2015 recruits

[fritzpointer]

Looks like the Staff will be in Florida this week to see Jose Morales workout. He's 5'9" pg who we've been on since spring.

[Bluejay Bilas]

Still lots of options left. While some are concerned that we've missed on guys and are behind in terms of commits this year, things can change quickly. If we get a positive result with McQuaid or Clarke, suddenly the class is in great shape.

yes, yes and yes.

Even if we miss on those two, which is certainly possible, given the pedigree of the other schools involved, I'm confident we're all going to be happy when 2015 recruiting wraps up.

Right now, I’m not ready to take that leap of faith. Looks sort of boom or bust to me. The staff appears to have gone all in on a small handful of prospects. I suppose that is unavoidable for non-blueblood programs trying to attract top 100 talent, unless the program has one of those rare coaches with a lot of juice, like Bruce Pearl. However, only two of our top targets remain available at this point, and several sharks are in the water trying to catch both.

Moreover, as is part of the recruiting process when you cast as wide a net as our staff has, we appear to have cooled off on or even alienated another handful of prospects who (a) once were very interested in CU and took up a fair amount of the staff’s recruiting time and resources, and (b) in a couple of cases, look to be as good as or better than the remaining targets.

Last year, it all worked out great by the end of the Spring. That’s hardly guaranteed to repeat itself. Patton plus some role players or hidden gems could play out great over time. But, the odds are not in favor of us competing in the Big East with the same success that we did in the MVC until we have more than 2 or 3 top 100 guys on the team at all times.

I'm all aboard the Coach Mac train, just expressing my opinions about what our recruiting landscape looks like beyond McQuaid and Clarke.

[cujaysfan]

poaching

until a kid signs - he's poachable

and it sucked when it happened to us (westbrook, ryan gomes, chandler parsons heck even pierre jackson and marcus foster from last few years) - but there might be a lot of kids out there that showed some real promise over the summer that might have given a verbal to their best offer at that time - like an MVC or MAC school.

a lot (most) kids want to play at the highest level possible

we're in the big effing east now.

stealing commits is just the way it is - and until a kid is signed - i have zero issue with Mac and crew trying to do that

none of this is over by a long shot. just under two months til signing day. a lot can still happen.

[TrueBlueJay]

Right now, I’m not ready to take that leap of faith. Looks sort of boom or bust to me. The staff appears to have gone all in on a small handful of prospects.

Small handful of prospects? We have been involved with more players than at any other time, especially top players. And please don't think for a moment that we really have any idea on the recruiting process. We don't.

[jayball]

BB, while I appreciate the worries you have, I think you just need to relax and wait until the class is finished.

We will cast as wide of a net as possible every year. We are going to "go all in" on a handful of prospects every year. That handful will change over time because they don't like us, we don't like them, someone new comes on the radar, they get an offer from their dream school ect. We have been involved with the highest profile group of prospects that I can ever remember.

I have found that it is impossible to stay sane and follow recruiting if I'm judging every kid tied to CU that does or doesn't commit. For every kid that commits there are 500 dead ends, false rumors, or kids that choose another school. It always "hurts" when some highly touted kid chooses another school, especially if we have been putting in a lot of time with them, but that is gonna happen every year. I have learned (mostly) to just try to wait and see what shakes out at the end of the day. Our coaches have assembled what appears to be a solid group since the big east announcement.

Brooks
Miliken
Gilmore
Harrell
Watson
Huff
Krecklow paying his own way!
Patton

Hopefully they can get another bigtime talent this fall or at least a few solid pieces. Who knows what can happen in the spring.

[Duke1Agn]

Right now, I’m not ready to take that leap of faith. Looks sort of boom or bust to me. The staff appears to have gone all in on a small handful of prospects.

Small handful of prospects? We have been involved with more players than at any other time, especially top players. And please don't think for a moment that we really have any idea on the recruiting process. We don't.

