Traci Carter (Committed to Marquette)

[ctchamps]

An "advisor" to Traci Carter that posts on the Temple scout board from time to time is saying Traci is going to announce this coming Wednesday. If that is the case, looks like Marquette...

I wish I read this a bit earlier. Of course it isn't over to @Zionn says next!!!

 

[BFieldHusky]

No one else reporting this. Surprised Zagoria wouldn't report it. Maybe not true...

 

[UConn990411]

Not saying he won't end up at Marquette, but what reason would his adviser have for spending so much time on a Temple message board?

 

[Matrim55]

No one else reporting this. Surprised Zagoria wouldn't report it. Maybe not true...

PROBABLY not true - it's a fan board, after all.

That said, there was a VCU insider who knew about Mack a week before anybody else did, so things can happen. I guess we'll have to wait until Wednesday and see.

 

[templefan1]

Not saying he won't end up at Marquette, but what reason would his adviser have for spending so much time on a Temple message board?

The guy has a "hard-on" for Temple. He loves Saint Joe's but runs a academic advising company that helps get kids qualified for college. Sounds real upstanding right....But, on the side though he publishes a recruiting book for coaches with social media info for all his tutored kids. He then sells this to college coaches. You know, "I've got to get mine" thing. Anyway, he comes to the Temple board to say if Temple is recruiting these kids etc. In Carter's case Temple never offered but he still came over to brag that Carter was getting other offers.

He always comes over to the Temple board calling these kids his "young bucks" etc...just basically bragging. Butttttttttt, he has better info than Zagsblog does. If the "adviser" is on Temple's board saying Carter is deciding on Wednesday, he probably heard it from someone in the Carter camp.

 

[Fishy]

Unfortunately, it looks like there might be something to it.

 

[zls44]

Unfortunately, it looks like there might be something to it.

Another tremendous job by this staff of recruiting.

(in before some idiot says "next")

 

[UConn990411]

So we can add Marquette to the list of powerhouses that have beaten UConn out for a recruit?

 

[zls44]

So we can add Marquette to the list of powerhouses that have beaten UConn out for a recruit?

Better than VCU

 

[Stainmaster]

First of all, I'm waiting until the official announcement. Second of all, hate Wojo all you want, but he sure as hell isn't a slouch at recruiting. He beat out Duke, Kentucky, MSU et. all for consensus 5-star center Henry Ellenson (5th overall according to ESPN).

 

[djct1999]

First of all, I'm waiting until the official announcement. Second of all, hate Wojo all you want, but he sure as hell isn't a slouch at recruiting. He beat out Duke, Kentucky, MSU et. all for consensus 5-star center Henry Ellenson (5th overall according to ESPN).

Thirdly, each situation is different. Carter can probably go to Marquette and start. Ollie can't make the same promise. This isnt't a beat, its a choice that probably is better for Carter. Makes sense to me.

 

[3rdbass]

Wow recruiting is bad if we don't land Carter. Can Ollie find a Juco as I don't really care for the other 2 recruits I have seen us linked to? They seem to be on the same level as TSAM which isn't what we really need.

 

[Hoophound]

Thirdly, each situation is different. Carter can probably go to Marquette and start. Ollie can't make the same promise. This isnt't a beat, its a choice that probably is better for Carter. Makes sense to me.

Screw that, promise him the job if that's what it takes.

 

[tzznandrew]

Better than VCU

Marquette has a title, and a number of NBA players (Wade most prominently, but Jimmy Butler, Wes Mathews, Jae Crowder) who make them look good.

That said, we shouldn't be losing recruits to VCU or Marquette.

 

[tzznandrew]

Screw that, promise him the job if that's what it takes.

Anytime you can promise a starting job to a recruit ranked between 100-150 and you have a recruit ranked 30 playing one position and a junior McDonald's AA playing the other, you gotta do it.

 

[Stainmaster]

Wow recruiting is bad if we don't land Carter. Can Ollie find a Juco as I don't really care for the other 2 recruits I have seen us linked to? They seem to be on the same level as TSAM which isn't what we really need.

