Sterling Gibbs Enjoys Ohio State Visit, Decision Expected Soon

[johnhuskies95]

I think this is correct.

All the hand-wringing over Gibbs having visits at Pitt and OSU last week wasn't really merited.

However, come the weekend if we haven't gotten a commitment, those concerns will be valid. If he's off visiting VCU, NC State, or Baylor soon thereafter, you can start questioning why Ollie has failed to win another high-profile recruiting battle.

I think if he's going to commit, it will be by Thursday or Friday. And in that case, we can applaud the coaching staff for finding an unconventional route to solving two glaring problems.

No, you can't start questioning Ollie until he actually commits somewhere else.

 

[AfgHusky15]

I think this is correct.

All the hand-wringing over Gibbs having visits at Pitt and OSU last week wasn't really merited.

However, come the weekend if we haven't gotten a commitment, those concerns will be valid. If he's off visiting VCU, NC State, or Baylor soon thereafter, you can start questioning why Ollie has failed to win another high-profile recruiting battle.

I think if he's going to commit, it will be by Thursday or Friday. And in that case, we can applaud the coaching staff for finding an unconventional route to solving two glaring problems.

Did you see the other teams UCONN was competing against for Shonn Miller?

I just don't understand how Ollie gets Adams, Enoch, and Miller to commit, and some fans here like to focus on Ollie missing on Diamond Stone... or worse Tevin Mack (who is rated below Jalen).

The selective memory in this place is crazy.

The same sequence of events seems to happen all the time here.

1) News comes out that UCONN has offered a high school player
2) Youtube highlights of said player is posted on Boneyard
3) The Boneyard reacts by making comments such as "we need this player bad!" or "this guy is going to be special" or "staff can't afford to miss on him", even though a couple of weeks earlier most here have never heard of such player's name before
4) Zealous, almost creepy, following of every step of the high school kid ensues and is over analyzed
5) Most often high school prospect commits to some other school; simple logic dictates if we have only 4 schollies available and we offer 20 high school prospects then the majority of said prospects will be committing somewhere else
6) Boneyard starts to question Ollie's ability of recruiting and how it is very concerning
7) Rumors of Ollie going to NBA pop up
8) Boneyard then believes if Ollie leaves the program will be doomed

 

[jibsey]

Not sure what TV you watched but UConn was on natl TV plenty, it sure seemed like they got more games across the ESPN networks than Pitt. Pitt isn't getting featured like that in the ACC.

It's not about just being on, of course we are. Bilas made the point last year when asked about what these recruits really want, "they want top be seen". So my question is do they get seen with higher viewership and better opposing team quality on our team or if at OSU or Pitt? Our big league rivasl are Cincy, SMU, Memphis? So they get Duke, NC, Louisville, Notre Dame, Cuse, NCS, etc. ACC. Our OOC is all we have for schedule. Pitt's games are televised like ours but with stacked league opponents. Same with OSU. I have not seen all of the teams in question schedule, but who nationally besides us are watching some of our conference matchups? KO landing this talented guy would be a major deal.

 

[Hoophound]

We get a ton of exposure. We don't get those few hugely hyped games we used to but we are always on TV and our games lure tons of scouts. It is very easy for a large number of scouts and even NBA GMs to get to CT. We also offer a lot of media access for guys that will likely be drafted including quick access to ESPN.

We can whine or we can use our advantages. I see some good stuff to work with.

 

[Kembacity]

Well that's a kick in the nuts.... I gotta stop following recruiting, it's something only a masochist could love.

come on, he's clearly just covering his ass so the world treats it as a surprise IF he decides to come to UConn later in the week...

 

[UconnFanDC]

There are a couple possible 2016 to 2015 reclassifiers, but other than that there aren't really any 2015 targets unless more kids get let out of LOIs for coaching changes. As far as I can tell.

There are still some available grad transfers which will still give us the available scholarships for next year.

 

[upstater]

It's not about just being on, of course we are. Bilas made the point last year when asked about what these recruits really want, "they want top be seen". So my question is do they get seen with higher viewership and better opposing team quality on our team or if at OSU or Pitt? Our big league rivasl are Cincy, SMU, Memphis? So they get Duke, NC, Louisville, Notre Dame, Cuse, NCS, etc. ACC. Our OOC is all we have for schedule. Pitt's games are televised like ours but with stacked league opponents. Same with OSU. I have not seen all of the teams in question schedule, but who nationally besides us are watching some of our conference matchups? KO landing this talented guy would be a major deal.

UConn is top 6 or 7 in the country when it comes to being televised on ESPN, ESPN2 or CBS. I didn't check Pitt but last year I checked a bunch of the ACC teams, and NC State was only on 4 times on those channels compared to UConn's 16.

