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Message: [QUOTE="LStudfellow, post: 3741312, member: 5436"] Ok, since no one has done this yet... the comparison AT THIS POINT should really focus on Calhoun's first few years vs. Hurley's first few years. I see a few of you bring up Calhoun's recruitment of 5 stars, but that did not happen right away. Comparing Hurley to the totality of Calhoun's tenure here is silly because Calhoun didn't start hitting his stride until his breakthrough monster class in 1990 (after his 4th full year as coach, which Hurley has not even hit yet) highlighted by his first 5-star (Donyell Marshall) that was largely a result of the notoriety and prestige gained from the Dream Season. What Calhoun did at the beginning of his tenure, was unearth some rough gem 3 star guys that had the right attitude and desire to be better than their rankings (Rod Sellers, Tate George, Lyman DePriest, John Gwynn, even Dan Cyrulik and Toraino Walker), combine in a breakthrough recruit in Chris Smith (high 4-star from Bridgeport, the first big recruit in-state recruit since becoming UConn head coach) and then the unknown but high, high level basketball IQ foreigner in Nadav Henefeld and turn this first part of his plan into a highly-effective, winning formula. Once established as a force to be reckoned with by the Dream Season, Calhoun and his staff was then able to go and consistently recruit higher level 4's and an occasional 5 star. Then in the late 90's into the 2000's as he became a legend he brought in mostly 4's with a 5 star sprinkled in every year or two on a yearly basis. In other words, he mapped out a plan, stuck to it and worked it to as close to perfection as humanly possible. Dan has done an excellent job so far... now let's see how his recruits play for him over the next few years, and if he can continue to build on his plan anywhere near to the level that Calhoun did... because no one did it better than JC. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach