Class of 2020 C Frank Anselem (GA) COMMITTED/SIGNED TO SYRACUSE

[RobVTX]

Kentucky players in SI's "Top 100 Players in the NBA":

93) Bam Adebayo
79) Julius Randle
46) Eric Bledsoe
38) Jamal Murray
34) Devin Booker
33) De'Aaron Fox
13) Karl-Anthony Towns
6) Anthony Davis

I'd like to hear an argument from a Cal/UK defender that any of these players were "developed" by Calipari. Every single one was a 1-and-done. Several were NBA ready at age 17. None spend more than 8 months at UK. Cal has a brilliant, self-fulfilling prophecy he sells. He claims he gets you to the NBA. It's true, after the Wall/Cousins/Davis hype, top players bought it, and went to UK, and it's snowballed ever since. What these kids don't realize is Anthony Davis, Towns, Murray, Cousins, etc would have been lottery picks if they played at Austin Peay.

Completely agree.. if Davis chose SU he's still number six. The idea that Cal is making these guys better is a joke.

 

[EastCoast2]

Not a Cal/UK defender - I think the primary reason that kids go to KU is not because of the potential for NBA development. These kids go primarily because KU (and Duke now) are perceived as the schools where the "best of the best" go before heading to the NBA lottery.

In a way, being recruited by KU and Duke is self-confirmation that they are among the "best" NBA talent playing college ball. In some cases, that is true. In some cases, that is more about perception and a need to be recognized, than reality. I am sure part of the selling point is being told that you will be practicing against future NBA players every day - that's where the selling of "development" comes in.

I agree.

 

[littlereg]

In the past if there was money involved in a recruitment we seemed to back away from it so I wonder what’s going on.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Completely agree.. if Davis chose SU he's still number six. The idea that Cal is making these guys better is a joke.

'Making them better' is not a metric anyone can observe with any validity. Top kids go to Kentucky and Duke for the same reason top academics go to Harvard and Yale. 1) You have confidence you're going to get the best education. 2) You have confidence you're going to have the best professors. 3) You have confidence you're going to be competing with the best students. 4) You have confidence that when you emerge, those hiring will have confidence in you for having qualified for- then emerged from all that.

If Cal has a ton of players in the NBA, that's the best you can do in terms of confirming the 'confidence.' He doesn't have to actually make them better, he just has to have teams that are consistently highly-ranked, and players that are consistently drafted high, and who stick in the league.

And, if they're also paying? You'd kinda have to be 'weird' to resist.

 

[orangefog]

In the past if there was money involved in a recruitment we seemed to back away from it so I wonder what’s going on.

Who knows, but maybe it is a fight between Frank wanting a high major program and his handler wanting to get paid. So, you get the smaller team notorious for paying against the high major team that won't pay.

 

[Sherman20]

Kentucky players in SI's "Top 100 Players in the NBA":

93) Bam Adebayo
79) Julius Randle
46) Eric Bledsoe
38) Jamal Murray
34) Devin Booker
33) De'Aaron Fox
13) Karl-Anthony Towns
6) Anthony Davis

I'd like to hear an argument from a Cal/UK defender that any of these players were "developed" by Calipari. Every single one was a 1-and-done. Several were NBA ready at age 17. None spend more than 8 months at UK. Cal has a brilliant, self-fulfilling prophecy he sells. He claims he gets you to the NBA. It's true, after the Wall/Cousins/Davis hype, top players bought it, and went to UK, and it's snowballed ever since. What these kids don't realize is Anthony Davis, Towns, Murray, Cousins, etc would have been lottery picks if they played at Austin Peay.

Davis and Murray should have been ours.

 

[Cusesky8214]

In the past if there was money involved in a recruitment we seemed to back away from it so I wonder what’s going on.

Yep...that's why I'm hoping it's more smoke then fire. Or that there was definitely bad intentions from the start (LSU) and then things changed so his type of recruitment changed. Some of the talk is all from those previous dealings and nothing has been said since then so I'm thinking we are in good shape here.

 

[Cusesky8214]

regarding frank (from the uk forums)
I think once they landed Sarr it was obviously over for him. He wasn't who they wanted but was their backup plan if Sarr didnt commit to them.

