Eric Ayala Derail Thread | Syracusefan.com

Eric Ayala Derail Thread

Not sure you can put that on Flynn. I agree that he wasn't a great point guard in the truest and most traditional sense of the word. But the frosh team got hurt bad by injuries to Devendorf (who had a great start to the year) and Rautins, who wound up playing great basketball the next two seasons (including being really good on defense).

Sophomore year flynn was a bit uneven during the regular season but still averaged 17 and 7 on a team that won 28 games, won three games in the BET (including the six OT game) and then ran into a red hot Oklahoma team with Blake Griffin. I mean, it's tough to find too much fault with that year.
Tony Crocker
 
You argument takes the coaches off the hook no matter what.
I am not going to give them 100% blame either.

We are getting to inside the 10 yard line on a football field and aren't punching it in.

This staff deserves some criticism for this past cycle.
So is it fair to call us the Seahawks of college basketball?
 
YOU CANNOT MAKE ME LIVE IN RAINBOW LAND!
Iowa state does it so well. But most of their transfers aren't grad tranfers, they're multiyear transfers.
 
I'm not saying we give kids ultimatums I'm just saying we keep recruiting and the later it gets in the process the more seriously we have to go after other targets.
This is recruiting strategy 101 not some secret recipe! Whoever is responsible for these decisions should quite frankly consider taking a sabbatical. This is inexcusable from a vetreran coaching staff and reminds me of that scene in planes trains and automobiles where Steve Martin and John Candy are driving the wrong way but convinced the other drivers are drunk.
 
I brought up Howard Washington because Sully mentioned program guys.

We were not going to bring in Ennis and Morris together, and Ennis was a better prospect at the time. Those of you who keep bringing up Morris are basically upset that we nailed the Ennis pick.

We were never going to get Duval. Same goes for Green once Kentucky got involved.

Isaiah Washington might be one of those undersized guys who doesn't fit in. Apparently the staff felt it was worth the risk by not getting involved with I. Washington or Coleman when they were going after Green.

Sounds like the staff contacted MAL, but they couldn't have been that interested since he wound up at Providence.

Ayala wants to stay in 2018. You're blaming the staff for that? Kid can do whatever he wants, it's his life.

Go ahead and name some more. I already spotted you Coleman.

Weren't Buss, BJ, Joseph, and Chin all program guys?
 
I brought up Howard Washington because Sully mentioned program guys.

We were not going to bring in Ennis and Morris together,
and Ennis was a better prospect at the time. Those of you who keep bringing up Morris are basically upset that we nailed the Ennis pick.

We were never going to get Duval. Same goes for Green once Kentucky got involved.

Isaiah Washington might be one of those undersized guys who doesn't fit in. Apparently the staff felt it was worth the risk by not getting involved with I. Washington or Coleman when they were going after Green.

Sounds like the staff contacted MAL, but they couldn't have been that interested since he wound up at Providence.

Ayala wants to stay in 2018. You're blaming the staff for that? Kid can do whatever he wants, it's his life.

Go ahead and name some more. I already spotted you Coleman.

Nonsense -- we brought in Ennis and Buss, so we did bring in two guards that class. Morris wanted to come here, and understood where he was in the pecking order behind Ennis in order of priority, and was still willing to come to SU knowing that he'd have to wait his turn. The coaching staff could have had Ennis AND Morris. Instead, they chose not to offer Morris, and offer Buss instead -- who wasn't good enough to play at this level.

Huge mistake on their part, as history has borne out.
 
Nonsense -- we brought in Ennis and Buss, so we did bring in two guards that class. Morris wanted to come here, and understood where he was in the pecking order behind Ennis in order of priority, and was still willing to come to SU knowing that he'd have to wait his turn. The coaching staff could have had Ennis AND Morris. Instead, they chose not to offer Morris, and offer Buss instead -- who wasn't good enough to play at this level.

Huge mistake on their part, as history has borne out.
They would have also taken black Jesus (Jordan) if I remember correctly. He declined then Ronnie P was offered.
 
Nonsense -- we brought in Ennis and Buss, so we did bring in two guards that class. Morris wanted to come here, and understood where he was in the pecking order behind Ennis in order of priority, and was still willing to come to SU knowing that he'd have to wait his turn. The coaching staff could have had Ennis AND Morris. Instead, they chose not to offer Morris, and offer Buss instead -- who wasn't good enough to play at this level.

Huge mistake on their part, as history has borne out.
Patterson was a shooting guard and the decision wasn't only Morris's to make.
 
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I absolutely believe his AAU coach is in his ear about getting blue blood offers and encouraging him to wait. Of course, this coach gets the benefit of him remaining and keeping AAU team solid. The mis-perception of the blue bloods being the only NBA launchpad is being ridiculous. Being a Syracuse top player will get you more exposure and notoriety than being mid- pack on a blue blood bench
Eric, I would like you to meet Isaiah Briscoe, I think the two of you have a lot in common.
 
This guy? In the ears of WeR1 guys. Has UK in his bio. "Friend/Coach"
View attachment 95597

Wow. What a joke. This is what's wrong with aau. Guys like this handling a kids recruitment. Pretty obvious this dude doesn't want him at Cuse and is chirping in his ear to hold out for Kentucky. Sounds familiar. Cut ties with this kid and move on. Too much talent in 18' to deal with this nonsense.
 
Patterson was a shooting guard and the decision wasn't only Morris's to make.

