formerlurker
www.stjude.org
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We just got a four and expect a 5 next year.
I think UCONN is a national powerhouse equal to anyone. We are the dominant championship team over the past 15 years. So why do the top 10 recruits repeatedly go to KY, Duke, UNC. Kansas and even AZ.
This is very easy. Calhoun trusted his own eye above all. He also wanted "his guys" tough guys, fighters. He had little use for AAU prima donnas.
It worked out pretty well.
I'll try one more time, as politely as I can. The interesting question is why UNC and Kansas and others don't copy our method of only playing lightly in the market for the Top 25 kids, since it is our method -- and not their method -- that is producing more championships. That is the point I -- and others before me I think -- were trying to make.
The answer to the original question, by the way, in my opinion, is that Calhoun wouldn't put up with the BS just because you were a star that other coaches would. And since the Burger AAs were coddled by high school coaches or they'd go elsewhere, and looked forward to playing in the NBA where if they were good enough they would be more powerful than their coaches, most players of that level simply made other choices.
Dear OP,
If you replaced "5s & 4s" with "National Championships" in your title thread, would you really give a damn?
Sincerely,
Reality
#1. They pay more.I think UCONN is a national powerhouse equal to anyone. We are the dominant championship team over the past 15 years. So why do the top 10 recruits repeatedly go to KY, Duke, UNC. Kansas and even AZ.
I understand we don't focus on one-and-dones and I understand why. I love the way we find great value in 3 star players (and off the radar players) and are great at developing those players. I understand and appreciate a true team concept.
But that aside, why are most of those kids keeping us on their short list? We've won more championships, have a Coach who is a charisma magnet, and a dozen NBA players. I know the conference is a part of it and that we had a coaching transition and a recent sanction. But this seemed to be going on when we were still ruling the BE with a long-time coach.
But every year KY gets about 5 top ten players, Duke, UNC, & Kansas divide up the rest with an occasional player not going to those top 4 colleges. I don't want to be KY, but I just don't get it.
I'll try to explain my position one more time, as politely as I can. The fundamental question is - why don't players ranked incredibly highly, i.e. in the top ten in their respective classes, seem to chose UConn? What those players do once they get to college and our successes with recruiting less heralded kids has absolutely nothing to do with the OP's query. Wondering why other schools don't attempt to copy our methods is an interesting but ultimately irrelevant point when discussing why those kids don't pick UConn. It would be one thing if UConn solely went after kids who were more under the radar and didn't recruit anyone ranked in the top ten. That isn't the case though, as was shown above; UConn offered almost all of the top 10 almost every year. Is it possible that these offers are perfunctory and the staff is really going after less highly ranked kids? Sure. But again, this doesn't do anything to address the OP's original query - why do these highly rated kids year after year fall all over themselves to sign up to play for Kentucky, or UNC, or Arizona, when they have had less success on the court? Is it purely coaching? Like you pointed out, Calhoun's attitude may have had a lot to do with it, but now that KO is the coach, is that going to continue? Is it perception of our program as a whole with the current generation of high schoolers? Who knows, but to dismiss the original question so blithely after its engendered some pretty heated conversation is fairly condescending.
A month ago were were a 7 seed expected to lose in the first round, in a "dead end" conference with an unproven coach.
How many 5 star recruits since then would be enough to appease you?
Because, that's the reason why they weren't "tripping over themselves" to play here. In that time, the equation has changed.
So I'm assuming your disappointment at the number of 5 star recruits is from the time since the championship.
But every year KY gets about 5 top ten players, Duke, UNC, & Kansas divide up the rest with an occasional player not going to those top 4 colleges. I don't want to be KY, but I just don't get it.
Or look at it another way - there was a time when we were getting our share of the top, top guys. CV and Rudy were top 5 guys in back to back classes, Rudy was the top guy in his class who actually went to college and CV might have been behind only Luol Deng. Yet CV played behind a lesser-regarded Boone in the same class, the team with both CV and Rudy on it underachieved with a lot of talent (if somewhat mismatched talent), and Rudy's last team was frustrating for some of the same reasons. Put the lightly-regarded Terrence Samuel on either of those last two teams, though, and we might win the whole thing. A little defense and tenacity in the backcourt makes those teams a lot better (although a healthy and enrolled AJP would have been nice, too).
I think UCONN is a national powerhouse equal to anyone. We are the dominant championship team over the past 15 years. So why do the top 10 recruits repeatedly go to KY, Duke, UNC. Kansas and even AZ.
I understand we don't focus on one-and-dones and I understand why. I love the way we find great value in 3 star players (and off the radar players) and are great at developing those players. I understand and appreciate a true team concept.
But that aside, why are most of those kids keeping us on their short list? We've won more championships, have a Coach who is a charisma magnet, and a dozen NBA players. I know the conference is a part of it and that we had a coaching transition and a recent sanction. But this seemed to be going on when we were still ruling the BE with a long-time coach.
But every year KY gets about 5 top ten players, Duke, UNC, & Kansas divide up the rest with an occasional player not going to those top 4 colleges. I don't want to be KY, but I just don't get it.
How did having the best recruiting class in the history of college basketball work out for kentucky this year? how about last year? or how about the last 6 #1 rated recruiting classes that squid has had? he has 1 title to show for it while we have 2 and 4 overall in the last 15 years twice as many as all these schools that out recruit us every year.
Having the best basketball program around in the last 20 years disprove that we have a recruiting problem.
In addition we still are putting kids in the NBA.
The egos (forget motives) of some of the 5 star top talent can be disruptive to team chemistry.
2005 UNCJust maybe that's a reason those teams getting the top talent aren't winning championships.
Its a team sport after all.