[quote="austour" post=
Umm, every kid on that list was "transplanted". Have any of them been in the country more than 3 years. :
ALLNET:
Totally irrelevant and immaterial.
We were discussing the importance, to our recruiting, of the greater New York metro area and not where recruits come from prior to their going to high school, community colleges or junior colleges.
The recruits that you refer to as transplants, all were recruited by us directly from New York area schools. That is the relevant factor and that area is Slice Country.
You can slice it anyway you want but our area is SLICE COUNTRY.!
Whether you feel that having another strong recruiter, together with Lavin, is superfluous and that a tactician is more important , therin lies the decision Lavin will make.
.[/quote]
You can discuss what you want to discuss and I can discuss what I want to discuss. I was looking at it from the players side. It's been repeatedly stated by many that these guys are local because they moved to the NY area but they moved there purely to advance their basketball prospects. STJ doesn't become attractive because it's local to them, it's certainly not home. If your position is that Slice relates to and recruits city kids, well the four locals signed this year don't fit that bill. Also, not only aren't they NYers, they weren't part of the NY HS sports scene (trust me, I'm from out Centereach way, it's NYC adjacent like Bakersfield is LA adjacent).
However the point that they're all internationals and NY is so much more multi-cultural than many of their other options was likely a very important factor. Don't need Slice to prove there's a lot of International citizens in NY.
Re the Slice discussion he would be redundant on this staff. You're obviously a big time fan of his if not a friend. I've got nothing against him myself. However if you look at both sides objectively it's easy to see why so many people are disagreeing with you.
Your Points:
* Slice is a great recruiter, you can't have too many great recruiters, talent wins out over coaching
Other folks Points:
* Lavin constructed this staff with guys who fill certain roles. You wouldn't hire an HR superstar to fill the role of a departing VP of Marketing. Doubtful Lavin will replace a tactician with a recruiter
* We already have great recruiters in Lavin and Chiles who signed all these guys from Slice Country without his help and who have already made inroads with the top city kids from the next two classes
* With a young team and only a few rides to give out over the next couple years player development and coaching will be far more important than recruiting
* Slice specialized in finding under recruited kids who ended up excelling in the Howland/Dixon system, Lavin goes after kids at a much higher level
Here's a list of the top 100 players signed by Pitt while Barry was there:
1999: 0
2000: 0
2001: Carl Krauser, #98
2002: 0
2003: Chris Taft, #29
2004: Keith Benjamin, #81
2005: Sam Young, #58, Tyrell Biggs, #71, Levance Fields, #93
2006: Gilbert Brown, #91
One great class, 6 top 100 guys total. 1 Top 50. Only two of those guys were drafted,none in the first round.
Over Lavin's 3 years there's 8 top 100 guys (9 if you want to count the re-recruitment of Jakarr Sampson, 10 if you want to count the transfer of Jamal Branch), 4 top 50 and 2 Juco AA's to top it off. And one of has/will be a first round draft pick already.
Just a little summary. FWIW I don't think anyone on this board would be against hiring Slice if Chiles was leaving.
