I Think We Could Be Recruiting Better Thread

[Mike Zaun Returns]

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect much more recruiting wise at this point. I’m admittedly impatient, but trying to let it play out & see how we fare with Rick 1st yr. May not be popular to say, but IMO Rick’s scorched earth “zero guarantees” approach may have to change in NIL (now free agency) era. It will be very tough getting top kids if we don’t guarantee starts & PT IMO. Just my opinion. That said, there’s no one else I’d want as our coach, so he gets my benefit of doubt unless proven otherwise.

 

[Footwork21]

Honestly, I have been thinking more about it and one big reason this start for Pitino has felt kinda off is because we retained barely anyone important. Previous players/previously committed recruits. I feel like almost everyone would be feeling better if Storr and Gardner were on the roster for example. Two talented 4 star guys would be huge. So I am sad about that.

When we hired Pitino I assumed the allure of playing for Pitino would keep Storr and Gardner around. Oh well.

I do think having to replace an entire roster has hurt us. I can't say specifically whether it has cost us any potential recruits but I could definitely see it being a factor. If you're an upper echelon portal player, you're looking for a situation where they can plug you in right away and you're good to go. You already know who most of your teammates are going to be and can decide whether you can co-exist with them, on and off the court.

Having to replace 11 players, especially before that first recruit decides to take the leap? That might be a tough sell to a guy who can pick and choose his destination from several desirable options. It's possible that some of these guys just weren't comfortable committing themselves to a situation with so much uncertainty.

At first I was a bit annoyed that some of these guys weren't coming back, not only because I wanted to see how they would do with better coaching but also because I do think it would have been easier to recruit with a more complete roster on hand, but you don't hand the keys to somebody as accomplished as Rick Pitino and then not allow him to run the program the way he sees fit.

Five years down the road, if this experiment has blown up in our face, I'll join everyone with pitchforks and blowtorches but for now I'm going to see how everything unfolds and worry about it then.

 

[fat johnnie]

The only reasonable thing I can say about this thread is that when we criticize in game coaching decisions, we are sometimes right after the fact but likely every single one of us would know way less about coaching a game at this level than our very worst coaches over the past 30 years.

When we think about recruiting, we are all way over our heads to know what it's like to try to go after a top player. One thing I'm certain of is that Pitino has done this as well as anyone over his career. IT's a very dirty business, and now the money that was under the table is now on the table. The limitations he has right now is that he doesn't have a bundle of NIL cash basically because no one, NO ONE (not even you know who) has immediately committed huge $$ to NIL. I know that there is a big donor stepping up, but there are other things in the works, including Pitino working that end too.

The truth is at this moment, Pitino doesn't have the NIL available to him to compete well at the top rung of portal players.

Ultimately this, and the lack of facility upgrades were Mike Anderson's undoing.

 

[Beasts of the East]

Repole has the money. Maybe the plan is to save it and spend on the upcoming class.

It could be that Repole will start his own NIL, which does take some ramp up time. In the interim, he could have dumped some money on the current Portal group to make us more competitive there. Easy for me to spend his money though. I've heard he is wealthy though.

 

[dk423]

If the NIL money isn't there right now, then that definitely alters my expectations for recruiting this cycle.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

If the NIL money isn't there right now, then that definitely alters my expectations for recruiting this cycle.

Hmm, if you were a portal player of high regard and Pitino announced he was going to bring back the entire Anderson Roster , excluding Curbelo and Pinzon , would you jump at the chance to join a 8 th place team?

Probably not . Would you want to play with Jones who would put it up 23 times in a game ? And , never pass the ball ?
Jones wasn’t the replacement to Champ many on this Board touted him to be .

Lest you think I’m picking on Jones , I m only stating facts . He came here , played a year and now will play elsewhere . But , to think Pitino would have kept him here as he rebuilds serves no purpose . Jones has talent and will find a landing spot . He hasn’t yet and that speaks for itself . Let another Coach try to harness Jones’s abilities within a team structure .


There are other players that left or encouraged to leave . That is what College BB is all about these days . Schools are essentially buying a Players services for a year . That’s it .

The well known rigors of playing for Pitino might not fit the frame work of the way the Players want to play for . No spots guaranteed .

