Can Gmac close

[AlpharettaCuse]

The difference is the fate of 2017 rests primarily on gmac. Our most experienced and proven assistants are not on the biggest fish which just seems risky. I'm sure many of us thought Louis Orr was going to do "just fine". That became a dark chapter in Syracuse basketball. And that's the problem with bad recruiting - it usually takes a few cycles to recognize that someone isn't cutting it. And by that point, we're talking about 3 or 4 NITs before the ship can get righted.

Do you think Gmac is the only person recruiting the biggest fish? You realize Hopkins and Boeheim also recruits these kids right?

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

You would know if the recruiter strikes out on multiple targets... but by then, it's too late.

So if Boeheim strikes out on multiple targets we should get rid of him?

 

[br801]

So many questions, FrancoPizza. Orange Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

 

[RoatanCuse]

Ahh, the rarely seen double cheapshot, taking down GMac and Cooney in the same post.

Right. But not quite as rare as the old "triple dog dare".

 

[kcsu]

I hope 247 is wrong. They dont show one of his recruits as a cuse lean

 

[cuseattle]

So many questions, FrancoPizza. Orange Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

 

[tee1222]

I went to the same high school as these guys, the Ramones, Cap'n Kangaroo and Ernie Grunfeld. True story

 

[br801]

I went to the same high school as these guys, the Ramones, Cap'n Kangaroo and Ernie Grunfeld. True story

Very nice.

Did the Ramones ever cover a Simon and Garfunkel song? If not, they should have.

 

[supp]

You do realize that a recruit's final decision is likely based on more than the efforts of his primary recruiter, do you not? And how, exactly, would you ever be able to attribute the loss of a recruit to the efforts of the recruiter?

Unfortunately, the recruiting assistants seem to matter a lot. Wish it were different. If they didn't matter, how do we explain the Greg Davis years?

 

[br801]

Unfortunately, the recruiting assistants seem to matter a lot. Wish it were different. If they didn't matter, how do we explain the Greg Davis years?

That's as much on JB as anyone, as he's the guy who ultimately determines which recruits are targeted.

 

[supp]

That's as much on JB as anyone, as he's the guy who ultimately determines which recruits are targeted.

Those couple of years before Weaver showed up, we had to grab a bunch of kids like Davis. Not so much because of bad scouting, because they hit some diamonds in the rough too, but because of lots of misses earlier in the recruiting cycle with the bigger names. Some might not remember that era but I do.

 

[kcsu]

Put in the very worried camp

 

[iommi]

I went to the same high school as these guys, the Ramones, Cap'n Kangaroo and Ernie Grunfeld. True story

Rock, rock, rock n roll high school.

 

[tee1222]

Rock, rock, rock n roll high school.

We also went to rock rock rockaway beach plenty when we were in high school.

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

Unfortunately, the recruiting assistants seem to matter a lot. Wish it were different. If they didn't matter, how do we explain the Greg Davis years?

I'd say our staff is doing a pretty good job, despite the scholarship losses and NCAA issues. We are sending kids to the NBA annually these days. Dion , MCW, Ennis, Grant, McCullough, Rak, Coleman, Lyon, Malachi, Battle...etc. From McDonald's AA's to kids not highly regarded, this staff seems to land some good talent, and seems to have adapted to being able to to bring in 5th year transfers. Can't argue with results (Final Fours and NBA kids).

 

[thebigeast44]

You need big balls to be a great closer - and as Raf said about Gmac many times in his career - Onions!

 

[SUFan44]

The one thing I will say is that GMac has the majority of the studs on the list - which, given that he is unproven and that this is such a key class for us moving forward, is slightly worrisome.

Not saying we can't or he won't land a couple of them. But to groom him on this class could be viewed as a high risk proposition.

 

[SU94]

Dean, others in the know. Can Gmac close? We seem to have alot of recruits with him as our lead recruiter.

