2016-2017 Season

[waterhead]

Found this interesting. A break down of 4/5 star recruits by conference.



To emphasize last tweet. 4/5 star recruits by conference Pac 12 (23), ACC (15), Big East/SEC (13), B1G (12), Big XII (10), AAC (2), A10 (3)

Big East has 13. So the P5 thing seems important... but maybe not that important.

 

[#BearcatNation]

It may be a down year but in general, the AAC is looked down upon with recruits. They are going to ACC, Big East and the other P5. Just a fact.

Yup. No point in dwelling on what could've been, but the Big 12 would've absolutely helped with recruiting. Would love to see the AAC try to expand and pull in a few western basketball schools. Maybe even Wichita St. and VCU for hoops only?

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Big East has 13. So the P5 thing seems important... but maybe not that important.

I noticed that as well but it is a basketball only league with a huge tradition in that area. As things turned out I wish we would have never left The Big East and dropped football. I understand why we didn't but for me I wish we had.

 

[UCalum08]

I noticed that as well but it is a basketball only league with a huge tradition in that area. As things turned out I wish we would have never left The Big East and dropped football. I understand why we didn't but for me I wish we had.

Exactly right about the Big East. It's basketball only and they still get to play at MSG. Better overall competition. The name brand still holds some weight. I can understand why recruits pick BE over AAC.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Exactly right about the Big East. It's basketball only and they still get to play at MSG. Better overall competition. The name brand still holds some weight. I can understand why recruits pick BE over AAC.

Yea I wish we were still in it

 

[2bearcatdad]

Yea I wish we were still in it

No way I would give up the football program just to stay in the Big East. That's not a good trade imo. Tommy has lit the football program aflame with his lack of performance, but having a solid football program means a lot more to the University's athletic program than the slight upgrade in conference affiliation that joining the new BE would represent.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

No way I would give up the football program just to stay in the Big East. That's not a good trade imo. Tommy has lit the football program aflame with his lack of performance, but having a solid football program means a lot more to the University's athletic program than the slight upgrade in conference affiliation that joining the new BE would represent.

I don't disagree with you. The schools athletic department needs football. For me personally I have always been a much bigger fan of the basketball program then football. Judging from the level of activity on bearcat sites I follow I'd say I'm not alone in that opinion. We had a nice run with Dantonio, Kelley and to some extent Jones. Prior to that it was pretty lean. The school needs the money that football can generate. I go to a few games a year but my heart is on the hardwood. Truth be known I am much more of a TOSU football fan then UC. I root for both but I have much more interest in the buckeyes. I have personal reasons why I follow TOSU.

 

[waterhead]

Exactly right about the Big East. It's basketball only and they still get to play at MSG. Better overall competition. The name brand still holds some weight. I can understand why recruits pick BE over AAC.

I would argue the big East brand doesn't mean that much. Its either P5 or not. If we don't need P5...We just need to recruit better.

 

[waterhead]

I noticed that as well but it is a basketball only league with a huge tradition in that area. As things turned out I wish we would have never left The Big East and dropped football. I understand why we didn't but for me I wish we had.

This is not the time to drop the football program. We raised our brand to be in the national spotlight recently just missing on a national title game. Milk it. Get rid of the coach...try again. Work to get in a better conference.

 

[UCalum08]

I would argue the big East brand doesn't mean that much. Its either P5 or not. If we don't need P5...We just need to recruit better.

Can't recruit players who already have the door closed on playing in the AAC.

 

[waterhead]

Can't recruit players who already have the door closed on playing in the AAC.

Crazy. Get highly ranked consistently. Get further in March. They will come if we win. They don't go to northwestern because they are in a power conference. They choose teams with winning traditions and recent success (and great coaches). Of course there will be exceptions. Power conference helps of course but we can and should be doing better.

 

[waterhead]

Crazy. Get highly ranked consistently. Get further in March. They will come if we win. They don't go to northwestern because they are in a power conference. They choose teams with winning traditions and recent success. Of course there will be exceptions. Power conference helps of course but we can and should be doing better.

All we have to do is recruit better. Then better again. We don't have to be KY.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

All we have to do is recruit better. Then better again. We don't have to be KY.

the point he is making is recruits are shutting us down prior to getting involved with us. Hard to recruit highly ranked kids when they are not interested in your program.

 

[waterhead]

the point he is making is recruits are shutting us down prior to getting involved with us. Hard to recruit highly ranked kids when they are not interested in your program.

I know. That's where the ranking and winning and great coaches comes in.

 

[waterhead]

the point he is making is recruits are shutting us down prior to getting involved with us. Hard to recruit highly ranked kids when they are not interested in your program.

The lower half of power conferences don't get great recruits unless they have tradition, a great coach or recent success.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

The lower half of power conferences don't get great recruits unless they have tradition, a great coach or recent success.

Either way we are not landing those kind of kids and the numbers indicate it is conference related. Will be interesting to see how many the AAC land in the future. I'm not saying winning doesn't help but league recognition is huge to these kids. We also have no choice but to make it work

 

[waterhead]

Either way we are not landing those kind of kids and the numbers indicate it is conference related. Will be interesting to see how many the AAC land in the future. I'm not saying winning doesn't help but league recognition is huge to these kids. We also have no choice but to make it work

The numbers indicate it is conference related because that is where most of the big time programs are. It's not rocket science. 13 went to the big East. Power conference is an excuse.

 

[waterhead]

As of right now power conference is huge in football. I hope it doesn't become more of a basketball thing before we get something big going.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

The numbers indicate it is conference related because that is where most of the big time programs are. It's not rocket science. 13 went to the big East. Power conference is an excuse.

The big east is a basketball only league. Certainly your not suggesting that its unique status doesn't play a part in their success recruiting. Conference is not a excuse it is reality. We need to land in a Power 5 conference.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

As of right now power conference is huge in football. I hope it doesn't become more of a basketball thing before we get something big going.

Just depends who you are in basketball imo. Obviously most of the teams in the AAC feel the pain of the lack of 4/5* depth in the conference. It matters much less for us and UConn. That's the same for P5 in that regard. It's very top heavy. Many of the P5 schools have nothing on us in terms of tradition and recent success.

I have a hard time telling where some posters fall on this stuff. On one hand we use the rankings here as an excuse. Sometimes though, we use the rankings to point out how many stars our starters are. And other times (usually after we land a recruit) we talk about rankings not mattering, there is little difference between player #50 to #250.

Here's what I know...we aren't going to recruit with the best of the best of the best. There are only a few schools out of 351 who get multiple one and dones. But we should be able to develop competitive D1 players over the course of their careers. And when it comes to our conference, where about 2/3 of our games are played, we're actually the ones who have the advantages. We can blur things with "landscape" talk, but I've still never heard a reason why we shouldn't be winning the AAC regular season and/or tournament damn near every year. I'm tired of the constant "reasons" why not. Get it done.