Summer 2019 - Big East - List Of Things To Do...

[scoscox]

Find a replacement for wojo.
Improvement of Providence and Georgetown previous freshman class.
Improved recruiting from everyone other than Villanova.
Seriously Nova is the only team in the top 25 recruiting rankings, with Xavier just squeaking in there. Shouldn't hurt the league next season but in a couple seasons it might show.

Don't let yourself be gaslit by the AAC trolls about recruiting. BE recruiting was fine. The league as a whole didn't have a lot of scholarships available for freshmen last year, so there were a lot of small classes, which makes team rankings look worse, but the quality of players brought in overall was good. The fact that the worst team in the league, Depaul, brought in two four stars and had the #35 class is huge. How many conferences have their worst team pull in the class Depaul just did? Nobody.

Xavier already has two top 100 recruits signed for 2020 and will probably add 1 or 2 more soon. Could end up being a legit top ten class. #3 right now. Butler has a 4 star and a 3 star signed. They're in the top ten for now. Marquette and Seton Hall are in a good spot for a lot of top 100 guys. Georgetown just got a crystal ball for a top 90 kid, etc.

[scoscox]

9 4 stars and 2 5 stars was the total. I think that's maybe one or two fewer than the norm for what we've typically had as a conference, but like I said, classes were smaller by necessity at most schools last year. That's also not counting guys like Tyrese Samuel, Qudus Wahab, and Zach Freemantle who are 247 4 stars, but only 3 stars in the composite.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Find a replacement for wojo.
Improvement of Providence and Georgetown previous freshman class.
Improved recruiting from everyone other than Villanova.
Seriously Nova is the only team in the top 25 recruiting rankings, with Xavier just squeaking in there. Shouldn't hurt the league next season but in a couple seasons it might show.

There is always a HUGE misconception when it comes to how best to evaluate a program's recruiting. We'll use the example of UK and Duke vs. VU. Cal and K are enamored by OAD's. So every year they trade 3-4 NBA draft picks for 3-5 Five Star HS players. But most leave (NBA or transfer when recruited over) within 2 years. Take the 2 most recent Nova NC teams. Hart, Arch, Ochefu, Bridges, Jenkins, Brunson, DiVincenzo, Booth, Paschall. With the exception of Brunson, all 3 and 4 star players ranked 50+. But they stick around for 3-4 years, become men, and develop their games. We win 2 NC's in the last 4 years, UK and Duke: none, even though they've been basically 1 and 2 in recruiting rankings each year. So who has been the better recruiter: Cal and K or Jay and guys like Roy W. and T. Bennett who value what older players can bring to the table and want time to develop them?

Point is the BE should think differently, and don't get caught up in rankings. Our coaches should play the long game. Get very good players who can grow. Ben Simmons was the top player in his class but give me a Hart, Bridges, Howard or Powell every day of the week. I don't care who's walking through the doors at UK and Duke next year. The chances of them being better than MH and MP is slim at best.

[gtmoBlue]

Read some Bluenotes....

2 new posts on www.bluenotes2.com
Just adding to the summer fodder.

[Dave]

Find a replacement for wojo.
Improvement of Providence and Georgetown previous freshman class.
Improved recruiting from everyone other than Villanova.
Seriously Nova is the only team in the top 25 recruiting rankings, with Xavier just squeaking in there. Shouldn't hurt the league next season but in a couple seasons it might show.

There is always a HUGE misconception when it comes to how best to evaluate a program's recruiting. We'll use the example of UK and Duke vs. VU. Cal and K are enamored by OAD's. So every year they trade 3-4 NBA draft picks for 3-5 Five Star HS players. But most leave (NBA or transfer when recruited over) within 2 years. Take the 2 most recent Nova NC teams. Hart, Arch, Ochefu, Bridges, Jenkins, Brunson, DiVincenzo, Booth, Paschall. With the exception of Brunson, all 3 and 4 star players ranked 50+. But they stick around for 3-4 years, become men, and develop their games. We win 2 NC's in the last 4 years, UK and Duke: none, even though they've been basically 1 and 2 in recruiting rankings each year. So who has been the better recruiter: Cal and K or Jay and guys like Roy W. and T. Bennett who value what older players can bring to the table and want time to develop them?

Point is the BE should think differently, and don't get caught up in rankings. Our coaches should play the long game. Get very good players who can grow. Ben Simmons was the top player in his class but give me a Hart, Bridges, Howard or Powell every day of the week. I don't care who's walking through the doors at UK and Duke next year. The chances of them being better than MH and MP is slim at best.

Spellman. We don’t win 2018 without Omari.

How can you just drop him from your list? It doesn’t fit your message?

[Django]

Find a replacement for wojo.
Improvement of Providence and Georgetown previous freshman class.
Improved recruiting from everyone other than Villanova.
Seriously Nova is the only team in the top 25 recruiting rankings, with Xavier just squeaking in there. Shouldn't hurt the league next season but in a couple seasons it might show.

There is always a HUGE misconception when it comes to how best to evaluate a program's recruiting. We'll use the example of UK and Duke vs. VU. Cal and K are enamored by OAD's. So every year they trade 3-4 NBA draft picks for 3-5 Five Star HS players. But most leave (NBA or transfer when recruited over) within 2 years. Take the 2 most recent Nova NC teams. Hart, Arch, Ochefu, Bridges, Jenkins, Brunson, DiVincenzo, Booth, Paschall. With the exception of Brunson, all 3 and 4 star players ranked 50+. But they stick around for 3-4 years, become men, and develop their games. We win 2 NC's in the last 4 years, UK and Duke: none, even though they've been basically 1 and 2 in recruiting rankings each year. So who has been the better recruiter: Cal and K or Jay and guys like Roy W. and T. Bennett who value what older players can bring to the table and want time to develop them?

Point is the BE should think differently, and don't get caught up in rankings. Our coaches should play the long game. Get very good players who can grow. Ben Simmons was the top player in his class but give me a Hart, Bridges, Howard or Powell every day of the week. I don't care who's walking through the doors at UK and Duke next year. The chances of them being better than MH and MP is slim at best.

Spellman. We don’t win 2018 without Omari.

How can you just drop him from your list? It doesn’t fit your message?

Good catch, and absolutely true that BE should keep building long-term buy-in player rosters and then land just one 5 star NBA one-and-done and you can win championships. Creighton had a team like that a few years ago with a solid cast and a 5-star center (who would be a one-and-done chosen 16 overall, Justin Patton), that team was headed for great things until our leader point guard Mo Watson went down at Xavier.