In the last 50 years, how many top 15 kids have we got?

[dasher]

Melo, DC, Steve Thompson, I will throw Pearl in but he actually might not have been in the final rankings. Chris Mac., Winfred Walton lol, Karlton Hines, no laugh there. Two guys that never played for us. Who else?

 

[two3zone]

Melo, DC, Steve Thompson, I will throw Pearl in but he actually might not have been in the final rankings. Chris Mac., Winfred Walton lol, Karlton Hines, no laugh there. Two guys that never played for us. Who else?

Just seeing the name Karlton Hines gives me the willies. Such a bizarre, sad, and interesting story.

 

[orange79]

Billy Owens?

 

[ebucklewis]

Melo, DC, Steve Thompson, I will throw Pearl in but he actually might not have been in the final rankings. Chris Mac., Winfred Walton lol, Karlton Hines, no laugh there. Two guys that never played for us. Who else?

Billy Owens

 

[two3zone]

Fab Melo was top 15

 

[two3zone]

Waiters

 

[orangefog]

Donte Green

 

[jordville]

This conversation brings back to this article...
Syracuse Basketball: Ranking the 5 Most Hyped Recruits in Orange History

 

[PauliePeppas]

Melo, DC, Steve Thompson, I will throw Pearl in but he actually might not have been in the final rankings. Chris Mac., Winfred Walton lol, Karlton Hines, no laugh there. Two guys that never played for us. Who else?

Not a lot at all and thats why it always cracks me up when the narrative amongst college bball fans in general is Jimmy has done less with more than just about anyone. Total bs and it shows how much kids actually improve here and how he can find under the radar talent

 

[two3zone]

Not a lot at all and thats why it always cracks me up when the narrative amongst college bball fans in general is Jimmy has done less with more than just about anyone. Total bs and it shows how much kids actually improve here and how he can find under the radar talent

What's impressive is we've only had 4 players who were McDonalds AA guys who didn't have a NBA contract at some point. Considering we've had a bunch of guys that played in that game it's a very solid ratio.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I don't care about top 15 guys. I just want kids like Mali and Lydon who have a few elite skills you can win with. The rankings aren't always perfect. The fact that Swider and Carey are ranked this low is odd when they dominate AAU. Not sure what these scouts are looking at.

 

[CaptainJ]

Does anyone think that being Boeheim may be nearing the twilight of his career, this may change at all and he may take more swings for the seats in hopes of snagging that elusive 2nd title? He sees how his pal K does it, even though K has a more prestigious brand to keep churning the studs. You'd think with JB only having K in front of him for wins, that we could land some more of these type of guys. I'm not sure if bringing back the running game from the glory days would help, or maybe JB making more trips himself, but I'd love for him and the rest of us to get 1 more title belt before the sun sets on the legend of Boeheim.

I agree with PauliePeppas about JB doing more with less, and dont care what the narrative is. The narrative of college hoops, the NFL, etc reminds me more and more of professional wrestling at times, where the talk is half the entertainment. LGB!!(no t lol)

 

[HoustonCuse]

This conversation brings back to this article...
Syracuse Basketball: Ranking the 5 Most Hyped Recruits in Orange History

Cripes, three of the guys on that list have already passed away.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

Melo, DC, Steve Thompson, I will throw Pearl in but he actually might not have been in the final rankings. Chris Mac., Winfred Walton lol, Karlton Hines, no laugh there. Two guys that never played for us. Who else?

You guys forget about Paul Harris?
Here are our highest rated recruits since 2002 as per skout:http://www.At their request, this n...sketball/recruiting/2002-basketball-prospects
2002 Melo #2
2003 DNich #24
2004 JWright #52
2005 Devo #26
2006 Harris #10
2007 Greene #8
2008 KJ #53
2009 Riley #93
2010 Fab #13
2011 Rak #21
2012 DC #19
2013 Ennis #22
2014 CMac #18
2015 Mali #29
2016 Battle #33

 

[SoBeCuse]

I don't care about top 15 guys. I just want kids like Mali and Lydon who have a few elite skills you can win with. The rankings aren't always perfect. The fact that Swider and Carey are ranked this low is odd when they dominate AAU. Not sure what these scouts are looking at.

True. But it helps no question to have a legit Top 10-15 guy or two who is ready to ball coming into school. Say what you want about the Tourney but you need good regular seasons to put yourself in a good positon come March.

 

[JLine]

I don't care about top 15 guys. I just want kids like Mali and Lydon who have a few elite skills you can win with. The rankings aren't always perfect. The fact that Swider and Carey are ranked this low is odd when they dominate AAU. Not sure what these scouts are looking at.

Rankings are off, yes. Just opinions, though the top guys are usually, well the top guys. Swider, and Carey are as good as they come, but as Cuse fans we watch more of them than the other top recruits. Still, give me them, and Bazley over anyone. Throw in Buddy. Then JW, Smith, a 5. All of the above works.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Melo, DC, Steve Thompson, I will throw Pearl in but he actually might not have been in the final rankings. Chris Mac., Winfred Walton lol, Karlton Hines, no laugh there. Two guys that never played for us. Who else?

I recall Pearl being #1. Al McGuire was there for the decision. It was a big deal.
As for Hines:
Street Stories

 

[Trueblue25]

I'd rather take the how many times we've been ranked in the top 15 in the past 15 years number.

