Big East - General Recruiting Thread

[marquette]

I honestly think that some recruits may have been a little leery until they were sure the BE was going to remain a power conference after the split. Now that we are in our third year, I think that issue has been resolved as we have been in the top 5 of power rankings every year and the overall perception of the conference has improved (even with ESPN). I think recruiting will pick up as we move along. It would be nice to fix the one weakness in the conference resume!!

I don't disagree with your analysis entirely, but I wouldn't call recruiting a weakness on the conference resume. If I'm not mistaken, and anyone can feel free to correct me if I am, since the reformation of the league we have Nova, Marquette, Georgetown, Xavier, Creighton, Seton Hall, and St. John's all pulling top 50 talent. Virtually everyone has gotten their share of top 100 talent as well. Recruiting could get a little bit better, but as things sit right now I'd place the league as a whole on the rung just below the bluebloods in the recruiting department.

[NovaBall]

The good thing about the BIG EAST recruiting is that all the teams are recruiting well.

Sure the SEC or ACC might pull some more of the top 25/50 talent. But those guys all end up at the same few schools, and the other schools are running around trying to find guys in the 100-200 range. The BIG EAST has nine of the ten schools recruiting well.

[jfan]

Marquette, the weakness I was concerned with was a deep run in the tournament. I agree recruiting has been good, but I think it can get better as we move forward. By the way, can you get Ellenson to go pro before Saturday?

[stever20]

The good thing about the BIG EAST recruiting is that all the teams are recruiting well.

Sure the SEC or ACC might pull some more of the top 25/50 talent. But those guys all end up at the same few schools, and the other schools are running around trying to find guys in the 100-200 range. The BIG EAST has nine of the ten schools recruiting well.

Not really true. Look at the top 54 right now.
Miami 6
Miss St 7
Florida St 10
Texas 11
Alabama 12
Oregon 15
Penn St 18
Auburn 19
Minnesota 20
Arkansas 26
Texas A&M 28
Ariz St 31
USC 38
Ga Tech 40

Duke, Kentucky, Mich St, UCLA, Virginia, UCLA all in the top 10 like normal....

So it's no where near the same few schools any more. More and more of the football schools going in on basketball now. I mean- Auburn and Alabama in the top 20? 5 of the 7 teams in the SEC west are in the top 30 recruiting classes this year. Let that sink in a bit

[DudeAnon]

Pretty nice article on Trevon Bluiett. http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... xavier-run

Relevant quote:

There was one other vital aspect to Bluiett landing at Xavier: The Big East. Had Xavier remained in the Atlantic 10, Reynardo said his son would have gone elsewhere. The conference realignment that put this program into the Big East was a clinching part.

"That conference (the A-10) was not the right conference for Trey," Reynardo Bluiett said. "When Xavier got to the Big East, that changed things."

[GumbyDamnit!]

The good thing about the BIG EAST recruiting is that all the teams are recruiting well.

Sure the SEC or ACC might pull some more of the top 25/50 talent. But those guys all end up at the same few schools, and the other schools are running around trying to find guys in the 100-200 range. The BIG EAST has nine of the ten schools recruiting well.

Not really true. Look at the top 54 right now.
Miami 6
Miss St 7
Florida St 10
Texas 11
Alabama 12
Oregon 15
Penn St 18
Auburn 19
Minnesota 20
Arkansas 26
Texas A&M 28
Ariz St 31
USC 38
Ga Tech 40

Duke, Kentucky, Mich St, UCLA, Virginia, UCLA all in the top 10 like normal....

So it's no where near the same few schools any more. More and more of the football schools going in on basketball now. I mean- Auburn and Alabama in the top 20? 5 of the 7 teams in the SEC west are in the top 30 recruiting classes this year. Let that sink in a bit

Typical Stever move. He pulls some stats that make sense for his argument. You can't look at "NOW." Now is only part of the story. Penn St is so high because of volume, not necessarily because of sheer talent. As in they have been terrible for so long anyone can step in and play for them. They have no other classes behind them.

If you want a true understanding of strength of recruiting take the last 4 classes and minus out any kid who has transferred out or gone pro. Then apply some sort of arbitrary "maturity" quotient to their ranking to get a true understanding of who is recruiting well consistently over time. As an example, Josh Hart was ranked around #70 and I. Briscoe from UK in the Top 10. Make the argument for me how Briscoe is a better guard in 2016 than Josh Hart, or Trevon Bleuitt or DSR, etc. You have to apply some sort of filter to differentiate that just because UK gets 6 Top 20 kids every years and teams like X and Nova do not, will not mean that UK is exponentially better than teams who do it through development and balanced classes.

