[quote="Chicago Days" post=277021][quote="OLV72" post=277012][quote="NCJohnnie" post=277006]Chicago Days wrote: That’s one reason why I applaud recruiting Josh Roberts and Marcellus Earlington and Greg Williams—whose ‘profiles’ seem to be talented / promising kids but also seem grounded with balance and who seem to ‘want to’ be at St. John’s.
Completely agree with the above point.[/quote]
What leads you to believe any of these players would pass on transferring out as a graduating senior? When they see themselves being recruited over during their freshmen or sophomore years why would they not listen to their advisors telling them the grass is greener somewhere else and it's worth sitting out a year?
Grounded kids leave too - probably at a higher rate.
This trend has impacted the johnnies more than most, but there are 800 plus transfers a year and growing. The PC team that just lost again in the first round lost one of their top players to Syracuse two seasons ago.
The key is to pull in the replacements during the free agency period.[/quote]
The reason other BE programs like Seton Hall, Providence, Xavier, Marquette, Creighton, G*Town, Nova have solid player retention is that they’re winning programs recruiting from strength, with a few ‘Ships given to 2*/3* kids who want to be ‘there’ and stick around and develop their games for 3-4 years.
That’s a far better ‘stick’ rate than we’ve achieved—and for the reasons noted: a program in rebuild-Mo for most of the past 20 years, and one that had to ‘reach’ for kids with ‘stars’ in their eyes.
I am confident that ME, GW, and JR may break our skid.
But, you’re right, who knows in our nutty ‘fantasy-island’ driven college ‘game’.[/quote]
Right. I think some are missing the point as to why we've had such bad retention rates. We've been a losing program for two decades. Most other Big East teams are winning programs that just reload at will. Plus, throw in the fact that Mullin came into a bare cupboard and had to take what he could get in year one. He also had to take some risks. What that led to was him recruiting over the first class in year two and so forth. We're still not a winning program and kids want to win so they leave. To me, none of this is unexpected and that's why I said next year is such a huge year for the future stability of this program.