Biggest recruiting challenge we ever had | Syracusefan.com

Biggest recruiting challenge we ever had

GooseMutt

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In the past, who did we have the most difficult time recruiting. Who did we get that was totally an unexpected surprise? Was it Melo? Dion? MCW? Just wondering if anyone has been in the recruiting loop a long time that would remember.
 
In the past, who did we have the most difficult time recruiting. Who did we get that was totally an unexpected surprise? Was it Melo? Dion? MCW? Just wondering if anyone has been in the recruiting loop a long time that would remember.

We just recently had two doozies between Battle and Thompson. Prior to that I don't remember any, successful, recruitment being that tough...
 
I read here that our staff doesn't work hard so the answer is none. All the players we've gotten came here despite the lackluster recruiting efforts of the staff.
 
I read here that our staff doesn't work hard so the answer is none. All the players we've gotten came here despite the lackluster recruiting efforts of the staff.

Yes, let's get some positivity going. Can you name some recent examples over the last couple years when our staff outworked their peers from peer programs for our big targets?
 
Yes, let's get some positivity going. Can you name some recent examples over the last couple years when our staff outworked their peers from peer programs for our big targets?

Fab Melo, Tyus Battle, Taureen Thompson, and Andrew White come to mind.
 
In the past, who did we have the most difficult time recruiting. Who did we get that was totally an unexpected surprise? Was it Melo? Dion? MCW? Just wondering if anyone has been in the recruiting loop a long time that would remember.

Melo committed when he was a nice prospect and on the rise(maybe top 25-30 or so at the time), but then his stock really blew up his senior year and he became a top 2(along with Amare Stoudamire) player and the best guy going to college. That's how I remember it.

Dion committed when he was in like 8th-9th grade.

MCW I feel like was sort of under the radar when he committed, and then his stock went up later. Same with Jonny Flynn. Paul Harris was a huge recruit, but I remember the feeling being that he was Orange all the way so it wasn't a surprise.
 
Melo committed when he was a nice prospect and on the rise(maybe top 25-30 or so at the time), but then his stock really blew up his senior year and he became a top 2(along with Amare Stoudamire) player and the best guy going to college. That's how I remember it.

Dion committed when he was in like 8th-9th grade.

MCW I feel like was sort of under the radar when he committed, and then his stock went up later. Same with Jonny Flynn. Paul Harris was a huge recruit, but I remember the feeling being that he was Orange all the way so it wasn't a surprise.

From what I am reading so far most of our best players were Syracuse fans at a young age wanting to play for their Dream school. Moyer is our most avid recruit with Washington now. Taurean seems to really love Cuse now. These are the guys I want. Orange from birth. NBA incubators in recently years have infiltrated our recruiting area. F Kentucky/ Dook
 
I don't think anything compares with the Thompson / White recruitments in terms of how drawn out and uncertain they were. To have both of those back-to-back in the same offseason was strange.

I think that Kenny Anderson was our biggest "miss" in program history. What a circus that turned into. He was an eyelash away from coming to Syracuse before getting $wayed at the 11th hour by Georgia Tech. May have cost us a national championship -- I'll always dislike Kenny Anderson for that.

Marbury was a similar circus. Just a shocking glimpse into the seedy underbelly of major college hoops recruiting.

I was incredibly disappointed that we lost out on Donyell Marshall, which ended up being a massively negative double edged sword for us. Stupid NCAA.

I remember being pleasantly surprised when we landed John Wallace -- not because we landed him since he was in our backyard, but because we had the NCAA sanctions looming and I figured Wallace was Kansas-bound.
 
I don't think anything compares with the Thompson / White recruitments in terms of how drawn out and uncertain they were. To have both of those back-to-back in the same offseason was strange.

I think that Kenny Anderson was our biggest "miss" in program history. What a circus that turned into. He was an eyelash away from coming to Syracuse before getting $wayed at the 11th hour by Georgia Tech. May have cost us a national championship -- I'll always dislike Kenny Anderson for that.

Marbury was a similar circus. Just a shocking glimpse into the seedy underbelly of major college hoops recruiting.

I was incredibly disappointed that we lost out on Donyell Marshall, which ended up being a massively negative double edged sword for us. Stupid NCAA.

I remember being pleasantly surprised when we landed John Wallace -- not because we landed him since he was in our backyard, but because we had the NCAA sanctions looming and I figured Wallace was Kansas-bound.

Really good post. Totally agree
 
Fab Melo, Tyus Battle, Taureen Thompson, and Andrew White come to mind.

Red worked hard and landed White. Definitely true and I fully trust Red on the trail for us. Wish he was used more often on some recent targets.

Fab was 7 years ago so was hoping for a more recent example from the staff to help build some confidence.

Thompson we really just had to beat out Seton Hall because he was never going to MSU, too far from home.

We should be thanking Gary Battle for Tyus being Orange. Hop worked hard for him but Tyus decided to commit to Michigan until Gary kept working him hard behind the scenes to go to Syracuse because it was closer to home.
 
I remember being pleasantly surprised when we landed John Wallace -- not because we landed him since he was in our backyard, but because we had the NCAA sanctions looming and I figured Wallace was Kansas-bound.

John Wallace might be one of the most under appreciated players to don an SU uniform. Great player, came here as we were getting the NCAA hammer, and led the FF run in 1996 .
 
the General was under the radar but the most important under the radar recruit was JB.
 
John Wallace might be one of the most under appreciated players to don an SU uniform. Great player, came here as we were getting the NCAA hammer, and led the FF run in 1996 .

Getting Wallace and having Moten be way better than expected from day 1 really kept us going as a strong program in that era.

I remember one magazine predicting us to go .500 overall in the 91-92 season. Without Moten coming out of nowhere to be an excellent player, that prediction might've been accurate.
 
Getting Wallace and having Moten be way better than expected from day 1 really kept us going as a strong program in that era.

I remember one magazine predicting us to go .500 overall in the 91-92 season. Without Moten coming out of nowhere to be an excellent player, that prediction might've been accurate.

And looking back at it, that ended up being a heck of a recruiting class considering the sanctions hanging over us. We missed out on some elite guys like Jalen Rose and Donyell Marshall.

But consider: Lawrence Moten is one of the most productive players we ever had. 4 straight years of high level play. Luke Jackson developed into a solid starter for two years as junior and senior. Double figure scorer and strong defender. And Lazarus Sims ended up being one of the more effective PG's we've ever had as a senior, helping lead us to the NC game.

Even with who I remember as the most touted guy Anthony Harris flopping for us before transferring, that ended up being a heck of a class considering the circumstances.
 
Cuse beat out Kentucky and Ohio State for DaJuan Coleman. Those were some shark infested waters.

Kentucky played in a regional at the Dome during that recruitment so Cal decided to hold his closed practices at JDHS. Cuse weathered that stunt and who knows what other shenanigans.
 
As I understand it from the Bleeding Orange book, Billy Owens was a contest with UNC. Boeheim said he had never won a head to head recruitment vs them. Obviously already having his older brother starring for the football team helped, but that wasn't an easy get.
 
I don't think anything compares with the Thompson / White recruitments in terms of how drawn out and uncertain they were. To have both of those back-to-back in the same offseason was strange.

I think that Kenny Anderson was our biggest "miss" in program history. What a circus that turned into. He was an eyelash away from coming to Syracuse before getting $wayed at the 11th hour by Georgia Tech. May have cost us a national championship -- I'll always dislike Kenny Anderson for that.

Marbury was a similar circus. Just a shocking glimpse into the seedy underbelly of major college hoops recruiting.

I was incredibly disappointed that we lost out on Donyell Marshall, which ended up being a massively negative double edged sword for us. Stupid NCAA.

I remember being pleasantly surprised when we landed John Wallace -- not because we landed him since he was in our backyard, but because we had the NCAA sanctions looming and I figured Wallace was Kansas-bound.

We also lost out on Jamal Mashburn and Jalen Rose due to the probation. And we were recruiting Roderick Rhodes who also went to UK.
 
Getting Wallace and having Moten be way better than expected from day 1 really kept us going as a strong program in that era.

I remember one magazine predicting us to go .500 overall in the 91-92 season. Without Moten coming out of nowhere to be an excellent player, that prediction might've been accurate.

Thank you! It drives me absolutely crazy how many people just remember Moten for how his career ended including the TO vs Arkansas. As you said, that guy came from nowhere to lead us as a freshman with Dave Johnson in 1991-92. That was the first year I was really nervous we weren't going to be that good. I remember watching the ACC Challenge game vs Florida State that year wondering who the heck this Moten kid was. He's our all time leading scorer for crying out loud!
 
Who was the dude that JB marched through the projects to woo? I don't think he ended up playing college ball and died young from the drug game.
 

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