Realistically, who's coming our way?

[NECuse]

DC and Burgan back in the day, followed up by stud Winfred Walton [who never played here], Thues, and Devendorf.

One absolute superstar, two multi-year starters, one potential star who busted, and a guy who was marginal.

Am I leaving anybody out?

Dashonte Riley ... to the extent you can call that leaving someone out.

 

[Knicks411]

DC and Burgan back in the day, followed up by stud Winfred Walton [who never played here], Thues, and Devendorf.

One absolute superstar, two multi-year starters, one potential star who busted, and a guy who was marginal.

Am I leaving anybody out?

Walton is a name I haven't heard in a while; I was probably 12 or 13 when he committed; wasn't an SU fan yet but I remember hearing all about him in the sporting news type magazines, supposed to be the man. And he never enrolled.

 

[RF2044]

Dashonte Riley ... to the extent you can call that leaving someone out.

Good call.

 

[gilardino]

Walton is a name I haven't heard in a while; I was probably 12 or 13 when he committed; wasn't an SU fan yet but I remember hearing all about him in the sporting news type magazines, supposed to be the man. And he never enrolled.

Walton was the next big guy to come on campus. He had to retake his SAT.( Rumor was Michigan cried foul) I remember back in 96 you could find out if he passed or not by calling the post standard hot line. I remember the message stating he did not pass. What could have been....

 

[Shark58]

Derrick Coleman responds to Detroit's absence from the Syracuse Hometown Bracket Madness

http://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/index.ssf/2014/08/derrick_coleman_responds_to_detroits_absence_from_the_syracuse_hometown_challeng.html

 

[Cusefan78]

Walton was the next big guy to come on campus. He had to retake his SAT.( Rumor was Michigan cried foul) I remember back in 96 you could find out if he passed or not by calling the post standard hot line. I remember the message stating he did not pass. What could have been...

He took his sat at Ludden I sat right next to him.

 

[Deano]

He took his sat at Ludden I sat right next to him.

If you passed, maybe he should have copied you

 

[Nicknack]

Maybe true. But just trust me on this. That's all I'm going to say.

A couple of your recent posts has be cautiously excited. My trust is with you, take good care of it.

By the way, could there be any re-classifying in our future?

 

[gilardino]

He took his sat at Ludden I sat right next to him.

fall of 96 is that correct?

 

[FrancoPizza]

He took his sat at Ludden I sat right next to him.

And you couldn't help a brother out?

 

[IthacaMatt]

They got Devendorf out of there, can't think of anyone else off the top of my head

Coleman, Todd Burgan, James Thues and that 7 footer who transferred to Eastern Michigan, Riley?

 

[RF2044]

A couple of your recent posts has be cautiously excited. My trust is with you, take good care of it.

By the way, could there be any re-classifying in our future?

That wasn't what I'm referring to. I expect Richardson to come back [fingers crossed] and Diallo to replace him in 2017.

 

[tee1222]

Nah.

I'm expecting us to fill all three with quality players. Just because there isn't chatter on the board doesn't mean that recruiting isn't happening behind the scenes--possibly with prospects the board isn't keyed in on. It just means that the board recruitniks--who normally have very solid data--aren't privy to what's happening. There is zero chance that we get shut out. I expect all three spots to be filled.

That post needs more love, folks!

 

[Cusefan78]

fall of 96 is that correct?

Yes it is.

 

[OttosBestFriend]

The ones that turn into All-NBA First Teamers? Sure. But when is the last time we got someone like a Jahlil Okafor, or Jabari Parker, or Julius Randal, or MKG, or Aaron Gordon, etc., etc. It just seems like we live in the 20-50 range, when the pedigree of the program suggests we could recruit effectively in the 1-20 range. But that would generally require a significant effort to recruit on a more national scale. That's my point, really. And I understand it ignores situations where we've been involved with top talents (Noel and Davis) only to have some backroom nonsense scuttle the recruitment. But you can't hit a home run if the bat stays on your shoulder.

Paul Harris, Fab Melo & Chris McCullough were top-10 recruits on many, if not all, services.

Tyus Battle was considered by many a top-10 player after his sophomore year, but fell 20 spots in large part due to an injury that kept him off the floor for a year. Out of sight is out of mind to the recruiting services.

Dion Waiters was top-15 as were both Donte Greene and DaJaun Coleman.

Rakeem Christmas, Michael Carter Williams and Jonny Flynn were all top-20 recruits.

And Malachi was in the 20-30 range on most sites - earning McDonald's All-American status.

That's just off the top of my head.

 

[Francis03]

Paul Harris, Fab Melo & Chris McCullough were top-10 recruits on many, if not all, services.