 

[Dollar Dog]

Davis and Murray should have been ours.

If Davis goes to SU, we win the 2012 national championship. That amazing JB in-the-car-giving-the-finger giphy goes true to life. How sweet would that have been? Fab Melo suspension, shady OSU game reffing, bogus NCAA infractions...none of it matters. Without Davis we went 34-3 and were a referee snow job from the Final Four. With Davis, those NCAA tourney games are not even close enough to fix against us.

JB was on Anthony Davis early and often. Then Calipari came in after he blossomed and bought him. Every SU fan should despise Cal with every fiber of his/her being. That was Boeheim's second championship, no doubt. Instead, Cal slime purchased the only one he has, despite a coaching career of one-and-done NBA talent.

 

[EastCoast2]

If Davis goes to SU, we win the 2012 national championship. That amazing JB in-the-car-giving-the-finger giphy goes true to life. How sweet would that have been? Fab Melo suspension, shady OSU game reffing, bogus NCAA infractions...none of it matters. Without Davis we went 34-3 and were a referee snow job from the Final Four. With Davis, those NCAA tourney games are not even close enough to fix against us.

JB was on Anthony Davis early and often. Then Calipari came in after he blossomed and bought him. Every SU fan should despise Cal with every fiber of his/her being. That was Boeheim's second championship, no doubt. Instead, Cal slime purchased the only one he has, despite a coaching career of one-and-done NBA talent.

I watched that Elite 8 game in 2012 at Chuck’s. That night sucked.

 

[Cusesky8214]

Someone I talk to a little that seems to know some about WKU is saying he has heard from 2 people close to there program hes a strong WKU lean. Just sharing what I was told. Could be nothing. (Again, I'm not pretending to have some sort of inside track here to info. Just sharing what I was told be a certain person.)

 

[Cusesky8214]

And fwiw I just had a sdsu guy message me saying hes heard good things about them and us. Lol...so I dont think anyone has a handle on it yet.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Let this kid go. He’s not worth the aggravation. If he wants WKU over SU, he’s not interested in playing against the best or interested in winning.

 

[kszyman]

Hey! I’m brand-new to this Forum. I’m a Syracuse native, and West Genesee High School alum from long ago. I was around when Boeheim was the SU backcourt mate of Dave Bing. Went to SUNY-Albany for college, and WKU for grad school. Look, SU hoops has so much more going for it than WKU that’s it’s not even close: decades of being a national power, huge home crowds, years of national TV prominence, a household name in the national basketball community, etc. And usually, this has translated into perennially and successfully recruiting the high school stars for obvious reasons.
I was a very interested observer in watching the 2 SU-WKU match-ups in the 1978 and 1987 NCAA Tournaments.

WKU is a former national power, but one has to go back 50 years to when that was applicable. Since then, the Hilltoppers occasionally make some national noise, such as a Sweet Sixteen appearance every 15 years. Typically, WKU is a stepping stone for rising coaches, then reverts back to being a non-entity after their departure.

For all its shortcomings, Western Kentucky basketball has some uniqueness. It was one of the very first schools in the South to integrate its athletic teams. When WKU and UCLA squared off in the 2008 Sweet 16, The NY Times called them “Two of college basketball’s most storied programs”.

Rick Stansbury is a Kentucky native, and is old enough to remember when the Hilltoppers were prominent. He’s a folksy salesman with recruits and their families. He likes to say, “All good coaches have one thing in common: they’ve got good players!” So, he’s been swinging for the fences with the high school stars. It is improbable that he’s been landing some of them, as Mid-Majors are supposed to “know their place” and defer to the “birthright” of the current national powers in signing talented kids. Obviously, there is a lot of money in “big-time” college basketball, with the shoe contracts, huge TV revenues, etc. But as a close follower of WKU basketball, I honestly don’t believe there’s anything improper going on with WKU recruiting. Good luck to whoever signs Frank Anselem. Maybe the Orange will schedule a December game down in Diddle Arena, in lieu of the shameless SU December schedule of home games against Canisius, Cornell, and Colgate (sorry, I was being civil until that point, but I am a sarcastic Central New Yorker at heart!).

