SG Hamidou Diallo (UConn Offer)

[noeynox]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

Street and Smith magazine among others.

 

[UCweCONN]

Street and Smith magazine among others.

Yeah, that too.

 

[Kmoney]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

The Sporting News was a really the best source for recruiting info. It was either weekly or bi-weekly. It's main recruiting focus was football, but it generally had some good basketball stuff. I also used to receive a subscription mailer called "Big East Briefs". Recruiting wasn't as huge back then. One reason was because there was no internet. The other main reason is that most players stayed 4 years in college. Most freshman were just spectators or minor contributors.

 

[tzznandrew]

View attachment 11755

The Sporting News was a really the best source for recruiting info. It was either weekly or bi-weekly. It's main recruiting focus was football, but it generally had some good basketball stuff. I also used to receive a subscription mailer called "Big East Briefs". Recruiting wasn't as huge back then. One reason was because there was no internet. The other main reason is that most players stayed 4 years in college. Most freshman were just spectators or minor contributors.

Big East Briefs! Man, my dad used to get those all the time in the early and mid-90s. I used to love reading them when he was done. I also loved that they ranked all the BE teams. It was a great way to get my dad and I to argue about stupid crap.

They didn't compare to Chief's Briefs, but this was the stone age remember.

 

[Danzz]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

Can't think of the guy's name but he was a recruiting guru in North Carolina sponsored by Cabella's and I remember thinking :"what is a Cabella?" Other than he and a few others we relied on rumor. Come to think of it sort of like today.

 

[Ricker]

Husky Blue & White published weekly

 

[boog204]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

I wouldn't consider myself old, but following recruiting was a lot more interesting. Big East Briefs, Bob Gibbons, Brick whatever his name was, Husky B&W, Blue Ribbon, Recruiter's Handbook, and the Sunday Norwich Bulletin (of all things) were gold. You'd see a blurb that UConn was interested in someone, you'd look them up in the rankings, find a scouting report, and just see what happened. Today you hear about every player in existence who is offered, you immediately see their perfect mix tape, and then argue with a bunch of idiots about their chair game. I personally preferred hearing Jeff Kulas telling the board that we're dark horses in the Khalid El-Amin sweepstakes and waiting and hoping.

 

[Ricker]

Jeff Kulas = JKul as I recall is a blast from the past and was the 3Uconn tcf15 of the 1990's on the old aol board. Does he still post or follow here under a new name.

 

[UC990411]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

Carwash

 

[pnow15]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

We didn't. We were healthy and had real lives.

 

[Kmoney]

I wouldn't consider myself old, but following recruiting was a lot more interesting. Big East Briefs, Bob Gibbons, Brick whatever his name was, Husky B&W, Blue Ribbon, Recruiter's Handbook, and the Sunday Norwich Bulletin (of all things) were gold. You'd see a blurb that UConn was interested in someone, you'd look them up in the rankings, find a scouting report, and just see what happened. Today you hear about every player in existence who is offered, you immediately see their perfect mix tape, and then argue with a bunch of idiots about their chair game. I personally preferred hearing Jeff Kulas telling the board that we're dark horses in the Khalid El-Amin sweepstakes and waiting and hoping.

Wow, I forgot about Bob Gibbons. He was an ACC homer. Kinda like Zagsblog is for Kentucky and Duke now.

 

[boog204]

Jeff Kulas = JKul as I recall is a blast from the past and was the 3Uconn tcf15 of the 1990's on the old aol board. Does he still post or follow here under a new name.

Yup, he was legit. He always had an inside scoop. I still remember him posting from either the Nike or ABCD camps about an unknown, skinny, athletic kid from Florida that UConn should try to get an "in" with. The next day the legend of Tracy McGrady was everywhere. Pretty cool. The other guy I remember was DNASoft who ran a UConn recruiting website.

Before that it was mostly newspaper and Bob Gibbons. My dad still has a binder somewhere with all of the newspaper clippings from Donyell's recruiting year starting with an article about how UConn is primed to have a Travis Best/Rick Brunson backcourt. Really united my dad and I. I'll have to search for that binder one of these days.

 

[Gurleyman]

Jeff Kulas = JKul as I recall is a blast from the past and was the 3Uconn tcf15 of the 1990's on the old aol board. Does he still post or follow here under a new name.

No. Crossed paths with him on a political board a few years back, which took over as his bigger personal interest. He said he had kids and then found something had to give, and it ended up being following sports in depth.

 

[boog204]

Wow, I forgot about Bob Gibbons. He was an ACC homer. Kinda like Zagsblog is for Kentucky and Duke now.

Bigtime... Loved UNC and Duke especially if I remember. Seemed every year some random guy would commit to Duke and immediately jump 40 spots in the rankings. A year later, they would be outed as a total stiff. Still, I always liked his stuff as it was pretty "deep" with the rankings. You could always find the Marcus Thomas's and Chad Wise's of the world somewhere in his "list."

 

[David 76]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

It was easier!!

