2017 General Recruiting

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waterhead said:
I don't mind recruiting 4 year "program guys" as long as we can fill in areas of need with a blue chipper here and there. We could have used a scoring grad transfer at the 2 this year. I am hoping Cumberland is ready to ball from day 1 but a proven commodity would have seen an opportunity for a big time roll on a team that might be one player away from being a legit contender. Cumberland is a VERY solid add (love the addition) but maybe not a guarantee for immediate success.

That is what is missing right now and has been. Filling areas of need with a one and done type player whether it be out of HS or transfer. We have a very solid 1, 3, and 4. Likely a very serviceable 5. I am thinking of a guy like Dermar. Someone who could play multiple positions so we can move guys around. How cool would it be to have a 6'6" Evans playing the 2? Give Cumberland a year to develop (if it's needed).

We should be able to land 1 highly sought after kid in almost every class as other players leave. We don't have to be KY and land three 5 star guys in every class...just 1 would keep everyone excited.
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Andrew White would've been PERFECT for what you are describing, but we didn't even reach out to him bc it wouldn't have been fair to put Kevin Johnson in a lesser role during his SR year.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
Andrew White would've been PERFECT for what you are describing, but we didn't even reach out to him bc it wouldn't have been fair to put Kevin Johnson in a lesser role during his SR year.
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I'm pretty confident that you don't know that that's the reason we didn't reach out to him - assuming we didn't - which we also may not know.

Feels like a lot of speculation in that statement. Just sayin'.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
Andrew White would've been PERFECT for what you are describing, but we didn't even reach out to him bc it wouldn't have been fair to put Kevin Johnson in a lesser role during his SR year.
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Yah...that sucks...KJ is going to have a role no matter what. It's our coaches job to minimize it quite frankly. He's not a high caliber starting 2 by any means. Certainly worthy of backup minutes and defensive situations. That alone could be 15+ minutes. That's about all he should really be getting if we had higher quality. We will see with Cumberland but KJ will get 20+ if not 25+ this year because of depth issues alone.
 
2bearcatdad said:
I'm pretty confident that you don't know that that's the reason we didn't reach out to him - assuming we didn't - which we also may not know.

Feels like a lot of speculation in that statement. Just sayin'.
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Chad said we wouldn't reach out to him bc it would risk pissing Cumberland off. So that basically confirmed that Johnson can't be moved from his role. We are weak on the wing and we didn't even try to get a guy like that. Just shows how much culture trumps talent for Coach Cronin.
 
I have said this before but I really hope we can avoid any type of injury to Evans, KJ, and Cumberland. We can work through foul trouble if we can avoid injury. Working through both will probably require JJ to play the 1 or 2 for extended minutes. Scott is the only guy I could see filling in on the wing from the 4 and 5 spots but I don't think that would be pretty. I think last year we had minor injuries to Thomas, Evans, and Cobb. It's likely going to happen at some point when we have a guy out for a game or two...I hope it's not more than that.

If JJ is much improved I will be less likely to worry about depth on the wing. By much improved I mean decision making mainly...I think he has the ball handling and passing skills.
 
I've read these forums for so long and I just had to comment. You guys set some unreal expectations when it comes to recruiting. How nice would it be to have a player like Dermarr? Real nice obviously. But I am sure Cronin and the rest of them are out watching and evaluating talent. You don't just find guys like Dermarr Johnson every year and if you do, they are going to Duke or Kentucky.
 
waterhead said:
Very little could be all we need. A small spike because of arena or Big 12 affiliation could be significant. If it means landing recruits who are just a cut above what we have been...that could make a decent difference. I understand we were in the Big East...can't remember when exactly we landed Born Ready, Lawrence and Gates (not that we hit home runs) but we haven't landed someone that highly sought after in a little while.

Golf is said to be a game of inches. The difference between good and great is not always that big. It's just a matter of making a couple more putts per round or hitting a few more fairways.
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Lol....I'm an avid golfer. If I'm comparing golf to recruiting, then I would say he definitely has no chance to recruit better. I've been trying to master that freaking sport for almost my whole life and can't get over the hump. It's more than a few inches.
 
CliftonCat said:
I've read these forums for so long and I just had to comment. You guys set some unreal expectations when it comes to recruiting. How nice would it be to have a player like Dermarr? Real nice obviously. But I am sure Cronin and the rest of them are out watching and evaluating talent. You don't just find guys like Dermarr Johnson every year and if you do, they are going to Duke or Kentucky.
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Since you took it back to that era, then let's not stop at DeMarr. How about Herb Jones, Kenny Satterfield, Dontonio Wingfield, Pete Mikeal, Nick Van Exel, Danny Fortson, Corie Blunt, Kenyon Martin, Danon Flint, Lazelle Durden, Bobby Brannen, Melvin Levett, Reuben Patterson, Tony Bobbitt, Erik Hicks, Steve Logan, Leonard Stokes, Jason Maxiell, James White, Robert Whaley, Art Long, etc?

Not everyone here was a MacDonalds All-American, or a top 30 player, but many were. Some were 1st Team Juco All-Americans. Some were players of the year in their state. Many went on to become great NBA players.