Doesn't matter now, Izzo is our Mariano!

 

[two3zone]

GMac
Q. Green, Hami Diallo, Lonnie Walker, Brandon Randolph, Jordan Tucker, Jose Alvarado, Alex O'Connell. 2018 Cam Reddish.

 

[FrancoPizza]

To be fair, this batting average is on the whole staff, and the buck stops with JB deciding there is a glass wall on 1-95.

 

[dyedorange]

Just getting really tired of hearing people drag the staff through the mud. What GMac is or is not as a recruiter is still very much unknown in my opinion. You can't hang him for not getting all the top-shelf guys they set out to get to in this class, because A) the decision to go after those guys was JB's call, not GMac's; B) the way they went after them (going all-in on QG at the expense of pursuing Matt Coleman, for example) was also JB's call, and C) JB is retiring and the program's future under Hop is unclear and that makes recruiting kids into that situation inherently difficult. Even the best recruiter in the world is going to struggle selling that angle. Maybe GMac hasn't done a great job in this whole situation, I don't know, but the evidence is not out there yet to convict the guy.

And to the point about GMac being assigned all the top guys being worrisome, a choice was made by JB to go that route so you could also say that's a vote of confidence from a HOF coach who's been around the block a few times. Just a matter of perspective on how you see that decision by JB.

As for JB getting roasted around here, wow, c'mon! The guy has 1,000 wins (almost twice now and has done it every which way, in terms of blending different kinds of players into a cohesive unit. This team may have been overrated by us fans, but let's not turn this into a referendum on JB's coaching acumen. Clearly, a lot needs to be done to blend this group into a Team, but I think it's a far more likely explanation that the Team-making process is simply difficult (three transfers, two getting significant minutes!) vs. the idea that JB simply forgot how to coach. He's not perfect, but let's give the guy the credit he's due.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Just getting really tired of hearing people drag the staff through the mud. What GMac is or is not as a recruiter is still very much unknown in my opinion. You can't hang him for not getting all the top-shelf guys they set out to get to in this class, because A) the decision to go after those guys was JB's call, not GMac's; B) the way they went after them (going all-in on QG at the expense of pursuing Matt Coleman, for example) was also JB's call, and C) JB is retiring and the program's future under Hop is unclear and that makes recruiting kids into that situation inherently difficult. Even the best recruiter in the world is going to struggle selling that angle. Maybe GMac hasn't done a great job in this whole situation, I don't know, but the evidence is not out there yet to convict the guy.

And to the point about GMac being assigned all the top guys being worrisome, a choice was made by JB to go that route so you could also say that's a vote of confidence from a HOF coach who's been around the block a few times. Just a matter of perspective on how you see that decision by JB.

As for JB getting roasted around here, wow, c'mon! The guy has 1,000 wins (almost twice now and has done it every which way, in terms of blending different kinds of players into a cohesive unit. This team may have been overrated by us fans, but let's not turn this into a referendum on JB's coaching acumen. Clearly, a lot needs to be done to blend this group into a Team, but I think it's a far more likely explanation that the Team-making process is simply difficult (three transfers, two getting significant minutes!) vs. the idea that JB simply forgot how to coach. He's not perfect, but let's give the guy the credit he's due.

I give him credit. HOF coach. No denying any of that, because the numbers speak for themselves. That said- you can acknowledge all of that and still be critical of the things that warrant it, ie our offense. We simply have no idea what we are doing on offense. That's coaching. As for recruiting, you answered that yourself. Jim's call to put all of his eggs in one basket. Unfortunately it didn't work out, and who knows what next year looks like.

