Recruiting Q&A

[AZOrange]

Never heard of him before now. Will keep him on my radar though to see if SU indeed shows any interest.

Francis you rock! Loved the posts! So hard to track at this stage in life and so far away. Obi-Wan you are my only hope!

 

[Francis03]

Definitely would like to do it sooner. 1st day of every month???????

We'll see how it goes but sometime next month would be cool.

 

[cusetown1]

Never heard of him before now. Will keep him on my radar though to see if SU indeed shows any interest.

Hey I thought you were doing this every Wednesday around 6? JK, I appreciate the info.

 

[Garbs]

We'll see how it goes but sometime next month would be cool.

hopefully we will all be too distracted next month to care about recruiting

 

[Rocco]

Nah not a full-time gig but I've been pondering some thoughts in that direction as far as the future is concerned.

Francis, thanks for all you've shared. Kudos to you.

Side note: love the avatar.

 

[TheRoyalIveyFund]

What a great thread with a lot of details, delivered in a real friendly manner by Francis. I'm not even a recruiting geek since I think JB will win regardless but how does one not get excited with this kind of info, esp with the likes of Noel?? Thank you!

 

[HoustonCuse]

Francis, do you have any feel for what impact JB retiring will have on our recruiting? Interested to know if you get any vibe about this from the current day kids and/or speculate just based on what knowledge you have of what kids like about Syracuse.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

how are we thin at PG next year? even without Dion we have Triche and MCW

Triche is a decent but inconsistent SG with very unproven PG skills, and MCW has ZERO quality minutes against a quality opponent ever at the college level.

We have nobody in the pipeline for a PG, so that's why I believe we are thin at PG next year. A championship caliber team needs a quality PG, and we don't have one lined up.

 

[SyracuseFan]

I'm confused...

Isn't MCW going to be an all league point guard next year?

I personally don't care if Triche plays better if the ball is in his hands. The whole team will be better when MCW IS slinging dimes all over the place. All over the board tonight people are wondering where our future point guard is? I think we'll see next year the staff hopes MCW is around for 2 more years and I personally think that will be asking a lot after next year. IMO Triche looks like a starting two guard who will play point 10 minutes a game with Cooney as a 2 guard. I Don't understand what everyone is seeing, JB said scoop needs to play so we feed the post. He didn't say Brandon does a fine job feeding the post. JB would be INSANE if he thought Triche is a better PG than MCW.

I'm going on the assumption JB is right in assuming Dion and Melo will be gone playing professional ball somewhere.

 

[weedsportwarriors]

Francis, thanks for the all the hard work that went into this thread.

With Noel re-classifying to 2012 does that me we are done at trying to get Gathers or any other recruits for next year?

I know they don't play the same position, but do we still attempt to bring in another PF with Grant and DC2 coming in?

Whatever happened with the pursuit of A. Jefferson?

 

[scottynguyen]

Thanks for this, Francis. I check your site all the time.

 

[garnermike]

OT -- edowd: Love those dogs. Have had two bostons and one english bull in my time. bostons = incredible smart and loving. e-bulls = incredibly strong and stubborn.

 

[armory]

The staff loves Vonleh the most outside of Noel regardless of class. They definitely would take both if possible imo, but I'm not counting on landing both.

F-YEAH! So glad the staff feels the same way about Vonleh.

 

[orangesoulja]

Francis, class of 2014 Vonleh & McCullough can we get both ? Any shot at Dakari Johnson, Paul White, Shaqquan Aaron, Theo Pison, Jahlil Okafor, Dwayne Morgan,Kevin Zabo, Johnnie Vasser & (Phil Booth , are you still going to do a write up about him.) Also, 2013 Brandon Austin. What ever happend to him Thought he was going to blow up?
Thanks, Francis

 

[edowd26]

OT -- edowd: Love those dogs. Have had two bostons and one english bull in my time. bostons = incredible smart and loving. e-bulls = incredibly strong and stubborn.

they are pretty impressive when it comes to them being clever. Almost to a fault. I do love these dogs and would recommend them to anyone. The 13 week old, walter, is obsessed with me, cries constantly if I leave the room he is in. A habit we need to break.

 

[Macho Uno]

Francis, class of 2014 Vonleh & McCullough can we get both ? Any shot at Dakari Johnson, Paul White, Shaqquan Aaron, Theo Pison, Jahlil Okafor, Dwayne Morgan,Kevin Zabo, Johnnie Vasser & (Phil Booth , are you still going to do a write up about him.) Also, 2013 Brandon Austin. What ever happend to him Thought he was going to blow up?
Thanks, Francis

I've seen Okafor a couple of times in person, and Coach K was already all over it. He is going to be great though, huge kid with great touch. Dominated Kansas bound Zach Peters.

 

[Macho Uno]

BTW, I think this is the best thread in the history of this board.