We played in the same horrible arena. We played in a mid-major conference. I'll agree that we expect too much considering this coach. But, we've proven that if the coach is right, and the style of play is right, the University of Cincinnati can attract the best recruits like the other elite programs.
 
waterhead said:
I don't mind recruiting 4 year "program guys" as long as we can fill in areas of need with a blue chipper here and there. We could have used a scoring grad transfer at the 2 this year. I am hoping Cumberland is ready to ball from day 1 but a proven commodity would have seen an opportunity for a big time roll on a team that might be one player away from being a legit contender. Cumberland is a VERY solid add (love the addition) but maybe not a guarantee for immediate success.

That is what is missing right now and has been. Filling areas of need with a one and done type player whether it be out of HS or transfer. We have a very solid 1, 3, and 4. Likely a very serviceable 5. I am thinking of a guy like Dermar. Someone who could play multiple positions so we can move guys around. How cool would it be to have a 6'6" Evans playing the 2? Give Cumberland a year to develop (if it's needed).

We should be able to land 1 highly sought after kid in almost every class as other players leave. We don't have to be KY and land three 5 star guys in every class...just 1 would keep everyone excited.
Click to expand...

Been hearing a lot of good things about KJ from sources close to the program. This will be his strongest season (I know that's not saying much), and he's starting to become more of a go to player than a role player. Still going to be the weakest as far as the starting lineup goes, but def has closed the gap. Are we going to count on him to win us games? No, but I am just saying hearing a lot of positives from his direction.
 
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CliftonCat said:
I've read these forums for so long and I just had to comment. You guys set some unreal expectations when it comes to recruiting. How nice would it be to have a player like Dermarr? Real nice obviously. But I am sure Cronin and the rest of them are out watching and evaluating talent. You don't just find guys like Dermarr Johnson every year and if you do, they are going to Duke or Kentucky.
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Right.. Unfortunately we are living in a time where everyone wants to be a celebrity and media is on another level. The fact that you have Drake performing at midnight madness (UK) and a coach likes Dukes where he produces NBA talent and coaches the USA NBA team is going to put them in the league of their own. We don't have Jordan in our corner anymore

You don't have to look too far on what's going on though right in our backyard on where Xavier stands and UC stands. That's the thing that is most frustrating. We do need a refresher, I don't think necessarily a coach but some positive vibes in our program. A Big 12 invite along with a new arena will help.
 
It seems like Andrew White was a self absorbed diva and very attention driven. Now, that's just me completely judging from the little I've seen so it's not completely fair.

I don't think anyone should lose any sleep over White. We have future recruits to worry about.
 
UCalum08 said:
It seems like Andrew White was a self absorbed diva and very attention driven. Now, that's just me completely judging from the little I've seen so it's not completely fair.

I don't think anyone should lose any sleep over White. We have future recruits to worry about.
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If Kevin Johnson shoots 40% from 3 and scores 15 a game with solid rebounding to go with it, I'll forget about the whole thing.
 
CliftonCat said:
I've read these forums for so long and I just had to comment. You guys set some unreal expectations when it comes to recruiting. How nice would it be to have a player like Dermarr? Real nice obviously. But I am sure Cronin and the rest of them are out watching and evaluating talent. You don't just find guys like Dermarr Johnson every year and if you do, they are going to Duke or Kentucky.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your first contribution! I'm not really expecting to land guys like Dermarr every year or every other year. I was kind of talking in general about landing a prime time player to fill an obvious weakness in the lineup. That should be an easy sell with a team like we have coming back. The nucleus is there but maybe one more piece could put us over the top. If our coach can't sell the dream to be the missing piece to a puzzle to have a special season...then we do not have the recruiter many thought we had when we hired Cronin.
 
This may be a dumb question. And it's not meant to make anyone get defensive, I'm genuinely asking:

We always worry about the "big boys" coming in late and stealing away recruits we've worked so hard on. A lot of times it's not necessarily a blue blood program doing the stealing though. It's an NC State, Florida State, or USC, or someone like that. I'm worried about Epperson, as many are. Who will make a late run at him? So here is my question: Why aren't we the one ever coming in late and stealing players away like we've seen happen to us? We always seem to get in on the ground level with the unknowns. Obviously I know this can have its advantages bc we can get a player before they "blow up"...but why do we approach recruiting this way with pretty much all HS players? Again, just asking. Do we just not have the swagger to throw our weight around? Are our perceived disadvantages forcing us to strictly approach things this way? Is it Cronin's preference? Or the assistants? Or just a general philosophy unrelated to any of it?
 
jacobkdoyle said:
This may be a dumb question. And it's not meant to make anyone get defensive, I'm genuinely asking:

We always worry about the "big boys" coming in late and stealing away recruits we've worked so hard on. A lot of times it's not necessarily a blue blood program doing the stealing though. It's an NC State, Florida State, or USC, or someone like that. I'm worried about Epperson, as many are. Who will make a late run at him? So here is my question: Why aren't we the one ever coming in late and stealing players away like we've seen happen to us? We always seem to get in on the ground level with the unknowns. Obviously I know this can have its advantages bc we can get a player before they "blow up"...but why do we approach recruiting this way with pretty much all HS players? Again, just asking. Do we just not have the swagger to throw our weight around? Are our perceived disadvantages forcing us to strictly approach things this way? Is it Cronin's preference? Or the assistants? Or just a general philosophy unrelated to any of it?
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Jake there are many factors that go into those decisions. If I'm thinking like a 18 year old and I have a chance to go to SoCal or Tallahassee it's a no brainer. You have handlers,geography,opportunity,finance it is not that simple as to say why not us. I like tall blondes. Many in Southern California.
 

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