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Message: [QUOTE="Flacusian, post: 1969513, member: 264"] JB's impending retirement, the sanctions and the media's seeming infatuation with UK and Duke and some other mitigating factors have no doubt had an impact on our seeming diminishing recruiting ability. We live in a media driven society and impressionable 18 year old kids are bombarded with all the hype and their decisions are certainly skewed by the manner in which certain programs are bolstered by the continual attention and plethora attention given them. As much as the Squid is a total schmuck he elicits the attention of these young kids and he is seen in their eyes as " the guy who gets the pick of the best" and they like to be seen as being part of " another monster UK recruiting class comprised of the best of the best". Cal blathers on and on about God only knows what but the fact of the matter is that his excitement is palpable to the kids and he has the ability, with his car salesman / infomercial pitchman persona to get kids to buy into the UK phenomenon. I mean, sheesh ... how hard is it when the kids are treated like royal princes who are coddled and pampered and are the recipients of a kind of treatment that no other kids in America get who are attending college. Syracuse cannot compete with that type of recruiting approach and nor should they. There is something inherently indigestible about it and the fact of the matter is that although UK has poached the crème de la crème of the recruiting classes for the past decade... What do they really have to show for it? One chip... BFD! There are some inherent problems with being the "One and done" king of the hill and their lack of dominating on the hardwood come March is the proof in the pudding. Duke on the other hand... while they receive the reverential treatment in the press and the word "Duke" is said so many times in the course of the college basketball season that it can make you ill, seem to do more with their classes of 5 stars than UK does. No doubt Coach K is on another level altogether than the Squid and it also seems that the assemblage of K's talent resembles more of a cohesive team than that which Cal puts out on the floor. Cal's embarrassment of riches was rubbed into the face of all those who weren't UK wildcats in the form of his notion of trotting out Line A, Line B, Line C,... like a hockey team. Gotta think that most kids aren't enamored with that gimmickry. Syracuse I dare say will never be considered "THE PLACE" to play for the upcoming talent in this day and age. There's nothing sexy about Syracuse winters and the Dome has it's limitations as well as it's benefits. Not to mention JB is not a fast talking high energy pitchman who can convince kids that "this is the place to be". The fact of the matter is that success begets success and as much as you would think that 2 final 4 runs in recent years and having a track record of putting guards into the NBA after a single season... maybe two, would be enough to have kids lining up at the Melo Center to sign on... but, sadly it's not. For a lot of these kids it's about being in the center of the media spotlight and in the middle of all the hype. And it's no longer about the steak... it's all about the sizzle. All these things sort of suck... but at the end of the day here's what I think. I would rather be a Syracuse Basketball fan than any other team on the planet. Warts and all and here's why. Nobody has ever taken so little and made so much out of it as Jim Boeheim and what he has done with the Syracuse program. We are far from the sexiest program or the most revered and we certainly don't have the market curbed on getting the best talent. But many of the kids we do get... work their asses of and buy into the team concept and are PROUD to be ORANGE. They all come back long after they have either moved on to the NBA or their playing days are over. I love out program BECAUSE we find the diamonds in the rough who are not heralded as the 5 star wunderkinds and they develop into great players. The list is long... the Andy Rautin's types... Otis Hill, GMAC, Johnny Flynn... They came in, bought in, worked hard and made our program great. Just like last year when we were deemed by many to not be worth of the Dance. And we went out and kicked a$$ all the way to the final 4. So UK can have their Diaper Dainty's and all the publicity and... yeah Quade Green too. But they better look out cuz there is a team in Central New York this year that is going to be kickin' A$$ and takin' names all the way to the last game of the season. I am going to revel while watching Franklin Howard emerge as one of the best point guards in the Nation. We don't need no Quadrant Green. So for me it's bout being in the moment... the moments THIS season. We will take care of things one game at a time this season... and next season will take care of itself. That's the way we do it around here. We find a way to get it done and we find kids who others may have overlooked but JB and company see something special in. Now lets go get this 2nd Chip for JB ok? [/QUOTE]

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