Bluejay Bilas wrote:I’m with McN on this one.
McLemore was a top 50 player. Thomas was not. The eligibility concerns excuse is not the full story. At this point, I’m assuming that the staff is counting on an additional year to make Thomas a better player in the context of his new 2015 class than he was in the 2014 class. It’s not super common, but between Juco guys who make strides in 1 or 2 years and go from under-the-radar HS talents to picking up high major offers in Juco, and the occasional prep school guy like Graham last year who went from decent HS recognition and an App. State commit to KU in one year, there is precedent for additional experience and hard work turning a marginal prospect into a much more highly regarded talent in a year or two. All of that said, Thomas is not a Creighton commit right now, so in multiple respects we’ll have to wait and see on this one.
Patton was a reach. This has been well discussed on this board, and because of his size, exponential recent improvement and the fact that he’s just one of at least four 2015 scholarships, it’s not difficult to understand why the staff jumped the gun.
Hluchoweckyj has not yet been offered by Creighton, and who knows what level of contact/interest there is at this point. But, if somehow we did get to a point where we’re the lone high major school on multiple Omaha metro players, there would be reason to be concerned about how we’re faring with our offers to more heralded recruits and our staff’s evaluation of the sort of talent we need to compete with Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, etc. Yes, Antoine was great for us and Josh was a nice role player, but (a) we’re not in the MVC anymore, and (b) those are among the only Omaha area players who have helped Nebraska or Creighton in the past decade or so. I have a very hard time believing that even if there is currently more Omaha HS talent than there has been since the Pugh/Mitchell days or even the Strickland/Woolridge days, Creighton’s going to be able to rely on more than 1 or 2 local guys at a time to compete at the top of our league. Sure, I'd be thrilled to see Omaha guys leading CU to a lot of wins, but it's not realistic to expect a team with mostly unranked HS prospects to consistently beat teams with the talent of a Villanova or Georgetown. Fortunately, I don't think that is the direction we're headed though, and I suspect we'll be happy with who the coaches bring on board for 2015, like was true with Harrell, Gilmore, and the transfers last year.
As a final note, I do think the limited AAU exposure Omaha players tend to get does play a role in their offers and their lack of ratings/stars (was nice to see the OSA team fair well in St. Louis last weekend, but that was not a marquee event, and that event seems to be par for the course for the local grassroots teams). My recollection is that Akoy, who not only played for the one NE HS that gets some national recognition, played some of his AAU ball with an IA squad that went to bigger tournaments and had other high major prospects. At the end of the day, the limit exposure excuse only goes so far, as NE kids besides Akoy have had national attention and have gone to schools better than UNO. If you’re a fully legit talent, big programs will find you.
In general, you are correct. If a guy is good enough, teams will find them. That said it’s not a perfect science, and I have to disagree about a few things:
- Patton is NOT a reach. If they’d offered during his Junior year in the hopes of him developing as he has, he would have been a reach. As-is, they were in the right place at the right time to identify how far he’d come and to do a full evaluation of his abilities. There are a lot of to 25 teams that would jump immediately when presented with a 6-10 (to be 7 footer) with athleticism and touch in their back yard. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this one.
- Guys like Thomas can definitely slip between the cracks in Omaha. Akoy had a lot of press, did a lot of publicizing and played on high profile teams. Thomas did a couple of swings in AAU, and apparently did well enough to get interest, but it’s not an incredibly easy swing for a coach to come to Omaha to see the one player who is on your radar and who isn’t likely to make the grades anyway. He has D1 athleticism, no doubt, and I think his defense projects to definite D1 and BCS level. He now has a year to get his grades in order and to polish up his offensive skills. All in all this isn’t a bad bet by the coaches, IMO, as his D fills a definite need for our team.
- Hluchoweckyj doesn’t seem to have an offer yet, but there does appear to be interest. He’s a top level athlete overall with a 37” vertical and a possible next level competitor in track or football as well. So we will see if the offer comes, but I am encouraged that this guy is a top athlete. Not to mention we have a pretty good track record of evaluating PG’s
