Diamond Stone (Committed to Maryland) | Page 69 | The Boneyard

Diamond Stone (Committed to Maryland)

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CallMeBruce said:
If Bo Ryan's daughter is tweeting about a recruit's academics, that's pretty messed up.
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Agreed. It's totally inappropriate imo. But it also apparently happened, and she re-tweeted the article that claims to report details provided by her, which imo would seem to suggest--at a minimum--that she agrees with the content of the story.

Again, I have no idea what the truth is, but she seems to be closer to a legitimate source than anyone else I've seen comment on his choice.
 
Lots of talk on the Wisconsin board, as well as tweets from Bo Ryan's daughter and a fairly extensive article that claims to detail facts related by her, suggest very strongly that his ACT score was an issue for Wisconsin. The claim is that he had verbally committed to Wisconsin in November but had yet to be accepted, and it was a bit of a process trying to get him admitted there academically. During the intervening period, he apparently was persuaded by MD.

Obviously no idea where the truth lies--and it's interesting to see recruiting guys like Meyer and ESPN guys like Goodman referencing staying in the UA pipeline. But it clearly looks like we've been a distant third (at best) for a while with him.

I'm not heartbroken over the miss, especially if he is truly a one-and-done, but I'm obviously concerned about the trend.

Here is my question: does anyone even remotely "in the know" have any inkling whether his ACT scores or other academic issues played any part in at all in the picture with us? Did we even get that far with him?
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See, i'm not full of it.

Just in terms of full disclosure so I don't come off like Car Wash guy, I'm a GM for a Summer Collegiate Baseball team in Massachusetts. My owner is from Wasau, WI - he's been on the Wisco hoops booster board for 10 years or so... he's the guy I've been 'sourcing.' He's got the scoop on all that stuff so I was pretty in tune with what was going on via him.

So basically he told me a few months ago it was a done deal that he was going to Wisconsin. Mother had no interest in sending him out of state even though his Dad was all about him going to Maryland. Then they got his first ACT score back and he got a 7. They had him take it three more times. He scored a 13, 14 and 17, respectively and they couldn't get him into school. They really started worrying about a month ago that it was going to be a no-go. His Father got sick of the admissions runaround - his Mother didn't get why even with a 17 they wouldn't just let him in - and Maryland became more of a presence. They can't prove it - but they're pretty sure Under Armor funnelled money to the AAU Coach, which sweetened the pot more. He got into Maryland without an issue based on his later SAT scores and that was pretty much a done deal. UConn was 3rd place - but an extremely distant third. Loved the Coach, loved the campus, loved the program, worried half about playing time, half about exposure - although conference wasn't a backbreaker...

So that was it in a nutshell. Now I'm going to get my car washed.
 
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AH - and an addendum - Wisconsin could have taken him as a non-qualifier (or he could have chosen Wisconsin) - but he'd have had to sit out a year. That was the deal. Maryland wants him starting tomorrow, basically.
 
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CL82 said:
Yeah that's the reason. Good analysis.
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The "rest" was tv exposure and conference. These kids are not dumb, they want to be seen often on the major sports networks with ratings. Does playing UCF, USF, and East Carolina on ESPN 9 get them that?
 
Towney007 said:
See, i'm not full of it.

Just in terms of full disclosure so I don't come off like Car Wash guy, I'm a GM for a Summer Collegiate Baseball team in Massachusetts. My owner is from Wasau, WI - he's been on the Wisco hoops booster board for 10 years or so... he's the guy I've been 'sourcing.' He's got the scoop on all that stuff so I was pretty in tune with what was going on via him.

So basically he told me a few months ago it was a done deal that he was going to Wisconsin. Mother had no interest in sending him out of state even though his Dad was all about him going to Maryland. Then they got his first ACT score back and he got a 7. They had him take it three more times. He scored a 13, 14 and 17, respectively and they couldn't get him into school. They really started worrying about a month ago that it was going to be a no-go. His Father got sick of the admissions runaround - his Mother didn't get why even with a 17 they wouldn't just let him in - and Maryland became more of a presence. They can't prove it - but they're pretty sure Under Armor funnelled money to the AAU Coach, which sweetened the pot more. He got into Maryland without an issue based on his later SAT scores and that was pretty much a done deal. UConn was 3rd place - but an extremely distant third. Loved the Coach, loved the campus, loved the program, worried half about playing time, half about exposure - although conference wasn't a backbreaker...

