Did The Ban Hurt Recruiting That Much?

[Uconn92387]

Just wondering if the team being banned really hurt recruiting. I don't remember anyone not choosing us because of that. Maybe Ollie not having a long term deal early on made more of a impact. Seems like we are in on a lot of guys in the 16 and 17 class. If we can't pull in some good recruits after those years then I will start to get worried.

 

[Gurleyman]

Just wondering if the team being banned really hurt recruiting. I don't remember anyone not choosing us because of that. Maybe Ollie not having a long term deal early on made more of a impact. Seems like we are in on a lot of guys in the 16 and 17 class. If we can't pull in some good recruits after those years then I will start to get worried.

The scholarship reduction hurt this year's senior class. We were down to 10, so we couldn't fill the last three with role players who developed into productive seniors.

The ban hurt this year's junior class. Tough to convince recruits to come play for a team that can't play in the postseason. We were lucky Omar kept his commitment.

The sudden coaching change and Ollie's contract uncertainty hurt this year's sophomore class. Facey and Samuel were a pretty good pull under the circumstances.

This year's freshman class was more back to normal. Just Ollie was still a bit unproven and conference realignment was punching us in the gut about then. But we got Hamilton and we thought was a good JuCo pickup in Cassell.

The class we are recruiting now is pretty much past any excuses or handicaps, other than the unavoidable AAC problem. Just a case of missing a lot of our targets beyond Adams and Enoch for any number of reasons.

 

[partial]

I think the biggest factor in recruiting was JC both good and bad, and towards the end of his tenure there was a noticeable downturn especially in reaching for kids. I think that was going to happen whether or not we had a post-season ban just because he made his retirement so open ended and had loads of health issues that some may have unscrupulously exploited.

KO is a young coach who has won a national championship and has shown he can get highly sought after kids Purvis, Hamilton, Adams. Recruiting (when nothing really shady is going on) doesn't yield a class of 5 star recruits right off the bat. It takes time to build relationships and show recruits who you are as a coach and how you can help them achieve their goals.

 

[jfuchs91]

The scholarship reduction hurt this year's senior class. We were down to 10, so we couldn't fill the last three with role players who developed into productive seniors.

The ban hurt this year's junior class. Tough to convince recruits to come play for a team that can't play in the postseason. We were lucky Omar kept his commitment.

The sudden coaching change and Ollie's contract uncertainty hurt this year's sophomore class. Facey and Samuel were a pretty good pull under the circumstances.

This year's freshman class was more back to normal. Just Ollie was still a bit unproven and conference realignment was punching us in the gut about then. But we got Hamilton and we thought was a good JuCo pickup in Cassell.

The class we are recruiting now is pretty much past any excuses or handicaps, other than the unavoidable AAC problem. Just a case of missing a lot of our targets beyond Adams and Enoch for any number of reasons.

I think this is largely accurate. Scholarship reductions, a postseason ban, a change from a HoF coach, and the move into a worse conference all coincided to produce some less than desirable recruiting results. Also keep in mind that both Daniels and Drummond would still be on the team had they not left early for the pros.

Our championship and new practice facility will hopefully start making a positive impact on recruiting going forward. Ollie has proven he can win, and he's extremely likable. However, he's new to the recruiting game, and the benefits of being a "brand name" after our title didn't have as much impact on the 2015 class as we would have hoped, where player relationships with coaches were largely already established. It also didn't help that we had two four-star recruits decommit from the 2015 class.

That all being said, we are UConn and we should be recruiting at a higher level. We have never been a one-and-done factory, but we've also consistently pulled in better talent over the past 20 years than we have recently. I love the idea of the UConn-family only coaches, but the program could really benefit from a recruiting specialist on staff. Our team infrastructure and family environment are among the best in the country, but ultimately you need talent to win. I'm not a "sky is falling" kind of fan, but we'll need to pick up our recruiting a bit in the coming years if we want to remain the national powerhouse we've been over the past quarter century.

 

[Matrim55]

our title didn't have as much impact on the 2015 class as we would have hoped, where player relationships with coaches were largely already established.

