2015 recruits

[cujaysfan]

got it - we're worried what "bill marsh" and "hoya" think.

[Chicagojayfan]

And Rob, I can't believe you so passionately pump up Hanson on the Holyland board - based on everything you've posted here, an unrated, under scouted guy like him is the opposite of what type of recruit you practically DEMAND we cash in on, lest we become league laughingstocks.

This is an excellent point on Hanson. We did beat him out for a few other schools (including some very good, if not the biggest programs), but we were also in on him from the very beginning (i.e., we identified his talent very quickly and made him a priority), and then held on. Similar to Patton, similar to Stewart, similar to Harrell, we identified talent early and then got them to commit.

Sure Patton is local, but we were the first to ID him and make him a priority (Think the red team up the road would love to have a center for the future.. they didn't make it to a KC tourney and missed out). When we offered and he committed a number of people on the board flipped.. only later did they see that the coaches were right. That is similar to what happened with Hanson. We were pretty much first because the coaches work super hard to ID players and don't wait for them to fall on their laps.

If you look at Mac's recruiting since arriving, he has a history of landing very good recruits because he found them first .. or almost first. He also has a record of moving up the ladder and beating more and better BCS programs. He even beat out some for recruits when we were still in the MVC.

Add in the really excellent results of the last 2 years and I think we are in great shape going forward. Two top 100/150 recruis a year ago. Two top 50/150 recruits this year, two of the top transfers anywhere last year (guys recruited by Michigan, Kansas, Wichita, Illinois, Xavier, Dayton, Iowa, UCLA, USC -- yes, we beat out those teams for these transfers)

Two other points are important:

1. the midwest tends to have less recruiting attention from the services. Some guys get a lot of attention, but it's more spotty. That's why guys like Hanson aren't as highly rated as they would be on the east coast.
2. We play a high skill game. We look for skilled shooters who can really do the things we want on the court. There are 4/5 star guys who can't play the game we want. There are 3 star guys who can...fit is often underrated when it comes to recruiting, but I'd rather recruit high efficiency guys than hope that athletes will eventually learn how to play the game.

[LJay]

Nm

[gtmoBlue]

Great post ChicagoJay.

Given we are entering our 2nd season in the BE, Coach Mac and staff are doing a great job AND are ahead of schedule - recruiting-wise.
Last year: 2 HS Top 150 guys, 2 Top Transfer guys, and Kreklow.
This year: 2 HS Top 150 guys...and counting.

Coach is annually making quota by getting his 2 top HS recruits - the rest is gravy.

Other fan bases don't know us...but they will! They are gonna learn to hate all of you/us Creighton types after losing more games to the Jays - both this coming season and the next several years. It won't take too long before they claim we have an unfair advantage due to our style of play. I can't wait - it will be like back in the old MVC days - and the Hilltoppers are the team everyone wants to beat, gets everyone's best shot. Ah, paradise indeed.

[Chicagojayfan]

Just to break this out a bit more:

Our recruiting (including transfers) has been tremendous:

- 2014: a top 100 player and a top 150 player
Harrell - We were the first to the party with Harrell and despite other interest coming up, we landed him (KState and Purdue Offers)
Gilmore - we recruited him a long time and beat out a lot of other teams. We weren't as early in identifying him and it turned into a longer recruitment (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UNLV, etc offers)

- 2015: a top 50 player and a guy who could easily be top 150 by the time he finishes moving up the rankings
Patton - Everyone knows the story now, top 50 guy almost according to every service. We were watching him a long time and were in the camp in the summer (Kansas City, I think) where he really showed up on the radar... the team down the road wasn't there. We got him into our camp and offered immediately. The coaches KNEW is talent, offered and got the commitment, heading off what would have likely been very significant national competition.
Stewart - Coaches were watching him as Bradley was his biggest offer. He blew up during a Chicago tournament during the summer and then immediately got hurt. We evaluated him, got him to campus to check him out.. saw the talent offered and got his commitment.

