Candid Coaches: Has a shoe company ever cost you a player's commitment?

[HooperScooper]

Interesting article for the recruiting junkies. Diamond Stone mentioned.

Candid Coaches: Has a shoe company ever cost you a player's commitment?

 

[tcf15]

I'm determined to figure out this one:

"Here's one. Last year, I'm at [SEC school] and this player [from the ACC] is transferring out. He played with [an AAU team] that's an Under Armour team. Now, I grew up in the same area as this player. My dad, his dad, uncles: all are best friends. My brother went to the same high school [previously] where this player went. I had the entire thing surrounded. Trust me, he was going to transfer to our school. But the coach of this AAU team locked the entire visit. I went from going to get the kid to not even getting a visit. He went and visited [SEC school], [Big Ten school] and [Big East school]. Believe it or not, we're still trying to recruit members from that AAU team. But if it wasn't for the guy there with Under Armour, that coach, then it's over with. We get him. That's basically family. But we couldn't even get a visit."​

 

[Rico444]

I'm determined to figure out this one:

"Here's one. Last year, I'm at [SEC school] and this player [from the ACC] is transferring out. He played with [an AAU team] that's an Under Armour team. Now, I grew up in the same area as this player. My dad, his dad, uncles: all are best friends. My brother went to the same high school [previously] where this player went. I had the entire thing surrounded. Trust me, he was going to transfer to our school. But the coach of this AAU team locked the entire visit. I went from going to get the kid to not even getting a visit. He went and visited [SEC school], [Big Ten school] and [Big East school]. Believe it or not, we're still trying to recruit members from that AAU team. But if it wasn't for the guy there with Under Armour, that coach, then it's over with. We get him. That's basically family. But we couldn't even get a visit."​

Seems like there's enough info there to nail it down.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I'm determined to figure out this one:

"Here's one. Last year, I'm at [SEC school] and this player [from the ACC] is transferring out. He played with [an AAU team] that's an Under Armour team. Now, I grew up in the same area as this player. My dad, his dad, uncles: all are best friends. My brother went to the same high school [previously] where this player went. I had the entire thing surrounded. Trust me, he was going to transfer to our school. But the coach of this AAU team locked the entire visit. I went from going to get the kid to not even getting a visit. He went and visited [SEC school], [Big Ten school] and [Big East school]. Believe it or not, we're still trying to recruit members from that AAU team. But if it wasn't for the guy there with Under Armour, that coach, then it's over with. We get him. That's basically family. But we couldn't even get a visit."​

Robert Carter Jr. Transferred from Ga Tech to UMD last year.

Carter chose the Terrapins over other high-major schools like Kansas, South Carolina and St. Johns.

Big 10, SEC, Big East.

 

[tcf15]

Seems like there's enough info there to nail it down.

I'm gonna go with Georgia Tech transfer Robert Carter, Jr. who will be playing at Maryland this year.

 

[tcf15]

Robert Carter Jr. Transferred from Ga Tech to UMD last year.

Carter chose the Terrapins over other high-major schools like Kansas, South Carolina and St. Johns.

Big 10, SEC, Big East.

Yup, and he played for Atlanta Xpress, a UA AAU club.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Yup, and he played for Atlanta Xpress, a UA AAU club. Although, Kansas is Big 12.

Exactly. The coach could be on the Kansas staff. UMD = Big 10, SC = SEC, St. Johns = Big east. And I believe those are all UA schools.

Another UA kid bought for Maryland. But they've been associated since 2008...

Edit: Reading comprehension - Coach was at SEC school.

 

[mets1090]

Yup, and he played for Atlanta Xpress, a UA AAU club.

Took my inner monologue a few seconds to sort this out.

 

[tcf15]

Exactly. The coach could be on the Kansas staff. UMD = Big 10, SC = SEC, St. Johns = Big east. And I believe those are all UA schools.

Another UA kid bought for Maryland. But they've been associated since 2008...

In the quote the coach says he is at an SEC school. Maybe Georgia, since the kid is a Georgia native.

 

[OkaForPrez]

In the quote the coach says he is at an SEC school. Maybe Georgia, since the kid is a Georgia native.

Yea my bad.

 

[mauconnfan]

The UA SEC schools are Auburn and South Carolina

 

[OkaForPrez]

So we're looking for an SEC coach from the GA area and possibly one who has recently changed schools given the specification of the school he was at.

Edit: Anthony Grant, Tyndall or Donovan coaching trees make sense to start.

 

[Skies17]

Thought it could've been Jonas Hayes (Assistant at UGA and brother of Jarvis) but he and his brother went to Frederick Douglas in Atlanta, Carter went to Shiloh

 

[OkaForPrez]

Al Pinkins who was on Donnie Tyndall's staff at Tennessee is from Camilla, GA which is 40 min north of Thomasville. I'm settling on him. He's at LSU now so it would make sense for him to say he was at Tennessee rather than it being implied he was at the same school as last year.

 

[BUConn10]

Wow, if that excerpt from TcF is true, and it was regarding UMD poaching a player due to shoe affiliation, then it really puts the whole Diamond Stone commitment into perspective.

