2020 Recruiting: Cam Thomas

[brihman]

I’m a UCONN homer to the end but it’s a little hard to claim the moral high ground here when our two previous coaches are spending more time in court than on the court. Isn’t the only reason we’re not in trouble for the sneaker case because blue chip recruits weren’t interested? Just a little bit of self-reflection here people!

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Could you theoretically build a team without paying kids?

Of course you can, I don't think Dartmouth is throwing cash at kids from Choate to come hoop. The question is can you build a team of five star kids and I suspect the answer is no. There is evidence from the wiretaps that would indicate that Duke's "tradition and education" are not enough to allow them to avoid doing it, too.

 

[mauconnfan]

I’m a UCONN homer to the end but it’s a little hard to claim the moral high ground here when our two previous coaches are spending more time in court than on the court. Isn’t the only reason we’re not in trouble for the sneaker case because blue chip recruits weren’t interested? Just a little bit of self-reflection here people!

I mean what JC is in court for has no comparison to bags of money nevermind it’s because of a deranged ex-AD suing everyone. And KO lost recruits to bags of money and his court battle also has no comparison either. There’s no high ground it’s just reality on the aforementioned programs it’s an advantage no doubt.

 

[uconngb]

I think the combination of tradition and education at Duke has made it a magnet to the point where they no longer have to put a penny on the table to get the best recruits. It is self-propagating.

There may have been some cash floating around at some point, but I don’t think K needs it now. He can select kids that don’t need to play the $$ game and it makes his team better/easier to manage.

I also feel like the prestige of Kentucky (basketball, not academics) has the same vibe. They are the media darlings and that has a unique allure.

If you don’t think they paid Zion, you are definitely kidding yourself. And that’s just for starters.

 

[gtcam]

If you don’t think they paid Zion, you are definitely kidding yourself. And that’s just for starters.

Exactly, 5 other schools has been known to offer Zion and/or his family members money
So if someone tells me he went to Duke for prestige and education, I want a whole bunch of what they are smoking

 

[Engineer90]

I’m a UCONN homer to the end but it’s a little hard to claim the moral high ground here when our two previous coaches are spending more time in court than on the court. Isn’t the only reason we’re not in trouble for the sneaker case because blue chip recruits weren’t interested? Just a little bit of self-reflection here people!

Weren't interested or weren't paying? Ollie broke some rules and Calhoun did as well. But how many burger/top-20ish kids did either of them get? If Calhoun cheated like some of these other schools did then he sucked at it. What you need to do to land these kids depends on how sought after they are and by whom. It is simple supply and demand. To land boat loads of top 20ish kids, you have to be paying and paying A LOT! We don't because we don't. Even after winning championships we struggled to get more than one or two burger kids on a team. It was frustrating and people wanted to believe the kids were turning us down to live in wildcat lounge or to bang Arizona co-eds or for the Duke mystique and education. Even when kids turned us down to play for a sweaty coach at Maryland, people refused to believe. Boeheim stopped cheating because he is close to retirement, is rich and doesn't want to spend his last few years on earth in a jail cell. There are so many examples over the years but people buried their heads. Now no one can completely bury their heads. But a couple of you are still nose deep. No, we didn't cheat like those other schools did. There were no bags of money. Calhoun pushed the envelope and broke some rules as did Ollie. That was it.

 

[superjohn]

I’m a UCONN homer to the end but it’s a little hard to claim the moral high ground here when our two previous coaches are spending more time in court than on the court. Isn’t the only reason we’re not in trouble for the sneaker case because blue chip recruits weren’t interested? Just a little bit of self-reflection here people!

Actually, it's really easy.

 

[Chief00]

Sure, but my preference would be to name the players from those schools that took $$ in the last 3 years. What did the package look like?

Another interesting tidbit would be What % of the top 10 and top 50 players are getting $. How is that cash being delivered?

What I'm trying to understand is how many cash-free recruits there are in the super elite top 10 and elite top 50.

Could you theoretically build a team without paying kids?