 

[Tommyboy]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

I found out Ray Allen was a recruit and that he committed in the Daily Campus. Never followed recruiting before that. Then started picking up all those preseason magazines that had write-ups on all the top 100 recruits.

 

[boog204]

I found out Ray Allen was a recruit and that he committed in the Daily Campus. Never followed recruiting before that. Then started picking up all those preseason magazines that had write-ups on all the top 100 recruits.

Yup, it used to be that you'd get an article or blurb saying such and such committed and you'd work backwards. The first recruit "hype" I remember was for Rudy Johnson with a picture of him with his head in the cylinder blocking a shot. When he visited, my brother and many of his friends "stalked" him on campus and sang The Clash's "Rudie Can't Fail" to try and entice him to come to UConn. He was the jewel of that class before Donyell committed.

But even w/ that class (the first one I really followed), I remember seeing a blurb that Donny Marshall and Boo Willingham had committed and that's when we knew that they had visited etc. Now we get an internet list and the social media stalking begins.

 

[cohenzone]

Question for you older folks: how did you survive following recruiting in the pre-Internet area, without tweets from kids and insiders on message boards?

Life made more sense. It was up to the coaches to obsess about recruiting, not the fans. We just went to or watched the games. I think the hs players also had their heads screwed on a little tighter. It isn't the Internet alone that's changed things. AAU, kids changing high schools just for hoops and TV with guys like Vitale shouting out Diaper Dandies draws attention to the inner workings of a hs kid's mind. So what am I doing populating this thread?

 

[UConnLen]

Back in the mid 70's I became friends with a guy named Tim Tolokan who worked for the Norwich Bulletin and followed/wrote about UConn basketball including recruiting-remember reading a small blurb about Tony Hanson picking UConn at Pfizer. About that time there was a basketball magazine (my Dad owned a drugstore in NL) called Smith & Street that ranked HS players-CT had some great players in those days. I got to know first the Bulletin staff then later when I got to know the Miller family, became friendly with Dee, Dom, Jim OB, Howie -the whole staff at the time. Of course it's easier to follow recruiting these days with sites like 247sports.com, Espn, Rivals, Scout etc. AND of course all the current experts with insider info on The Boneyard. BTW I've been on many iterations of The Boneyard over many years.

 

[UConnLen]

I wouldn't consider myself old, but following recruiting was a lot more interesting. Big East Briefs, Bob Gibbons, Brick whatever his name was, Husky B&W, Blue Ribbon, Recruiter's Handbook, and the Sunday Norwich Bulletin (of all things) were gold. You'd see a blurb that UConn was interested in someone, you'd look them up in the rankings, find a scouting report, and just see what happened. Today you hear about every player in existence who is offered, you immediately see their perfect mix tape, and then argue with a bunch of idiots about their chair game. I personally preferred hearing Jeff Kulas telling the board that we're dark horses in the Khalid El-Amin sweepstakes and waiting and hoping.

You forgot Eastern Basketball-with Rita Napolitano who I used to talk with about local players! And of course WTIC with Arnold Dean who was usually late on recruits but sometimes would do recruiting shows.

 

[Stainmaster]

Back in the mid 70's I became friends with a guy named Tim Tolokan who worked for the Norwich Bulletin and followed/wrote about UConn basketball including recruiting-remember reading a small blurb about Tony Hanson picking UConn at Pfizer. About that time there was a basketball magazine (my Dad owned a drugstore in NL) called Smith & Street that ranked HS players-CT had some great players in those days. I got to know first the Bulletin staff then later when I got to know the Miller family, became friendly with Dee, Dom, Jim OB, Howie -the whole staff at the time. Of course it's easier to follow recruiting these days with sites like , Espn, Rivals, Scout etc. AND of course all the current experts with insider info on The Boneyard. BTW I've been on many iterations of The Boneyard over many years.

Is this the same Tim Tolokan who worked in the AD for many years? If so, what a small world. Truly one of the good guys.

 

[UConnLen]

Is this the same Tim Tolokan who worked in the AD for many years? If so, what a small world. Truly one of the good guys.

Yes it is-he left the Bulletin shortly after Tim and I met at the Miller house when Glenn signed with UConn. He was friends with Dom and had a real connection with UConn sports at the beginning of the Big East monster. Tim is a great guy.

 

[CGarr]

 

[UConn 77]

UConnLen when did you attend UConn? I was there 1973-77.

 

[dennismenace]

You forgot Eastern Basketball-with Rita Napolitano who I used to talk with about local players! And of course WTIC with Arnold Dean who was usually late on recruits but sometimes would do recruiting shows.

I used to follow the A Dean radio broadcast year round to follow the Yankee-Red Sox chat in the 70's and it was that show that introduced me to Eastern Basketball with Rita Napolitano and really got me going with UConn and the Big East. It was a pretty good show at the time and did a lot to promote sports. Wish some of the talk radio shows today
had the class of the A. Dean show. Had some very knowledgeable fans like this blog and you could learn quite a bit. Began the great era of the Big East.