- 2014 transfers: Huff and Watson ---- guys recruited to transfer by schools Michigan, Kansas, Wichita, Illinois, Xavier, Dayton, Iowa, UCLA, USC -- yes, we beat out those teams for these transfers. In the scheme of rankings, how can these guys not be top 50 or top 25 recruits?... they've ALREADY proven themselves on the D1 level.. we KNOW they can play at the level it takes already. Some say they are already two of the best players on the court in practice.

- 2014 Senior Transfers: Kreklow -- he came to Omaha without a scholie because he wanted to play with this group of guys and coaches. He had suiters all over the place including Missouri, Baylor, Butler, Nebraska and Virginia and turned them down to come here without a scholarship.. think about that for a minute...

That is 7 players who are ranked high enough to make just about anyone happy, but if we look back before that we have a previous class that was legitimately outstanding IMO:

- 2013 Class:
Hanson - played as true frosh (AZ State, Gonzaga, Mizzou, Nebraska, New Mexico Offers). We were one of the first big offers for Hanson and held on despite national interest coming up and got his commitment before even more teams likely would have been in play.
Hegner - looks ready for a huge breakout season this year after RS (Marquette, Iowa State, Northwestern, Offers). This guy's skill level and height screams mismatch and the S&C and shot tweaking he did over his RS year shows the level of work he's putting into his game.
Brooks - JUCO Combo guard who I thought clearly belonged in the Big East last year despite still needing consistency. Athletic and skilled he's worked on his shooting to add a threat when people play off to stop his really devastating off the dribble moves.
Milliken - We'll see more of him this year, but another JUCO who by practice reports also belongs in the BE.

That is 11 players right there.. 11 guys that I think fill in an excellent BE roster. And that's not even to mention the existing roster. Think about Chatman for a minute -- IMO he's easily one of the best pure points in the BE .. want to have fun? compare him to Van Fleet statistically, it's an interesting exercise I did later in the season last year

Add in the older guys we have as well and you see the kind of depth we have. I think it's obvious our coaches were swinging for the fences on this scholarship with the idea that they seem very happy with their roster and would rather take long shots on the best players they can find anywhere instead of filling the scholarship

[jaysfor3]

Just to break this out a bit more:

Our recruiting (including transfers) has been tremendous:

- 2014: a top 100 player and a top 150 player
Harrell - We were the first to the party with Harrell and despite other interest coming up, we landed him (KState and Purdue Offers)
Gilmore - we recruited him a long time and beat out a lot of other teams. We weren't as early in identifying him and it turned into a longer recruitment (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UNLV, etc offers)

- 2015: a top 50 player and a guy who could easily be top 150 by the time he finishes moving up the rankings
Patton - Everyone knows the story now, top 50 guy almost according to every service. We were watching him a long time and were in the camp in the summer (Kansas City, I think) where he really showed up on the radar... the team down the road wasn't there. We got him into our camp and offered immediately. The coaches KNEW is talent, offered and got the commitment, heading off what would have likely been very significant national competition.
Stewart - Coaches were watching him as Bradley was his biggest offer. He blew up during a Chicago tournament during the summer and then immediately got hurt. We evaluated him, got him to campus to check him out.. saw the talent offered and got his commitment.

- 2014 transfers: Huff and Watson ---- guys recruited to transfer by schools Michigan, Kansas, Wichita, Illinois, Xavier, Dayton, Iowa, UCLA, USC -- yes, we beat out those teams for these transfers. In the scheme of rankings, how can these guys not be top 50 or top 25 recruits?... they've ALREADY proven themselves on the D1 level.. we KNOW they can play at the level it takes already. Some say they are already two of the best players on the court in practice.

- 2014 Senior Transfers: Kreklow -- he came to Omaha without a scholie because he wanted to play with this group of guys and coaches. He had suiters all over the place including Missouri, Baylor, Butler, Nebraska and Virginia and turned them down to come here without a scholarship.. think about that for a minute...