 

[Orangefan1]

WKU please please stop selling it as a national power...it isn’t in any way shape or form

 

[TexanMark]

kszyman welcome to the board. I take it you are a WKU fan now. I've been through Bowling Green area several times. I actually thought it was a nice area. Even went on the Corvette tour.

What do you think are the selling points WKU is offering Frank?

 

[Briancuse]

Let this kid go. He’s not worth the aggravation. If he wants WKU over SU, he’s not interested in playing against the best or interested in winning.

If he wants to play for $tansbury. And play in conference USA against Marshall and never get on tv good luck with that.

 

[Melancer46]

People seem to be hung up on the idea that prospects need to be on national TV to get noticed by the NBA. That just isn't the case at all. Scouts will be at WKU games to see Bassey and will be able to hypothetically see Anselem as a result (if he were to go there). WKU has more NBA prospects on their team than we do right now. Obviously scouts will still come to some of our games to see the other team so if Anselem is good enough, he'd get noticed at either place, but the TV thing isn't really all that important in that regard. NBA scouting has developed well beyond watching games on TV.

 

[hoopsupstate]

People seem to be hung up on the idea that prospects need to be on national TV to get noticed by the NBA. That just isn't the case at all. Scouts will be at WKU games to see Bassey and will be able to hypothetically see Anselem as a result (if he were to go there). WKU has more NBA prospects on their team than we do right now. Obviously scouts will still come to some of our games to see the other team so if Anselem is good enough, he'd get noticed at either place, but the TV thing isn't really all that important in that regard. NBA scouting has developed well beyond watching games on TV.

You don’t think TV raised the value of Zion? I think SU has had several players drafted higher than they should have been because of all the exposure they received.

 

[Briancuse]

People seem to be hung up on the idea that prospects need to be on national TV to get noticed by the NBA. That just isn't the case at all. Scouts will be at WKU games to see Bassey and will be able to hypothetically see Anselem as a result (if he were to go there). WKU has more NBA prospects on their team than we do right now. Obviously scouts will still come to some of our games to see the other team so if Anselem is good enough, he'd get noticed at either place, but the TV thing isn't really all that important in that regard. NBA scouting has developed well beyond watching games on TV.

It's not about getting noticed as much as your friends and family getting to see you and the chance to be on TV and build your brand.

 

[All4SU]

I think it’s more about playing against really good competition week in and week out.

 

[Melancer46]

You don’t think TV raised the value of Zion? I think SU has had several players drafted higher than they should have been because of all the exposure they received.

Draft value? No, I don't think so. Marketing value? Probably.

If it's about branding himself, then yeah, Syracuse would probably make more sense than WKU. But people are trying to use TV exposure as a way to get Anselem into the NBA. WKU should get him noticed by NBA scouts as much as Syracuse would, especially if he's getting more playing time at WKU.

 

[bnoro]

Maybe, just maybe, no one actually knows what this kid wants to do? So far there hasn't been one credible source that has commented on his recruited. You can't believe everything you read on the internet.

Maybe Frank likes what WKU is pitching him in terms of playing time?
Maybe Frank likes the sunshine and weather of San Diego?
Maybe Frank wants to come play for a legendary head coach?
Maybe his handlers want to get paid?

Everyone has a slant because everyone has natural bias towards the school they root for.

 

[Cusesky8214]

Maybe, just maybe, no one actually knows what this kid wants to do? So far there hasn't been one credible source that has commented on his recruited. You can't believe everything you read on the internet.

Maybe Frank likes what WKU is pitching him in terms of playing time?
Maybe Frank likes the sunshine and weather of San Diego?
Maybe Frank wants to come play for a legendary head coach?
Maybe his handlers want to get paid?

Everyone has a slant because everyone has natural bias towards the school they root for.

Agreed.

 

[RF2044]

Maybe, just maybe, no one actually knows what this kid wants to do? So far there hasn't been one credible source that has commented on his recruited. You can't believe everything you read on the internet.

Maybe Frank likes what WKU is pitching him in terms of playing time?
Maybe Frank likes the sunshine and weather of San Diego?
Maybe Frank wants to come play for a legendary head coach?
Maybe his handlers want to get paid?

Everyone has a slant because everyone has natural bias towards the school they root for.

Great post.

Nobody knows, and it is all speculative. What people unrelated to Frank are guessing about what he might do is all this is.