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Phantom Warrior
04-11-2013, 12:59 AM
For the NBE to ultimately succeed, the key is to attract quality recruits. For the class of 2013, that has not happened to the degree it needs to.

In looking at the current rankings of five of the seven services used by RSCI, there are only four players who currently rank in the Top 100 on all five sites, though that number could increase to five tomorrow if Rysheed Jordan commits to St. John's as Zagoria opined.

The other four are Brandon Austin (Providence) and Wilson, Johnson, and Burton of MU. That's it.

The last RSCI - from the summer - lists those five players as well as Kris Jenkins (Nova), Billy Garrett (DePaul), and Reggie Cameron (Georgetown). Josh Hart (Nova) made three individual Top 100 lists at #65, #90, and #91, but those were not enough to land him in the RSCI Top 100.

In fact, looking at last summer's RSCI Top 100 for this class, not a single NBE commit ranks among the Top 40. Not one. And the only one in the Top 50 is Jordan (#41).

The rest? Burton (#52), Johnson (#57), Austin (#58), Wilson (#60), Jenkins (#68), Garrett (#76), and Cameron (#83).

In all fairness, Aquille Carr, who was ranked #59 on RSCI, committed to Seton Hall but then decided not to go the college route (if memory serves).

The bottom line is this: programs in the NBE must be able to attract players that will keep the league playing at a level that will then attract even more recruits in subsequent years. Quality players want to play with - and against - other top quality players. Seven or eight Top 100 recruits among 10 teams just will not cut it, especially if none are viewed as top 40 and only one as Top 50.

One problem, of course, is that two of the newcomers - Butler and Creighton - despite their on-court success, have no history of attracting Top 100 recruits, while the third - Xavier - seems to get one about every two years.

Another problem is that Seton Hall and DePaul have generally not been able to land highly-rated high school players, and Providence lands only an occasional highly-regarded recruit.

That leaves MU, Nova, and GTown - as well as St. John's under Lavin - to do the heavy lifting in terms of the league's recruiting image. That's four schools out of 10, and one of them only for the last two or three years.

Unfortunately, neither the Wildcats nor the Hoyas pulled together the kind of recruiting class in '13 that their fans have grown reasonably accustomed to.

The 2014 class is crucial to the future of the NBE. It absolutely must create the image, the perception, that a couple of Top 20-25 recruits want to play in the NBE, that a handful of Top 40-50 recruits want to do the same, and that at least a dozen or so Top 100 high school stars want to cast their lot with the new league.

Nova, GTown, and MU have to continue to bring in talent, and St. John's has to pull in some New York/New Jersey kids. But Butler, Creighton, Xavier have to tap into the Top 100 kids as well.

I'm not pushing any panic buttons; it's way too early for that. But we need to get four or five NBE schools listed among the Top 25-30 recruiting classes on a consistent basis if we don't want to end up the equivalent of the A-10.

And I know that RSCI and individual rankings are often invalid, and rankings can end up being meaningless. but at this stage of the new league's existence, perception is more important than reality.

MKE_GoldenEagleFan
04-11-2013, 07:35 AM
I think it's too soon to judge the NBE by this years class. Creighton, Butler, and Xavier had no idea when they were recruiting for 2013 that they would be joining so I'd expect a bump in their recruiting. As for the rest I'm not quite sure what is happening but I don't know that SHU, PC, and DePaul have been players in the last decade for to top 50 type guys. That said it sounds like the NBE will be strong overall next year, so I'd judge them based off the 2014 results.

MUMac
04-11-2013, 07:53 AM
I agree with Buzz.

As for Nova and Georgetown not having a typical class, you do realize that they graduate 2 and 0 players, respectively, right? Now, Georgetown may likely lose Porter, but that is a very young returning nucleus.

Phantom Warrior
04-11-2013, 08:38 AM
Buzz,

That is why I'm not panicking. And we don't need, nor necessarily want, every team in the league to consistently recruit top talent. The Big ? has Northwestern, Penn State, and now Nebraska that almost never (or never) land Top 100 recruits and a couple of programs in Iowa, Purdue, and Minnesota that do so only occasionally. And Rutgers won't help in that regard either. But IU, OSU, MSU, and Illinois regularly have Top 20 recruiting classes and sometimes Top 10.

Last year's Big ? landed eight Top 50 recruits and another seven in the bottom half of the Top 100. That's 15 total. Kids who will be in the Class of 2014 watched Gary Harris of MSU, McGary and Glen Robinson 3 of Michigan and even Ferrell of IU play major roles for their teams during the tournament as freshmen.

MU, GTown (even without Porter), and Nova should all make the Big Dance next year, and I think St. John's will, too. If McDermott returns, Creighton should as well. That would be five of 10 teams. Even four of 10 would be o.k. (as long as MU is one of them).

But down the road, in order to continue that kind of success and continue the image/perception of a top conference, the league has to attract top talent - guys like Duane, Deonte, and JaJuan.

And, yes, I know that rankings are flawed. Many highly-rated recruits never pan out or meet the hype, while others who are not highly regarded make their mark. That's a reality. The problem is that at this stage of the new league's existence perception is more crucial than reality, and landing not a single recruit in the RSCI Top 40 and only one viewed as Top 50 does not create/feed the image/perception the league needs to create.

That's all I'm saying.

The Reptile
04-11-2013, 08:56 AM
Phantom, I think that the rankings/top 100 lists are great for marketing and getting attention of uber fans, but not at all a strategy for building a sustainable program. I have a hard time believing that coaches buy into the numbers game and are looking at skill sets and mind sets more than rankings. Knowing the coaches that are part of this league I have no worries about where we are heading.

MUMac
04-11-2013, 09:00 AM
Phantom, I think that the rankings/top 100 lists are great for marketing and getting attention of uber fans, but not at all a strategy for building a sustainable program. I have a hard time believing that coaches buy into the numbers game and are looking at skill sets and mind sets more than rankings. Knowing the coaches that are part of this league I have no worries about where we are heading.

You are correct, Reptile. As Buzz says, his player ranking is the only one he looks at.

The end result is the most important, not the rankings of the player who come in. Butler has done very well with less than highly ranked players. Xavier, as well. It would be nice for a few of the teams to make deep runs next year. Get a Final 4 team and an Elite 8 or two. That means more than player rankings and the talent will follow.

I think MU, Georgetown and Nova have a chance to make those deep runs next year.

warriorfan4life
04-11-2013, 10:22 AM
Xavier has a very good guard in Brandon Randolph coming in, plus two quality players that sat out this past season as partial qualifiers (Myles Davis and Jalen Reynolds). They also already have a commitment from 2014 top 100 forward Melvin Swift.