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Message: [QUOTE="RF2044, post: 2025145, member: 40"] People always bring up BJ / Bus as examples that went sideways, but the reality is that our program has thrived for years recruiting program guys who stayed all four years and made incrementally larger and larger contributions over the course of their career. In recent years alone, CJ, Kris Joseph, Scoop, Rautins, AO, Triche, Jackson, Gbinije, and many others. By senior year, these program guys were often as good as / better than the more highly rated blue chip frosh counterparts that they were competing against. Our traditional recruiting approach has been to load up on these type of guys, and then supplement them by sprinkling in the occasional higher rated recruit. We've gotten away from that a bit in recent years, to the detriment of long term depth. And obviously, many of the higher rated players we've landed became early entrants who headed to the NBA often before the program truly benefitted from them being around. Most frustrating about that has been that we've recruited well enough to land guys who were NBA prospects, but that those NBA prospects were not truly elite blue chippers who could elevate the program to elite levels. Obviously, the scholarship sanctions further cut into our depth, but finding ourselves in a situation where we could potentially not have ANY backcourt players next season is a shocking position to be in. Only a few seasons ago, we were landing recruits a full year ahead of their class, which in turn enabled our coaching staff to spend time building relationships with underclassmen and strengthening our position in future recruiting classes. Today, we're significantly behind for the class of 2017, staring down the barrel of having 3-5 additional slots to fill, and desperately needing to add perimeter depth. Hard to know how good of a prospect Duarte is, or how his career will unfold. The skill set suggests that he could develop into a quality player, and we desperately need the backcourt depth. He also seems like a better option than some of the names that have been thrown about. We find ourselves today in the unenviable position of needing to add players, but not wanting to add guys who won't be able to play at our level. In that regard, Duarte seems like a good gamble. [/QUOTE]

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