[stever20]

you can't go back 4 years ago because the split hadn't taken place yet. You ALWAYS want to include the 2013 class, that was signed before the split was even talked about, let alone done.....

Also if you want to ding Penn St, you have to ding Seton Hall because all of their damage was in 1 class. Also, Penn St last year did get 2 4 star guys and a 3 star guy, so it's not like that's a nothing class. It was like #43 in the nation last year.

If Kentucky gets the #1 player for 4 years in a row, that is better than Nova's approach. Just look at Kentucky's performances in the tourney. Missed one year due to injuries- but other 5 years elite 8 all 5 years and final 4 in 4 of those. If you give me a choice of having a top 10 NBA level player for one year for 4 straight years, or a guy who might develop into what Hart is- I take the 4 years of NBA players every single time. The upside is much higher with the NBA guys, and there is no guarantee that the #70 player develops. Yeah you might have a year like this where things don't work out for Kentucky- but those have been few and far between. I'll take my chances with 4-5 5 star players every day of the week.

[ChestRockwell85]

Wow man. I don't really follow Zach B but a lot of my friends who are St. John's fans mention him a lot. He sounds like a big baby to me. I can't believe a guy who is looking to gain respect as a sports writer in NYC, especially a guy who wants to be a go-to source for SJU hoops would do that. I think he gained some traction with Lavin, but after Lavin left he lost all real connections to SJU hoops. Doesn't look like Mullin is going to give the guy any respect any time soon. What a douche. Sorry to hear that but I am hoping Alkins won't make his decision based on some weasel on twitter.

He actually gained respect from fans cause he wasn't buying all of Lavins BS last year. When he kept saying "we are building a program here" when in fact he wasn't recruiting anyone. But then long after lavin was let go Zach kept taking shots at lavin. It became clear he hated the guy personally and it was just really unprofessional.

But back to Rawle. The crystal ball is now starting to trend to Arizona. Honestly, and I'll tell you what a lot of sju fans share this sentiment, we don't know if we want Rysheed Jordan 2.0. Honestly Rawle is good, very good, but I think Mullin wants build a program much like Jay Wright. He wants to recruit high quality kids on and off the floor. It's difficult situation because it's basically in Mullins job description to recruit the best kid from NYC every year, but sometimes it doesn't work out. Rawle went to prep in North Carolina, so I'd say we actually did get the best player in the city, Shamorie Ponds.

Awesome post. I completely respect Mullin for taking a pass on a kid to protect the integrity of his program. Sometimes it is better to let higher ranked recruits go if they are going to bring any type of baggage or disrupt team chemistry. Villanova fans will back me up when I say this, but Jay backed off of Rysheed Jordan for a reason. I am not saying we would have gotten him, I think he would have ended up at St. John's regardless, but again, sometimes it is better not to take a chance on a kid who might be a risk, and instead spend your time going after a kid who wants to be a part of your team and wants to buy into the program. I do NOT see Mullin taking BS from these kids. I think he is in the process of building a very good program at St. John's and he is doing it the right way.

[ChestRockwell85]

Question for Seton Hall fans, or if anybody else thinks they can answer this, feel free, but I would love it (except when Villanova plays SHU) if Seton Hall returns all their players for next year. That would be a dangerous squad. Will this happen or do people feel that Whitehead or somebody else is gung-ho to get to the league? Also, who do you have coming in next year? Sorry if that was already posted in this thread and I missed it.

[NJRedman]

Question for Seton Hall fans, or if anybody else thinks they can answer this, feel free, but I would love it (except when Villanova plays SHU) if Seton Hall returns all their players for next year. That would be a dangerous squad. Will this happen or do people feel that Whitehead or somebody else is gung-ho to get to the league? Also, who do you have coming in next year? Sorry if that was already posted in this thread and I missed it.

The problem with that is what SJU ran into under Lavin. It hurts recruiting when everyone comes back because it limits playing time you can offer kids. Having a few kids leave each year either through graduation or going pro is a good thing for any program. Having a group of kids play from freshmen to seniors can hurt the program.