So that was it in a nutshell. Now I'm going to get my car washed.
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I'm sure your friend, who apparently has a significant position in grassroots basketball, appeciates you spouting of info he shared with you in confidence and publicly outing him as the source.
 
Chief00 said:
That may be true with this staff and Warde. I suggest that needs to change quickly. We have to take some academic chances - we will win some and lose some.
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Come on Mr. Chief...learn your history. It doesn't work for us. Do you want another APR penalty situation?
 
I'm sure your friend, who apparently has a significant position in grassroots basketball, appeciates you spouting of info he shared with you in confidence and publicly outing him as the source.
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None of it was ever secretive and story is all over most Wisconsin basketball blogs now, so...
 
Stairmaster said:
Come on Mr. Chief...learn your history. It doesn't work for us. Do you want another APR penalty situation?
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Not for nothing, but plenty of schools who will admit a stuffed animal have managed to avoid getting in APR trouble. Just about all of them, in fact.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
Not for nothing, but plenty of schools who will admit a stuffed animal have managed to avoid getting in APR trouble. Just about all of them, in fact.
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We don't have a target on our back like those schools.
 
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Calhoun would of closed this deal, he killed Gary on the recruiting trail.
 
The thing about shoe companies that annoys me is this...when's the last time we landed someone because we're a Nike school?
 
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Rico444 said:
The thing about shoe companies that annoys me is this...when's the last time we landed someone because we're a Nike school?
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its helped. Alot of players who aren't in the adidas/'ua circuit want no parts of wearing those kicks based on preference. Nike is still the company that makes the best performing hoops kicks. I also think basketball players are a much bigger deal to under Armour, they would do anything to gain recognition ( hire some recruits father, throw more money at that Wisconsin UA aau team), nike isn't too interested in that. well I mean unless youre WWW and UK
 
Towney007 said:
See, i'm not full of it.

Just in terms of full disclosure so I don't come off like Car Wash guy, I'm a GM for a Summer Collegiate Baseball team in Massachusetts. My owner is from Wasau, WI - he's been on the Wisco hoops booster board for 10 years or so... he's the guy I've been 'sourcing.' He's got the scoop on all that stuff so I was pretty in tune with what was going on via him.

So basically he told me a few months ago it was a done deal that he was going to Wisconsin. Mother had no interest in sending him out of state even though his Dad was all about him going to Maryland. Then they got his first ACT score back and he got a 7. They had him take it three more times. He scored a 13, 14 and 17, respectively and they couldn't get him into school. They really started worrying about a month ago that it was going to be a no-go. His Father got sick of the admissions runaround - his Mother didn't get why even with a 17 they wouldn't just let him in - and Maryland became more of a presence. They can't prove it - but they're pretty sure Under Armor funnelled money to the AAU Coach, which sweetened the pot more. He got into Maryland without an issue based on his later SAT scores and that was pretty much a done deal. UConn was 3rd place - but an extremely distant third. Loved the Coach, loved the campus, loved the program, worried half about playing time, half about exposure - although conference wasn't a backbreaker...

So that was it in a nutshell. Now I'm going to get my car washed.
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The 75% percentile score for SAT Reading is 690 for Maryland and 650 for UConn and Wisconsin
the 75% percentile score for SAT Math is 750 for Wisconsin, 730 for Maryland and 680 for UConn

I'm not seeing much difference in academic standards between the three schools. Wish we knew the truth about the process. Does Wisconsin insist it's athletes meet higher standards than Maryland? Did UA influence the family? Did UA influence Maryland to reduce standards? Know way of knowing for sure. But I do know there is a lot of cheating in the world so it is certainly possible.
 
Towney007 said:
UConn was 3rd place - but an extremely distant third. Loved the Coach, loved the campus, loved the program, worried half about playing time, half about exposure - although conference wasn't a backbreaker...
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On the first "half", it appears that what I said a few weeks ago wasn't so farfetched. The guys we have now (in this case, Brimah) aren't talented enough to make us a good team, but are firmly entrenched enough to hinder us from getting better recruits.