That is 7 players who are ranked high enough to make just about anyone happy, but if we look back before that we have a previous class that was legitimately outstanding IMO:

- 2013 Class:
Hanson - played as true frosh (AZ State, Gonzaga, Mizzou, Nebraska, New Mexico Offers). We were one of the first big offers for Hanson and held on despite national interest coming up and got his commitment before even more teams likely would have been in play.
Hegner - looks ready for a huge breakout season this year after RS (Marquette, Iowa State, Northwestern, Offers). This guy's skill level and height screams mismatch and the S&C and shot tweaking he did over his RS year shows the level of work he's putting into his game.
Brooks - JUCO Combo guard who I thought clearly belonged in the Big East last year despite still needing consistency. Athletic and skilled he's worked on his shooting to add a threat when people play off to stop his really devastating off the dribble moves.
Milliken - We'll see more of him this year, but another JUCO who by practice reports also belongs in the BE.

That is 11 players right there.. 11 guys that I think fill in an excellent BE roster. And that's not even to mention the existing roster. Think about Chatman for a minute -- IMO he's easily one of the best pure points in the BE .. want to have fun? compare him to Van Fleet statistically, it's an interesting exercise I did later in the season last year

Add in the older guys we have as well and you see the kind of depth we have. I think it's obvious our coaches were swinging for the fences on this scholarship with the idea that they seem very happy with their roster and would rather take long shots on the best players they can find anywhere instead of filling the scholarship

And yet with all of that we are picked 9th in the BE this year. I know I'm just a troll so take my comment with a grain of salt, but as others have said, we have to start to land some of these program changers.

Harrell and Gilmore are a great start, but they are both being talked about for RSing this year (which I have no problem with actually).

Watson and Huff are definitely bright spots. They will no doubt help this team out.

The rest of the guys will continue to develop and get better. How much better is what we don't know?

The thing we have to remember though is that the Big East is recruiting very, very well. In the Valley if you looked at the list above we would be loving life! The issue now is that every team (well, besides DePaul obviously) is recruiting very, very well.

We are picked very low this year. Yes, we will add Huff/Watson next year, but at the same time look what we will lose. 4 seniors that have been in the system for a long time. Brooks, Chatman, Dingman and Artino will be missed. The bad thing is that this is their only year to "really shine" since they have sat behind Gibbs, McDermott, Wragge and Manigat. Its the one thing that always worried me going forward. Its almost like we put all of our eggs in one basket for those 4 to take us to the promise land. It didn't happen (NCAA tourney wise that is) and now, yes we have 4 seniors, but how experienced are they really?

[Chicagojayfan]

Just to break this out a bit more:

Our recruiting (including transfers) has been tremendous:

- 2014: a top 100 player and a top 150 player
Harrell - We were the first to the party with Harrell and despite other interest coming up, we landed him (KState and Purdue Offers)
Gilmore - we recruited him a long time and beat out a lot of other teams. We weren't as early in identifying him and it turned into a longer recruitment (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UNLV, etc offers)

- 2015: a top 50 player and a guy who could easily be top 150 by the time he finishes moving up the rankings
Patton - Everyone knows the story now, top 50 guy almost according to every service. We were watching him a long time and were in the camp in the summer (Kansas City, I think) where he really showed up on the radar... the team down the road wasn't there. We got him into our camp and offered immediately. The coaches KNEW is talent, offered and got the commitment, heading off what would have likely been very significant national competition.
Stewart - Coaches were watching him as Bradley was his biggest offer. He blew up during a Chicago tournament during the summer and then immediately got hurt. We evaluated him, got him to campus to check him out.. saw the talent offered and got his commitment.

