newmexicuse
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I am really trying to wrap my arms around the current recruiting landscape and where we fit in.
In the BE days, I always felt that we were a second tier selector school. The top 25's were always hard to come by for us, but we held our own chasing the 25 to 50 ranked kids, and it seemed like we could pretty much take who we wanted in the 50 to 100 range and lower where the upper echelon blue bloods did not tread.
Now, it seems like PT trumps all. Kids seem more than willing to to go to smaller schools if they do not like the PT available.
There are still a couple of blue blood selector schools out there. Nova has seemed to find some sort of a niche with the types of kids that they can get, but by and large PT trumps almost everything.
We had this year nailed until Baz left us in the lurch, but it still feels like we have no plan other than to offer the PT when it becomes available. Even a relatively mid-level recruit like Golden was not satisfied with a 10 to 15 minute role and the chance to compete for a starting position in year two.
There needs to be some sort of a roster building and player development strategy that we should be able to implement beyond promising kids the immediate gratification of PT so that when stuff happens it is next man up.
Of course, our mediocrity the last several seasons has taken its toll. Our playing style probably does not help either in many cases.
So what is the answer ?
1. First - I think we need to get back some mojo. Obviously, if we could start winning more frequently that would be a big help. Style is also a part of mojo. We need to play with more aggression on both ends of the court. On O, maybe we will now have the right players to play a more aggressive, penetrating, going to the hole style. We need to move the ball crisply and with purpose and not just have casual tosses around the perimeter waiting for the high P&R. On D we obviously aren't going to stop playing Zone, and in the halfcourt set we probably play about as aggressive a zone as possible. However, pressing aggressively much more often than we do might be a way to add excitement. We have enough guard depth this season to be able to do that with frequency, unlike last year.
2. Second - Recruits aren't dumb. They know if they can't be one of our top seven that PT will be hard to come by. We have to be willing to go deeper into the bench to find a legitimate and appealing role for the 8 & 9 guys, if we truly value having an 8 & 9 guy with reasonable talent on the roster.
3. Who we recruit - seems to me that the staff has scrambling as part of our recruiting plan. In other words, we chase kids who the staff believes will be one of our top seven from the get go. Sometimes we have no Plan B. We do not seem to show the love to any kids who we aren't targeting as immediate rotation kids until Plan A has failed and we are back to scrambling. i think if we showed love from the beginning and had legitimate relationship that we could land some of these kids. It would only take one or two to make a big difference. Maybe, the staff feels like there will always be somebody out there, but it would be nice to have a couple of developmental kids on the roster by design and not by default.
So now, two straight seasons we will be hard pressed at forward. Last season, when matt disappointed in his play and then compounded that with injury, there was absolutely nobody else on the roster to fill in. When Sid got hurt, again, that left us nobody else. Just one more big who could have taken some minutes would have made a world of difference. This season, in a sense we are worse off than last year at forward. There is no bona fide third forward, though I do have a feeling that Hughes will do fine when he fills in. Again, nobody else on the roster if something else happens.
Bottom line, we need better planning and less scrambling IMHO.
In the BE days, I always felt that we were a second tier selector school. The top 25's were always hard to come by for us, but we held our own chasing the 25 to 50 ranked kids, and it seemed like we could pretty much take who we wanted in the 50 to 100 range and lower where the upper echelon blue bloods did not tread.
Now, it seems like PT trumps all. Kids seem more than willing to to go to smaller schools if they do not like the PT available.
There are still a couple of blue blood selector schools out there. Nova has seemed to find some sort of a niche with the types of kids that they can get, but by and large PT trumps almost everything.
We had this year nailed until Baz left us in the lurch, but it still feels like we have no plan other than to offer the PT when it becomes available. Even a relatively mid-level recruit like Golden was not satisfied with a 10 to 15 minute role and the chance to compete for a starting position in year two.
There needs to be some sort of a roster building and player development strategy that we should be able to implement beyond promising kids the immediate gratification of PT so that when stuff happens it is next man up.
Of course, our mediocrity the last several seasons has taken its toll. Our playing style probably does not help either in many cases.
So what is the answer ?
1. First - I think we need to get back some mojo. Obviously, if we could start winning more frequently that would be a big help. Style is also a part of mojo. We need to play with more aggression on both ends of the court. On O, maybe we will now have the right players to play a more aggressive, penetrating, going to the hole style. We need to move the ball crisply and with purpose and not just have casual tosses around the perimeter waiting for the high P&R. On D we obviously aren't going to stop playing Zone, and in the halfcourt set we probably play about as aggressive a zone as possible. However, pressing aggressively much more often than we do might be a way to add excitement. We have enough guard depth this season to be able to do that with frequency, unlike last year.
2. Second - Recruits aren't dumb. They know if they can't be one of our top seven that PT will be hard to come by. We have to be willing to go deeper into the bench to find a legitimate and appealing role for the 8 & 9 guys, if we truly value having an 8 & 9 guy with reasonable talent on the roster.
3. Who we recruit - seems to me that the staff has scrambling as part of our recruiting plan. In other words, we chase kids who the staff believes will be one of our top seven from the get go. Sometimes we have no Plan B. We do not seem to show the love to any kids who we aren't targeting as immediate rotation kids until Plan A has failed and we are back to scrambling. i think if we showed love from the beginning and had legitimate relationship that we could land some of these kids. It would only take one or two to make a big difference. Maybe, the staff feels like there will always be somebody out there, but it would be nice to have a couple of developmental kids on the roster by design and not by default.
So now, two straight seasons we will be hard pressed at forward. Last season, when matt disappointed in his play and then compounded that with injury, there was absolutely nobody else on the roster to fill in. When Sid got hurt, again, that left us nobody else. Just one more big who could have taken some minutes would have made a world of difference. This season, in a sense we are worse off than last year at forward. There is no bona fide third forward, though I do have a feeling that Hughes will do fine when he fills in. Again, nobody else on the roster if something else happens.
Bottom line, we need better planning and less scrambling IMHO.
