McD's All-American game on ESPN right now

[orange2win]

Sure, we went to the final four in DC's and Melo's Freshman years, JW's Sr year and last year we had 3 in MCW, Rak and DC.

Since 1979 we had had 19 McDonald's All-American players and only 5 players actually contributed to us making the FF. Not a great percentage IMO

Indeed you are correct. It is not an imperative, but pretty close to it.

Here are the stats. Judge for yourself. Going all the way back to 1996, the average number of McDAA on each Championship team has been 3.1. On our last F4 appearance (2013), we had 3 - MCW, Rak and DC2 - which is the right average to win it all.

Over the 18 year period, only one team has won the national NCAA championship without a single McDAA on the team. Maryland 2002, but we now know they had 4 NBA players on their roster (Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter, Chris Wilcox and Steve Blake), so they were no fluke.

You cannot win it all without the right amount of talent. The McDAA yardstick is not perfect, but it works most of the time.

We have the best fans, biggest crowds, best training facilities, superior assistance, premier conference, HOF coach, TV coverage second to none. So why are these kids choosing to go elsewhere? Only one answer fits for me. Zone. They feel their talents will not be fully utilized in such a system.

 

[Francis03]

Indeed you are correct. It is not an imperative, but pretty close to it.

Here are the stats. Judge for yourself. Going all the way back to 1996, the average number of McDAA on each Championship team has been 3.1. On our last F4 appearance (2013), we had 3 - MCW, Rak and DC2 - which is the right average to win it all.

Over the 18 year period, only one team has won the national NCAA championship without a single McDAA on the team. Maryland 2002, but we now know they had 4 NBA players on their roster (Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter, Chris Wilcox and Steve Blake), so they were no fluke.

You cannot win it all without the right amount of talent. The McDAA yardstick is not perfect, but it works most of the time.

We have the best fans, biggest crowds, best training facilities, superior assistance, premier conference, HOF coach, TV coverage second to none. So why are these kids choosing to go elsewhere? Only one answer fits for me. Zone. They feel their talents will not be fully utilized in such a system.

Wrong. JB and the staff recruit fits for their program and not just based off rankings. The majority of the players that you see in the Burger Game aka the Duke/UNC/UK Invitational over the past 15-20 years weren't even seriously recruited by SU. This class for example in the game, who did SU miss out on? The staff decided to choose Kaleb Joseph over Isaiah Whitehead. Whitehead didn't pick Seton Hall of all places because he didn't like the zone. The zone didn't make us lose out on Nerlens Noel, Rysheed Jordan, Tobias Harris, James Young etc over the years. Sure other programs probably use that to negative recruit against SU, but trust me after following the recruiting game closely since 2000, I can let you know that I have never heard of a kid that the staff thought they had a legit shot at not picking them because of the defense that they play. These kids want to go somewhere that they can get minutes, touches, score lots of points, and make it to the Association asap.

 

[netman99]

JB doesn't know how to recruit. And he doesn't know what to do with the overwhelmingly great talent that comes to Syracuse.

Aren't you contradicting yourself? Jb cannot recruit, yet they have overwhelming talent.

 

[AZOrange]

Aren't you contradicting yourself? Jb cannot recruit, yet they have overwhelming talent.

That's the sarcasm giveaway...

 

[Section 314 Row C]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the god-awful uniforms yet. They looked like the rainbow bright dance team out there with all the sparkles and shiny decals.

 

[orange2win]

Wrong. JB and the staff recruit fits for their program and not just based off rankings. The majority of the players that you see in the Burger Game aka the Duke/UNC/UK Invitational over the past 15-20 years weren't even seriously recruited by SU. This class for example in the game, who did SU miss out on? The staff decided to choose Kaleb Joseph over Isaiah Whitehead. Whitehead didn't pick Seton Hall of all places because he didn't like the zone. The zone didn't make us lose out on Nerlens Noel, Rysheed Jordan, Tobias Harris, James Young etc over the years. Sure other programs probably use that to negative recruit against SU, but trust me after following the recruiting game closely since 2000, I can let you know that I have never heard of a kid that the staff thought they had a legit shot at not picking them because of the defense that they play. These kids want to go somewhere that they can get minutes, touches, score lots of points, and make it to the Association asap.

Actually I do not think we disagree at all. I am saying while we are recruiting kids for 100% zone, with no switch over, we lose a chunk of them - in that we do not even offer. But also, if you check their schools of interest early in the process, when these kids are all over the map, the number with SU on their wish list is much lower than the other mayor programs. So we miss them both ways; their choice and ours. The zone dictates our recruiting.

Of course you can argue we are doing alright, pulling in some great talent. The response to that is - with a few exceptions over the years, we usually get the best of the rest, when we could (and should) be getting the cream of the crop.

 

[Francis03]

Actually I do not think we disagree at all. I am saying while we are recruiting kids for 100% zone, with no switch over, we lose a chunk of them - in that we do not even offer. But also, if you check their schools of interest early in the process, when these kids are all over the map, the number with SU on their wish list is much lower than the other mayor programs. So we miss them both ways; their choice and ours. The zone dictates our recruiting.

Of course you can argue we are doing alright, pulling in some great talent. The response to that is - with a few exceptions over the years, we usually get the best of the rest, when we could (and should) be getting the cream of the crop.

I think the issue and I believe it'll change whenever Hop takes over is that SU is mainly East Coast dominant with it's recruiting as of late. Other high level programs like Duke, UK, UNC etc recruit all around the country. Doesn't matter whether the prospect is from the East, West, South, and Midwest. I think as he has gotten up there in age that JB just doesn't have the patience to fly around and grind all out for players out in Cali, Texas, FL etc. Hop is the ultimate grinder and I think he would have no problems hitting the flyer miles if he thought a certain player was worth it.

 

[orange2win]

I think the issue and I believe it'll change whenever Hop takes over is that SU is mainly East Coast dominant with it's recruiting as of late. Other high level programs like Duke, UK, UNC etc recruit all around the country. Doesn't matter whether the prospect is from the East, West, South, and Midwest. I think as he has gotten up there in age that JB just doesn't have the patience to fly around and grind all out for players out in Cali, Texas, FL etc. Hop is the ultimate grinder and I think he would have no problems hitting the flyer miles if he thought a certain player was worth it.

Entirely agree. In the 90's (when JB was fresh), we were pulling them in from CA - Bland, Duncan, Ellis, Hart, Hopkins, Manning. Our last CA catch was Sean Williams. After CA, we were stealing B-10 players like Burgan, DC and Devo. Nothing from there lately. Our big draw in recent years has been DC, Philly and NY Metro (which includes north jersey) and of course there is enough talent there to feed all our needs.

HOP has a young family now. His best days of pounding the pavements may have slipped past as well.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Seems like JB has focused in his strategy of late. He has started focusing totally on zone in practice, for example. He has narrowed the recruiting zone to a small zone of Baltimore to Toronto. It hasn't NOT worked. I mean we have seen the defense improve as a result of the focus and the recruiting has been excellent. When our problems relate to losing PGs to the NBA every single year, your recruiting is probably pretty good.