So we should just be able to swoop in and land any four star in the country after we start recruiting him out of the blue with a month left in his senior season?

 

[3rdbass]

So we should just be able to swoop in and land any four star in the country after we start recruiting him out of the blue with a month left in his senior season?

I would hope so coming off a national championship, young former nba coach and new facilities. Are you going to continue to make excuses for our misses when we are losing out on 3 star recruits to CCSU and Fairfield? We missed out on most of the main guys we were recruiting so I guess we should just move on to next year. We need another ball handler to be competitive next year and it is frustrating to see us missing out on most of our top recruits.

We need to get a better recruiter on the bench and soon as we are definitely lagging behind now in recruiting and it isn't all due to conference affiliation. We have lost recruits to lesser schools in similar conferences that we are in now.

 

[ConnZag3]

First of all, I'm waiting until the official announcement. Second of all, hate Wojo all you want, but he sure as hell isn't a slouch at recruiting. He beat out Duke, Kentucky, MSU et. all for consensus 5-star center Henry Ellenson (5th overall according to ESPN).

I wouldn't give Wojo a whole lot of credit for this signing given that Marquette brought his brother Wally in as a transfer before Wojo even got hired. Plus, he's from small town Wisconsin and has been dominating Division 2 schools in WI so I'm not completely sold on this kid being that great. A lot of people from Wisconsin remember highly ranked small school players like Evan Anderson and JP Gavinski that were supposed to be great big men for the Badgers and these guys couldn't even get on the court in scrub time during their careers.

 

[Stainmaster]

I would hope so coming off a national championship, young former nba coach and new facilities. Are you going to continue to make excuses for our misses when we are losing out on 3 star recruits to CCSU and Fairfield?

I wish it were that simple, my friend.

1. Championships matter more to fans than recruits. How many titles has Kentucky won, yet what do their classes like? Why are programs like Illinois and Baylor consistently strong at recruiting this year? How does Texas A&M have 4 Top 100 kids in their '15 class without making the tourney since 2011? Face it. We use championships when arguing with trolls from other fanbases online. But if the kids themselves aren't impressed with them, then so be it.
2. Being young and playing in the NBA doesn't make someone an instant impact recruiter. KO has been recruiting players for less than 5 years. Like any on-court skill, recruiting requires practice and repetition to become good at it. Shaka Smart? 14 years on the bench. Dave Rice? 23 years. Wojo? 16. KO needs time to craft his pitch, know how to work every single angle, get the feeling for when he needs to get serious and close the deal. That doesn't come naturally. I know everyone on the BY thinks that they have recruiting down pat and could just walk into any high schooler's home and say "Championships! NBA! Training facilities! Blue blood!" and have McD AAs tripping over themselves to sign with us. That's not how it works. In fact, if the average BY poster were a college coach recruiting a player, I have a feeling most in-home visits would end with screaming "We didn't want you anyway! Have fun sucking at that other school and not going anywhere in life! Next!"
   
3. Facilities are great, but it's not as if we're the only school in the country with high-end facilities.

Also, for what it's worth, CCSU and Fairfield get 2 star recruits with very few other D1 offers. Losing on a 4 star to Marquette is nowhere near comparable, and suggesting that one will lead to another is a grossly inappropriate extrapolation. Half of CCSU's incoming recruits for '15 had no other D1 offers, and the same was true for 2 out of 3 in their '14 class. I hope you realize that the college basketball hierarchy isn't UCONN --------> every other school under the sun.

 

[3rdbass]

I wish it were that simple, my friend.