- 2014 transfers: Huff and Watson ---- guys recruited to transfer by schools Michigan, Kansas, Wichita, Illinois, Xavier, Dayton, Iowa, UCLA, USC -- yes, we beat out those teams for these transfers. In the scheme of rankings, how can these guys not be top 50 or top 25 recruits?... they've ALREADY proven themselves on the D1 level.. we KNOW they can play at the level it takes already. Some say they are already two of the best players on the court in practice.

- 2014 Senior Transfers: Kreklow -- he came to Omaha without a scholie because he wanted to play with this group of guys and coaches. He had suiters all over the place including Missouri, Baylor, Butler, Nebraska and Virginia and turned them down to come here without a scholarship.. think about that for a minute...

That is 7 players who are ranked high enough to make just about anyone happy, but if we look back before that we have a previous class that was legitimately outstanding IMO:

- 2013 Class:
Hanson - played as true frosh (AZ State, Gonzaga, Mizzou, Nebraska, New Mexico Offers). We were one of the first big offers for Hanson and held on despite national interest coming up and got his commitment before even more teams likely would have been in play.
Hegner - looks ready for a huge breakout season this year after RS (Marquette, Iowa State, Northwestern, Offers). This guy's skill level and height screams mismatch and the S&C and shot tweaking he did over his RS year shows the level of work he's putting into his game.
Brooks - JUCO Combo guard who I thought clearly belonged in the Big East last year despite still needing consistency. Athletic and skilled he's worked on his shooting to add a threat when people play off to stop his really devastating off the dribble moves.
Milliken - We'll see more of him this year, but another JUCO who by practice reports also belongs in the BE.

That is 11 players right there.. 11 guys that I think fill in an excellent BE roster. And that's not even to mention the existing roster. Think about Chatman for a minute -- IMO he's easily one of the best pure points in the BE .. want to have fun? compare him to Van Fleet statistically, it's an interesting exercise I did later in the season last year

Add in the older guys we have as well and you see the kind of depth we have. I think it's obvious our coaches were swinging for the fences on this scholarship with the idea that they seem very happy with their roster and would rather take long shots on the best players they can find anywhere instead of filling the scholarship

And yet with all of that we are picked 9th in the BE this year. I know I'm just a troll so take my comment with a grain of salt, but as others have said, we have to start to land some of these program changers.

Harrell and Gilmore are a great start, but they are both being talked about for RSing this year (which I have no problem with actually).

Watson and Huff are definitely bright spots. They will no doubt help this team out.

The rest of the guys will continue to develop and get better. How much better is what we don't know?

The thing we have to remember though is that the Big East is recruiting very, very well. In the Valley if you looked at the list above we would be loving life! The issue now is that every team (well, besides DePaul obviously) is recruiting very, very well.

We are picked very low this year. Yes, we will add Huff/Watson next year, but at the same time look what we will lose. 4 seniors that have been in the system for a long time. Brooks, Chatman, Dingman and Artino will be missed. The bad thing is that this is their only year to "really shine" since they have sat behind Gibbs, McDermott, Wragge and Manigat. Its the one thing that always worried me going forward. Its almost like we put all of our eggs in one basket for those 4 to take us to the promise land. It didn't happen (NCAA tourney wise that is) and now, yes we have 4 seniors, but how experienced are they really?

What is the guarantee that any of those other "game changers" will produce in the rest of the Big East? St. John's continues to put up awful Points per possession stats. They D can pull them out sometimes, but their 5 and 4 star recruits don't help them put the ball through the basket. Georgetown has some big recruits this year, but is picked second with a roster that is thin in important positions and could just as easily have a repeat of last year (especially if they need to try to go through another season without a center, so whether or not Smith makes it is a big question for them)

We will get some big recruits, but usually we are going to get them by being first to the party.. especially when we have to get a kid to travel cross country. Not to mention that we will find guys locally who can fit our system perfectly and keep our depth at a point where we are able to swing for the fences on big recruits.. doesn't mean we land all of them, but it does mean we win games and stay competitive.