It’s not disrespectful to ask the utmost from your players . It is they who make the final decision . Soriano , Traore, Keita chose to stay and play for Rick , others did not or were encouraged to y transfer out . It’s truly Free Agency each way . Player and School. It’s the reality of today .

 

[logen]

The only reasonable thing I can say about this thread is that when we criticize in game coaching decisions, we are sometimes right after the fact but likely every single one of us would know way less about coaching a game at this level than our very worst coaches over the past 30 years.

When we think about recruiting, we are all way over our heads to know what it's like to try to go after a top player. One thing I'm certain of is that Pitino has done this as well as anyone over his career. IT's a very dirty business, and now the money that was under the table is now on the table. The limitations he has right now is that he doesn't have a bundle of NIL cash basically because no one, NO ONE (not even you know who) has immediately committed huge $$ to NIL. I know that there is a big donor stepping up, but there are other things in the works, including Pitino working that end too.
The truth is at this moment, Pitino doesn't have the NIL available to him to compete well at the top rung of portal players.

And you made a great point in another post about that setting the NIL up, legally and monetarily, takes time also.

 

[monte]

I think we're all pretty sure this will be true but you can't make a Maserati out of Kia parts no matter how good a mechanic you are.

I'm guessing then that you don't subscribe to the old adage about "making lemonade out of lemons"

 

[monte]

Maybe, just maybe, rather then way overspend for kids like Ledlum and Timberlake, Rick and the money men are waiting for good enough value in the kids they spend on. Keep in mind that I'm sure there's a bit of a self-imposed "salary cap" on how much the school can spend. I had a conversation this morning with another poster and used this analogy "If I owned a business and could hire someone at 50k per year or someone slightly better at 200k per year, I'm going with the hire for 50K per year and looking for another way to spend the 150k". I trust that men way smarter then most of us are handling this business side of this in an efficient manner. Maybe they hold off on the big spending till next year, when hopefully thing calm down a bit. Just saying, I'm certain that there's a lot going on behind the scenes to make us a successful program again. Maybe it's gonna take a little longer then we'd like, but we're in better hands then we've ever been, and we'll get there. We don't have to have blind faith, but we may need to have some patience.

 

[dk423]

Maybe, just maybe, rather then way overspend for kids like Ledlum and Timberlake, Rick and the money men are waiting for good enough value in the kids they spend on. Keep in mind that I'm sure there's a bit of a self-imposed "salary cap" on how much the school can spend. I had a conversation this morning with another poster and used this analogy "If I owned a business and could hire someone at 50k per year or someone slightly better at 200k per year, I'm going with the hire for 50K per year and looking for another way to spend the 150k". I trust that men way smarter then most of us are handling this business side of this in an efficient manner. Maybe they hold off on the big spending till next year, when hopefully thing calm down a bit. Just saying, I'm certain that there's a lot going on behind the scenes to make us a successful program again. Maybe it's gonna take a little longer then we'd like, but we're in better hands then we've ever been, and we'll get there. We don't have to have blind faith, but we may need to have some patience.

The toughest part of NIL for me is we literally have no idea. Maybe it's taking longer than expected to develop these legal entities, maybe its more expensive than expected, maybe it actually is less about NIL than we're attributing to. It's like assessing MLB free agency without hearing how much a player got in the contract & how much a MLB team's payroll is.

 

[kranmars]

Maybe, just maybe, rather then way overspend for kids like Ledlum and Timberlake, Rick and the money men are waiting for good enough value in the kids they spend on. Keep in mind that I'm sure there's a bit of a self-imposed "salary cap" on how much the school can spend. I had a conversation this morning with another poster and used this analogy "If I owned a business and could hire someone at 50k per year or someone slightly better at 200k per year, I'm going with the hire for 50K per year and looking for another way to spend the 150k". I trust that men way smarter then most of us are handling this business side of this in an efficient manner. Maybe they hold off on the big spending till next year, when hopefully thing calm down a bit. Just saying, I'm certain that there's a lot going on behind the scenes to make us a successful program again. Maybe it's gonna take a little longer then we'd like, but we're in better hands then we've ever been, and we'll get there. We don't have to have blind faith, but we may need to have some patience.

Hey Monte, you would never submit a screen play or script in this manner because you have respect for actors, blah, blah, blah.

