I Think We Could Be Recruiting Better Thread

To put this in perspective, we at least have hope with HOF HC we did not a very short time ago. Mike lost his team last season obviously and was not the guy to get the job done.

Rick kind of fell in our lap, the good fortune we rarely see here. Hopefully this translates to the program consistency and success. The slog has been long and painful. Here’s to hoping Pitino is the guy to get us on track.
 
Yes. The very same one.

They have Hubert Davis and we have Rick Pitino
Same coach and 4/5’s of the starters made the Championship game the year prior. That’s how tough it is to guarantee a tourney bid.
 
Like I said we are involved with whatever top 100’s are available, of which there are almost none. Can’t make them materialize out of thin air. I guarantee we will be heavily involved in the 24’ class but most of the 23 class is accounted for. I still hope we can nab a Demary, Dunlap etc. Maybe even a Mgbako but that might be a stretch.

I personally am having a ton of fun seeing what materializes and how this gets a total rebuild, I don’t expect to be near the top next year but I expect we will be competitive and surprise people with a very different style of play.

People need to temper expectations a little because there simply isn’t the HS. talent there at this time of year and we weren’t involved until a month ago. I would like to see us solve a few bonafide starters over next few pickups.
 
What's the timeline to return SJU to the days of Lou and roses?

Rick said he could turn this thing around in "months not years."

How?

Rick said you need to get great players. And the portal would allow him to do that quickly.

So what's the game plan?

Rick said he would first need to release 6 to 8 players on the current roster because they weren't a fit for him.

So what happened?

Rick kept his word and got rid of 8 players - Posh, Dylan, Storr, Curbelo, Jones, Pinzon, Stanley and King.

He also got rid of the three-man recruiting class including Top 100 player Brandon Gardner.

So what does that mean?

Rick would have to build an entire roster around the only player of consequence returning: Joel Soriano.

How has he done so far?

Rick has brought in players via the portal who (on paper) probably would not be considered great:

-Iona's 3rd, 4th and 7th best players,

-a low double-digit scorer from one of the worst teams in cbb,

-and the best of the bunch: the 8th leading scorer on the National Champs.

Rick also missed out on bringing his best Iona player on board.

So is it outrageous to question what's been done so far?

No.
 
Same coach and 4/5’s of the starters made the Championship game the year prior. That’s how tough it is to guarantee a tourney bid.
Davis is definitely on the hot seat because he had the talent, all-Americans and experience to be in the tournament. UNC took so hard they rejected the NIT.
If it happens again next season, he may be gone "before" the invitations go out.
 
No way to sugarcoat things, the first month of recruiting has gone worse than anyone could've expected. I know some defend the current roster as Pitino being a master at developing players, but the issue is Pitino has missed out on most of his top targets so this isn't the roster he envisioned.

The good news is we have Pitino for 6 years and there's still time to improve next year's roster. He's won everywhere else and he'll win here.
 
If you were going for sarcasm I apologize, ignore the next part of this post. I would 100% agree with this. The powers that be at St. John's essential decided to pony up a lot of money from their coffers and go 'all in' on a big splashy coaching hire. I can't imagine when they committed a minimum of $30M but more likely close to $41M (factoring in CMA buy out), they signed up for a multi year rebuild. It's especially frustrating when you see how Georgetown who was in the exact same position as us (2 NCAA in the last 10 years, going 'all in' on a splashy hire) had some much immediate success in the portal and with traditional recruits.
I hear you RSR, but early success in the portal is by no means any kind of guarantee of GT having more overall success then us, both in the short term and/or the long term. While we lament the losses of kids like Ledlum and Timberlake, let's first see how they do at a higher level before counting either as much of a loss. Let's also see how the roster shakes out and how the new kids do individually and collectively, before passing judgement on Rick's recruiting. In short, while we're all somewhat disappointing in the recruiting results so far, it is way to early to pass judgement on the kids we've gotten, the kids we lost out on, and what our roster will look like when they roll out the balls next Nov.
 
What's the timeline to return SJU to the days of Lou and roses?

Rick said he could turn this thing around in "months not years."

How?

Rick said you need to get great players. And the portal would allow him to do that quickly.

So what's the game plan?

Rick said he would first need to release 6 to 8 players on the current roster because they weren't a fit for him.

So what happened?

Rick kept his word and got rid of 8 players - Posh, Dylan, Storr, Curbelo, Jones, Pinzon, Stanley and King.

He also got rid of the three-man recruiting class including Top 100 player Brandon Gardner.

So what does that mean?

Rick would have to build an entire roster around the only player of consequence returning: Joel Soriano.

How has he done so far?

Rick has brought in players via the portal who (on paper) probably would not be considered great:

-Iona's 3rd, 4th and 7th best players,

-a low double-digit scorer from one of the worst teams in cbb,

-and the best of the bunch: the 8th leading scorer on the National Champs.

Rick also missed out on bringing his best Iona player on board.

So is it outrageous to question what's been done so far?

No.

That being said, the next 6 years have more promise with Pitino as opposed to if CMA stayed with all returning players intact.
 