Does anyone REALLY think we are finishing 9th this year? Seriously? And if we aren't finishing 9th.. what do we care what the rest of the Big East thinks about our recruiting or about us? The rude awakening to them will be losing to a team they thought would be in the cellar.

[mannygakou]

[gtmoBlue]

Another small factor moving forward is that as LJay has repeatedly pointed out - protect the home turf. Fortunately Iowa, Mizzou, & Kansas have a reasonable annual pool of talent. Nebraska for the foreseeable next 2-3 years has a growing pool of talent.

As long as we can capture 1 or 2 of the local/regional kids (Agau, Simpson, Arop Aguek, Chandler, Marques Wilson, Jerry Myles, Ballock, others) we can be selective nationally in recruiting for "fit" amongst the Top 100 pool. 2016 will be our 3rd recruiting class as a major, we have 2 spots to fill (3 if we end up holding a scholie from 2015).

With continued on-court success our recruiting success will not dip, but rather increase. As AA or BB has stated - we must preach - Creighton: Basketball 24/7/365...basketball all the time!

[jaysfor3]

Just to break this out a bit more:

Our recruiting (including transfers) has been tremendous:

- 2014: a top 100 player and a top 150 player
Harrell - We were the first to the party with Harrell and despite other interest coming up, we landed him (KState and Purdue Offers)
Gilmore - we recruited him a long time and beat out a lot of other teams. We weren't as early in identifying him and it turned into a longer recruitment (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UNLV, etc offers)

- 2015: a top 50 player and a guy who could easily be top 150 by the time he finishes moving up the rankings
Patton - Everyone knows the story now, top 50 guy almost according to every service. We were watching him a long time and were in the camp in the summer (Kansas City, I think) where he really showed up on the radar... the team down the road wasn't there. We got him into our camp and offered immediately. The coaches KNEW is talent, offered and got the commitment, heading off what would have likely been very significant national competition.
Stewart - Coaches were watching him as Bradley was his biggest offer. He blew up during a Chicago tournament during the summer and then immediately got hurt. We evaluated him, got him to campus to check him out.. saw the talent offered and got his commitment.

- 2014 transfers: Huff and Watson ---- guys recruited to transfer by schools Michigan, Kansas, Wichita, Illinois, Xavier, Dayton, Iowa, UCLA, USC -- yes, we beat out those teams for these transfers. In the scheme of rankings, how can these guys not be top 50 or top 25 recruits?... they've ALREADY proven themselves on the D1 level.. we KNOW they can play at the level it takes already. Some say they are already two of the best players on the court in practice.

- 2014 Senior Transfers: Kreklow -- he came to Omaha without a scholie because he wanted to play with this group of guys and coaches. He had suiters all over the place including Missouri, Baylor, Butler, Nebraska and Virginia and turned them down to come here without a scholarship.. think about that for a minute...

That is 7 players who are ranked high enough to make just about anyone happy, but if we look back before that we have a previous class that was legitimately outstanding IMO:

- 2013 Class:
Hanson - played as true frosh (AZ State, Gonzaga, Mizzou, Nebraska, New Mexico Offers). We were one of the first big offers for Hanson and held on despite national interest coming up and got his commitment before even more teams likely would have been in play.
Hegner - looks ready for a huge breakout season this year after RS (Marquette, Iowa State, Northwestern, Offers). This guy's skill level and height screams mismatch and the S&C and shot tweaking he did over his RS year shows the level of work he's putting into his game.
Brooks - JUCO Combo guard who I thought clearly belonged in the Big East last year despite still needing consistency. Athletic and skilled he's worked on his shooting to add a threat when people play off to stop his really devastating off the dribble moves.
Milliken - We'll see more of him this year, but another JUCO who by practice reports also belongs in the BE.