1. Championships matter more to fans than recruits. How many titles has Kentucky won, yet what do their classes like? Why are programs like Illinois and Baylor consistently strong at recruiting this year? How does Texas A&M have 4 Top 100 kids in their '15 class without making the tourney since 2011? Face it. We use championships when arguing with trolls from other fanbases online. But if the kids themselves aren't impressed with them, then so be it.
2. Being young and playing in the NBA doesn't make someone an instant impact recruiter. KO has been recruiting players for less than 5 years. Like any on-court skill, recruiting requires practice and repetition to become good at it. Shaka Smart? 14 years on the bench. Dave Rice? 23 years. Wojo? 16. KO needs time to craft his pitch, know how to work every single angle, get the feeling for when he needs to get serious and close the deal. That doesn't come naturally. I know everyone on the BY thinks that they have recruiting down pat and could just walk into any high schooler's home and say "Championships! NBA! Training facilities! Blue blood!" and have McD AAs tripping over themselves to sign with us. That's not how it works. In fact, if the average BY poster were a college coach recruiting a player, I have a feeling most in-home visits would end with screaming "We didn't want you anyway! Have fun sucking at that other school and not going anywhere in life! Next!"
   
3. Facilities are great, but it's not as if we're the only school in the country with high-end facilities.

Also, for what it's worth, CCSU and Fairfield get 2 star recruits with very few other D1 offers. Losing on a 4 star to Marquette is nowhere near comparable, and suggesting that one will lead to another is a grossly inappropriate extrapolation. Half of CCSU's incoming recruits for '15 had no other D1 offers, and the same was true for 2 out of 3 in their '14 class. I hope you realize that the college basketball hierarchy isn't UCONN --------> every other school under the sun.

How about recent sustained tradition. UCONN has great tradition and that needs to count for something. It sure does for Kentucky who you acknowledged hasn't won it but has been successful. With all the success we have had we should and need to start recruiting better. We might not being able to keep up with the Dukes, NC's and Kentucky's but we need to do be able to do better than we are presently.

I understand there are some posters who don't want to find any fault with our current coaching regime but we are definitely having issues in missing on even 2nd and 3rd choices that we use to get under JC.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

Another tremendous job by this staff of recruiting.

(in before some idiot says "next")

Next! ...you're welcome

 

[djct1999]

Again, I am sure as hell not going to lose sleep over a kid who Louisville didn't find worthy of an offer. My guess is that Carter took a look at UConn's roster and figured he would barely see the floor. But I know, we need another ball handler and Carter should pass up starting in the Big East to be third string in Storrs. Kids understandably want to play.

 

[Stainmaster]

How about recent sustained tradition. UCONN has great tradition and that needs to count for something. It sure does for Kentucky who you acknowledged hasn't won it but has been successful. With all the success we have had we should and need to start recruiting better. We might not being able to keep up with the Dukes, NC's and Kentucky's but we need to do be able to do better than we are presently.

To be fair though, our success has dropped off a fair amount the last couple of years. Another team I left off of that list, Arizona, has been sweeping up 4 and 5-stars left and right and they haven't made the Final Four in nearly 15 years. But you know what gets it for them? During the regular season, they're consistently a Top 10 team. Same with Kentucky. UCONN has not had a dominant regular season start-to-finish since 2008-09 (2010-11 we were phenomenal in the non-conference portion of our schedule, but we all know what happened afterwards). These Cinderella runs of winning titles as a 7 seed and blazing through 5 games in 5 days at the BET make the fan base feel phenomenal - happiness when it's least expected. But that doesn't grab recruits; being the juggernaut does.

Also, our NBA contingent is at an all-time low. Kemba's hurt, Lamb's rear end is glued to the bench, Shabazz is going through the rookie motions, Caron had a nice run but is now a role player at best (as is Villanueva), and Gordon rarely plays. Right now, our only productive players in the league are Rudy and AD. That's a break from the mid-2000s when we had Rip and Ray as perennial all-stars, Donyell Marshall and Caron starting, Emeka as ROY and Gordon as 6th Man of the Year, Cliff Robinson still grinding it out, and Villanueva/Boone/Marcus Williams as promising young players (plus Rudy and Hilton in the 2006 lottery). We haven't been putting out as much talent into the pros as we used to, and the kids truly pay attention to that.

 

[Northbound]

So we should just be able to swoop in and land any four star in the country after we start recruiting him out of the blue with a month left in his senior season?

Depends on who you are competing against for the player. High major with a significant amount of success unlikely, but a mid-major and a high major with relatively small success compared to UCONN, then yes to some degree.

