What recruiit was hyped/ anticipated as much as NN.)

[PhatOrange]

How about Dajuan Wagner from Camden (H.S.) NJ . People were comparing him to Jordan.

Another one in Syracuse lore was a California kid named Schea Cotton.

There was also another Cali kid who spurned Syracuse for Tarks Runnin Rebs. I think most had him pegged for Syracuse. Drawing blanks tonight, can't remember his name. Ed OBannon maybe?

 

[Eric15]

Safe to say they missed on Deron Williams by a little bit.

Elijah Ingram is a name I haven't heard in a while. Who could forget this gem he put up against us:

fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
E Ingram 34 3-22 0-0 0-2 1 0 8

3-Point Goals: 9-41, .220 ( E Ingram 2-20)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores103/103049/20030218NCAABSYRACUSE--0nr.htm

I remember that game vividly. There was a legendary facial expression by Mike Jarvis where he literally wanted to murder Ingram.

 

[jekelish]

How about Dajuan Wagner from Camden (H.S.) NJ . People were comparing him to Jordan.

Another one in Syracuse lore was a California kid named Schea Cotton.

There was also another Cali kid who spurned Syracuse for Tarks Runnin Rebs. I think most had him pegged for Syracuse. Drawing blanks tonight, can't remember his name. Ed OBannon maybe?

Definitely not O'Bannon, those two brothers went to UCLA.

And Cotton was on the cover of SI in high school...he was an AAU legend, played at a lot of the same tourneys as my brother. That's when Memphis Idlewild (featuring Robert O'Kelley and Paris London) and a team from Detroit (featuring Shane Battier and Dane Fife) dominated the national tourneys. John Henderson, defensive tackle in the NFL, was also at those tournaments.

If you've ever been to or played in a national AAU tourney, it's interesting 5 years later to look back through the tourney program and see who was playing.

 

[orangeinohio]

I can't remember if King Rice going to UNC was a surprise but it pissed me off for a long time.

 

[EastCoast2]

Greg Paulus? Was he a top 20 recruit nationally? I know he was a McD AA, but does he count since it was basically down to Dook and ND?

 

[ORRange]

1-Kenny Anderson
2-Sam Perkins
3-Sam Bowie


The ones we got:
1-Pearl
2-Derrick
3-Billy
excluded Melo because he went skyhigh recruiting wise after he committed.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

The James Theus sweepstakes set AOL abuzz many years ago...

 

[EastCoast2]

Are you people forgetting DaJuan Coleman from just a few months ago? Not saying he was the most hyped obviously, but to beat out today's Kentucky and today's Ohio State was a huge win for SU.

Calipari and Matta are both excellent recruiters. If DC chose one of them it would have been nationally embarrassing for SU to lose a kid from down the street.

 

[PhatOrange]

Definitely not O'Bannon, those two brothers went to UCLA.

And Cotton was on the cover of SI in high school...he was an AAU legend, played at a lot of the same tourneys as my brother. That's when Memphis Idlewild (featuring Robert O'Kelley and Paris London) and a team from Detroit (featuring Shane Battier and Dane Fife) dominated the national tourneys. John Henderson, defensive tackle in the NFL, was also at those tournaments.

If you've ever been to or played in a national AAU tourney, it's interesting 5 years later to look back through the tourney program and see who was playing.

It was OBannon but I had the school wrong. Ucla not Unlv, though I think he committed to unlv at one time but they were facing sanctions. OBannon was ticketed to Syracuse for awhile maybe even along with Cali guard Shon Tarver. There were a lot of shady dealings back then to. Nothings changed.

Sanctions may have been the reason we didn't get OBannon either. Don't remember what class he was but I don't believe Donyell Marshall is the only kid we lost cause of the sanctions.

I also remember Cotton went to Mater Dei and Syracuse was a major player for him as well. he also picked ucla but injuries and academics nailed him and he ended up at prep school. Kid was in Sports Illustrated when he was 16 - was supposed to be the next phenom

 

[MikeSU02]

1-Kenny Anderson
2-Sam Perkins
3-Sam Bowie


The ones we got:
1-Pearl
2-Derrick
3-Billy
excluded Melo because he went skyhigh recruiting wise after he committed.

Great list.

I don't think people realize just how big of a deal Kenny Anderson was. If his recruitment had happened now and played out the way it did, people on this board would be committing hara-kiri.

 

[jekelish]

It was OBannon but I had the school wrong. Ucla not Unlv, though I think he committed to unlv at one time but they were facing sanctions. OBannon was ticketed to Syracuse for awhile maybe even along with Cali guard Shon Tarver. There were a lot of shady dealings back then to. Nothings changed.

Sanctions may have been the reason we didn't get OBannon either. Don't remember what class he was but I don't believe Donyell Marshall is the only kid we lost cause of the sanctions.

I also remember Cotton went to Mater Dei and Syracuse was a major player for him as well. he also picked ucla but injuries and academics nailed him and he ended up at prep school. Kid was in Sports Illustrated when he was 16 - was supposed to be the next phenom

Now that I think about it, with O'Bannon, did he originally commit to UNLV, had problems with his knees, and wound up at UCLA? For some reason that sounds familiar?

