Fond memories of recruitments past.

[Flacusian]

Checking in to the board and looking for any developments on any of the fronts for the bevy of prospective kids we've been courting and looking for any minuscule shred of info that portends reason for enthusiasm has been a tiring exercise with seemingly little reward. I do still however, hold hope that we will get some of the top ranked kids we currently are hoping to land.

While thinking about it, the memory of Carmelo's recruitment and the incredible excitement which it created when he committed crept into my thoughts. I still hold out hope for something like that to happen again but at the same time I still hold the belief that the Carmelo Anthony phenomenon was a once in a lifetime event.

And as much as the expectations which were held were inflated to astronomical proportions, when he arrived and as the season unfolded it became apparent that Melo was all that he had been advertised to be... and oh so much more. Who can ever forget the chants of "You can't guard him" ? He was, without a doubt the most prolific scorer that I'd ever seen. I remember the early loss to Memphis... and the fact that we were unranked at the start of the season. Many of the games were nail biting, gut wrenching affairs which could have gone either way but as the team matured and they melded into a cohesive unit you got the feeling that the team and our star player were indeed something very, very special.

So... now some 13 years later I'm not expecting that we get the #1 player to come on board and wear Orange... but it sure doesn't seem like it's asking too much to get a good portion of the top ranked players that we are currently recruiting. Afterall... we are Syracuse... and we ARE THAT GOOD and we are due!

 

[HOFCeluck]

Anthony's recruitment introduced me to Maryland fans. God they're the worst.

 

[cusetown1]

If the Tobias Harris recruitment happened these days it would have been a circus. That had it all, from "point forwards" to painted rocks, to rumors of hearing the team celebration of his alleged commitment, during halftime of some random Tennesee game. Lol that had to be the best.

 

[orangefog]

I remember trying to follow the Nerlens Noel decision from work. Jake was doing his best to keep us updated with what was going on, and it was literally swaying back and forth between teams up until the minute he decided. Freaking crazy day and recruitment.

 

[IthacaMatt]

My first time with big time recruits was meeting Billy Edelin at ABCD in Hackensack, NJ when he was a rising senior. Carmelo was still a junior. I was at that sick camp that they made the movie about Lenny Cooke. Carmelo and Lebron went head-to-head. Sebastian Telfair was a sophomore, if I recall correctly, and was also lighting the place up. I went to ABCD for maybe six years and wrote up my own profiles of the guys we were recruiting for board, way back then. Met Mason, Fishy, Forza, CTO and others there. Great times. That's how we first got connected to Francis, in connection with the recruitment of Julius Hodge. Francis went to St. Ray's with Julius, if I recall correctly. Bunch of us have been following recruiting together for about 15 years now, thanks to the Internet and Syracusefan.com.

 

[RF2044]

The Julius Hodge circus was one of the board's low points, IMO.

All turned out for the best, though.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Checking in to the board and looking for any developments on any of the fronts for the bevy of prospective kids we've been courting and looking for any minuscule shred of info that portends reason for enthusiasm has been a tiring exercise with seemingly little reward. I do still however, hold hope that we will get some of the top ranked kids we currently are hoping to land.

While thinking about it, the memory of Carmelo's recruitment and the incredible excitement which it created when he committed crept into my thoughts. I still hold out hope for something like that to happen again but at the same time I still hold the belief that the Carmelo Anthony phenomenon was a once in a lifetime event.

And as much as the expectations which were held were inflated to astronomical proportions, when he arrived and as the season unfolded it became apparent that Melo was all that he had been advertised to be... and oh so much more. Who can ever forget the chants of "You can't guard him" ? He was, without a doubt the most prolific scorer that I'd ever seen. I remember the early loss to Memphis... and the fact that we were unranked at the start of the season. Many of the games were nail biting, gut wrenching affairs which could have gone either way but as the team matured and they melded into a cohesive unit you got the feeling that the team and our star player were indeed something very, very special.

So... now some 23 years later I'm not expecting that we get the #1 player to come on board and wear Orange... but it sure doesn't seem like it's asking too much to get a good portion of the top ranked players that we are currently recruiting. Afterall... we are Syracuse... and we ARE THAT GOOD and we are due!

23 years later??

 

[Flacusian]

If the Tobias Harris recruitment happened these days it would have been a circus. That had it all, from "point forwards" to painted rocks, to rumors of hearing the team celebration of his alleged commitment, during halftime of some random Tennesee game. Lol that had to be the best.

