The Bluejay Underground: A Creighton Sports Message Board

Chicagojayfan wrote:Yes, recruiting is important. It's even more important for teams that don't pull the top 25 players and get enough one and done players to keep the pipeline full. For the rest of the world, recruiting means getting top guys who fit your system. The problem is.. who are the top players? Well, outside of that top 25, the rest of the top 150 and even top 250 can lead to huge variances.

Is there a huge difference between the # 75 guy and the # 150 guy? Maybe, maybe not. It often comes down to fit and to attitude and work ethic.

Given that we've recruited two top 100/150 guys last year, added two of the top transfers in basketball last year, and have a top 50 and a potential top 150 guy this year, I'm really not that worried about where we are.

.

Agree.

Given, that the Jays continue to recruit well enough to break out annual cans of whup ass on Villanova and G'twn. Have enough personnel, talent, and work ethic to routinely perch in the top 1/3 of the conference. And lastly, maintain enough top talent to be a legitimate contender in March (NCAA Tourney) - I'm not that worried either... yet.

taa71458 wrote:

gtmoBlue wrote:So, TAA71458 and mredle, just what exactly are you saying?

Thats what he was saying, I was simply mocking that line of thought

Wow!!! Everyone take a deep cleansing breath. Would I rather have players that can play or players that can't? Uh, give me players that can play. Mypoint is that a talented recruiting base is important sure, but it is not the only thing. What was Chad Millard ranked? What about Bock? Do you want P'Allen back? Benoit B was the #2 player in the country and despite the obvious talent he never realized his full potential. Cyril Baptiste (Blast from the past) was in the top 5, unfortunately for Golden State he went through the desert on a Horse with no name. Where was Korver ranked? Tolliver? McBuckets father was going to red shirt him? Do you think Wisconsin gets the cream of the crop? Recruiting is important but it is not the only thing.

mredle wrote:

taa71458 wrote:

gtmoBlue wrote:So, TAA71458 and mredle, just what exactly are you saying?

Thats what he was saying, I was simply mocking that line of thought

Wow!!! Everyone take a deep cleansing breath. Would I rather have players that can play or players that can't? Uh, give me players that can play. Mypoint is that a talented recruiting base is important sure, but it is not the only thing. What was Chad Millard ranked? What about Bock? Do you want P'Allen back? Benoit B was the #2 player in the country and despite the obvious talent he never realized his full potential. Cyril Baptiste (Blast from the past) was in the top 5, unfortunately for Golden State he went through the desert on a Horse with no name. Where was Korver ranked? Tolliver? McBuckets father was going to red shirt him? Do you think Wisconsin gets the cream of the crop? Recruiting is important but it is not the only thing.

+1. Thank you.

Recruiting talented players is hugely important, but maybe rankings aren't the end-all. However, we can't keep striking out on all of our big targets or we will be the next DePaul.

A. DePaul has had 4 20 win seasons in the last 20 years. Creighton has had 15. DePaul has 13 seasons where they lost more games when they won in the last 20 years. Creighton has 1. We'd need a streak of futility like we haven't seen in 60 years to compete with DePaul.

B. Recruiting is not science. There are a few sure things in each draft class, but the uncertainty is a lot higher once you get out past the top 10-20 guys. LeBron was obvious. KD was obvious. But Kyle Korver and Dougie weren't obvious. Clearly, consensus top 50 guys are more likely to be productive players than some unranked kid. But these are young men who are still growing into their bodies. NBA scouts whiff as often as they hit on the top 15 players, so I don't see why we should expect that our more likely candidates of 50-150 ranked college kids aren't going to have huge uncertainties.

Keep calm. This is a long-term change. Here's some milestones that will make us nationally competitive.

-send a player to the NBA every couple years.
-make a sweet sixteen run (with luck or without).
-convert the exposure of being Big East into consistently better recruiting classes over a multi-year period.

Top recruits can help us do that, but good team play and excellent coaching can also triumph. If we continue to have 4-year players with shooting skills and just a bit more athleticism than we've had in the past, we can easily continue the 15 year tradition of winning seasons.