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Message: [QUOTE="Zelda Zonk, post: 3683497, member: 966"] That’s cute. As I said, you’re looking at our program from the rationalizing/excuse-driven ‘Syracuse fan’ perspective. I suggested you take a step back, out of our bubble and look at it from an objective point of view, because that’s from where the kids—the recruits that build and sustain programs are looking at us. The final 4 and elite 8—nice, from our perspective. But the more telling story comes from asking where we were all season in those years. How were we perceived all year. How much relevancy did we get by being ranked, which gets your highlights on tv. Which gets your scores on the main hoops page, not buried so that someone (only someone already a fan) has to go looking for them by selecting an Acc menu. How are you discussed by commentators in each game. Recruiting is about impressions and PR and expectations and a bunch of stuff like that. Being league-average for a sustained period of time is not conducive to signing elite prospects. It’s a route to sustained mediocrity. perhaps you’re happy with the memories. Maybe “has made the tournament several other times” is good enough for you. Not for me. Perhaps I’m spoiled and you’re just practical? When I arrived at Syracuse, we had Pearl and Seikaly, and the next year we had DC and went to the championship game. In my four years we signed the co-#1 player, and were ranked preseason #1 (I think...). That’s my frame of reference. No, I haven’t worked with Sidibe. I’m going to suggest that if you treat recruiting and program building like ‘friendships,’ your team is going to suck. Seriously? “Loyal friends?” NCAA hoops is not like running a business. It is not like maintaining friendships. Players last four years. They have to be replaced. They have to have backups. They get injured and their play is less effective when they are recovering. You recruit with a plan in place and then have to react to the progressions/regressions—and “loyalty” may only be a small component of that. Here’s the thing, and actually, it parallels current events: loyalty should be first and foremost [B][I]to the program[/I][/B], not to any one player. [/QUOTE]

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