We deserve the same respect. We have elitist like MJMaher here.
We deserve paragraphs.

 

[monte]

Hey Monte, you would never submit a screen play or script in this manner because you have respect for actors, blah, blah, blah.

We deserve the same respect. We have elitist like MJMaher here.
We deserve paragraphs.

I try Kranmars, I really do, but sometimes when I'm on a role-whether typing or speaking-I don't come up for air out of fear that I'll forget what I want to say. Have patience with some of us old farts

 

[fuchsia]

I try Kranmars, I really do, but sometimes when I'm on a role-whether typing or speaking-I don't come up for air out of fear that I'll forget what I want to say. Have patience with some of us old farts

And some of us have mellowed to the point that we forgive thespians for using the "role" they know better instead of its more apt homophone "roll".

 

[Roamer]

Patience. Patience. Patience. If RP can not resurrect this program then no one can. Too early to judge. Lots of spots left to fill and lots of time. The one clear thing is that if RP is not able to resurrect the program then we know that most of the blame levied against prior coaches may have been unwarranted as they were doomed for failure.

 

[austour]

The only reasonable thing I can say about this thread is that when we criticize in game coaching decisions, we are sometimes right after the fact but likely every single one of us would know way less about coaching a game at this level than our very worst coaches over the past 30 years.

When we think about recruiting, we are all way over our heads to know what it's like to try to go after a top player. One thing I'm certain of is that Pitino has done this as well as anyone over his career. IT's a very dirty business, and now the money that was under the table is now on the table. The limitations he has right now is that he doesn't have a bundle of NIL cash basically because no one, NO ONE (not even you know who) has immediately committed huge $$ to NIL. I know that there is a big donor stepping up, but there are other things in the works, including Pitino working that end too.

The truth is at this moment, Pitino doesn't have the NIL available to him to compete well at the top rung of portal players.

That is enlightening. I suppose he didn't know this coming in when he promised a rebuild in months. Now I am at ease. Partly serious since I'm not really worked up about it - I personally like the back and forth banter, it's like going into a bar for a fun conversation, and most of you are drunk most to the time as well. I don't take it all too seriously. Back to the point, you need NIL to compete, we all know that. Hope it eventuates. And to Logen talking about recruiting mid majors I would counter at least get the top mid major players, on their teams if not in their conferences, though I'm sure that is NIL drive as well. But that was my expectation. I guess that makes me delusional. I still am happy he's here and hope that the class of '24 is a big upgrade over the class of '23 and starts to move the needle. Pitino has an expiration date and we all know he has a lot of work to do, no one works/lives forever.

 

[kranmars]

I try Kranmars, I really do, but sometimes when I'm on a role-whether typing or speaking-I don't come up for air out of fear that I'll forget what I want to say. Have patience with some of us old farts

For the record, I am a card carrying member of the old fart club.

 

[monte]

And some of us have mellowed to the point that we forgive thespians for using the "role" they know better instead of its more apt homophone "roll".

I'm always thinking in terms of "auditions".lol

 

[stjohnnie75]

I don’t know; do you? And isn’t the problem with all you guys that he is only getting mid-majors?
And I guess kids have no input into where they are going to school! Steered like robots by HS/AAU coaches and handlers. Why even have the players do visits then, do their advisors come along with them? Yes, advisors do just that, advise, but anyone who doesn’t make those decisions for themselves, with serious family input, are fools IMO.
Look, you guys can knock Pitino all you want, obviously you should if that is your opinion, but I think what I think and I think you are all living in la la land as far as your expectations a month into his signing. Never mind waiting to see what his team will look like comprised of players the vast majority of posters on this board have little to no real knowledge of. I have no idea of success or failure record wise next year but I damn well know I will be watching a team I can watch for 40 minutes and 35 games. And that is my expectation. Others may disagree.

Wasn’t really knocking Pitino just pointing out that your previous post didn’t make much sense. But great rant

For the record I see nothing wrong with feeling that the recruits to date have been a little underwhelming. Hopefully, we can reel in a few bigger fish with the last few spots. Pitino himself said he was going to turn things around in a few weeks and he still can.

 

[johnsliva]

For the record, I am a card carrying member of the old fart club.

I am Older and Smellier

 

[johnsliva]

This thread should get more interesting now that posh is returning.