 

[pfister1]

Just getting really tired of hearing people drag the staff through the mud. What GMac is or is not as a recruiter is still very much unknown in my opinion. You can't hang him for not getting all the top-shelf guys they set out to get to in this class, because A) the decision to go after those guys was JB's call, not GMac's; B) the way they went after them (going all-in on QG at the expense of pursuing Matt Coleman, for example) was also JB's call, and C) JB is retiring and the program's future under Hop is unclear and that makes recruiting kids into that situation inherently difficult. Even the best recruiter in the world is going to struggle selling that angle. Maybe GMac hasn't done a great job in this whole situation, I don't know, but the evidence is not out there yet to convict the guy.

And to the point about GMac being assigned all the top guys being worrisome, a choice was made by JB to go that route so you could also say that's a vote of confidence from a HOF coach who's been around the block a few times. Just a matter of perspective on how you see that decision by JB.

As for JB getting roasted around here, wow, c'mon! The guy has 1,000 wins (almost twice now and has done it every which way, in terms of blending different kinds of players into a cohesive unit. This team may have been overrated by us fans, but let's not turn this into a referendum on JB's coaching acumen. Clearly, a lot needs to be done to blend this group into a Team, but I think it's a far more likely explanation that the Team-making process is simply difficult (three transfers, two getting significant minutes!) vs. the idea that JB simply forgot how to coach. He's not perfect, but let's give the guy the credit he's due.

I'm not sure I understand the movement to roast GMac over the recruiting. He has us in the ball game with those guys and had us at the wire with Quade Green. I would think that the way the recruiting would work is that it is an assistant's job to set the table with the recruit, get him on campus and get us on the short list and it then becomes the head man's job to actually close the deal. JB is the only guy that can make whatever guarantees/promises/representations that may be necessary to push a guy from heavy interest to signing on the dotted line.

 

[dyedorange]

I give him credit. HOF coach. No denying any of that, because the numbers speak for themselves. That said- you can acknowledge all of that and still be critical of the things that warrant it, ie our offense. We simply have no idea what we are doing on offense. That's coaching. As for recruiting, you answered that yourself. Jim's call to put all of his eggs in one basket. Unfortunately it didn't work out, and who knows what next year looks like.

I agree it's fair game to be critical of JB on the coaching side, but this guy on our sideline who's coming up with our offensive game plan is the same guy who's won 1,000 games over his career. To me, that means even though what we're seeing on the court is a mess, there's a pretty good chance JB is going to make sense of it before too long. #keepthefaith

I give him credit. HOF coach. No denying any of that, because the numbers speak for themselves. That said- you can acknowledge all of that and still be critical of the things that warrant it, ie our offense. We simply have no idea what we are doing on offense. That's coaching. As for recruiting, you answered that yourself. Jim's call to put all of his eggs in one basket. Unfortunately it didn't work out, and who knows what next year looks like.

 

[dyedorange]

I'm not sure I understand the movement to roast GMac over the recruiting. He has us in the ball game with those guys and had us at the wire with Quade Green. I would think that the way the recruiting would work is that it is an assistant's job to set the table with the recruit, get him on campus and get us on the short list and it then becomes the head man's job to actually close the deal. JB is the only guy that can make whatever guarantees/promises/representations that may be necessary to push a guy from heavy interest to signing on the dotted line.

Totally agree. GMac isn't the General, coming up with strategy in the back room--that's JB's job. Plus, my impression of the QG situation wasn't so much that GMac lost him, but that QG was always interested in the 'brighter' lights of UK, and when UK's own recruiting strategy changed course to prioritize him over certain other targets, he was all ears. When you have a kid who's susceptible to the UK hogwash, then that's very hard to overcome.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

GMac
Q. Green, Hami Diallo, Lonnie Walker, Brandon Randolph, Jordan Tucker, Jose Alvarado, Alex O'Connell. 2018 Cam Reddish.

Red
Nick Richards, Bourama Sidibe, Matt Coleman, Simi Shittu, Alex O'Connell. 2018 Jalen Smith, Brandon Slater.

Hop
Ethan Thompson. 2018 Naz Reid, Lou King.

Would be nice to see this post updated with wins and losses over time. GMac has a lot on his plate.