Class of 2017 SG/SF Jordan Tucker (NY / GA) Leaving Duke to Butler

[Funk Doc]

That shouldn't be that hard of a question to answer .

I agree...we've shown how quickly our players that stand out stick around...sad face!

 

[kcsu]

Because its his fault that Quade was fishing for Duke and UK offers and even when he had the UK offer, he silently verballed to SU even so much as showing up to campus unofficially the week before he flipped.

Minimally it was a bad read on our part. Gmac could have said guys i know what he said but his actions are contradictory. Lets force the issue as im not sure that he is truly committed. Again pure speculation. Lets hope he lands Tucker really no reason not to.

 

[721Comstock]

Minimally it was a bad read on our part. Gmac could have said guys i know what he said but his actions are contradictory. Lets force the issue as im not sure that he is truly committed. Again pure speculation. Lets hope he lands Tucker really no reason not to.

Well, other than he lives in GA now, and we completely ignored him for 6 months.
But yeah - really no reason not to, at all.

 

[JarHeadJim]

For the record the Weather is going to be really nasty today in Atlanta.

 

[kcsu]

Well, other than he lives in GA now, and we completely ignored him for 6 months.
But yeah - really no reason not to, at all.

I realize its a crap shoot still Tucker is such a natural fit

 

[jordoo]

Minimally it was a bad read on our part. Gmac could have said guys i know what he said but his actions are contradictory. Lets force the issue as im not sure that he is truly committed. Again pure speculation. Lets hope he lands Tucker really no reason not to.

The problem happened long before that final week. We stopped recruiting other guys for Green and gave him the opportunity to leave us without a PG for 2017 really late in the game. We schedule a visit with Coleman. Green comes running back to SU and brings his friend Bamba with him. SU cancels Coleman's visit. You can't do that without a public verbal which I am convinced we would have gotten had we recruited other PG's seriously.

 

[Deano]

The problem happened long before that final week. We stopped recruiting other guys for Green and gave him the opportunity to leave us without a PG for 2017 really late in the game. We schedule a visit with Coleman. Green comes running back to SU and brings his friend Bamba with him. SU cancels Coleman's visit. You can't do that without a public verbal which I am convinced we would have gotten had we recruited other PG's seriously.

Good post and like a few others have said, should have told him you need to commit by a certain date or we are going to either move on or look at other top prospects.

 

[jordoo]

Good post and like a few others have said, should have told him you need to commit by a certain date or we are going to either move on or look at other top prospects.

We probably could have gotten him before the 2016 AAU season with that approach.

"Hey we still love you we aren't taking back the offer but we are going to start going after other pg's seriously during the AAU season Quade."

 

[OngenNOT]

Well, Here we are in Syracuse today, Jordan Tucker is home in Atlanta visiting GT and the worst hair in the ACC Josh Pastner.
He either comes here or he doesn't. No blame on either party. No doubt, The kid is really talented and is a great fit for Syracuse and we do need him on the court next year. But every vibe I get from his social media and his father's interviews is that he looks REALLY high maintenance. Combine that with his past history of visits, it might not be the worst thing if he doesn't decide to wear Orange. Do I still want to him to come here and light it up? Hell Yeah. But I think this program needs kids who 100% want to be here with lunch pail attitudes to get us back on track. Not one's who pose on $100k sports cars on Friday Nights in Hot-lanta.

 

[ClamOtto]

Look, Atlanta, as a place to live, has way more going for it than Syracuse and it's not even a fair fight. How many CNYers move to Atlanta and how Atlantans move to CNY? But Syracuse is absolutely a better college basketball town and that's not a fair fight either. Atlanta is college football #1, pro sports #2, college hoops somewhere down the list. He'd be a rock star in Syracuse, but not in Atlanta. In the end, though, I'm not sure either of those make as much of a difference as which school gives him a better shot to get to the league (Syracuse), which school is better for his family (probably GTech) and which school he likes the coaches better (unknown).

 

[jordoo]

Tucker fits our immediate needs better than anyone else out there that is available right now. I think most agree with that. I'm glad that the staff has backup plans while still trying to get Tucker late in the game. Its a good sign for recruiting moving forward.

I won't blame Gerry at all in this situation if we don't get Tucker. For all we know had we not backed off for so long Gerry could have already closed the deal.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The problem happened long before that final week. We stopped recruiting other guys for Green and gave him the opportunity to leave us without a PG for 2017 really late in the game. We schedule a visit with Coleman. Green comes running back to SU and brings his friend Bamba with him. SU cancels Coleman's visit. You can't do that without a public verbal which I am convinced we would have gotten had we recruited other PG's seriously.

Could you imagine Jelly Dimes and the Juiceman together?

Other teams would be toast.





I'll see myself out.

 

[Newhouser]

Give me Wilson if Tucker wants to play games.

I agree - this kid seems to represent most, if not everything, I hate with this current process. MIlking his 5 minutes

 

[orangefog]

I agree - this kid seems to represent most, if not everything, I hate with this current process. MIlking his 5 minutes

I thought everyone got 15, so maybe he is just taking his 15?