 

[ZenConn]

Why am I not surprised with UMD? From paying the Pump Bros (Caner-Medley) to UA. Nothing new ...

 

[bingethinker]

Why am I not surprised with UMD? From paying the Pump Bros (Caner-Medley) to UA. Nothing new ...

Seriously? Gary Williams paying for players? When Gary was the coach, we couldn't get him to show in person to look at kids or talk to a AAU coach and our recruiting showed it. We had one "elite" class under him (turned out to be a clusterduck) and the rest of the guys he got were serviceable with a few talented guys in between.

Nike has been blackballing non-Nike schools for years. Hell, they created a all expense paid event in the Carribbean just so kids wouldnt go to UA's Elite 24 event in NYC. UA didn't matter when Maryland signed its deal with them and they're starting to matter now. It's hilarious to me to read all the hypocrisy in that article from coaches. Their issue is likely that they aren't one of the big boys at Nike. Rutgers, for example, is a Nike school, but they don't wear Nike Elite nor do they matter. Some schools just are meh. Coaches have to realize that.

As for Turgeon, he doesn't play dirty either. He's got good recruiters a on staff and works tirelessly to get good guys. The lowest ranked player on his serious 2016 target list is 4-star guard Anthony Cowan and he's already signed. When you're putting your hat into ring almost exclusively with 4 and 5 star guys, you're bound to get talent.

I get it. Maryland's suddenly on a lot of 5-star's official visit list, so something MUST be up. Us fans are wondering why in the hell we haven't been recruiting like this for years. Saying that we're suddenly paying families is laughable.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Seriously? Gary Williams paying for players? When Gary was the coach, we couldn't get him to show in person to look at kids or talk to a AAU coach and our recruiting showed it. We had one "elite" class under him (turned out to be a cluster ) and the rest of the guys he got were serviceable with a few talented guys in between.

Nike has been blackballing non-Nike schools for years. Hell, they created a all expense paid event in the Carribbean just so kids wouldnt go to UA's Elite 24 event in NYC. UA didn't matter when Maryland signed its deal with them and they're starting to matter now. It's hilarious to me to read all the hypocrisy in that article from coaches. Their issue is likely that they aren't one of the big boys at Nike. Rutgers, for example, is a Nike school, but they don't wear Nike Elite nor do they matter. Some schools just are meh. Coaches have to realize that.

As for Turgeon, he doesn't play dirty either. He's got good recruiters a on staff and works tirelessly to get good guys. The lowest ranked player on his serious 2016 target list is 4-star guard Anthony Cowan and he's already signed. When you're putting your hat into ring almost exclusively with 4 and 5 star guys, you're bound to get talent.

I get it. Maryland's suddenly on a lot of 5-star's official visit list, so something MUST be up. Us fans are wondering why in the hell we haven't been recruiting like this for years. Saying that we're suddenly paying families is laughable.

Thanks for clearing that up, Maryland fan.

 

[Rico444]

Thanks for clearing that up, Maryland fan.

Seriously. Dude must have a google alert set up or something with how quickly he came to defend UM's honor.

 

[HuskyCLT]

Wasn't there something going around about UA offering Diamond Stone's father a job of some sort if Diamond chose UMD? Not sure about the details of that story/rumor/whatever it was.

Anyways, It's obvious that a shoe company can put pressure on an AAU coach to push his star players to certain schools with the threat of budget from that particular company. IMO if big shoe companies are determining where kids go to school that is scummy , period. It should be something the NCAA looks into since they are so gung-ho about micro managing every aspect of recruiting and impermissible player benefits.

 

[OkaForPrez]

@bingethinker with an @sdhusky -like Cuse board rebuttal.

 

[mets1090]

Us fans are wondering why in the hell we haven't been recruiting like this for years. Saying that we're suddenly paying families is laughable.

Why haven't we been recruiting like this for years?

It's laughable to say we're suddenly paying for players!




............

Even if they are paying for players, I don't really give a crap. I think most people would agree that almost all top players are offered some kind of money or gifts to their families during the recruiting process.

To say it's a laughable assumption is simply ludicrous. You haven't been recruiting like this for years because your theory of "Just go after nothing but 4 and 5 stars, we'll land a few per year" does not work in practice if you don't have the staff and history to back it up. It's not a video game where time invested automatically yields higher interest from players.

The logical assumption is that you haven't been recruiting like this for years because you didn't used to pay for players. Whether or not that's true, I suppose we don't really know. But you can't say it's a laughable theory.

 

[bingethinker]

So wait....Calhoun paid guys?

 

[Kembacity]

I also think its ludicrous to say they're getting high level guys because they aren't going for low level guys. As though if Bowling Green suddenly stopped targeting any 3star guys, 5star and 4star guys would just start picking them with the thought process I assume being "Well theyre recruiting me, they must think they can legitimately get me... maybe I'll just go there!"

Its a great and valid angle if you're a moron or a child

 

[bingethinker]

Seriously. Dude must have a google alert set up or something with how quickly he came to defend UM's honor.

I was in the office on the toilet, saw a post on a message board that I frequent fairly often, and replied. I was respectful and said nothing disparaging about Connecticut. What's the problem?