard, I hope the staff moves away from targeting top 150 guys beyond our 100 mile sphere of influence. We just don't have the visibility to attract these players yet.

[brianstl]

3star, I don't know if you want to completly back of these recruits. But, it is really starting to remind me of the romar era. We are getting close on thes kids, we are just not closing the deal. It is starting to get a little depressing.

[billiken_roy]

we are probably a year away from effectively recruiting outside of the sphere. if we have the year a lot of us beleive we will have, then the billikens will gain more credibility and it will be easier to convince kids out of the area to come.

ironically, in next year's class, i would guess our plan A is all within the sphere.

[TheRaginCajun]

I am in complete agreement with you Roy. For a school like SLU, you need to walk before you can run. Romar came in and immediately tried to go back to his roots on the West Coast and it didn't work for him. We appear to have built something up here with local talent, once the success comes we can start to expand our "sphere" as you said and atleast have a shot with those kids.

So, was Swansey on campus this weekend?

[Hardball]

October 4 and still not one verbal committment.

Any of the Kool-Aid drinkers running out of the blue juice yet.

I can't believe what I am reading. Let's back off Top 150 recruits because we can't get them right now. WHAT? Tell me your kidding me with this statement. Tell me that it was just written in a state of despair? Why can't we get them? Is it the assistants fault? Is it the Head Coaches fault? This is the most defeatist attitude I can imagine. Here is what I do know. There is a Head Coach in Omaha,NE, that's right Omaha, that can convinced a Top 150 California kid to come to Nebraska and play in the MVC instead of school in the Big 12 conference. How is this possibble? SLU can't beat out SIU, Miami of Ohio or Holy Cross but the guy in Omaha can beat out Iowa State. We been told by the Kool-Aid club time and again that this just doesn't happen. Well I have news for the Blue Juice Club not only does it happen but it happens all the time. Just not at SLU, unless of course you count KL and TL for the 1021 time. Now we are being told we can't expect our Staff to get Top 150 players and only recruit within a 100 mile radius. My thoughts on the new direction is, I guess you get what you expect.

The STC(Stay The Course)Billiken fan club are always quick to suggest SLU will have to start winning before we can get these recruits. Well if you don't continue to recruit Top 150 type players how are you going to get any better. I am sure Altman, Pearl, Gonzales or Gillespie never took this attitude. So why should SLU? SLU will start getting better when they start getting better players. They will start getting better players when they start convincing players that SLU is a great basketball situation. Until that happens, I guess we should just scout Borgia's JV for our next Billiken.

[Billinikens]

Doesn't make much sense to me to back off of any kids at this point. If we have a good year and get into the tourney, like a lot of us believe we will, then you want to have been in on these kids already. If you wait until after that year happens to get in on them, then you've just put a big gap between our successful year and garnering the recruiting fruits of it because many players will have already been taken off the board or will have very strong leanings elsewhere that will be tough to overcome.

[3star_recruit]

I think it takes a little more than one NCAA appearance to start reeling in top 150 kids in from outside the area. It took 5 years of 20 win seasons for Charlotte to pull it off. Same with Creighton. SIU still hasn't done it.

[TheRaginCajun]

I agree with you. I am not saying completely ignore kids just because they are not from the midwest. I am just saying that it doesn't make a lot of sense to put all your eggs in that basket. The chances of SLU landing a top 150 recruit who is not from the midwest are slim to none at this point. I am from Louisiana and I would wager to say half of the population in LA doesn't even know Saint Louis University exists. I am not saying completely ignore kids outside of the midwest, but you have to be realistic. We need to look to our backyard and the midwest first. If a kid is from Georgia or the South in general chances are he grew up dreaming of playing in the SEC.

[Nate Latsch]

The good thing about these recruiting misses is that the coaching staff has been going after kids who ended up getting looks from schools in major conferences. It seems like most of these kids have blown up after the Billikens went after them. That tells me from an evaluation standpoint, SLU is doing a good job.