Good times!!! Indeed.

 

[orange79]

Anthony's recruitment introduced me to Maryland fans. God they're the worst.

I remember Smokefree's head exploding when Melo chose Cuse.

 

[TinyManInside]

My first time with big time recruits was meeting Billy Edelin at ABCD in Hackensack, NJ when he was a rising senior. Carmelo was still a junior. I was at that sick camp that they made the movie about Lenny Cooke. Carmelo and Lebron went head-to-head. Sebastian Telfair was a sophomore, if I recall correctly, and was also lighting the place up. I went to ABCD for maybe six years and wrote up my own profiles of the guys we were recruiting for board, way back then. Met Mason, Fishy, Forza, CTO and others there. Great times. That's how we first got connected to Francis, in connection with the recruitment of Julius Hodge. Francis went to St. Ray's with Julius, if I recall correctly. Bunch of us have been following recruiting together for about 15 years now, thanks to the Internet and Syracusefan.com.

Great times.

 

[IthacaMatt]

The Julius Hodge circus was one of the board's low points, IMO.

All turned out for the best, though.

That's where Francis came from, so I'll take it. And it also wound up with Hakim Warrick and a national championship.
So I'll DOUBLE take it!

 

[jr4750]

I remember trying to follow the Nerlens Noel decision from work. Jake was doing his best to keep us updated with what was going on, and it was literally swaying back and forth between teams up until the minute he decided. Freaking crazy day and recruitment.

that was so painful, even more so when it swayed to Georgetown, even if for a min!

Tobias Harris was same way, with that stupid rock, and trying to use my flip phone to recycle the board for updates. Ugh.

 

[Jake]

Been following recruiting for the past 20 years or so. Lots of whackiness.

I thought we got Melo early, before he blew up into a top 5 player. Seemed relatively mild compared to recruitments today. Then he showed up on campus 10-15 lbs bigger than expected and it was a foregone conclusion he was one and done.

The Hodge recruitment was probably the most intense. I mean, it was war. Gary DeCesare screwed us a little bit on that one, but Steve Hodge was the really bad guy here. I remember Hodge going on Adam Schine's show on the weekend of his visit.

We were desperate after the Greg Davis / Janes Theus class that essentially cost Orr and Fine their jobs on the road.

I think Hop learned a ton about recruiting when we lost him to NCState.

Getting Fab Melo when everyone thought he was a Louisville lock was brilliant. (The recruitment, not the net result).

Seen a few whiffs too. Josh Wright over Kyle Lowry...still stings. Tobias Harris and DeShawn Sims..

Getting Dion Waiters his freshman year in high school and waiting forever for him to get here.

This year's stuff has been crazy though. Very different for us to be in the market so late in the year.

We need to get rockin on 2017...it's getting late early.

 

[SUFan44]

Been following recruiting for the past 20 years or so. Lots of whackiness.

I thought we got Melo early, before he blew up into a top 5 player. Seemed relatively mild compared to recruitments today. Then he showed up on campus 10-15 lbs bigger than expected and it was a foregone conclusion he was one and done.

The Hodge recruitment was probably the most intense. I mean, it was war. Gary DeCesare screwed us a little bit on that one, but Steve Hodge was the really bad guy here. I remember Hodge going on Adam Schine's show on the weekend of his visit.

We were desperate after the Greg Davis / Janes Theus class that essentially cost Orr and Fine their jobs on the road.

I think Hop learned a ton about recruiting when we lost him to NCState.

Getting Fab Melo when everyone thought he was a Louisville lock was brilliant. (The recruitment, not the net result).

Seen a few whiffs too. Josh Wright over Kyle Lowry...still stings. Tobias Harris and DeShawn Sims..

Getting Dion Waiters his freshman year in high school and waiting forever for him to get here.

This year's stuff has been crazy though. Very different for us to be in the market so late in the year.

We need to get rockin on 2017...it's getting late early.

Great memories. Hodge will stick out forever as the first one where information (at least for me) was internet driven.

Hoping this year's 2017 class turns out to be memorable. Still hopeful it can be.

 

[two3zone]

Been following recruiting for the past 20 years or so. Lots of whackiness.

I thought we got Melo early, before he blew up into a top 5 player. Seemed relatively mild compared to recruitments today. Then he showed up on campus 10-15 lbs bigger than expected and it was a foregone conclusion he was one and done.