 

[dennismenace]

It's not about just being on, of course we are. Bilas made the point last year when asked about what these recruits really want, "they want top be seen". So my question is do they get seen with higher viewership and better opposing team quality on our team or if at OSU or Pitt? Our big league rivasl are Cincy, SMU, Memphis? So they get Duke, NC, Louisville, Notre Dame, Cuse, NCS, etc. ACC. Our OOC is all we have for schedule. Pitt's games are televised like ours but with stacked league opponents. Same with OSU. I have not seen all of the teams in question schedule, but who nationally besides us are watching some of our conference matchups? KO landing this talented guy would be a major deal.

Assuming Sterling thinks he has NBA potential; which coach has the best potential to prepare you in one year for that? OSU, Pitt or KO at UConn? I don't see how TV exposure compares to this one
issue.

 

[champs99and04]

It's not about just being on, of course we are. Bilas made the point last year when asked about what these recruits really want, "they want top be seen". So my question is do they get seen with higher viewership and better opposing team quality on our team or if at OSU or Pitt? Our big league rivasl are Cincy, SMU, Memphis? So they get Duke, NC, Louisville, Notre Dame, Cuse, NCS, etc. ACC. Our OOC is all we have for schedule. Pitt's games are televised like ours but with stacked league opponents. Same with OSU. I have not seen all of the teams in question schedule, but who nationally besides us are watching some of our conference matchups? KO landing this talented guy would be a major deal.

Pittsburgh is a second-class citizen in the ACC, their games are not taking priority over other top-tier match-ups. Pittsburgh will probably play on Big Monday maybe once per year, and when they do they get thrashed by Duke or UNC.

Don't forget that college basketball starts in November, not when conference play begins. UConn has match-ups like Ohio State, Texas, Georgetown, Arizona and Maryland lined up in the coming years. They also play in a preseason tournament this season with Michigan, Syracuse, Gonzaga and one other brand name I'm forgetting. These match-ups are all going to be high-profile, OOC bouts that the casual fan will be tuning in for, and even though the AAC does not attract a fraction of the exposure the ACC does, the networks still have to fill their quota of AAC national TV games and guess what program they're most likely to feature?

As for Gibbs, I'll start to worry if he doesn't commit on his visit. I think he probably will.

 

[UconnFanDC]

It's still us imo. We don't even know the other schools he Plans on visiting. Maybe it's a wash so other coaches will leave him alone thinking he is gonna visit? Idk

VCU and Baylor are the other schools. It has been said all along

 

[Marat]

It just seems like there were/are a bunch of clues pointing towards Gibbs selecting UConn, and nothing has changed to make me think otherwise.

Initial immediate twitter reports on UConn being the favorite
Tweets of Gibbs commiting to UConn before visiting any schools (denied later)
Coach Calhoun mentions there will be 2 grad transfer (Miller + ____)
TSam announces he is transfering
Gibbs confirms UConn will be the school to visit this week, ......

KO just needs to close the deal Thursday.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Lets Break it Down for a Moment:

1) Gibbs wants to play immediately and be a featured player

I stated before, he may want to be "a" featured player, in which case UConn is a good choice, or, he may want to be "the" featured player, in which case he may not want to finish here.

We don't know what's going through his head.

And there sure as hell is nothing wrong with KO if he does not commit.

 

[Huskies4ever]

UConn is top 6 or 7 in the country when it comes to being televised on ESPN, ESPN2 or CBS. I didn't check Pitt but last year I checked a bunch of the ACC teams, and NC State was only on 4 times on those channels compared to UConn's 16.

We were hardly on ESPN. We were mostly on ESPNU and SNY. Not the same. Pitt and OSU are more visible on the major tv market. If tv exposure is more important, than Pitt and OSU is a better destination (' AAC).

 

[HuskyFich]

We were hardly on ESPN. We were mostly on ESPNU and SNY. Not the same. Pitt and OSU are more visible on the major tv market. If tv exposure is more important, than Pitt and OSU is a better destination (' AAC).

SNY offers a huge market in NYC. We were featured on college gameday this past year, have analysts like Bilas and Greenberg talking about us frequently...all while being outside the top 25. Our exposure is unbelievable for the conference we are in. Pitt has gotten minimal coverage and OSU had a top 3 freshman in the country last year. Gibbs definitely shouldn't be worrying about TV exposure anyways. NBA Recruiters find players. Just ask Steph Curry or Damian Lillard

 

[Stainmaster]

SNY offers a huge market in NYC. We were featured on college gameday this past year, have analysts like Bilas and Greenberg talking about us frequently...all while being outside the top 25. Our exposure is unbelievable for the conference we are in. Pitt has gotten minimal coverage and OSU had a top 3 freshman in the country last year. Gibbs definitely shouldn't be worrying about TV exposure anyways. NBA Recruiters find players. Just ask Steph Curry or Damian Lillard

I get your point, but we cannot be citing players who played for Davidson or Weber State when making pitches. One of the easiest ways to scare off a recruit.

