Three names: Romelo Trimble, Josh Hart, Ben Bentil

[tonyparker]

Lot of depressing material on the board the past couple of weeks, but something has been bothering me deeply and I haven't seen it discussed. It has to do with the three names in the subject line. These three names are unique from a recruiting perspective.

Why? In the DMV recruiting community, it was understood that all three of these players were very interested in being Hoyas. One might even go as far as saying, for two of the three, wanted to be Hoyas. Despite the tournament failures, despite the negative recruiting based on playing style, demographics and academics -- these three should have been Hoyas. We didn't offer Trimble when we should have on his unofficial visit to campus (ended up bringing in Tre Campbell), we prioritized Reggie Cameron over Josh Hart, and we prioritized Paul White over Ben Bentil when Coach Hardy was brought into the fold.

I am a fan of Tre Campbell, Reggie Cameron and Paul White and believe that they will be successful Hoyas. But the evaluation abilities of those on staff, and their understanding of who they could realistically recruit into the program the last several years has left much to be desired. You can and will miss in recruiting, but you miss like this and your team is in significant trouble - whether you are JT3 or Tom Izzo.

It is my opinion that with those three in the program, Georgetown Basketball is as strong as ever. The talent level in the program is still good, particularly in the front court, and I am sure we will be fine. But man, what could/should have been...

[This Just In]

Dec 29, 2015 15:12:26 GMT -5 tonyparker said:

Lot of depressing material on the board the past couple of weeks, but something has been bothering me deeply and I haven't seen it discussed. It has to do with the three names in the subject line. These three names are unique from a recruiting perspective.

Why? In the DMV recruiting community, it was understood that all three of these players were very interested in being Hoyas. One might even go as far as saying, for two of the three, wanted to be Hoyas. Despite the tournament failures, despite the negative recruiting based on playing style, demographics and academics -- these three should have been Hoyas. We didn't offer Trimble when we should have on his unofficial visit to campus (ended up bringing in Tre Campbell), we prioritized Reggie Cameron over Josh Hart, and we prioritized Paul White over Ben Bentil when Coach Hardy was brought into the fold.

I am a fan of Tre Campbell, Reggie Cameron and Paul White and believe that they will be successful Hoyas. But the evaluation abilities of those on staff, and their understanding of who they could realistically recruit into the program the last several years has left much to be desired. You can and will miss in recruiting, but you miss like this and your team is in significant trouble - whether you are JT3 or Tom Izzo.

It is my opinion that with those three in the program, Georgetown Basketball is as strong as ever. The talent level in the program is still good, particularly in the front court, and I am sure we will be fine. But man, what could/should have been...

Is any of the 3 that got away in the ESPN Top 100?

[tonyparker]

All three were ESPN Top 100 players. Indeed, the three players that ended up Hoyas in their place (Campbell, Cameron, White) were also ESPN Top 100 players if my memory serves me correctly.

[kchoya]

Dec 29, 2015 15:12:26 GMT -5 tonyparker said:

Lot of depressing material on the board the past couple of weeks, but something has been bothering me deeply and I haven't seen it discussed. It has to do with the three names in the subject line. These three names are unique from a recruiting perspective.

Why? In the DMV recruiting community, it was understood that all three of these players were very interested in being Hoyas. One might even go as far as saying, for two of the three, wanted to be Hoyas. Despite the tournament failures, despite the negative recruiting based on playing style, demographics and academics -- these three should have been Hoyas. We didn't offer Trimble when we should have on his unofficial visit to campus (ended up bringing in Tre Campbell), we prioritized Reggie Cameron over Josh Hart, and we prioritized Paul White over Ben Bentil when Coach Hardy was brought into the fold.

I am a fan of Tre Campbell, Reggie Cameron and Paul White and believe that they will be successful Hoyas. But the evaluation abilities of those on staff, and their understanding of who they could realistically recruit into the program the last several years has left much to be desired. You can and will miss in recruiting, but you miss like this and your team is in significant trouble - whether you are JT3 or Tom Izzo.

It is my opinion that with those three in the program, Georgetown Basketball is as strong as ever. The talent level in the program is still good, particularly in the front court, and I am sure we will be fine. But man, what could/should have been...

The recruiting and evaluation abilities of the current (and recent) staff is not what's wrong with this team. There is plenty of talent on this roster.