The Hodge recruitment was probably the most intense. I mean, it was war. Gary DeCesare screwed us a little bit on that one, but Steve Hodge was the really bad guy here. I remember Hodge going on Adam Schine's show on the weekend of his visit.

We were desperate after the Greg Davis / Janes Theus class that essentially cost Orr and Fine their jobs on the road.

I think Hop learned a ton about recruiting when we lost him to NCState.

Getting Fab Melo when everyone thought he was a Louisville lock was brilliant. (The recruitment, not the net result).

Seen a few whiffs too. Josh Wright over Kyle Lowry...still stings. Tobias Harris and DeShawn Sims..

Getting Dion Waiters his freshman year in high school and waiting forever for him to get here.

This year's stuff has been crazy though. Very different for us to be in the market so late in the year.

We need to get rockin on 2017...it's getting late early.

I've always watched SU basketball since I can remember but never really learned about the "behind the scenes" stuff until I started to lurk on here.

You mentioned Fine and Orr being taken off the road with what looks like pretty big recruiting misses. That era always seemed like a down time for us, was that year the last straw/chance for those guys?

I really like hearing about that kind of stuff, if you're able to share some details I'd love to hear them.

 

[TinyManInside]

We need to get rockin on 2017...it's getting late early.

well said.

 

[orangefog]

Been following recruiting for the past 20 years or so. Lots of whackiness.

I thought we got Melo early, before he blew up into a top 5 player. Seemed relatively mild compared to recruitments today. Then he showed up on campus 10-15 lbs bigger than expected and it was a foregone conclusion he was one and done.

The Hodge recruitment was probably the most intense. I mean, it was war. Gary DeCesare screwed us a little bit on that one, but Steve Hodge was the really bad guy here. I remember Hodge going on Adam Schine's show on the weekend of his visit.

We were desperate after the Greg Davis / Janes Theus class that essentially cost Orr and Fine their jobs on the road.

I think Hop learned a ton about recruiting when we lost him to NCState.

Getting Fab Melo when everyone thought he was a Louisville lock was brilliant. (The recruitment, not the net result).

Seen a few whiffs too. Josh Wright over Kyle Lowry...still stings. Tobias Harris and DeShawn Sims..

Getting Dion Waiters his freshman year in high school and waiting forever for him to get here.

This year's stuff has been crazy though. Very different for us to be in the market so late in the year.

We need to get rockin on 2017...it's getting late early.

Any predictions on how it will all shake out? First domino?

 

[StopCoolio]

Carmelo was so big, there were dozens of threads on his ACT score.

It was one of those things where he was super hyped up and then he got here and somehow all the hype wasn't enough.

 

[SUFan44]

Any predictions on how it will all shake out? First domino?

Good question.

 

[4evaOrange]

Bjorn

 

[HoustonCuse]

Hell, I remember watching Gerry play in the Pennsylvania state tournament streaming online when he was a senior committed to SU.

This was in the years well before the name change to U of S.

 

[Jake]

Hell, I remember watching Gerry play in the Pennsylvania state tournament streaming online when he was a senior committed to SU. This was in the years well before the name change to U of S.

Ha, I remember watching him at ABCD with Melo thinking..."I don't get the hype"...then the following season listening online to his 55 point state semi game and nearly fainted.

Good times.

As far as 2017...we usually have a kid we're 99.9% sure we're going to get, not this year yet. I hope we get our plan A guys, because our plan B guys are getting gobbled up.

Our dream team remains:

Green
Randolph
Diallo
Bamba

I think we'll get a decision first from Randolph, that will be interesting.

 

[orangefog]

Ha, I remember watching him at ABCD with Melo thinking..."I don't get the hype"...then the following season listening online to his 55 point state semi game and nearly fainted.

Good times.

As far as 2017...we usually have a kid we're 99.9% sure we're going to get, not this year yet. I hope we get our plan A guys, because our plan B guys are getting gobbled up.

Our dream team remains:

Green
Randolph
Diallo
Bamba

I think we'll get a decision first from Randolph, that will be interesting.

Would it be fair to say that if Randolph chooses SU, the possibility for Green and Bamba goes up a bit?

 

[Jake]

Would it be fair to say that if Randolph chooses SU, the possibility for Green and Bamba goes up a bit?

I think so.

 

[orangefog]

I think so.

Good enough for me. Jake pretty much confirmed we are landing Green, Diallo, Randolph and Bamba. You have read between the lines, but it's there.