Tyus Battle was considered by many a top-10 player after his sophomore year, but fell 20 spots in large part due to an injury that kept him off the floor for a year. Out of sight is out of mind to the recruiting services.

Dion Waiters was top-15 as were both Donte Greene and DaJaun Coleman.

Rakeem Christmas, Michael Carter Williams and Jonny Flynn were all top-20 recruits.

And Malachi was in the 20-30 range on most sites - earning McDonald's All-American status.

That's just off the top of my head.

Harris was but the other two were not. McCullough early on was ranked very high but fell to the 20's by the time his HS career was over.

 

[OttoMets]

Paul Harris, Fab Melo & Chris McCullough were top-10 recruits on many, if not all, services.

Tyus Battle was considered by many a top-10 player after his sophomore year, but fell 20 spots in large part due to an injury that kept him off the floor for a year. Out of sight is out of mind to the recruiting services.

Dion Waiters was top-15 as were both Donte Greene and DaJaun Coleman.

Rakeem Christmas, Michael Carter Williams and Jonny Flynn were all top-20 recruits.

And Malachi was in the 20-30 range on most sites - earning McDonald's All-American status.

That's just off the top of my head.

I'm no recruitnik, but this (and the rankings I quickly looked up) support the poster's claim that "it just seems like we live in the 20-50 range, when the pedigree of the program suggests we could recruit effectively in the 1-20 range."

Here, Flynn's 22, Rakeem's 27, Carter-Williams is 29, Coleman's 26, and Malachi, as you concede, was above 20. Rivals had McCullough at 19 and Fab at 16 (Waiters was 29 in this class).

Te was 9 and Do-It-All Paul was 12; those were legitimately high-profile recruits, as you note.

None of these rankings matters at all. But if NECuse claims that we've spent our resurgence getting very few top-ten recruits and have instead tended to stock up on 20-50 types, he's correct.

 

[Cusefan0307]

It's interesting to me that the best basketball team in the world's three best players were NOT Mcdonald's All Americans.

 

[OttoMets]

It's interesting to me that the best basketball team in the world's three best players were NOT Mcdonald's All Americans.

Yeah, and running through the Rivals lists since 2003 was a nice exercise in "Wow, what ever happened to that guy?" (poor Ndudi Ebi...).

Lists are fun, but they're beyond imprecise. Attracting more top-tens would likely improve the talent on our roster, but there are a lot of potentially great players outside of that range.

 

[Knicks411]

I like https://sites.google.com/site/rscihoops/home

 

[dollarbill44]

Lydon being expected to be the primary scoring threat concerns me. He's a great shooter and finished well inside but showed little ability to create for himself, and that's not one of those things we can just expect to develop during the off season. Right now he seems much more comfortable in a sidekick role.

He was a freshman. Freshmen are supposed to be sidekicks. I think he has the ability to create, just that he was apprehensive at times towards finishing after a good initial move. I saw a very nice jab-step from him as well as the ability to hit the step-back jumper. With a solid year under his belt and a full off-season going against the big boys, I fully expect him to come back in the fall and be much more assertive.

 

[two3zone]

He was a freshman. Freshmen are supposed to be sidekicks. I think he has the ability to create, just that he was apprehensive at times towards finishing after a good initial move. I saw a very nice jab-step from him as well as the ability to hit the step-back jumper. With a solid year under his belt and a full off-season going against the big boys, I fully expect him to come back in the fall and be much more assertive.

Glad our two freshman in 03 weren't sidekicks.

 

[OttoMets]

...

Lists are fun, but they're beyond imprecise. Attracting more top-tens would likely improve the talent on our roster, but there are a lot of potentially great players outside of that range.

To wit, 2011:

2. Austin Rivers
79. Trevor Cooney
94. Malcolm Brogdon

Give me the keys to a college basketball program and that's not the order in which I'd draft my team.

 

[dollarbill44]

Glad our two freshman in 03 weren't sidekicks.

There are occasional exceptions to this rule, obviously. But in my near 40 years of following SU hoops, I can count the exceptions on one hand.

 

[OttoMets]

Thanks to Knicks's RSCI link and my penchant for wasting time on a slow Friday in the office, I ran a quick spreadsheet of our cumulative recruiting rankings (like in golf and XC, low score is best; rated each unranked kid as a 150). Shows how misleading that kind of thing can be: by this ranking, our best team was...this year (the only time this century we've had a top-eight with no unranked recruits). The next three best teams were 2014, 2008, and 2007. Our national championship team (with three unranked recruits) was near the bottom of the pack and the 2010 team, which many consider our best, was the second-worst.

The worst-ranked bunch of recruits was, of course, was the 2002 team, which I would also rank as our worst on-court team of the century, too. So the rankings aren't all wrong. That collection of guys also explains the coaching/recruiting change that happened right before that season.