Fake edit because I just looked it up: He did commit to UNLV, but never signed his LOI and wound up at UCLA, and THEN suffered a potentially catastrophic injury to his knee before recovering and finally playing for the Bruins.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Definitely not O'Bannon, those two brothers went to UCLA.

And Cotton was on the cover of SI in high school...he was an AAU legend, played at a lot of the same tourneys as my brother. That's when Memphis Idlewild (featuring Robert O'Kelley and Paris London) and a team from Detroit (featuring Shane Battier and Dane Fife) dominated the national tourneys. John Henderson, defensive tackle in the NFL, was also at those tournaments.

If you've ever been to or played in a national AAU tourney, it's interesting 5 years later to look back through the tourney program and see who was playing.

Yep...I just started to follow recruiting around those days. I think that team was Detroit Country Day where Webber went as well.

 

[pfister1]

Another big miss was Jalen Rose. I seem to recall we were pretty sure he was going to wear Orange and I thought we lost him in large part due to the NCAA investigation and resulting uncertainty surrounding whether or not we would receive real penalties.

 

[jekelish]

Yep...I just started to follow recruiting around those days. I think that team was Detroit Country Day where Webber went as well.

That was his high school, and yep, Webber went there as well. I think that his AAU team was called Detroit Gold. There were two Detroit teams at those tournaments, and I think they were Gold (the A team, basically) and Black (the B team). I could have those mixed up, of course.

I got Battier's autograph when he was 15. Even then, just an incredibly good, classy guy. I know we rag on him because he played at Duke and flopped a lot, but there are few NBA players who have ever come along with the high character of that guy.

 

[jekelish]

Another big miss was Jalen Rose. I seem to recall we were pretty sure he was going to wear Orange and I thought we lost him in large part due to the NCAA investigation and resulting uncertainty surrounding whether or not we would receive real penalties.

You are correct...

"I was leaning heavily on going to Syracuse."

 

[Cadillac]

I remember some ridiculous hype over one Brandon Triche. I think he was in 7th or 8th grade, but someone's cousin was poker buddies with his doctor and BT was going to grow to be 6'10" (Anthony Davis, anyone?). Didn't matter for us though, because his dream school was UNC.

Great thread, btw.

 

[PhatOrange]

Another big miss was Jalen Rose. I seem to recall we were pretty sure he was going to wear Orange and I thought we lost him in large part due to the NCAA investigation and resulting uncertainty surrounding whether or not we would receive real penalties.

I think we lost Rose because his pockets were being lined.

 

[RandygoCuse]

ha. i remember being in my accounting class when julius hodge committed to nc state.

I feel like that worked out OK for us. I remember when Warrick was drafted one spot ahead of him.

 

[RandygoCuse]

No way can you put G-Mac as a top 20 type recruit. He flat out wasn't. I don't think Hart was, either.

I remember when we recruited Hart. As Phat Orange alluded to, we offered spots to Mateen Cleaves, Shaheen Halloway and Hart. We said we'd take whichever said yes first. I think he was rated the lowest of the three at that point.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

Another reason Rose went to Michigan is because Steve Fisher hired Rose's high school coach, Perry Watson, as an assistant.

 

[orangecuse]

I remember all the buzz around town, etc. when Leron Ellis transferred to SU from Kentucky and how, if I recall correctly, we were instantly elevated to NC contenders.

 

[ORRange]

Great list.

I don't think people realize just how big of a deal Kenny Anderson was. If his recruitment had happened now and played out the way it did, people on this board would be committing hara-kiri.

JB changed his recruiting after that, since he put all his eggs in the basket with Kenny and never got him. It left us with no point guard. As Randygocuse pointed out about Hart (1st to commit), JB never trusted going solely after one kid again. There always seems to be a backup plan now.

 

[MikeSU02]

JB changed his recruiting after that, since he put all his eggs in the basket with Kenny and never got him. It left us with no point guard. As Randygocuse pointed out about Hart (1st to commit), JB never trusted going solely after one kid again. There always seems to be a backup plan now.

I am convinced, had we got Kenny, that the 89-90 team would have been one of the best college teams ever and won the title. And if Kenny had stayed til his sophomore year like he did at GT, I think we would have won back to back titles.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Going WAAAYY back...how about Pearl?

 

[HOFCeluck]

I am convinced, had we got Kenny, that the 89-90 team would have been one of the best college teams ever and won the title. And if Kenny had stayed til his sophomore year like he did at GT, I think we would have won back to back titles.

I don't know... UNLV was pretty stacked.

 

[MikeSU02]

I don't know... UNLV was pretty stacked.

The 91 UNLV team was better than the 90 team. The 1990 team beat Kenny's GT team by nine points in the Final Four with GT actually being up at the half. Kenny had 16-8-8.

I agree, they were awesome, but our 89-90 team would have had a #1 overall, #2 overall and #3 overall NBA pick.