I just think it needs to be stressed that this was by design - part of the punishment the NCAA has in mind when they cut your recruiting hours & man power.

We weren't able to get on the road as early or often when the kids who are committing now were getting their first taste of the big-time 2-3 years ago. Hence, we've been good at getting our top targets (Hamilton, Purvis, Adams, Enoch) but have had to scramble when moving further down the list.

I suspect our recruiting for 2016 & 17 will improve because we've been on those kids longer, and KO has shown the ability to get his top targets.

 

[David 76]

Just wondering if the team being banned really hurt recruiting. I don't remember anyone not choosing us because of that. Maybe Ollie not having a long term deal early on made more of a impact. Seems like we are in on a lot of guys in the 16 and 17 class. If we can't pull in some good recruits after those years then I will start to get worried.

In addition to everything Gurleyman explained so well, we had 3 players transfer due to the ban. AO, Roscoe Smith & Michael Bradley (?).

 

[pnow15]

This recruiting season is not over.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I just think it needs to be stressed that this was by design - part of the punishment the NCAA has in mind when they cut your recruiting hours & man power.

We weren't able to get on the road as early or often when the kids who are committing now were getting their first taste of the big-time 2-3 years ago. Hence, we've been good at getting our top targets (Hamilton, Purvis, Adams, Enoch) but have had to scramble when moving further down the list.

I suspect our recruiting for 2016 & 17 will improve because we've been on those kids longer, and KO has shown the ability to get his top targets.

Didn't they get Ali and turtle? But with adams committing they took back their verbals? I think kids want to play right away. Even at small schools like vcu due to how social media and the TV exposure. But I think kids will start to see Ollie's system within the next year or two and we'll be getting the recruits

 

[Chin Diesel]

Posters should keep this thread in mind when discussing the impacts of the sanctions on 'cuse. Three scholarship reduction for four consecutive years, reducing recruiters from four down to two and a pending replacement of a HoF coach is big. Zero room for error.

 

[Vancat]

interesting thread.

 

[jibsey]

This recruiting season is not over.

Yup, and we have a great start to next year's class. To me it has been CR and national prime time TV interest in our conference and who we're going to play night in and night out. Donyell, Brian Fair, Ray Allen watched us play Syracuse and Georgetown on Big Monday now our really big game is Cincinatti. They used to be one of the ho hums on our slate. The ACC, B1G, and Big 12 have the national TV interest and recruits have to notice that. As much as it pains me to say this the ACC matchups are sucking all the oxygen out of the air, unless you think that hoop fans across the country are tuning in to see Tulsa-SMU or UCF- Houston. We need to dominate our conference to get one of the assured bids to the tourney every year. Syracuse has a worse ban coming which means they should have recruits decommit and then not have good recruiting? Don't think so.

 

[David 76]

Sad thing is Syracuse tends to use 10 or 11 of its 13 scholarships as true scholarships. So only getting 10 per year would hurt them less.

 

[Matrim55]

Sad thing is Syracuse tends to use 10 or 11 of its 13 scholarships as true scholarships. So only getting 10 per year would hurt them less.

Yup. But reducing the number of days you can go on the road and the number of recruiters you can have out there is significant. It certainly hurt us.

 

[mets1090]

Yup. But reducing the number of days you can go on the road and the number of recruiters you can have out there is significant. It certainly hurt us.

This plus if they miss on two guys (as in they bring in guys that aren't as good as expected or they have injury problems like Calhoun) they need the next class to come in and be ready to play more minutes than they normally would. It just cuts your margin for error way down.

Having said that I am sure the punishment will be cut in half by this time next year.

 

[LStudfellow]

The scholarship reduction hurt this year's senior class. We were down to 10, so we couldn't fill the last three with role players who developed into productive seniors.

The ban hurt this year's junior class. Tough to convince recruits to come play for a team that can't play in the postseason. We were lucky Omar kept his commitment.

The sudden coaching change and Ollie's contract uncertainty hurt this year's sophomore class. Facey and Samuel were a pretty good pull under the circumstances.

This year's freshman class was more back to normal. Just Ollie was still a bit unproven and conference realignment was punching us in the gut about then. But we got Hamilton and we thought was a good JuCo pickup in Cassell.

