2014 Recruits

[gtmoBlue]

Yeaah, yeah...

I know, I know - we don't have a snowcone's chance in Hell to land him AND we've been off his radar for seemingly ages.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncbrecr ... st?id=5231 (The boy is a monster player... Damn)

[Bluejay Bilas]

Well, a guy I thought we were going after pretty hard, Kaleb Joseph, cut his list to 3. Guess what? We're not in it. Providence, Syracuse, West Virginia.

Don’t know that we were going after Joseph with much effort. Seemed like a very long shot, and the staff surely knew that. If you look at where our coaches have been during this month or were during the Spring when they were able to watch recruits, Benson and Kuiper- two kids from nowhere near Omaha or the overall Big East map- appear to be the only hotly-pursued players who have committed somewhere else or eliminated Creighton from consideration (and none of us will probably ever know exactly where either of those guys were in the staff’s priority list). I agree that being one of the final schools considered by a quality recruit is not alone an accomplishment worth celebrating at this point, but it is also foolish to totally ignore the fact that kids who likely would not have given us much thought 5 years ago are now viewing us as more comparable to Kansas State or Oregon than to Bradley or Northern Iowa.

Just yesterday, Ryan James, the Minnesota Rivals hoops guy, tweeted the following: “Does Creighton have 10 coaches? I feel like they are everywhere in Las Vegas.” So long as the coaches are working hard, I won’t fault them (a) after our team won a game in the NCAA tournament for the second straight year, and (b) prior to seeing who commits for 2014 and what those guys show during their early Creighton careers. The reality is that our staff is in a very unenviable short-term recruiting position. The whole “never stop recruiting” axiom has never been more true for them, since the move to the Big East has at least indirectly resulted in us losing 2 current players and two 2014 recruits. I suspect that Mac and co. had to hit the Juco circuit this Spring a lot harder than they would have preferred, and they have had to readjust what they were seeking for 2014. Long term, surely the staff loves the challenge and opportunity to sell the new Creighton era. But especially for this first year, between the program’s reputation vis a vis established high majors, the lack of a lengthy relationship with some of the newer 2014 and 2015 targets, and the perennial handicap of our school’s location, all of our expectations may be a little higher than warranted. Getting some great recruits for the class is vital, but we’re arguably less well situated at this point (hopefully a temporary thing) than all 9 of our new conference mates. The Butler coaching change has maybe put them in a similarly tough spot, but they still have their two very recent National Championship appearances to sell (their one 2014 verbal is not a particularly heralded recruit, and it will be interesting to see who else they get).

I know that it's kind of how message boards work, but the number of either blindly optimistic or overwhelmingly negative posts I've seen since the start of the Duke game is kind of outrageous (main board, recruiting board, soccer threads). Not to mention that we unfortunately have a handful of posters who either relentlessly argue with other posters or mostly just post negative comments. There have been a good amount of reasonable, well-stated posts too, but they've been in the minority, from my perspective. Can't wait for the first verbal commit or two or three, and the start of practice.

[RxJay]

BB great post. My thoughts exactly.

[bluejayfan00]

I didn't think I was being very negative. I was just saying who was in his cut. Being in one of these final cuts would be nice. It just shows we're close. Hopefully we can get Gilmore

[mredle]

Bluejay Bilas

I know that it's kind of how message boards work, but the number of either blindly optimistic or overwhelmingly negative posts I've seen since the start of the Duke game is kind of outrageous (main board, recruiting board, soccer threads). Not to mention that we unfortunately have a handful of posters who either relentlessly argue with other posters or mostly just post negative comments. There have been a good amount of reasonable, well-stated posts too, but they've been in the minority, from my perspective. Can't wait for the first verbal commit or two or three, and the start of practice.

+1
I agree with this 100%

[Bluejay Bilas]

As usual, Dave Telep is dropping knowledge on twitter today. Just some of the nuggets of wisdom:

"July reality: if you know where you want to go and you aren't a T-25 guy, make your decision b4 someone takes your first choice"
"As of right now, most schools have 2-4 guys they'd take at your position. First one to call gets the spot."

[LJay]

The more I think about the make up of our classes the more I am convincing myself that we won't take but maybe one freshman in this class. We got a late start with the 2014 class since we had two commits who now are not plus our contacts were with MVC-level guys. I think 2015 and on we will see the fruits of Big East membership turn up in recruiting.