 

[Cusefan0307]

I agree - this kid seems to represent most, if not everything, I hate with this current process. MIlking his 5 minutes

That's fine as long as our fans realize we are going to have one of the worst shooting teams in the conference next year without Tucker...

 

[HoustonCuse]

I agree - this kid seems to represent most, if not everything, I hate with this current process. MIlking his 5 minutes

You are projecting. A lot of people are. I haven't seen JT do anything preposterous or ridiculous or milking anything. He's been, through this whole process, checking out his options.

 

[Ryand877]

You are projecting. A lot of people are. I haven't seen JT do anything preposterous or ridiculous or milking anything. He's been, through this whole process, checking out his options.

If he has indeed made a decision already, big IF, he is dragging it out by waiting another week to announce.

 

[UnknownOrange]

If he has indeed made a decision already, big IF, he is dragging it out by waiting another week to announce.

Who cares? Lol. It's his decision.

 

[phil77]

He is clearly waiting for something he doesn't have yet. He knows what GT offers been there multiple times. He knows what Cuse offers been here multiple times. So ......

 

[kcsu]

The problem happened long before that final week. We stopped recruiting other guys for Green and gave him the opportunity to leave us without a PG for 2017 really late in the game. We schedule a visit with Coleman. Green comes running back to SU and brings his friend Bamba with him. SU cancels Coleman's visit. You can't do that without a public verbal which I am convinced we would have gotten had we recruited other PG's seriously.

Again horrible read by the staff

 

[Ryand877]

Who cares? Lol. It's his decision.

I don't want to speak for anyone else. I care. A lot. Probably too much lol. It is his decision. I'm just saying if he has already decided, he shouldn't wait another week to announce. I hate the waiting game. If he truly hasn't decided, I have no idea, then he can take his time.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

I hope some of you guys have your life insurance up to date as I'm not sure you'll survive if Tucker chooses Tech. Somehow life will still go on for the rest of us.

 

[Cusesky8214]

I don't want to speak for anyone else. I care. A lot. Probably too much lol. It is his decision. I'm just saying if he has already decided, he shouldn't wait another week to announce. I hate the waiting game. If he truly hasn't decided, I have no idea, then he can take his time.

People keep saying it's not why but I'm pretty sure he knows what he wants to do between cuse and gt. Or at least has a good idea. His waiting has nothing to do with those 2 schools. That's what in rolling with.

 

[UnknownOrange]

I don't want to speak for anyone else. I care. A lot. Probably too much lol. It is his decision. I'm just saying if he has already decided, he shouldn't wait another week to announce. I hate the waiting game. If he truly hasn't decided, I have no idea, then he can take his time.

He has until May 17th, right?

 

[HoustonCuse]

But if we can't land a guy who originated from NYS, who liked SU a lot, when we can offer a guaranteed starting role, unlimited minutes / shots, etc. against a team where he'd face an uphill climb to get PT, then it might be time to face some hard realities about the current state of our recruiting.

RF, I want to ask you about this sentence. I understand it from the perspective that we currently have much to offer and in that case, we'd like to believe we could beat out a lower tier ACC team for a recruit. I definitely get that. But "face some hard realities out the current state of our recruiting." I'd like to hear/discuss more about that. What specifically would that look like and what does it mean? These are valid discussion points. Let's assume that we lose out on JT. What does it mean about our recruiting? Does it form a trend when combined with Green? I know emotionally that we would feel that way, but is it true?

On the one hand, it can be interpreted as a failure to close on recruits. (We can debate what that means and how/why we are failing and how/what should be done to do better)
On the other hand, it could be just two cases of us getting beat out by things not under our control (ego/the Calipari machine for Green and the location of GT in the case of Tucker)

I understand that in both of these recruitments, hindsight will be available to blame the staff for poor decisions. In the case of Green - not keeping options open with other top PGs and in the case of Tucker - not backing off of him for an extended period.
However, it is possible that these decisions were not critical factors in the recruitments and/or could still have been correct decisions even though we still lost the players in the end. Alternatively, we could have, for instance in the case of Green - better recognized that he was a "flight risk" and pressured him more with Coleman or another player and that could have forced him out the door and we still lose Coleman. What I'm getting at is that we simply will never know those answers. The decisions made by the staff could have been really and obviously terrible, or they could have put us in the best posture to win, we just didn't. As I've said previously, I am inclined to give the staff the benefit of the doubt since I have 0.5% of the relevant information, but I certainly acknowledge they could have fumbled it. In the case of Tucker - if we get him and he turns out to be the second coming of Deshaun Williams - crushing the team's potential (by generating bad headlines/locker room trouble/suspensions/etc) thus validating that backing off was the correct decision after all - would we consider re-engaging with him a recruiting error?

Another possibility is that it is not the recruiting strategy/technique that is the problem, but rather the entire program. Is there something visible or invisible to us that is making Syracuse less desirable as a place to play than it was a couple years ago? JB's status would be a factor there, Hop's departure, facilities, mediocre regular season performance in the past 2-3 years, program brand stained by NCAA penalties? I suspect that these are not huge factors because we have essentially been finalists with a lot of top prospects, just didn't get the final win. If there was something rotten in the core of the program, I don't know why so many high level prospects would keep us on their lists for so long - after many cutdowns, and in the case of QG and JT in the final two.