 

[44doubledees]

Our sweet spot should be guys 25 to 50, 2 to 4 year guys that in most cases will not attract the KU/Duke offers. IMHO that has not changed over the past few years but unfortunately for us 2 things have happened. 1. Alot of our targets have blown up once we started and then attracted the Blue Bloods. 2. The Blue bloods are moving farther down the list as they are turning over 4 to 5 one and dones each year.

 

[Cusefan0307]

True. But it helps no question to have a legit Top 10-15 guy or two who is ready to ball coming into school. Say what you want about the Tourney but you need good regular seasons to put yourself in a good positon come March.

Did we have any top 15 guys in 2010 or 2013? No.

Did Nova when they won it all? No.

Did Wisconsin when they got to the FF 2 years in a row? No.

I don't even think Carolina had any top consensus 15 guys this year.

I'm done putting much stock in rankings. Swider averages 22 points a game in EYBL and he's barely ranked top 50. Hameir Wright averaged 5 ppg in EYBL and he's still a top 75 prospect. Noah Locke shoots 50% from 3 and he's ranked like 90. Makes zero sense, but I don't work for ESPN or Skowt.

 

[Knicks411]

Did we have any top 15 guys in 2010 or 2013? No.

Did Nova when they won it all? No.

Did Wisconsin when they got to the FF 2 years in a row? No.

I don't even think Carolina had any top consensus 15 guys this year.

I'm done putting much stock in rankings. Swider averages 22 points a game in EYBL and he's barely ranked top 50. Hameir Wright averaged 5 ppg in EYBL and he's still a top 75 prospect. Noah Locke shoots 50% from 3 and he's ranked like 90. Makes zero sense, but I don't work for ESPN or Skowt.

I looked up Carolina on RSCI; Tony Bradley was 19, Justin Jackson was 9 and theo Pinson 15 in their year, Hicks was 14 in his.

In general, the consensus rankings are pretty good. The guys at the top are almost always the best players. That doesn't mean guys don't fall through the cracks, or that you need top guys to win or make final fours or anything, but I think consensus rankings usually do a pretty decent job, at least at recognizing the very best players

 

[Cusefan0307]

I looked up Carolina on RSCI; Tony Bradley was 19, Justin Jackson was 9 and theo Pinson 15 in their year, Hicks was 14 in his.

In general, the consensus rankings are pretty good. The guys at the top are almost always the best players. That doesn't mean guys don't fall through the cracks, or that you need top guys to win or make final fours or anything, but I think consensus rankings usually do a pretty decent job, at least at recognizing the very best players

Interesting. Some of those guys definitely underperformed their ranking earlier in their career.

Still there's teams that have won without consensus top 15 guys. Louisville(redacted 2013) is another.

 

[Knicks411]

Interesting. Some of those guys definitely underperformed their ranking earlier in their career.

Still there's teams that have won without consensus top 15 guys. Louisville(redacted 2013) is another.

Totally, and I'm not saying you need guys at the top. I just don't think that is a problem with the rankings themselves, there are just different ways to build a team. In an era where so much of the top level talent spends just one year in college, the teams that have good, but not great, players who spend multiple years in a system building chemistry have a chance to compete with the best players.

Recruiting rankings were more primitive in years past, but my hunch would be that it was harder for teams without super top level recruits to compete at a high level in the era where guys were staying in school for 3 or 4 years

 

[Cusefan0307]

Totally, and I'm not saying you need guys at the top. I just don't think that is a problem with the rankings themselves, there are just different ways to build a team. In an era where so much of the top level talent spends just one year in college, the teams that have good, but not great, players who spend multiple years in a system building chemistry have a chance to compete with the best players.

Recruiting rankings were more primitive in years past, but my hunch would be that it was harder for teams without super top level recruits to compete at a high level in the era where guys were staying in school for 3 or 4 years

Agree with that, but if top level players stayed for 3 or 4 years chances are they would be more spread out amongst the schools than just automatically go to Duke or UK, because those guys aren't going to automatically go there just to sit the bench.

 

[Ward]

I looked up Carolina on RSCI; Tony Bradley was 19, Justin Jackson was 9 and theo Pinson 15 in their year, Hicks was 14 in his.

In general, the consensus rankings are pretty good. The guys at the top are almost always the best players. That doesn't mean guys don't fall through the cracks, or that you need top guys to win or make final fours or anything, but I think consensus rankings usually do a pretty decent job, at least at recognizing the very best players

Agreed. I think the best way to view it is as tiers more or less with the "bands" growing as you get deeper into the top 100. The top say 5 or so more often than not are no brainer studs. The next say 10-12 guys are players who are great but not quite as good as that first group and so on. A program's playing style and fit, situation, coaching, kid's work ethic/attitude all are much better indicators of how a kid will be in college than where he ranks in his "grouping" or "tier" IMO.

I also think anything from ~50-100 is all a crapshoot contingent on those above factors more than anything. Much better litmus test is who is going after the kid, and usually that's all these scouting services do anyways. They trust that Bill Self, Calipari, Coach K, etc. know more than they do. Then when they see them starting to follow a kid around they start to hype him up and act like the coaches are interested because they think he's good not the other way around.

Those teams who win without the top players are because they have older guys who have used 3-4 years of being in a college program and experience to close the gaps on the younger but more talented guys. But then when you have programs like UNC who habitually get top tier kids to stay 3-4 years you're going to see a lot of success.