That is 11 players right there.. 11 guys that I think fill in an excellent BE roster. And that's not even to mention the existing roster. Think about Chatman for a minute -- IMO he's easily one of the best pure points in the BE .. want to have fun? compare him to Van Fleet statistically, it's an interesting exercise I did later in the season last year

Add in the older guys we have as well and you see the kind of depth we have. I think it's obvious our coaches were swinging for the fences on this scholarship with the idea that they seem very happy with their roster and would rather take long shots on the best players they can find anywhere instead of filling the scholarship

And yet with all of that we are picked 9th in the BE this year. I know I'm just a troll so take my comment with a grain of salt, but as others have said, we have to start to land some of these program changers.

Harrell and Gilmore are a great start, but they are both being talked about for RSing this year (which I have no problem with actually).

Watson and Huff are definitely bright spots. They will no doubt help this team out.

The rest of the guys will continue to develop and get better. How much better is what we don't know?

The thing we have to remember though is that the Big East is recruiting very, very well. In the Valley if you looked at the list above we would be loving life! The issue now is that every team (well, besides DePaul obviously) is recruiting very, very well.

We are picked very low this year. Yes, we will add Huff/Watson next year, but at the same time look what we will lose. 4 seniors that have been in the system for a long time. Brooks, Chatman, Dingman and Artino will be missed. The bad thing is that this is their only year to "really shine" since they have sat behind Gibbs, McDermott, Wragge and Manigat. Its the one thing that always worried me going forward. Its almost like we put all of our eggs in one basket for those 4 to take us to the promise land. It didn't happen (NCAA tourney wise that is) and now, yes we have 4 seniors, but how experienced are they really?

What is the guarantee that any of those other "game changers" will produce in the rest of the Big East? St. John's continues to put up awful Points per possession stats. They D can pull them out sometimes, but their 5 and 4 star recruits don't help them put the ball through the basket. Georgetown has some big recruits this year, but is picked second with a roster that is thin in important positions and could just as easily have a repeat of last year (especially if they need to try to go through another season without a center, so whether or not Smith makes it is a big question for them)

We will get some big recruits, but usually we are going to get them by being first to the party.. especially when we have to get a kid to travel cross country. Not to mention that we will find guys locally who can fit our system perfectly and keep our depth at a point where we are able to swing for the fences on big recruits.. doesn't mean we land all of them, but it does mean we win games and stay competitive.

Does anyone REALLY think we are finishing 9th this year? Seriously? And if we aren't finishing 9th.. what do we care what the rest of the Big East thinks about our recruiting or about us? The rude awakening to them will be losing to a team they thought would be in the cellar.

On one hand you say that we have all these great recruits coming in, but the next sentence you tell me about how GTown and St. John's have all these great recruits but that doesn't always equal success? So, our coaching alone is what will get us over the top? Look, as much as I like Coach Mac, you HAVE to have players, period. We have to start landing some of these top notch players. So many point out "Well, we were great last year in the Big East so we will be fine moving forward." We had Doug McDermott! The guy was one of the best College basketball players in a LONG, LONG time. He hid a lot of our players weaknesses because of the attention he drew to him. Then you throw in Wragge who took his defender with him at all times because if you left him he would kill you.

Here is my fear. Who do we go to in crunch time in the final 4 minutes of a game this year? Brooks? Chapman? Who gets their shot off when we desperately need a basket. That is where recruiting comes in. I can guarantee you that their are a lot of coaches that are much, much better than Calipari from the X's and O's standpoint. But Coach Cal has players. Damn good players. You can have the greatest game plan in the world, but at the end of the day we have to continue to recruit, recruit, recruit. I'm not saying Coach Mac isn't recruiting well, but eventually we have to hit on some of these studs. I'm not saying we are UK or ever will be, but the point was simply that our "system" alone isn't going to win us games.

This year will be very telling to see how far our guys come along. The key is to continue to get Harrell/Gilmore better whether from RSing or playing and see how much we improve as the year goes on. Next year I think we are solid with the additions of Watson and Huff obviously.