Rivals ranks BE #1 in recruiting

[SFHoya99]

Big East is No. 1

Big East rank (National rank)
1. Syracuse (4)
2. Villanova (12)
3. Cincinnati (15)
4. DePaul (16)
5. Georgetown (23)
6. Pittsburgh (26)
7. St. John's (30)
8. Seton Hall
9. Rutgers
10. Marquette
11. Louisville
12. Providence
13. South Florida
14. West Virginia
15. Notre Dame
16. UConn

Huge rises by Nova and Cincy drove the Big East to the top. Pac-10 is No. 2.

[SirSaxa]

Glad to see SJU had a decent recruiting year. I'd like to have our rival and the BE's best NYC/Media center school return to respectability.

[hoyasexy]

Even more glad to see who's occupying the cellar.

[HealyHoya]

sfhoya99 said:

Big East is No. 1

Big East rank (National rank)
1. Syracuse (4)
2. Villanova (12)
3. Cincinnati (15)
4. DePaul (16)
5. Georgetown (23)
6. Pittsburgh (26)
7. St. John's (30)
8. Seton Hall
9. Rutgers
10. Marquette
11. Louisville
12. Providence
13. South Florida
14. West Virginia
15. Notre Dame
16. UConn

Huge rises by Nova and Cincy drove the Big East to the top. Pac-10 is No. 2.

Good Luke Winn Article on Recruiting Rankings
« Thread Started on 5/17/07 at 10:45 »

Luke Winn

The first half of the article is on the insanity that was the Jai Lucas/Patrick Patterson recruitment. But the interesting part was that he took the Top 10 Recruiting Classes of 2003 -- who were seniors last year -- and detailed their success or failures.

They all disappointed. All of them. The #1 class, Florida State, never even made the NCAA tourney.

Now there will be a lot of excuses and explanations -- transfers, bad coaching, early entry to the NBA. Or maybe these guys were just overhyped because certain things -- such as defense and ability to play within a team -- are completely ignored when evaluating talent. (Note that NBA defections really had little effect overall -- most of the top 2003 talent jumped straight to the NBA).

Hmmmm.....so is this good news...

[SFHoya99]

True, true, Healy. It's just information.

[HealyHoya]

Yeah, I know. The interesting thing is that rankings on individual recruits and the attendant predictions for future success in the NBA are quite often as accurate as the "team recruiting" rankings are inaccurate. More so for Top-10 talent...and clearly both are more art than science.

2006: Oden, Durant, Wright were 1-2-3
2005: Gerald Green, McRoberts, Monta Ellis were 1-2-3 (eh, we'll see)
2004: Dwight Howard, Shaun Livingston, Josh Smith
2003: LeBron, Luol Deng, Shannon Brown

Predicting team success entails projecting cohesiveness, unselfish play, sacrifice, hustle, team defense, demeanor...much more difficult aspects of basketball development to quantify and rank.

Honestly, the presence of the traits listed above translate into wins. No team, no program, exemplifies that better than III and Georgetown this past year.

I think the team-recruitng rankings are really "heat checks". Barometers for program popularity throughout the country. Maybe the recruits translate into wins, maybe not. Either way, there's a buzz about that program, conference, etc.

[SFHoya99]

Healy,

I hate using recent years as indicators. How can you evaluate how Oden, Durant and Wright will do in the pros?

It's much better to use classes that actually have had a chance to prove either way...and there the individual rankings do better than the class rankings for a couple of reasons:

1) Players that go to the NBA early often fail on the college level but succeed in making it to the pros (even if they also are losers there)

2) Some coaches suck (personal opinion).

[ephoya04]

So we have the 5th best recruiting class in the BE?! I guess two McD AA don't count for as much as they used to

[HoyaSinceBirth]

nice to see this: Best perimeter scorer: Austin Freeman, Georgetown
Best shooter: Austin Freeman, Georgetown
Best in the clutch: Austin Freeman, Georgetown
Best basketball IQ: Austin Freeman, Georgetown
Impact player: Austin Freeman, Georgetown

[lichoya68]

all those bests and key ones at that and fifth and 23 nationally LET THEM NOT TAKE US SERIOUSLY AGAIN AND WE SHALL SURPRISE.. GO HOYAS 2008 will be great and if jefff does reconsider wowowowowowowo ouch ouc ouch watch out world here we come uconn last wowwoowowwo too bad dont whine jimmie calhoun dont whine tooooooooo much

[Deleted]

hoyasincebirth said:

Best basketball IQ: Austin Freeman, Georgetown

That's the one I like the most - I hope it's an indication that he'll thrive in the system...

[Filo]

Pretty surprising that there was no mention of Chris in the write-up, and that they have us 5th in the league.

That's a good thing. Lower profile may keep some pressure off, and leaves plenty of room for upside surprise, much like DaJuan did last year (I don't think most here were surprised by his solid performance as a frosh, but I would bet most others were).

[prhoya]

It's the Wright Surprise.

[HealyHoya]

We also need to understand that III will tend to recruit players that fit his system and that he believes are coachable, quality kids. Schools/coaches like tOSU/Motta, UF/Donovan, UNC/Williams will always sign as many RoMac, Rivals-Scouts top-10 kids as possible. That's fine. I believe III will recruit premiere talent but he will always favor team players, strong or coachable on the fundamentals who fit his system. If that keeps GU making runs to the FF and, hopefully, beyond but out of the top-2-3 in recruit rankings so be it.

[SFHoya99]

filo said:

Pretty surprising that there was no mention of Chris in the write-up, and that they have us 5th in the league.

That's a good thing. Lower profile may keep some pressure off, and leaves plenty of room for upside surprise, much like DaJuan did last year (I don't think most here were surprised by his solid performance as a frosh, but I would bet most others were).

We're fifth because:

1) Rivals really doesn't like Chris Wright much. Easily his worst ranking.

2) We only have two ranked recruits where most of the classes above us are bringing in three to five.

[kghoya]

im guessing ucon is so low based on their current roster composition...i dont think they had many schollies available

[hoyainspirit]

As we saw in an earlier thread, these class rankings mean nothing today! Talk to me in about three years. We will have a much better handle on whose class ranks where.

[Coast2CoastHoya]

I only saw him play one game this year -- the DC Championship -- but from where I was sitting, this characteristic was very apparent. Also has a Big East-ready body.

cam said:

hoyasincebirth said:

Best basketball IQ: Austin Freeman, Georgetown

That's the one I like the most - I hope it's an indication that he'll thrive in the system...

Interesting to see who's in the bottom 4 ... not a surprise for USF given their bball status and WVU with the departure of Bee-line, but UConn and ND being the cellar dwellers is interesting.

Who's 'Cuse getting that's supposed to be so hot?

[ExcitableBoy]

hoyainspirit said:

As we saw in an earlier thread, these class rankings mean nothing today! Talk to me in about three years. We will have a much better handle on whose class ranks where.

I think this will be especially true for us this year.

This year's class addresses our "weak" front court by adding exactly what we were "lacking" on last year's squad. We would NOT have been better served to bring in a bunch of highly-rated guys to fight over playing time that likely won't be there this year.

I don't think we could ask for a better class and if Rivals wants to call it the fourth best in the Big East, fine. I call it perfect.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Uconn only has one recruit and he's only a 3 star player.
Cuse brought on two Five star prospects in Donte Green and Jonny Flynn as well as 2 four stars and two 3 stars