 

[Francis03]

Francis, do you have any feel for what impact JB retiring will have on our recruiting? Interested to know if you get any vibe about this from the current day kids and/or speculate just based on what knowledge you have of what kids like about Syracuse.

Hopkins is pretty much responsible for 90% of the current roster. Plus he's the main recruiter for a lot of the studs that SU is looking at coming up. So basically if Mr. Hopkins stays, recruiting should be fine when JB decides to call it quits.

 

[Francis03]

Francis, thanks for the all the hard work that went into this thread.

With Noel re-classifying to 2012 does that me we are done at trying to get Gathers or any other recruits for next year?

I know they don't play the same position, but do we still attempt to bring in another PF with Grant and DC2 coming in?

Whatever happened with the pursuit of A. Jefferson?

1)Gathers hasn't been in play since last summer.
2)Don't believe we'll add another forward but anything is possible.
3)Once Grant committed, I guess the staff didn't feel the need to go after him anymore.

 

[Francis03]

Francis, class of 2014 Vonleh & McCullough can we get both ? Any shot at Dakari Johnson, Paul White, Shaqquan Aaron, Theo Pison, Jahlil Okafor, Dwayne Morgan,Kevin Zabo, Johnnie Vasser & (Phil Booth , are you still going to do a write up about him.) Also, 2013 Brandon Austin. What ever happend to him Thought he was going to blow up?
Thanks, Francis

1)No. Vonleh could end up back in the 2013 class as well.
2)Best shots at Johnson, Morgan, Zabo, and Booth(I'll have something on him soon)
3)Austin was banged up with injuries last summer. We'll see how his spring/summer goes and if SU still has interest.

 

[syr02esq]

Any idea if the staff is interested in Franklyn Howard and Bryant Crawford of Gonzaga? I realize they are only freshman but they are supposed to be really good up and coming players.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

I'm confused...

Isn't MCW going to be an all league point guard next year?

I personally don't care if Triche plays better if the ball is in his hands. The whole team will be better when MCW IS slinging dimes all over the place. All over the board tonight people are wondering where our future point guard is? I think we'll see next year the staff hopes MCW is around for 2 more years and I personally think that will be asking a lot after next year. IMO Triche looks like a starting two guard who will play point 10 minutes a game with Cooney as a 2 guard. I Don't understand what everyone is seeing, JB said scoop needs to play so we feed the post. He didn't say Brandon does a fine job feeding the post. JB would be INSANE if he thought Triche is a better PG than MCW.

I'm going on the assumption JB is right in assuming Dion and Melo will be gone playing professional ball somewhere.

I hope you are right that MCW will be all-league PG next year. Keeping it real, though, I just don't share that kind of optimism. It is one thing to play a few minutes mopping up against DePaul and quite another playing, for example, 35 minutes against Lousiville in the BE Tournament semis.

IMHO, we need another PG option, and a dependable if unspectacular JUCO option might not be a bad way to go. There certainly is precedent - when we needed a big guy, we got Ongenaet. Some years ago, we got Rock Lloyd.

 

[moqui]

I hope you are right that MCW will be all-league PG next year. Keeping it real, though, I just don't share that kind of optimism. It is one thing to play a few minutes mopping up against DePaul and quite another playing, for example, 35 minutes against Lousiville in the BE Tournament semis.

IMHO, we need another PG option, and a dependable if unspectacular JUCO option might not be a bad way to go. There certainly is precedent - when we needed a big guy, we got Ongenaet. Some years ago, we got Rock Lloyd.

you are thinking of Michael "Bible School" Lloyd. Rock Lloyd was a highly regarded HS recruit who did not pan out for the Orange.

I don't know why you would assume some random, unnamed kid playing against Juco level talent would be better prepared to play in JB's system than a McDonald's All American with a year under his belt practicing against and with a backcourt that was ranked in the top 5 all year long.

If you know for sure that there is a Pierre Jackson level talent out there and that he is interested in SU, that is one thing, but to fantasize about some mythical PG is just silly, IMO.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I hope you are right that MCW will be all-league PG next year. Keeping it real, though, I just don't share that kind of optimism. It is one thing to play a few minutes mopping up against DePaul and quite another playing, for example, 35 minutes against Lousiville in the BE Tournament semis.

IMHO, we need another PG option, and a dependable if unspectacular JUCO option might not be a bad way to go. There certainly is precedent - when we needed a big guy, we got Ongenaet. Some years ago, we got Rock Lloyd.

I agree somewhat with this although not looking for a Rock Lloyd type. I don't think we have enough of a sample size to determine at ALL if MCW will be a stud. If Dion leaves then there are potential ball-handling issues against the Louisville types, imo.

 

[Francis03]

Any idea if the staff is interested in Franklyn Howard and Bryant Crawford of Gonzaga? I realize they are only freshman but they are supposed to be really good up and coming players.

Don't know anything currently about those two.