Coaching plain and simple. Nikki Caldwell was at UCLA for 3 years from 2008 thru the 2010-2011 season. She literally landed 1 single top 50 recruit (Nyingifa)while she was there. Meanwhile during the same time frame, LSU was landing tons of top 50 kids. Fast forward to 2011, and she bolts to LSU. She inherited Forthan and Boykin who were already on board, and has managed to land just 2 top 50 recruits since joining LSU. Ballard and Moncrief. Certainly better than UCLA, but nowhere near what is needed to be consistently ranked in the top 20.
A large part of recruiting is based on relationships. One key to turning a program around is keeping in state talent at home. Close has the benefit of prior relationships in California and she's doing a great job of using those relationships to help land recruits. In California, unless you have a lofty Stanford degree to offer, it's even more important to keep in state talent. It's very difficult to reel in the East Coast talent. Caldwell went to UCLA having no prior relationships in that area. She needed to first prove herself on the court with the hopes of forming relationships while she was there. Growing a program while having no prior relationships usually takes more time. From my understanding, she was gaining momentum with regards to recruiting in the area, but she wasn't there long enough to see the results.
McGuff at Ohio State is another fine example. He's making more noise in months on the recruiting trail than Foster had made in years. Much of McGuff's success is because he is on his home stomping grounds. He didn't come anywhere near that success at Washington. Relationships within a geographic area matter.
As for LSU, Chancellor was making a living on the groundwork that had been laid by Pokie. By the time Caldwell was brought in, LSU had lost all of their mojo on the recruiting trail. Caldwell is now working to turn that around. Being that there are no top 100 recruits in the state of Louisiana, she has her work cut out for her. A good showing in the SEC should help her grab the attention of some of those out of state recruits, because in state is bare. By the way, LSU wasn't LSU until they convinced in state talent of Seimone to stay home.
Close joined the FSU staff after serving nine seasons (1995-2004), the last three as associate head coach, at her alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, class of 1993. Some of her duties included overseeing skill development of the players, on-court offensive coaching, recruiting and scheduling. Under Close's coordination, UCSB undertook one of the most demanding non-conference slates in the country each season.