Same coach and 4/5’s of the starters made the Championship game the year prior. That’s how tough it is to guarantee a tourney bid.
Appreciate the notable outlier retort, so I will revise. My baseline is Rick making 6 ncaa tournaments in the 7 years I expect him to coach. He’d be a huge success if he only made 4 in 7, and I think he’ll do better than that here
 
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I hear you RSR, but early success in the portal is by no means any kind of guarantee of GT having more overall success then us, both in the short term and/or the long term. While we lament the losses of kids like Ledlum and Timberlake, let's first see how they do at a higher level before counting either as much of a loss. Let's also see how the roster shakes out and how the new kids do individually and collectively, before passing judgement on Rick's recruiting. In short, while we're all somewhat disappointing in the recruiting results so far, it is way to early to pass judgement on the kids we've gotten, the kids we lost out on, and what our roster will look like when they roll out the balls next Nov.
That's fair and I will never not root for anyone who puts on the jersey and tries, however, i can't help but think if this was a mullin, anderson or lavin class, they would get skewered.
 
Marillac when you talk about top 100 recruits, assume you’re talking about HS rankings which I agree makes sense for HS recruits like Demary and Dunlap. But when it comes to guys from the transfer portal, the rankings become irrelevant compared to how they’ve performed in college, especially at high major level, imho.
It’s the only way to compare apples to apples. Some guys will obviously outperform their rankings and others will underperform. A lot of those guys were actually transfers like #7 Padgett.

FWIW, we aren’t even landing top 25 transfers. Pitino also landed #1 overall grad transfer Damion Lee and top 10 transfer Trey Lewis at the end of his Louisville tenure.
 
That's fair and I will never not root for anyone who puts on the jersey and tries, however, i can't help but think if this was a mullin, anderson or lavin class, they would get skewered.
I think all 3 of them got passes their 1st year. Also, keep in mind, it no longer just about the coach and the school, now there's rhe NIL to contend with. So, while the appeal of playing for one of the greatest coaches of all time is huge for many of these kids, getting an extra few hundred grand in NIL money is almost always even huger.
 
Marillac when you talk about top 100 recruits, assume you’re talking about HS rankings which I agree makes sense for HS recruits like Demary and Dunlap. But when it comes to guys from the transfer portal, the rankings become irrelevant compared to how they’ve performed in college, especially at high major level, imho.

True but then how many of new guys were top 100 in the portal. If you are accepting of HS rankings then you have to accepting of portal rankings by so called experts. Some will under perform their ranking some will out perform (hopefully that's the norm with a coach of Pitino's qualifications). But the lists are directional. At this point in On3's portal rankings there are 3 STJ mentions in the top 115. All leaving. The highest incoming is Alleyne at 117. At least 247 has Jenkins in the top 100 and I believe he will be a productive starter. A Jenkins/Alleyne backcourt is not going to scare our BE foes though. But the presence of Rick probably does.
 
True but then how many of new guys were top 100 in the portal. If you are accepting of HS rankings then you have to accepting of portal rankings by so called experts. Some will under perform their ranking some will out perform (hopefully that's the norm with a coach of Pitino's qualifications). But the lists are directional. At this point in On3's portal rankings there are 3 STJ mentions in the top 115. All leaving. The highest incoming is Alleyne at 117. At least 247 has Jenkins in the top 100 and I believe he will be a productive starter. A Jenkins/Alleyne backcourt is not going to scare our BE foes though. But the presence of Rick probably does.
I don't believe in living and dying by HS rankings, especially once you get past the top 50, but put even less credence in transfer portal rankings which are thrown together over a much shorter period and don't believe you have any consensus, more an individual's opinion. The fact that Murray from Gtown could be ranked #12 in one someone posted yesterday and Storr somewhere around 80 is all I needed to see.
 
To put this in perspective, we at least have hope with HOF HC we did not a very short time ago. Mike lost his team last season obviously and was not the guy to get the job done.

Rick kind of fell in our lap, the good fortune we rarely see here. Hopefully this translates to the program consistency and success. The slog has been long and painful. Here’s to hoping Pitino is the guy to get us on track.
Wishing and hoping. I too hope Pitino is the not just the one to give us a better brand of basketball, but to also give us winning basketball. The two are mutually exclusive. My concern is that he has under performed todate. I am hopeful that he will over perform with the remainder of his recruiting. Many on here thought that all Pitino had to do was throw his jock strap on the court and all the best players would follow the pied piper. That has not happened yet.
 
I don't believe in living and dying by HS rankings, especially once you get past the top 50, but put even less credence in transfer portal rankings which are thrown together over a much shorter period and don't believe you have any consensus, more an individual's opinion. The fact that Murray from Gtown could be ranked #12 in one someone posted yesterday and Storr somewhere around 80 is all I needed to see.

At least with portal rankings you have a preexisting measurable body of work at the level at which these guys are going to be performing at. Yes there are variables like level of competition, coaching, injuries and the like but portal rankings, while still subjective, have a lot more relevant data to go on than HS rankings.
 
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