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I'm a little surprised that there hasn't been any word out of Jabari Parker's camp about the KO in-home visit, but maybe their MO is keeping things close to the vest.
A thought came to mind as I began to see big time names like Parker, Vonleh and even XRM pop up for UConn. One thing that JC was very good at that some coaches s*cked at is he knew how long to hang in there for the big time recruits and when to pull the trigger for those tier-B, C, etc. ones.
Sometimes he'd hang in their to the end. Gettng Rudy was a successful example. Brandon Bass & Diogu, to name a couple, not so successful.
As for the examples of dropping out of the sweepstakes and jumping on more attainable recruits would be Okafor, Boone, Hilton, Marcus Williams, Walker and the list goes on and on. With a little digging, we could come up with who the possible plan-A recruits that they bailed on were. With Walker, it was Brandon Jennings. With Mek I think it was two players Sampson & Fox. In some of these cases, the Plan-A recruits decided to go elsewhere, which I think is the case with Emeka. So he might be a bad example in this case. Also with MW, I think JC preferred him over the much higher ranked PG who's name escapes me. It ended up that MW had a much better career than the other guard, so JC knew something there...his eye for talent and potential is a whole other thing that I'm not addressing with this post, but is a valid one. As for Walker, if JC ended up with his LOI, he would have suffered the same fate that Zona did, when Jennings didn't qualify and ended up playing over in Europe before entering the draft.
I've seen some high profile programs go down the toilet for few years because they swung for the fenses and missed. By the time they realized they weren't going to get these players, there simply wasn't much left. The less available ships you have the worse this dynamic gets. Sometimes even if you have a lot of ships, once you fill a spot with one position, recruits that were interested in your program that play that position often drop you, or you simply can't afford to use a ship on that same position. It's a process of constant movement weighing who you like most, who's most attainable, how high the stakes are in light of the competition for that recruit (Parker case in point), how strong you are with that recruits (Parker again) and how good you evaluate a lessor player at that given position. At some point you have to pull the trigger on a player-X and pass on Player-Y, or risk having little to pick from, ending up with a recruiting class that can't compete anywhere near the level you need to.
What concerns me most is that the recruits most likely to be able to take into account KO's 7 month contract but still sign here are the elite ones that I'd assume think that if they commit here there would be a high probability that it would help secure a long term deal for KO. The next tier are the ones that UConn usually has the most success with, but I don't know if they'd have the same confidence. Parker & Vonleh fit the first category, but the stakes and competition are extremely high. XRM fits at the cusp of that list. Not sure if he would be a big enough fish for Manuel to decide to give KO an extension. Maybe! I hope I'm wrong, but I would think the recruits that are in the 26-75 range are the tougher sell. Recruits in the 75-150 might be more attainable depending on their list of schools. UConn might just be their only or one of their only elite programs, often one they've always liked, and too good to pass up regardless of the head coach, or at least feeling pretty good that if it's not KO, that UConn will get a very good one to replace him.
It will be very interesting to see how KO handles this. Due to the challenges that are out of his control, it might be hard to draw any long term recruiting philosophy conclusions.
A thought came to mind as I began to see big time names like Parker, Vonleh and even XRM pop up for UConn. One thing that JC was very good at that some coaches s*cked at is he knew how long to hang in there for the big time recruits and when to pull the trigger for those tier-B, C, etc. ones.
Sometimes he'd hang in their to the end. Gettng Rudy was a successful example. Brandon Bass & Diogu, to name a couple, not so successful.
As for the examples of dropping out of the sweepstakes and jumping on more attainable recruits would be Okafor, Boone, Hilton, Marcus Williams, Walker and the list goes on and on. With a little digging, we could come up with who the possible plan-A recruits that they bailed on were. With Walker, it was Brandon Jennings. With Mek I think it was two players Sampson & Fox. In some of these cases, the Plan-A recruits decided to go elsewhere, which I think is the case with Emeka. So he might be a bad example in this case. Also with MW, I think JC preferred him over the much higher ranked PG who's name escapes me. It ended up that MW had a much better career than the other guard, so JC knew something there...his eye for talent and potential is a whole other thing that I'm not addressing with this post, but is a valid one. As for Walker, if JC ended up with his LOI, he would have suffered the same fate that Zona did, when Jennings didn't qualify and ended up playing over in Europe before entering the draft.
I've seen some high profile programs go down the toilet for few years because they swung for the fenses and missed. By the time they realized they weren't going to get these players, there simply wasn't much left. The less available ships you have the worse this dynamic gets. Sometimes even if you have a lot of ships, once you fill a spot with one position, recruits that were interested in your program that play that position often drop you, or you simply can't afford to use a ship on that same position. It's a process of constant movement weighing who you like most, who's most attainable, how high the stakes are in light of the competition for that recruit (Parker case in point), how strong you are with that recruits (Parker again) and how good you evaluate a lessor player at that given position. At some point you have to pull the trigger on a player-X and pass on Player-Y, or risk having little to pick from, ending up with a recruiting class that can't compete anywhere near the level you need to.
What concerns me most is that the recruits most likely to be able to take into account KO's 7 month contract but still sign here are the elite ones that I'd assume think that if they commit here there would be a high probability that it would help secure a long term deal for KO. The next tier are the ones that UConn usually has the most success with, but I don't know if they'd have the same confidence. Parker & Vonleh fit the first category, but the stakes and competition are extremely high. XRM fits at the cusp of that list. Not sure if he would be a big enough fish for Manuel to decide to give KO an extension. Maybe! I hope I'm wrong, but I would think the recruits that are in the 26-75 range are the tougher sell. Recruits in the 75-150 might be more attainable depending on their list of schools. UConn might just be their only or one of their only elite programs, often one they've always liked, and too good to pass up regardless of the head coach, or at least feeling pretty good that if it's not KO, that UConn will get a very good one to replace him.
It will be very interesting to see how KO handles this. Due to the challenges that are out of his control, it might be hard to draw any long term recruiting philosophy conclusions.
