OT: Cuonzo Martin a Husky?

[amishboy]

I was meandering through some old stuff about Bruce Pearl, when I stumbled across an interesting link.

Supposedly, after Pearl reported Illinois in 1989 for recruiting violations involving Deon Thomas, Martin eliminated Illinois from consideration. At the time, UConn was “becoming UConn,” and Martin really liked UConn, and was this-close to committing to UConn, before deciding to stay closer to home and enroll instead at Purdue:

Cuonzo, Bruce Pearl, Illinois, and a small world

Let’s talk about the time Bruce Pearl cost Illinois a chance at Cuonzo Martin.

www.rockmnation.com

 

[Banta55]

I was meandering through some old stuff about Bruce Pearl, when I stumbled across an interesting link.

Supposedly, after Pearl reported Illinois in 1989 for recruiting violations involving Deon Thomas, Martin eliminated Illinois from consideration. At the time, UConn was “becoming UConn,” and Martin really liked UConn, and was this-close to committing to UConn, before deciding to stay closer to home and enroll instead at Purdue:

Cuonzo, Bruce Pearl, Illinois, and a small world

Let’s talk about the time Bruce Pearl cost Illinois a chance at Cuonzo Martin.

www.rockmnation.com

I remember that very well, thought he was picking UConn..I believe he was from East St Louis

 

[mauconnfan]

Yup

 

[uconnever]

Curious did we get someone instead?, who?

 

[amishboy]

Curious did we get someone instead?, who?

Scott Burrell maybe?

 

[amishboy]

Scott Burrell maybe?

Toraino Walker was also a freshman, and 1989-90 was the year of Nadav Henefield. [yeah, totally “becoming UConn”!]

 

[Waquoit]

That was pre-Boneyard so it can't be classified as a whiff.

 

[McLovin]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

 

[amishboy]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

Street & Smith mag?

 

[Waquoit]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

The JI was pretty good tracking this stuff. Also, when WTIC had their sports talk show, recruiting gurus were frequent guests. Others can talk about Husky Blue and White better than I.

 

[Hoophound]

The JI was pretty good tracking this stuff. Also, when WTIC had their sports talk show, recruiting gurus were frequent guests. Others can talk about Husky Blue and White better than I.

This was it. Coming home from school and grabbing the JI from the mailbox was a highlight of each day. The sports section was excellent back then. It is still pretty good.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

Beat reporters would use a hammer and chisel to engrave information into granite slabs and we would hop on out chariots to go to town and purchase them.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Wild numbers for Martin at Purdue. Went 0/7 from 3 over the course of his first two seasons, taking 3's on less than 2% of his field goal attempts. His last two years he took 3's on more than 45% of his shots and hit more than 46% of those. We should hire him to teach our guys how to turn themselves into shooters.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Bruce Pearl involvement makes this a very interesting story.
Given his later alleged proclivity for bending the rules .
Was his innocence lost by getting relegated to Div2
(Check their pay scale ) for telling the truth.
A lessen in no good deed goes unpunished,
or was he never that innocent , Just a trouble maker.
Has being tagged a rat and traitor to the brotherhood of coaches lead to closer scrutiny of his programs than normal.?
There is more real drama all around you than netflicks could ever imagine.

 

[amishboy]

Bruce Pearl involvement makes this a very interesting story.
Given his later alleged proclivity for bending the rules .
Was his innocence lost by getting relegated to Div2
(Check their pay scale ) for telling the truth.
A lessen in no good deed goes unpunished,
or was he never that innocent , Just a trouble maker.
Has being tagged a rat and traitor to the brotherhood of coaches lead to closer scrutiny of his programs than normal.?
There is more real drama all around you than netflicks could ever imagine.

Maybe. Or maybe it says as much about what a crappy business college recruiting is (was?).

From what I recently skimmed, I think the broad outline is that Pearl was a 29-year-old assistant coach at Iowa who thought they had a commitment from Deon Thomas, when he seemed to waver, at the last minute, in favor of Illinois. Pearl recorded several phone calls & asked Thomas whether Illinois had offered him cash. Thomas said “yes,” but later explained he did so just to get Pearl off the phone. Allegedly, LaPhonso Ellis at Norte Dame stated he’d received a similar offer from Illinois.

Bottom line, IMO, is that having your livelihood depend on the decisions and whims of teenagers is not for the weak.

 

[UConnJim]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

For UConn, Husky Blue and White magazine was the best source of UConn basketball recruiting info. And, the beat writers did a more thorough job then they do today as newspapers were more relevant.

 

[Baltic]

Greg Shemitz wrote a newsletter covering the Big East which contained great recruiting news. Forget the title of the newsletter. Would meet up with him occasionally during games to discuss Big East Basketball.

 

[CL82]

Beat reporters would use a hammer and chisel to engrave information into granite slabs and we would hop on out chariots to go to town and purchase them.

Don’t forget about the town crier. Every time we didn’t get a kid, he’d cry.

 

[UCTitleTown]

He beat us when Purdue played us. I loved him as a player.

 

[Vuce]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

Subscribed to Husky Blue and White along with one or two “recruiting magazines” but those names escape me. Also remember calling recruiting hotlines. One time Rashamel Jones was down to UConn and UMass and I was calling every couple hours to finally hear he had chosen the Huskies. Also, WTIC AM sports talk would have recruiting gurus on as someone else mentioned.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Serious question… how did people follow recruiting pre social media / pre internet?

It was much more car wash-centric than it is today.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Bob Gibbons All Stsr sports subscriptions.

Used my money from delivering the JI to get that subscription.

 

[mauconnfan]

Subscribed to Husky Blue and White along with one or two “recruiting magazines” but those names escape me. Also remember calling recruiting hotlines. One time Rashamel Jones was down to UConn and UMass and I was calling every couple hours to finally hear he had chosen the Huskies. Also, WTIC AM sports talk would have recruiting gurus on as someone else mentioned.

I go back to calling The Courant every few hours on the last day that Perry Carter was supposed to announce so I get it Vuce!!

 

[dennismenace]

The JI was pretty good tracking this stuff. Also, when WTIC had their sports talk show, recruiting gurus were frequent guests. Others can talk about Husky Blue and White better than I.

Arnold Dean show on WTIC every night for an hour. Topics changed with the seasons but once Uconn joined the Big East it was a very popular topic all year round along with MLB, NFL and NBA. There was also a magazine called Eastern Basketball which was about 90% Big East coverage and the editor (Rita Napolitano) was a frequent guest as well as others. But none of this could hold a candle to the BY in my opinion. There are so many contributors who have insights, direct or indirect knowledge and backgrounds which lend credence to their contributions. All kinds of people with sports familiarity, doctors and medical backgrounds (injuries) lawyers (contracts) people who have coached etc. The BY also ranks right up there for humor and sarcasm with Home Depot consumer reviews for appliances.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Don’t forget about the town crier. Every time we didn’t get a kid, he’d cry.

There are quite a few things that people our age (I'm pretty confident you and are are within a year or so of each other) had to endure that those from the information age could never understand.

Every few years I hold a contest with kids fresh out of school to see who (without use of the internet) can explain what "the Reader's Guide to Periodicals" was, how it was used and why people used it.

Research papers from high school throughout undergrad (and even my first couple of hard school classes) needed that to source material for the papers.