2018 General Recruiting

BearcatTalk

Help Support BearcatTalk:

waterhead said:
This is a tough call for me. We have had success in the past with defensive stoppers in the paint. Guys who mainly score on lobs and put backs etc. But looking back Huggs finished the season 9 times in the top 12 end of season AP and Cronin has finished 2 times in the top 25. This is based on sports reference info so not sure if it's accurate.

Huggs had

Blount (2)
Fortson (2)
Brannen (1)
Martin (2)
Little/Max (1)
Max/Hicks (1)

He reached #1 a couple times when he had Fortson and Martin. Our best finish in the NCAA was with Blount but it was a perfect storm for a draw.

Cronin had Jackson (sr yr) and Washington/Clark...and our best finish in the tourney was with Gates (sr yr) although didn't finish top 25.

This is telling me we can get by with a "non scoring" big but our best years are going to have the ability to score from the block. I have high hopes for Brooks but I would like to land a scoring big if we can.
Click to expand...

I also realize the game has changed a little over the years and the supporting cast has a lot to do with the level of success.
 
waterhead said:
I also realize the game has changed a little over the years and the supporting cast has a lot to do with the level of success.
Click to expand...

Interesting...I was looking back at Fortson's supporting cast. He had Burton, Flint and Patterson. I was surprised to see that Flint shot below 40% FG% and under 30% from 3 over his career but amassed over 1,300 pts. Those numbers % wise might be worse than guys like Dixon, KJ, Bishop and Sanders put up without looking it up.

Burton was the best 6th man in the history of UC basketball...1,500+ points.
 
waterhead said:
This is a tough call for me. We have had success in the past with defensive stoppers in the paint. Guys who mainly score on lobs and put backs etc. But looking back Huggs finished the season 9 times in the top 12 end of season AP and Cronin has finished 2 times in the top 25. This is based on sports reference info so not sure if it's accurate.

Huggs had

Blount (2)
Fortson (2)
Brannen (1)
Martin (2)
Little/Max (1)
Max/Hicks (1)

He reached #1 a couple times when he had Fortson and Martin. Our best finish in the NCAA was with Blount but it was a perfect storm for a draw.

Cronin had Jackson (sr yr) and Washington/Clark...and our best finish in the tourney was with Gates (sr yr) although didn't finish top 25.

This is telling me we can get by with a "non scoring" big but our best years are going to have the ability to score from the block. I have high hopes for Brooks but I would like to land a scoring big if we can.
Click to expand...

The game has changed.
 
waterhead said:
Interesting...I was looking back at Fortson's supporting cast. He had Burton, Flint and Patterson. I was surprised to see that Flint shot below 40% FG% and under 30% from 3 over his career but amassed over 1,300 pts. Those numbers % wise might be worse than guys like Dixon, KJ, Bishop and Sanders put up without looking it up.

Burton was the best 6th man in the history of UC basketball...1,500+ points.
Click to expand...

Ranking the "unsupporting cast" vs. what Flint gave us. These are all 4 year guys...not all started 4 years but they gave us SIGNIFICANT minutes.

........FG%...3%...Reb...Ass...Steals


Flint...393...298...2.9...3.2...1.2


Bishop...433...324...3.8...1.9...(.9)
KJ.........373...320...1.6...1.2...(.9)
Dixon.....380...291...2.9...1.6...(.9)
Sanders..392...317...2.4...(.8)...(.3)

I would be willing to say Bishop was the best of the bunch since he's first in 3 categories and second in the other two. He was also known as a VERY good defender. Hard to argue against...other than not being more aggressive.

Sanders does not rank higher than 3rd in any category and is last in 2 of them...and he wasn't known for great D.
 
It would be nice to see a good get right off the bat to help with landing the last two schollies. It sounds like we are being picky right now but in the past that has back fired (at times) and we have ended up holding too many schollies or scrambling to get what's left.

I hope we put a full court press on a nice recruit to get the ball rolling soon. We have some great selling points right now but I don't want to end up with our back against the wall again. This should be one of our best classes in the Cronin Era in terms of quality maybe not quantity.
 
waterhead said:
It would be nice to see a good get right off the bat to help with landing the last two schollies. It sounds like we are being picky right now but in the past that has back fired (at times) and we have ended up holding too many schollies or scrambling to get what's left.

I hope we put a full court press on a nice recruit to get the ball rolling soon. We have some great selling points right now but I don't want to end up with our back against the wall again. This should be one of our best classes in the Cronin Era in terms of quality maybe not quantity.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping we have 2 legit high school guys ready to sign in the fall.
 