I've not pressed the panic button on recruiting yet and I will say that Jalen and Steve are great gets, but there needs to be a higher interest to close ratio for top-tier talent - it's pretty piss poor. It's a god damn sales job. You've got to be a really good at being able to overcome perceptual issues (i.e. coach status, conference affiliation, facilities, location) that many schools have to one degree or another while telling a compelling story of the vast possibilities that UCONN can offer that other schools simply cannot.....they've got to identify the right buttons to push to get someone to buy......sales isn't rocket science....it's listening and observation. It is apparent that we struggle in this area - the 4 titles and the last one in particular and the NBA pedigree should be an enormous points of difference. If you're a consistent power in a piss poor conference the program will still get visibility to enhance the programs perception regardless of conference affiliation - see Gonzaga, Wichita State, VCU, etc.

 

[Zionn]

Heard conflicting news today from this morning to this afternoon. Does not appear his visit will happen. Read into that all you need to.

 

[tcf15]

Heard conflicting news today from this morning to this afternoon. Does not appear his visit will happen. Read into that all you need to.

Well, the visit was scheduled for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, so I'm guessing UConn will be dancing and they had to reschedule.

 

[Stainmaster]

Depends on who you are competing against for the player. High major with a significant amount of success unlikely, but a mid-major and a high major with relatively small success compared to UCONN, then yes to some degree.

I've not pressed the panic button on recruiting yet and I will say that Jalen and Steve are great gets, but there needs to be a higher interest to close ratio for top-tier talent - it's pretty piss poor. It's a god damn sales job. You've got to be a really good at being able to overcome perceptual issues (i.e. coach status, conference affiliation, facilities, location) that many schools have to one degree or another while telling a compelling story of the vast possibilities that UCONN can offer that other schools simply cannot.....they've got to identify the right buttons to push to get someone to buy.sales isn't rocket science....it's listening and observation. It is apparent that we struggle in this area - the 4 titles and the last one in particular and the NBA pedigree should be an enormous points of difference. If you're a consistent power in a piss poor conference the program will still get visibility to enhance the programs perception regardless of conference affiliation - see Gonzaga, Wichita State, VCU, etc.

The problem is, the NBA pedigree is down considerably. And the schools you mentioned have reputations as having phenomenal regular season track records, but no semblance of postseason success (one fluke final four for Wichita and VCU doesn't count). As fans we live and die by March, but it's not as big of a draw for the kids as it is for us.

 

[David 76]

Just because Carter isn't Kemba/Shabazz/Boat (not including Adams here as he hasn't yet stepped onto the court in a Husky uniform yet - the anointment can wait) doesn't mean he isn't talented or not worthy of playing for us. We have been spoiled rotten with unbelievably gifted PGs as of late, so much that I feel like the standard has been warped. Carter is a 4-star player who should be able to provide solid minutes off the bench, and develop into a starter for us after a year or two. And you know what? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

And, when we are pressed, play with Adams to get the ball in and over half court.

 

[Hoophound]

Anytime you can promise a starting job to a recruit ranked between 100-150 and you have a recruit ranked 30 playing one position and a junior McDonald's AA playing the other, you gotta do it.

That's not really the case. Adams and Carter would play together, Purvis would become a wing and Hamilton the 4. We must have a ball handler on the floor in addition to Adams or next year will look a lot like this year. Besides, when you promise a guy a starting job, it isn't for life. You can at least promise him tons of playing time.

 

[mauconnfan]

Again, I am sure as hell not going to lose sleep over a kid who Louisville didn't find worthy of an offer. My guess is that Carter took a look at UConn's roster and figured he would barely see the floor. But I know, we need another ball handler and Carter should pass up starting in the Big East to be third string in Storrs. Kids understandably want to play.

3rd string? The only guy who would play in front of this kid is Adams and I can see them playing a lot together too.

Wojo or KO? Love Wojo's legacy but it's just that. Not even a cup of coffee after Duke but we can't seem to get them here. Sucks