The cash recruits were even more than Chief thought and quite frankly Chief thought a lot.

 

[Chief00]

Weren't interested or weren't paying? Ollie broke some rules and Calhoun did as well. But how many burger/top-20ish kids did either of them get? If Calhoun cheated like some of these other schools did then he sucked at it. What you need to do to land these kids depends on how sought after they are and by whom. It is simple supply and demand. To land boat loads of top 20ish kids, you have to be paying and paying A LOT! We don't because we don't. Even after winning championships we struggled to get more than one or two burger kids on a team. It was frustrating and people wanted to believe the kids were turning us down to live in wildcat lounge or to bang Arizona co-eds or for the Duke mystique and education. Even when kids turned us down to play for a sweaty coach at Maryland, people refused to believe. Boeheim stopped cheating because he is close to retirement, is rich and doesn't want to spend his last few years on earth in a jail cell. There are so many examples over the years but people buried their heads. Now no one can completely bury their heads. But a couple of you are still nose deep. No, we didn't cheat like those other schools did. There were no bags of money. Calhoun pushed the envelope and broke some rules as did Ollie. That was it.

Calhoun didn’t suck at it, the other schools didn’t have the situation where the head of the NCAA internally applied to be President of their university and didn’t get the job. It was a total beyond his control no win for Jim.

 

[DonaldDraper]

@Zionn, put me out of my misery on this one

If you don’t think they paid Zion, you are definitely kidding yourself. And that’s just for starters.

TBH - Zion is the person I least expected to take a package. I would totally expect other people would try to pay for him so hearing that on tapes wouldnt be damning. People around these kids try to cash in on just influence and I get that is totally normal. Just like hiring a lobbyist in government where you can’t guarantee an outcome. I’d also suspect that there’s plenty of “good coaching gigs” or jobs/contracts with sneaker companies that are minimally warranted.

If I’m him I want to play on the biggest brand possible that can launch endorsements heading into the NBA. The 100k or whatever folks would offer would be a pittance compared to zions ability to cash in after Duke than if he went to play for any mid level school in P5.

I‘m going on instinct here and could be totally wrong, I just see the suitcase of cash in exchange for an LOI as a 20% or less thing for the top 25 or so players. Extremely unwarranted accommodations are 30% or less and minor accommodations that aren’t that bad account for 30% or more. Based on that you can stay out of the fray with about half of the players and there’s a decent pool for the best destinations to cherry pick from.

I’m happy to be wrong and eat crow, but I see more strong opinions than actual examples or evidence of how you should assume a majority of top players are have it money laundered to their family or themself.

 

[superjohn]

TBH - Zion is the person I least expected to take a package. I would totally expect other people would try to pay for him so hearing that on tapes wouldnt be damning. People around these kids try to cash in on just influence and I get that is totally normal. Just like hiring a lobbyist in government where you can’t guarantee an outcome. I’d also suspect that there’s plenty of “good coaching gigs” or jobs/contracts with sneaker companies that are minimally warranted.

If I’m him I want to play on the biggest brand possible that can launch endorsements heading into the NBA. The 100k or whatever folks would offer would be a pittance compared to zions ability to cash in after Duke than if he went to play for any mid level school in P5.

I‘m going on instinct here and could be totally wrong, I just see the suitcase of cash in exchange for an LOI as a 20% or less thing for the top 25 or so players. Extremely unwarranted accommodations are 30% or less and minor accommodations that aren’t that bad account for 30% or more. Based on that you can stay out of the fray with about half of the players and there’s a decent pool for the best destinations to cherry pick from.

I’m happy to be wrong and eat crow, but I see more strong opinions than actual examples or evidence of how you should assume a majority of top players are have it money laundered to their family or themself.

This is one of the funnier takes on the yard, they've been paying for years. They bought Zion's family a house.

 

[Jbirdp5]

He deleted an Instagram post from a year ago when he officially visited UConn

That seems like such an odd thing to do, like they had a bad breakup.......Doesn’t make a lot of sense

 

[Fishy]

It’s gone off the rails again.