The class we are recruiting now is pretty much past any excuses or handicaps, other than the unavoidable AAC problem. Just a case of missing a lot of our targets beyond Adams and Enoch for any number of reasons.

Gurleyman, here is the one other noticeable way that this year's class was affected: we were late to the game with a number of recruits because of the restrictions on the number of coaches we could have out recruiting (as part of our NCAA sanctions). It definitely hurt us with Tevin Mack at the end. Let us see what happens now that we are in with kids from the time they are freshman and sophomores.

People on this board keep downplaying this aspect of our sanctions, while the actual proof shows a different story. Part of the reason that we got a commitment from Steve Enoch is that he was such a late bloomer. If some a few more of the bigger programs had been on him earlier, we again would have been at a disadvantage in his recruitment, as well.

Now... let us see what happens with the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes. If we continue to struggle getting commitments from our main targets, then everyone can question Kevin Ollie and this coaching staff's recruiting.

Yes, the ban contributed to our downturn in recruiting. Unfortunately, the timing was such that it also coincided with our legendary coach retiring and our move into the AAC, which has contributed to our recruiting issues, as well.

 

[LStudfellow]

I just think it needs to be stressed that this was by design - part of the punishment the NCAA has in mind when they cut your recruiting hours & man power.

We weren't able to get on the road as early or often when the kids who are committing now were getting their first taste of the big-time 2-3 years ago. Hence, we've been good at getting our top targets (Hamilton, Purvis, Adams, Enoch) but have had to scramble when moving further down the list.

I suspect our recruiting for 2016 & 17 will improve because we've been on those kids longer, and KO has shown the ability to get his top targets.

Matrim55, I am happy to see that someone else understands the substantial problem that the cut in recruiting hours & man power proves to be. The real pain comes from the combination of sanctions that put us at a disadvantage against all of the other coaching staffs for the last 3 years of recruiting classes, not just 2.

It is the cut in recruiting hours & man power that will combine with the reduction in scholarships to hurt Syracuse in the next 5 years, as well (if there is no reduction in the penalties by the NCAA any time between now and 2019 for "good behavior", of course). Even though I will also say that not adding a second year of post season ban to Syracuse's penalties did show that the NCAA is a paper tiger now in so many ways.

 

[Matrim55]

Now... let us see what happens with the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes. If we continue to struggle getting commitments from our main targets, then everyone can question Kevin Ollie and this coaching staff's recruiting.

I agree with everything in your post, save for this: we've been good at landing our main targets the last two years. It's been our secondary targets where we've struck out time and again.

 

[David 76]

Didn't know. Mack was affected by our penalty?

 

[Stainmaster]

Didn't know. Mack was affected by our penalty?

We started recruiting him probably a year and a half after VCU did.

 

[David 76]

Thanks Stair.
But weren't we ahead with him after all of that?

 

[Stainmaster]

According to the internet prognosticators? Yes.

According to the kid himself? No.

 

[jdb50]

We need someone who demands some respect on the court from a physical standpoint. It has bothered me the way Purvis has been hammered and there is no response from our side. Does not have to be a center but that foul at Gampel by Memphis and we have a stable of 98lb weaklings on our side is not working. Front court rebounding ability has to be addressed. Ollie has to get another ball handler to help Adams next year. No one on roster is going to improve enough to be able to help him shoulder the load as point guard.

 

[epark88]

We need someone who demands some respect on the court from a physical standpoint. It has bothered me the way Purvis has been hammered and there is no response from our side. Does not have to be a center but that foul at Gampel by Memphis and we have a stable of 98lb weaklings on our side is not working. Front court rebounding ability has to be addressed. Ollie has to get another ball handler to help Adams next year. No one on roster is going to improve enough to be able to help him shoulder the load as point guard.

You think Memphis hammered Purvis last week? Pffft.

Tonight the WWE's coming to the XL Center, wearing black-and-red and using a basketball as a prop. The boys better get ready and get tough in a hurry. How many fouls does Lubin get, five? If he doesn't judiciously use them all, then UConn's doing it wrong...