The bad thing is the Billikens have yet to get a commitment from one of these kids. I'm sure the staff has invested plenty of time in recruiting these kids. Now, they have to look further down the list of kids they like.

I really like Eckerle. He's a good kid, great student and has good skills. I don't know if Eckerle has an offer from SLU. I doubt he does. I think he's the kind of kid, like Moosmann, that SLU will try to get to walk on with the potential for a scholarship in a year or two (like the Matt Lawrence plan at Mizzou, which ended up with Lawrence getting a scholarship right away).

I've heard of kids similar to Eckerle being recruited by SLU as walk ons, but then those kids have ended up taking scholarship offers elsewhere.

- Nate

[slu72]

Nate, your first paragraph reads like "a moral victory" quote. There ain't no moral victories in recruiting...they either sign or they don't. UB must concentrate on landing the best local talent available before he can try and nab kids from Georgia and San Diego. Romar proved that. Zo's turned out to be a top notch recruiter at WASH, but primarily with local or WC talent, Dentmon being the exception. What scares me about the local 2008 class is that a bunch of these kids are "national" type talents who are going to be swayed like Swopshire(sp)and Tyus to go "big time." Sorry, but I'm going with Hardball here, SLU's recruiting performance, or lack thereof, is getting very discouraging...very discouraging. South Carolina just landed a kid from a small SC town who was only being sought after by SoCon teams. People here are screaming for Odom's head because he's not bringing in SEC level talent. I'm afraid we're heading down the same path.

[3star_recruit]

>People here are screaming for Odom's head

>because he's not bringing in SEC level talent.

And there is some that like the pick up. I guess it depends on who you listen to.

http://www.cockytalk.com/showthread.php?s&threadid=20160

http://mb20.scout.com/fsouthcarolina19141f...icID=8591.topic

[billiken_roy]

slu72, i disagree with your assessment of nate's post. what i read is nate telling us that it proves our coaches are indeed selecting good talent to recruit and many times getting there before the bigger schools. i believe huggins was way late in pullen's process as compared to us and dayton. and i thought someone also mentioned swansey also being a relatively late bloomer.

the problem i see as someone else mentioned above is that it appears going after the higher ranked players is putting us in the position coach romar used to be in all the time i.e. finishing second too late in the process and then having to turn to a plan c or d because the b recruit is also gone by then.

[Iggy]

Are we doing any recruiting overseas? I don't hear anything about it. Ian and Izak turned out alright. I'm sure there are a few good recruits out there that would love a chance for a college education in the U.S.

[TheRaginCajun]

Are we even finishing second for these kids though? It doesn't seem like we are having what I would call near misses. To my knowledge, I may be wrong here, Swensey and Pullen never even came in for official visits.

[TheRaginCajun]

Is South Carolina recruiting Shelton Brown from Bowman HS? He is a 5'10 point guard who is an absolute freak athletically, think Nate Robinson. If South Carolina is not on this kid I wouldn't mind the Bills expanding the "sphere" to go after this kid (I am mostly joking on this last part).

[Orange Julius]

Zac was here over the weekend for his official visit and when he got home the head coach from Georgia met him in his living room and sealed the deal. Georgia wasn't even interested in him until September. So that tells me that he was their backup plan. I already know there are at least three point guards that Georgia is recruiting who are better than him right now.

[brianstl]

Roy, you have it exactly right. As I said, it seems like the Romar situation all over again. I don't think you need to stop recruiting these kids though. You have to build relationships with the coaches and other players in the recruiting game across the country.

I think we need to have at least run really good season before you can expect results. Once that happens then you really can start to see the dividends for all the time you have put in.

72, if you want to join Hardball in going completly goofy with your thoughts on the current recruiting, you can. The staff will be judged on the results of this season (regular and post) and the following recruiting class.

The big boys coming in doesn't frighten me with these kids. Brad has long term relationships with these kids and their parents. I think Brad should and will deliver on these kids. This is a must.

For this year, I think it now comes down to Powell. I have no idea where this stands now. I think Powell has been underrated nationally for a long time. They need to get him locked in before he starts attracting programs besides us and Bradley.