[tonyparker]

I think that is a matter of opinion, kchoya. Furthermore, I am not saying that the recruiting and evaluation abilities of the staff are what's wrong with this team.

I'm saying that - if we had taken three players that wanted to be Hoyas - it is my opinion that our team would be far stronger than the current team. And that our team should be far stronger because they should be Hoyas.

[This Just In]

Dec 29, 2015 15:50:02 GMT -5 tonyparker said:

I think that is a matter of opinion, kchoya. Furthermore, I am not saying that the recruiting and evaluation abilities of the staff are what's wrong with this team.

I'm saying that - if we had taken three players that wanted to be Hoyas - it is my opinion that our team would be far stronger than the current team. And that our team should be far stronger because they should be Hoyas.

I am unfamiliar with the situation...

Can you give any information as to what positions they played and what special skill set they have or could have brought to the team.

[nychoya3]

Hart is the only one who I really had the impression would have been a Hoya if they had offered earlier. And they should have done so because he's a very good player. Could they have pushed harder for Trimble and Bentil? Probably, and I'm sure they would do so if they had it to do over again. Of course, there were plenty who felt at that point that they hadn't pushed hard enough for Dion Wiley either, who was pretty terrible as a freshman and is now injured. Anyway, it's hard to know, but there have been plenty of misses. And despite that, we have plenty of talent on this roster. Sure if you sub out a few guys for the 3 you mentioned we'd be much better, but you could probably say something similar for pretty much any team in the country.

[lichoya68]

three good players nuf said it is what it is

[practice]

We are known as Big Man U. Our most recent success has been with small forwards -- Green, Porter and now Copeland. Yes there have been some good/great guards in the history of the program ... Duren, Floyd, Charles Smith, AI and more recently Wright, Freeman and DSR ... but there's not consistent legacy of great guards at GU. I think GU certainly missed out on all three of those guys, particularly if they really wanted to come to the Hilltop. I think more generally, however, a top tier guard, either in the DMV or elsewhere, would be more attracted to a program like Nova or Duke or UNC with a history of sending guards to the NBA.

[tonyparker]

nychoya3, the difference with the Dion Wiley recruitment is that we wanted him, but from those in the know he didn't really ever want us. Same with Skal Labissiere, Nerlens Noel, Alonzo Trier, Ray Smith, Bryant Crawford and many of the other misses that we have suffered in recent years.

I'm fine with going after top level talent and missing. It happens. It happens everywhere. But rarely does a program not pursue and take three recruits in their backyard that want to be in their program, then watch those three go on to become Top 5 players at their position in college basketball. That stings, and no I do not think that happens to pretty much any team in the country - I'd be interested if you could point out one team in the country that has three misses like that.

[kchoya]

Dec 29, 2015 15:50:02 GMT -5 tonyparker said:

I think that is a matter of opinion, kchoya. Furthermore, I am not saying that the recruiting and evaluation abilities of the staff are what's wrong with this team.

I'm saying that - if we had taken three players that wanted to be Hoyas - it is my opinion that our team would be far stronger than the current team. And that our team should be far stronger because they should be Hoyas.

This "they wanted to be a Hoya but we ignored/spurned them" argument is tired and stale, and has been around since Mary Fenlon allegedly told Grant Hill to recite his ABC's (or something to that effect).

[johnnysnowplow]

O my god, will it ever end? For the sake of all that is holy, can we please start winning some games so threads like this can stop popping up?

[Filo]

I don't know, I don't have a problem with the OP at all. All three of those are solid players and the staff's efforts there can certainly be questioned.
-- Still scratch my head over Hart. Although realistically I think he has done better than he was projected to (not saying that he wasn't a good prospect to begin with).
-- As far as Bentil, I never really got the feeling that he wanted to come here but I could easily be proven otherwise since it is just a vague recollection.
-- Have no clue what happened with Trimble. Are we certain he wanted to come here but wasn't shown the love?

[BigmanU]

Dec 29, 2015 17:52:02 GMT -5 Filo said:

I don't know, I don't have a problem with the OP at all. All three of those are solid players and the staff's efforts there can certainly be questioned.
-- Still scratch my head over Hart. Although realistically I think he has done better than he was projected to (not saying that he wasn't a good prospect to begin with).
-- As far as Bentil, I never really got the feeling that he wanted to come here but I could easily be proven otherwise since it is just a vague recollection.
-- Have no clue what happened with Trimble. Are we certain he wanted to come here but wasn't shown the love?