We lose A LOT after this year and will likely need an instant infusion (READ: Juco's) to be relatively competitive after Doug is gone. We only have one soph under scholarship (Groselle) so juco's will also be a benefit in class balancing. With maybe two redshirts in the present class, a single frosh with some oomf (READ: Leon Gilmore or the like) gives some balance to that class too. Also, most juco's don't sign until the spring so there may be some angst on this board relative to recruiting.

Yes, I am coming around to believing that this scenario has more than a small chance of happening.

[mredle]

The more I think about the make up of our classes the more I am convincing myself that we won't take but maybe one freshman in this class. We got a late start with the 2014 class since we had two commits who now are not plus our contacts were with MVC-level guys. I think 2015 and on we will see the fruits of Big East membership turn up in recruiting.

We lose A LOT after this year and will likely need an instant infusion (READ: Juco's) to be relatively competitive after Doug is gone. We only have one soph under scholarship (Groselle) so juco's will also be a benefit in class balancing. With maybe two redshirts in the present class, a single frosh with some oomf (READ: Leon Gilmore or the like) gives some balance to that class too. Also, most juco's don't sign until the spring so there may be some angst on this board relative to recruiting.

Yes, I am coming around to believing that this scenario has more than a small chance of happening.

"But then again, I could be wrong"

[Bluejay Bilas]

The more I think about the make up of our classes the more I am convincing myself that we won't take but maybe one freshman in this class. We got a late start with the 2014 class since we had two commits who now are not plus our contacts were with MVC-level guys. I think 2015 and on we will see the fruits of Big East membership turn up in recruiting.

We lose A LOT after this year and will likely need an instant infusion (READ: Juco's) to be relatively competitive after Doug is gone. We only have one soph under scholarship (Groselle) so juco's will also be a benefit in class balancing. With maybe two redshirts in the present class, a single frosh with some oomf (READ: Leon Gilmore or the like) gives some balance to that class too. Also, most juco's don't sign until the spring so there may be some angst on this board relative to recruiting.

Yes, I am coming around to believing that this scenario has more than a small chance of happening.

That's plausible, especially if all 10 scholarship guys who have eligibility beyond this season return for 2014-2015 (you're absolutely correct about Groselle's "class" and the imbalance). But, unless we're less reliant this upcoming year on the 4 Seniors and Chatman than I expect us to be, I think getting at least 2 HS kids and focusing on the future might be better than more Jucos. The exception for me would be if we could somehow land a couple of top 10-15 Juco prospects. But that is probably impossible for us to do. (Does anyone know if any of our staff attended any of the Juco showcase event in Vegas last week?) My sense is that excepting a dozen or so Juco guys per year, the average 3 star HS recruit produces a good bit more during his Junior and Senior years than a Juco player does. I know that we've had a couple of really good Juco players and Booker Woodfox, but we've had far more guys that mostly took up a scholarship spot while bringing some limited help to the table. If both Brooks and Milliken are good players for us, they'll be the exception rather than the rule.

There's almost certainly going to be some relative pain in 2014-2015 (probably 2015-2016, too, when compared to what we're growing accustomed to watching), so taking and developing the best HS talent we can get would seem to have some advantages over the Gregg Marshall, Buzz Williams, Dana at Oregon method of talent replacement. Not that he can see into the future, but I also think that what the team is able to accomplish this season will determine how much pressure Mac feels about the following couple of seasons. Sweet Sixteen or better and he's got to be feeling pretty secure. A good but not great year, and he may feel like the capital he's built up during his first four seasons will only last for a rather limited time.

[LJay]

The more I think about the make up of our classes the more I am convincing myself that we won't take but maybe one freshman in this class. We got a late start with the 2014 class since we had two commits who now are not plus our contacts were with MVC-level guys. I think 2015 and on we will see the fruits of Big East membership turn up in recruiting.

We lose A LOT after this year and will likely need an instant infusion (READ: Juco's) to be relatively competitive after Doug is gone. We only have one soph under scholarship (Groselle) so juco's will also be a benefit in class balancing. With maybe two redshirts in the present class, a single frosh with some oomf (READ: Leon Gilmore or the like) gives some balance to that class too. Also, most juco's don't sign until the spring so there may be some angst on this board relative to recruiting.

Yes, I am coming around to believing that this scenario has more than a small chance of happening.

"But then again, I could be wrong"

Absolutely.

...that this scenario has more than a small chance of happening