 

[Huskies4ever]

SNY offers a huge market in NYC. We were featured on college gameday this past year, have analysts like Bilas and Greenberg talking about us frequently...all while being outside the top 25. Our exposure is unbelievable for the conference we are in. Pitt has gotten minimal coverage and OSU had a top 3 freshman in the country last year. Gibbs definitely shouldn't be worrying about TV exposure anyways. NBA Recruiters find players. Just ask Steph Curry or Damian Lillard

We took a step back, imo. You don't go from being ( even forget what they are called) Monday night and Wednesday night primetime on ESPN, and say we are in a better place than UM and OSU. The New York market is great, but I would rather have those ESPN slots that we had, than have what we do now. And some recruits would as well.

 

[BUConn10]

I'll say this again. IF, and that's a big "if", Sterling ends up going elsewhere other than UConn, then I think a safe assertion is that someone threatened alerting the NCAA if he followed through to Storrs due to tampering. UConn fans have been blabbering on message boards for a couple months now how he had interest in UConn even before the season was over, so if random people on the web know, I'm sure more connected individuals in the game caught wind. I'd say most likely it was someone at Seton Hall or one of the schools recruiting hard for him. We all know being a rat is totally ok if it means it helps you or hurts your rival in some way.

 

[Leebo]

We were hardly on ESPN. We were mostly on ESPNU and SNY. Not the same. Pitt and OSU are more visible on the major tv market. If tv exposure is more important, than Pitt and OSU is a better destination (' AAC).

Games played - 35
Games played on SNY + ESPNU - 10 (28.5%)
Games played on ESPN, ESPN2, CBS - 18 (51.1%)

The majority of SNY games were small-time cupcake games that all teams have and aren't televised nationally.

Yes, every year we will have some low-level AAC games on CBSSN, but we played a majority on the major college basketball stations.

 

[HuskyFich]

I get your point, but we cannot be citing players who played for Davidson or Weber State when making pitches. One of the easiest ways to scare off a recruit.

My point of Curry and Lillard had zero to do with recruiting pitches. Just proving the point to the yard that anyone can be found regardless of TV deals.

We took a step back, imo. You don't go from being ( even forget what they are called) Monday night and Wednesday night primetime on ESPN, and say we are in a better place than UM and OSU. The New York market is great, but I would rather have those ESPN slots that we had, than have what we do now. And some recruits would as well.

Hell we all would love all our games on ESPN and CBS, but it doesn't happen for anyone. I live in North Carolina and not every Duke, UNC or NC State game is even broadcasted on local television. Mostly due to Time Warner Cable....but still

 

[UConnSwag11]

We were hardly on ESPN. We were mostly on ESPNU and SNY. Not the same. Pitt and OSU are more visible on the major tv market. If tv exposure is more important, than Pitt and OSU is a better destination (' AAC).

we werent on sny at all... cbs sports and espn family of networks

 

[Leebo]

we werent on sny at all... cbs sports and espn family of networks

The UConn site still has all the game coverage listed. 6 games were on SNY. But as stated, they weren't AAC games.

 

[UConnSwag11]

whats up with zags twitter? does it seem like he gets it wrong lately? or contradicts himself?

 

[James]

whats up with zags twitter? does it seem like he gets it wrong lately? or contradicts himself?

he is an oaf trying to establish a name with 'insider info'. he is an old man grabbing at strings, a poor mans isola

 

[Jarhead_1775]

Did you see the other teams UCONN was competing against for Shonn Miller? I just don't understand how Ollie gets Adams, Enoch, and Miller to commit, and some fans here like to focus on Ollie missing on Diamond Stone... or worse Tevin Mack (who is rated below Jalen). The selective memory in this place is crazy. The same sequence of events seems to happen all the time here. 1) News comes out that UCONN has offered a high school player 2) Youtube highlights of said player is posted on Boneyard 3) The Boneyard reacts by making comments such as "we need this player bad!" or "this guy is going to be special" or "staff can't afford to miss on him", even though a couple of weeks earlier most here have never heard of such player's name before 4) Zealous, almost creepy, following of every step of the high school kid ensues and is over analyzed 5) Most often high school prospect commits to some other school; simple logic dictates if we have only 4 schollies available and we offer 20 high school prospects then the majority of said prospects will be committing somewhere else 6) Boneyard starts to question Ollie's ability of recruiting and how it is very concerning 7) Rumors of Ollie going to NBA pop up 8) Boneyard then believes if Ollie leaves the program will be doomed

Nailed it!!!

 

[djct1999]

I'll say this again. IF, and that's a big "if", Sterling ends up going elsewhere other than UConn, then I think a safe assertion is that someone threatened alerting the NCAA if he followed through to Storrs due to tampering. UConn fans have been blabbering on message boards for a couple months now how he had interest in UConn even before the season was over, so if random people on the web know, I'm sure more connected individuals in the game caught wind. I'd say most likely it was someone at Seton Hall or one of the schools recruiting hard for him. We all know being a rat is totally ok if it means it helps you or hurts your rival in some way.

How could we have tampered? First off, they visited Storrs when both Seton Hall's and UConn's season's had ended. Second, from every account I have heard, Papa Gibbs approached KO, not vice versa. Finally, Seton Hall and UConn don't play each other and are not in the same conference. In other words, it would be unprecedented for this scenario to play out.