Look, it is hard to deal with the fact that being in the ACC, playing time, facilities, academics, great city is just not cutting it to get the quality of BIGS Capel knows we need. I think it boils down to these kind of transfer recruits, as well as High School recruits want to go to at the very least, an NCAA tournament team for 2019-20. This is not 2008-09, when Pitt was in the elite 8. Like football, just win, baby, CONSISTENTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Patience will be a virtue in this case!.
Recruiting bottom line
- Thread starter GreatBear71
- Start date
Being a program that regularly puts guys in the NBA is way, way more important to players today than a schools wins or losses.
Grad transfers normally want to play in the NCAAT so I'm not surprised we didn't land any but I am surprised we didn't even get a visit.
As for HS kids, I will forever say that season's records mean very very little.
I am curious to find out how you know that. Considering that in any given year the percentage of college players who make it to the NBA is very small, playing in the NBA is just a fantasy except for the high-end recruits.
All you have to do is listen to them any time they’re interviewed, or when coaches are asked what players are looking for.
They all think they have a chance at the NBA at that stage, pretty much every single one of them. There are multiple big AAU tournaments in Las Vegas every year and when they ask these kids what will influence their college decision most of them list:
Showcasing skills for next level
Style of play
Coaching staff
Wins/losses are secondary and are much more important to the fans than the individual player. I’m not saying they are indifferent to winning once they get to college, but it doesn’t seem to be much of a factor in making their initial choice where to go.
I have heard more players cite style of uniform as a reason they like a school rather than that teams current win/loss record.
What about all of the players who you have not heard - what do they consider important? I am sure there are many more of them. By the way, schools that are sending guys to the NBA tend to be schools with better records.
That’s not always the case.
LSU with Simmons is the prime example. He had one goal, survive 1 year injury free and go get paid. He went to LSU to play for his godfather and got out of dodge.
If a kid truly believes he’s a one and done, which is pretty much any top 50 kid or a top 100 kid with bad advisors, winning isn’t a top priority. Development, priority treatment, and yes...outside benefits...rule the day. Winning is nice, but if that’s you’re only pitch to a big time recruit, you’re going to lose out. We’re going to see the number 2 pick be a kid from Murray State. There are a lot of routes to the top beyond winning, as dumb as that sounds.
I have heard every single player that has ever been recruited in the past 10 years, so I pretty much consider the case closed.
Do you think a 17/18 year old is looking at it in a sober and coldly rational way or do you think they're dreaming big?
You're wrong about only high-end recruits playing in the NBA, by the way. Someone else mentioned Ja Morant, a guy who wasn't ranked in the recruiting databases and had one offer, but he's hardly an outlier.
You think Steph Curry was a high end recruit? Damian Lillard? Jimmy Butler? I could keep going. It happens often enough that it's hardly irrational to think you can defy a numerical ranking formulated by people who don't matter.
Capel just has to recruit players based on who fits his system. That's how Dixon did it all those years and was successful all those years. Nigel John is 6'9", 260 lbs. He's built a lot like DeJuan Blair. He may not be as impactful as Blair, but we need a force in the paint to go with Brown. Which makes me think, who will be more of an impact next season? Coulibaly or John if we get him?
Get old and stay old. That sums up Dixon's success. Always had like 3 senior starters, sometimes 5th year seniors, 4th year juniors, etc. However, I don't think you can do that today. The second a true freshman doesn't play a lot, he's out.
UVa is a horrendous example. They have possibly the best coach on the planet and have possibly the best defensive system the game has ever seen.
Virginia does not prove that at all. Quite the contrary.
Kyle Guy - 37 (2016)
De'Andre Hunter - 91 (2016)
Ty Jerome - 44 (2016)
Mamadi Diakite - 32 (2015)
Braxton Key - 59 (2016)
Those are UVA's top 5 scorers from this past season. All top 100 recruits. All but one are top 60. I really wish people would stop trying to paint Villanova and UVA as underdog schools who prove that you can win with lesser talent. It's just wrong.
If there's any lesson to be learned here, it's that you might only need one really great class to win it all. If Capel can go hard in 2020, the sky's the limit, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Great post.
People keep wanting to paint that picture out of a need to feel that you don’t need higher end recruits to win, but it’s a false narrative. Both Virginia and Villanova were decent programs that didn’t start to win big until they began recruiting at a higher level.
There is a chicken or the egg thing that goes on also. You usually have to get to near great before you can get your rcruiting to take that next step up from good to great. Getting there takes good recruits and great coaching. Coach K and Coach Wright and Coach Bennet have all done it via that path.
There’s two factors at work here , eye for talent and luck . Is Bill Belichick the greatest coach in NFL history without a 6th round draft choice turning out to be the greatest NFL qb of all time ( hard to say that ! ) ?
Once Tom Brady was given the opportunity Belichick was smart enough to take advantage of it . Luck plays a large part of it !
True and likewise Pitt got incredibly lucky in the early-mid 00s. First with Howland. Then the accidental hiring of Dixon to replace him (which Pitt didn't originally want as we should recall... they favored a guy who up and died shortly thereafter).
By miracle, against all odds, Pitt had a top level national program.
Pitt didn't follow up and capitalize on that luck. The previous put shackles on it, and the current finished the job. It predictably disintegrated. And here we are now, looking at another starvation for recruits, and another subsequent disappointing season.
Pitt got lucky with the Howland hire and JDs backdooring into the job . The big mistake JD made was abandoning his formula for success when Pitt went to the ACC .
Pitt cares way more about the academic side of the ledger than athletics , I guess they dont understand you can excel at both .