I believe Hart is the only prospect who would have committed if offered. Trimble wanted to be shown the love, but was a Maryland lean for a long time. We were strongly involved in the Bentil recruitment, but he picked another school, it happens.

OP is much to do about nothing.

[trillesthoya]

I don't think it's particularly useful to be looking back at these players and saying "oh they could've been hoyas if we had tried harder!" We can never know how a recruit will turn out, and even if they claim they're high on the hoyas so has the other five thousand guard recruits recently we've come close to getting but always failed to get a commitment. We have the talent on this roster to be making noise, our problem isn't individual player talent but chemistry and execution.

[Deleted]

The only recruit the current staff recruited was Bentil and he isnt from the Dmv... the other kids were being recruited when Hunter and Brennan were still here and Hunter was the lead for Hart. I bring this up because the op mentioned the evaluation skills of the current staff.

[BigmanU]

Dec 29, 2015 18:42:30 GMT -5 @yaboynyp said:

The only recruit the current staff recruited was Bentil and he isnt from the Dmv... the other kids were being recruited when Hunter and Brennan were still here and Hunter was the lead for Hart. I bring this up because the op mentioned the evaluation skills of the current staff.

Thanks for mentioning that. I meant to address that in my earlier post

[RBHoya]

I think you're mischaracterizing Trimble's recruitment by suggesting that we passed on him in favor of Campbell. I suppose you could argue that we should have offered Trimble a little earlier than we did--though you can always make that argument when a player turns out to be a good one. I don't think we were particularly late to the party on him, he just liked Maryland better. We lost that one head up, and Campbell was the consolation prize.

I liked Bentil a lot in high school and he's been outstanding this year. But last year White looked like he might be the better prospect, or at least they were roughly even. He hasn't been himself this year it seems, but hopefully he regains his form. He may not ever approach the numbers Bentil is putting up at the moment, but hopefully becomes a solid player in his own right. Given that we eventually had a spot for Mourning in that same class, it's not as if space for Bentil was necessarily the problem, and so it's not a given that he may have looked elsewhere rather than us neglecting him.

Passing on Hart was obviously a blunder, arguably the biggest recruiting mistake of III's tenure, though there are other contenders.

[daytonahoya31]

So now we're criticizing the staff for recruiting ---- when our recruiting has pretty much been almost great the last three years?

got it

[95hoya]

Dec 29, 2015 15:43:13 GMT -5 kchoya said:

Dec 29, 2015 15:12:26 GMT -5 tonyparker said:

Lot of depressing material on the board the past couple of weeks, but something has been bothering me deeply and I haven't seen it discussed. It has to do with the three names in the subject line. These three names are unique from a recruiting perspective.

Why? In the DMV recruiting community, it was understood that all three of these players were very interested in being Hoyas. One might even go as far as saying, for two of the three, wanted to be Hoyas. Despite the tournament failures, despite the negative recruiting based on playing style, demographics and academics -- these three should have been Hoyas. We didn't offer Trimble when we should have on his unofficial visit to campus (ended up bringing in Tre Campbell), we prioritized Reggie Cameron over Josh Hart, and we prioritized Paul White over Ben Bentil when Coach Hardy was brought into the fold.

I am a fan of Tre Campbell, Reggie Cameron and Paul White and believe that they will be successful Hoyas. But the evaluation abilities of those on staff, and their understanding of who they could realistically recruit into the program the last several years has left much to be desired. You can and will miss in recruiting, but you miss like this and your team is in significant trouble - whether you are JT3 or Tom Izzo.

It is my opinion that with those three in the program, Georgetown Basketball is as strong as ever. The talent level in the program is still good, particularly in the front court, and I am sure we will be fine. But man, what could/should have been...

The recruiting and evaluation abilities of the current (and recent) staff is not what's wrong with this team. There is plenty of talent on this roster.

Couldn't disagree more. The talent is lacking if your goal is a final four caliber team. All coaches have recruiting misses. JTIII didn't bring in lowly regarded guys. Some guys just don't translate as expected.