I keep hearing people say we have no geographic footprint. Well, that is BS. We are not located in Alaska, Hawaii, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Idaho, Montana, etc. We are within a 6 hour car drive of Philly, DC, NYC, Cleveland, Detroit, Columbus, Cincy, Chicago, Buffalo, Baltimore, etc. and kids nowadays go hundreds or even thousands of miles away from home to play Prep ball. We simply need a good coach that can recruit.
Recruiting Footprint
- Thread starter Piranha
- Start date
Can we recruit in those areas? Yes.
The problem is, when it comes to name recognition, pitt will always be about 10th or lower compared to other schools recruiting that area.
lol ... Right?
Not too many examples of major program living on a small recruiting radius, and not too recent.
Memphis and maybe depaul or other chicago area programs back in the day.
Virginias class this year has four kids from IN, NC, PA, NY
Louisville has two kids from OH & VA.
Syracuse two kids from NJ & CT.
It makes no sense when people act as though we are on some remote island. One of the best SG we got is Jason Matthews. He feel in love with the city and still lives here. There is a 100% of getting a No if you don't ask. We need to start being more aggressive.
West Virginia gets recruits from all over the place. That school sucks, morgantown sucks, its travel schedule sucks, and it has nothing in common with the rest of its conference. Yet they still get guys from several different metropolitan areas outside of their conference zone. And WVU wins. If the hoopies can convince players to go to that crapshack school, it is not a stretch to convince someone to go to pitt.
Did players grow up wanting to play for Butler, VCU, Wichita St, or George Mason? They all made the Final 4 because of a good coach who could recruit. How about Iowa St, UVA, and Texas A&M?
Recruiting footprint in basketball is overrated beyond belief. Football players tend to stay closer to home. Bball players dont. A good number of these players leave HS to attend prep schools or bball factories so goong to college away from home is no big thing.
On the list of challenges a new coach faces the lack of local talent probably doesn't make the Top 10. So, so overrated. There are plenty of good players from VA to the NE preps, and you just need 3-4 per year.
They must have grown up wearing Talor Battle jerseys I guess becausw they are all going to Penn State now, right? That magical NIT championship and miracle run the Round of 64 must be paying great dividends.
Seems to have worked out well for everyone involved. Jason is still very active with Pitt and the community. Bring em back.
College BB recruiting is a slimy, dirty business. Pitt is going to have to get back in the mud with the other pigs to recruit at a high level. That just the way it is. Back in the day you don't think Charles Smith or Jerome Lane or Bobby Martin or Rod Brookins or Clyde Vaughn came to Pitt because they were enamored with Pittsburgh or playing at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse.
It's only gotten worse with the AAU handlers and shoe company pimps.
It's only gotten worse with the AAU handlers and shoe company pimps.
I have no problem with a little creative recruiting and who they hire will tell us their thoughts on the subject. It was a lot more enjoyable watching Smith ,Lane ,Shorter no doubt.
Some of the all-time greats who were influenced to come here turned out to be great ambassadors for the University. Dorsett, Green, Aiken, Matthews, Charles Smith, etc.
Let's see, the ACC has teams in Boston, New York, PA, Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas, Northern Kentucky, and Florida. Like you said, that makes all of those cities fairly accessible. It is not like we are WVU, which has zero local base and plays in a conference where the closest car ride is 12 hours. The closest direct flight is 3-4 hours.
Kids have preference where they want to play but they also want to play a fun and dynamic game. Getting to play on TV is a huge plus. ACC is a big drawing card.