On the second "half", if conference wasn't a backbreaker but he's worried about exposure, it sounds like he was concerned about our team staying relevant throughout the year, conference situation aside. The fact is, Wisconsin has been a Top 15 team for the last decade and a Top 5 team for the last two years, Maryland was in the Top 10 this year and clearly on the rise; those programs are clearly going to be in the picture next year. We've had too much inconsistency over the last 6 years and have no guarantee of being relevant next year. The TV situation doesn't help (sorry, ESPNU and CBSSN don't count as exposure).
 
Rico444 said:
The thing about shoe companies that annoys me is this...when's the last time we landed someone because we're a Nike school?
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Nike is the way to go. See the craze over retro Jordans? Kicks that have 20 year old technology and players still love hooping in them and only Nike schools offer that. Adidas and UA are trying to play catch-up by throwing absurd amounts of money all over the place while Nike sits back and laughs. We'd be in a bigger recruiting rut if we were Adidas or UA.
 
I'm not seeing much difference in academic standards between the three schools. Wish we knew the truth about the process. Does Wisconsin insist it's athletes meet higher standards than Maryland? Did UA influence the family? Did UA influence Maryland to reduce standards? Know way of knowing for sure. But I do know there is a lot of cheating in the world so it is certainly possible.
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No idea, but I do know Wisconsin's admissions is pretty tough. I'm not privy to that stuff, but I know it was an issue. I could totally see Maryland being more lax, but again - i'm going on assumptions here. I had no idea Maryland had moved up the food chain so much in recent years.

On the second "half", if conference wasn't a backbreaker but he's worried about exposure, it sounds like he was concerned about our team staying relevant throughout the year, conference situation aside. The fact is, Wisconsin has been a Top 15 team for the last decade and a Top 5 team for the last two years, Maryland was in the Top 10 this year and clearly on the rise; those programs are clearly going to be in the picture next year. We've had too much inconsistency over the last 6 years and have no guarantee of being relevant next year. The TV situation doesn't help (sorry, ESPNU and CBSSN don't count as exposure).
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I guess. Just as someone who actively recruits college athletes, I think a lot of people really just flat-out go nuts with the minutea. It really just comes down to this: His Dad went to Maryland and wanted him to go there. His Mom wanted him to go to Wisconsin and stay close to home. Both offer almost everything UConn does and came with parental endorsements. Even Arizona was in the mix, but he passed them up, too. When he couldn't get through Wisconsin's academic gauntlet, he went to his Dad's school. I don't think exposure/playing time helped - but it wasn't the axe. I think it's more of a family thing than that.

As far as consistency's concerned - I don't buy it. Maryland just got back to the tournament after a four year absence and haven't made it to the Sweet 16 since 2003. They've had 7 guys in the last 15-16 years who've even make their 1st team all-conference and four of those were during their Final Four/National Title runs. They're not top 10 in anything, really.
 
Towney007 said:
It really just comes down to this: His Dad went to Maryland....
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Ah, no.

He went to Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Towney007 said:
AH - and an addendum - Wisconsin could have taken him as a non-qualifier (or he could have chosen Wisconsin) - but he'd have had to sit out a year. That was the deal. Maryland wants him starting tomorrow, basically.
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And no.

You don't understand how that works.
 
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The grade issue is plausible - Wisconsin does has a reputation for being a PITA for coaches trying to get kids into the place.

But, man, if Wisky isn't giving Bo Ryan some loose reign at this stage of his career there's something wrong.

UConn was dead as soon as the signing period was over - anything past that is just shuffling win and place above us.
 
What is the minimum score needed? A lot of schools have made grades more weighted.
 
I don't think Wisconsin was ever in the mix, personally I think he said the right things for the local people involved. I think that he really wanted to go to Uconn earlier in the process, but we had a tough year early on and the rest of the way. Had Uconn had a better season and not been stuck in the AAC, he would have committed sooner, our perception has been tarnished, whether any one believes that or not.

Maryland gained steam and he chose a them and no sour grapes to the Terps, but I don't see them going to the final four anytime soon.

Enoch, Brimah and Nolan will be a solid front court, but we desperately need some help at the wing for depth.
 
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