Patterson was a COMBO guard who was congenitally incapable of shooting. What you seem to not be grasping is that we brought in two guards in that class. Your logic about Ennis being ranked higher than Morris applies to Morris being rated substantially higher than Patterson. Why not add Morris--who bent over backwards letting the staff know that he wanted to come here and was fine playing behind Ennnis--instead of Patterson?

It also highlights what has become an increasingly problematic dynamic with how the staff approaches recruiting. Locking in on one recruit at a key position of need can and does backfire. Just because it worked with Ennis, doesn't mean that we wouldn't have been better off the next three years with Morris being the Scoop to Ennis's Flynn [early entrant]. Our current approach isn't a smart strategy, and has begun to yield unfavorable impacts / outcomes with alarming frequency in recent classes.

One more important thing to mention about Morris--he lit up the Select summer camp our program runs every summer. Absolutely killed it. He and his mom were shocked that his performance didn't garner an offer. He went on to have an all American career at ISU. The coaching staff blew it on that one.
 
Patterson was a COMBO guard who was congenitally incapable of shooting. What you seem to not be grasping is that we brought in two guards in that class. Your logic about Ennis being ranked higher than Morris applies to Morris being rated substantially higher than Patterson. Why not add Morris--who bent over backwards letting the staff know that he wanted to come here and was fine playing behind Ennnis--instead of Patterson?

It also highlights what has become an increasingly problematic dynamic with how the staff approaches recruiting. Locking in on one recruit at a key position of need can and does backfire. Just because it worked with Ennis, doesn't mean that we wouldn't have been better off the next three years with Morris being the Scoop to Ennis's Flynn [early entrant]. Our current approach isn't a smart strategy, and has begun to yield unfavorable impacts / outcomes with alarming frequency in recent classes.

One more important thing to mention about Morris--he lit up the Select summer camp our program runs every summer. Absolutely killed it. He and his mom were shocked that his performance didn't garner an offer. He went on to have an all American career at ISU. The coaching staff blew it on that one.
Agreed. It honestly makes no sense to me. I would love for someone involved in the decision to not offer Morris to explain the logic to me.
 
One more thing: other teams bring in multiple players at the same positions all the time. At our peer programs, often times both are rated in the top 100.

College athletics is about attrition, and teams have holes to fill every year -- I fully acknowledge that. But for us to have such a distinct lack of depth and difficulty recruiting even a full roster [at a reduced scholarship level, no less] with some of the same depth issues recurring year after year is something that needs to change.
 
One more thing: other teams bring in multiple players at the same positions all the time. At our peer programs, often times both are rated in the top 100.

College athletics is about attrition, and teams have holes to fill every year -- I fully acknowledge that. But for us to have such a distinct lack of depth and difficulty recruiting even a full roster [at a reduced scholarship level, no less] with some of the same depth issues recurring year after year is something that needs to change.
Agree. Good post.
 
One more thing: other teams bring in multiple players at the same positions all the time. At our peer programs, often times both are rated in the top 100.

College athletics is about attrition, and teams have holes to fill every year -- I fully acknowledge that. But for us to have such a distinct lack of depth and difficulty recruiting even a full roster [at a reduced scholarship level, no less] with some of the same depth issues recurring year after year is something that needs to change.
Unless someone on the staff walked in on Morris kicking puppies or something, then it was a clear error in evaluation. And, recruiting is about acquiring talent. Regardless of what you have, you try to get more talent. You fill gaps with talent, and if you think there are no gaps, you try to stack talent behind talent. I am not sure what the thought process is for JB and staff, but it seems that they don't want to manage too much talent. Perhaps they fear chemistry issues. But, as we found out last year, even crappy players can cause chemistry issues. I just wish our guys would start acting like one of the big boys.
 
Unless someone on the staff walked in on Morris kicking puppies or something, then it was a clear error in evaluation. And, recruiting is about acquiring talent. Regardless of what you have, you try to get more talent. You fill gaps with talent, and if you think there are no gaps, you try to stack talent behind talent. I am not sure what the thought process is for JB and staff, but it seems that they don't want to manage too much talent. Perhaps they fear chemistry issues. But, as we found out last year, even crappy players can cause chemistry issues. I just wish our guys would start acting like one of the big boys.

I agree...but the problem is we want to be a big boy but we can't recruit like a big boy. Take 17 for example, we offer all the big hitters and we literally missed on every single one of them. We have to get at least 1 too recruit to commit before we can act like a big boy let alone getting a few to come in together for the same class. Frustrating to say the least. Seems like we never had a problem with landing a few here and there and we usually do but this cycle we couldn't get one to commit. We made a bunch of their top 5s and that's about where it ended for us.
 
I agree...but the problem is we want to be a big boy but we can't recruit like a big boy. Take 17 for example, we offer all the big hitters and we literally missed on every single one of them. We have to get at least 1 too recruit to commit before we can act like a big boy let alone getting a few to come in together for the same class. Frustrating to say the least. Seems like we never had a problem with landing a few here and there and we usually do but this cycle we couldn't get one to commit. We made a bunch of their top 5s and that's about where it ended for us.
Hopefully whatever was hindering the accumulation of talent has now been corrected. Although, it would appear that the true "big boys" play a different game than us.
 
With the exception of the true Blue Blood schools, our staff is as "Big' as anyone else out there, consistently. Up years, down years, yes. All teams have them. More down during sanction years? Of course, but that's to be expected. Ayala, Tucker et al are both nice players, but hardly make or break, and 17 is not a make or break year all by itself. Some posters haven't been taking their chill pills lately.
 

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