I agree with a good bit of what you said, Bilas, but not this part. The staff has cast a wider net in 2015 than at any other year I can recall. Obviously they give their top targets more time and attention, but they seem to have a number of backup options. Granted, there is a pretty decent dropoff from McQuaid and Clarke to our next options, but nearly every single target is in the Top 247. If you are a top 250 prospect, chances are you're going to be able to cut it in the Big East in some role. If you'll recall, Zach Hansen wasn't even in the top 500. Austin Chatman was unranked by most services, and a 3-star by Rivals. Jahenns was a two-star and was on his way to Marist or some other obscure Northeast school before we got him. He turned out pretty well. There are plenty of good players out there who aren't top-50 according to the scouting sites. I'm not saying anything you don't already know.

[Bluejay Bilas]

Right now, I’m not ready to take that leap of faith. Looks sort of boom or bust to me. The staff appears to have gone all in on a small handful of prospects.

Small handful of prospects? We have been involved with more players than at any other time, especially top players. And please don't think for a moment that we really have any idea on the recruiting process. We don't.

The emphasis should be on the "all in" part of the sentence. I also said "when you cast as wide a net as our staff has". If you believe all of the nuggets of info from the past year, we've offered something like 50 or so 2015 players. Nonetheless, it looks as though there has been a strong emphasis on a handful of those kids. That seems to be how this works. If all of the dozens of the guys with Creighton offers had the same "offer" in hand, I think it's almost a given that we'd have 3 or 4 verbal commits at this point.

Re: our ideas about the recruiting process, I said such things as the "staff appears" and "we appear to have". It's a message board. I don't think I've ever claimed to be more than an observer of the process, and it's clear that us fans have very little clue of what happens. Anytime that you get better insight into what actually happens in recruiting, like the piece from a few months ago about the Sunrise Christian kid who is going to Michigan State, George Dohrmann's Play Their Hearts Out, or Darcy Frey's The Last Shot, for instance, it's both sad and comical to hear what coaches say and do. It's like used car sales, but a lot worse.

jayball and Duke, I am in agreement about most of what you guys are saying. I should try to sound more relaxed. I'm not anxious or panicked in real life (I'm actually pretty upbeat about what's in store), but my posts probably read as a bit frantic.

[gtmoBlue]

Just browsed thru the 1st 20 pages of the 2014 Recruits thread - we had nothing last September, but worry, some gloom, plenty of doubting, and a little bit of panic.

Folks were discounting the potential 2014 class, due to our late entry into the BCS leagues, losing 2 players and our previous 2014 recruits. It was beginning to look ugly, but we were getting visits. Much mention was made of the importance of both the 2014 and 2015 recruiting classes - in order to keep up and compete in the BE (by page 20 the BE had 8 or more top 100 verbal commits). But as late as page 20 there was no mention of the transfer list. As you know we got our guys 2 Top 150 HS Recruits, 2 top transfers, and a 5th yr transfer.

Not at all dissimilar to this summers' activity, but with Justin Patton's verbal commit we are well ahead of the curve.

I will add - many have previously thought and stated the 2015 recruiting class would be the make or break point moving forward. IMO that is still a valid point, although with the 2014 Frosh, along with Mo Watson and Cole Huff waiting for 2015, it is not a critical point. Getting commits from 2 of the remaining top 4 on our list (McQuaid, Clark, Robinson, Lott/Hudson) will solidify this class - especially McQuaid and Clark.
After all the goal is not only to "compete" in the BE, but to win the conference. The idea, as put forth by others here - is to be able to play 2-3 (or more) high level guys together, consistently. A few have stated already - much can change...in short order. Kids will reconsider. Coaches will move or be fired and both 2015 recruits and seasoned players will move as a result.

Patience...we will get our guys.

[westojay]

Great point gtmo. the 15' class was/is critical. But the additions of Mo and Huff in the offseason have helped alleviate some of that burden and given us some breathing room and a little more room for error. Not to mention getting a top 50 center which is rare to get these days.

[jayball]

Evan Daniels tweeted

There are 39 top 100 prospects left in the 2015 class. We are still working with 4 of them

McQuaid
Clarke
Robinson
Hudson