We will probably get 2 guys max by the fall. We can afford to be very selective. Might not be that exciting for fans since names aren't coming up left and right, but I bet we'll be encouraged by where we're at 2-3 months from now.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
We will probably get 2 guys max by the fall. We can afford to be very selective. Might not be that exciting for fans since names aren't coming up left and right, but I bet we'll be encouraged by where we're at 2-3 months from now.
Click to expand...

All I want is a skilled scoring point guard, preferably a freshman, and a skilled wing guy. We shall see, not sure if the '18 class will deliver that.
 
UCalum08 said:
All I want is a skilled scoring point guard, preferably a freshman, and a skilled wing guy. We shall see, not sure if the '18 class will deliver that.
Click to expand...

I think we need a skilled big just as much, if not more than a skilled wing. After Clark and Washington graduate, who will we rely on for inside scoring? I'm not saying Brooks, Scott, or Nsoseme can't become those guys, but I'm not absolutely counting on it based on what I know as of now.
 
Robert said:
I think we need a skilled big just as much, if not more than a skilled wing. After Clark and Washington graduate, who will we rely on for inside scoring? I'm not saying Brooks, Scott, or Nsoseme can't become those guys, but I'm not absolutely counting on it based on what I know as of now.
Click to expand...

Don't forget Diarra.
 
Robert said:
I think we need a skilled big just as much, if not more than a skilled wing. After Clark and Washington graduate, who will we rely on for inside scoring? I'm not saying Brooks, Scott, or Nsoseme can't become those guys, but I'm not absolutely counting on it based on what I know as of now.
Click to expand...

This is probably the area we can SELL the most immediate playing time to a high profile HS guy next season. Even a one and doner would work here and maybe would be the perfect fit. We will have 4 bigs that can play D and rebound but none that are considered no brainer scoring bigs as of now. I like Brooks and Diarra to emerge from this current bunch after Washington and Clark leave.

We can't point to our wing positions and sell playing time as easy. We still have to see our PG play but we may be in the same boat at PG. There is also depth here with Williams, Jenifer and Moore.

What I like most about our situation at big is that we have program guys locked in for depth. One nice recruit could really make that situation perfect.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
We will probably get 2 guys max by the fall. We can afford to be very selective. Might not be that exciting for fans since names aren't coming up left and right, but I bet we'll be encouraged by where we're at 2-3 months from now.
Click to expand...

The more I think about recruiting the less I think we can come up with a very high caliber class. I would be okay with just having the best class yet.
Just how tough is it for Cronin?

We don't really go after one and done guys or the transfer grad market very hard. We like program guys for 2+ years at a min. Our sweet spot would probably be best described between low 5 star, 4 star, high 3 star guys as well as the sit out one year but have 2 years remaining transfers/jucos. Guys with skill and athleticism who can represent the university and are coachable would be the key guys in this bunch. These are guys every team would want including blue bloods and lower tier basketball programs. Just how many are left after we check off the attributes the coach likes?

We seem to find about one guy each year in this category. Caupain, Clark, Evans, Washington, Cumberland, Williams. I am not sure Williams is on the level of Evans or Cumberland but I hope so. Coach is pretty good at finding diamonds in the rough.

Playing time perception is also huge. IMO we have a superb opportunity to offer a skilled big who can score...but we can't really sell the other positions as hard because the perception would be we have guys already in place in starting roles.

We have to put the full court press on a limited supply of individuals. These same players are being courted by 10+ programs each. Skilled, athletic, coachable, who can represent the program well. Not TOO skilled and athletic to be one and doners. Playing time is a big issue, of course locality plays a big part, so does program success, a coaches ability to get them to the NBA, conference affiliation, as well as style of play.

We have more to sell this year than we ever have under Cronin as a program but there are only so many players in the sweet spot to go after. I do not envy Cronin but if he can spread his wings a bit like he has recently maybe the pool of players becomes a bit bigger.
 

Similar threads

J
'18 FL PF Darius Days
Replies
6
Views
12K
UCalum08
U
J
'17 NY SF Sidney Wilson
Replies
5
Views
15K
AZ BEARCAT
A
J
2017 General Recruiting
35 36 37
Replies
727
Views
299K
GarradJ21
G
B
'16 VA SG Xavier Green
Replies
5
Views
13K
Bearcatboy
B
J
2019 Football Recruiting
2 3
Replies
40
Views
60K
blount
B

Latest posts

Back
Top