The "missing link", Why we are Missing Out on Recruits?
There has been tons of chatter, comments, and various perceptions on TSSFs as to why the Zags have seemingly been unable to score on a recent string of recruiting targets.
Some excuses: Our coaches were not really that interested, the player(s) were not good enough, they had "issues" of some sort. The player would not get enough playing time, an uncle was a negative influence...and on and on.
Here is an article that adds a different, rather unique reason, a reason that I didn't actually feel existed, or was real...but it is.
I remember Marquise Carter telling me that he reads this very site. I am sure others do too, and apparently, it can have an effect on recruiting. Who'da thunk?
*Make sure you read the comments at the bottom of the article....such nastiness, incredible!
5 months ago
gaz-tastic
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Problem of Too Much, Not Too Little
The recruits we have missed so far this recruiting season were in the front court. We did not failed to land the desired recruits the year before – we got very fortunate to have Kevin Pangos, Gary Bell, and Ryan Spangler. But our successful recruiting last year was the result of a back court bubble that burst as a result of mediocre play from Meech, etc. This allowed us to snag very talented freshmen that believed they could play starter’s minutes (these freshmen were correct by the way).
We now have a logjam in the front court (which is not a bad thing), but we will have a significant need for a true 5 next year. So it is surprising that we have not yet landed an athletic seven footer. As much as I think highly of Sam, Sam is a 4, not a 5. We should put him in the position to succeed as a 4 next year, not force him to play as a 5. (Elias may be in the NBA by that point anyway, so this would work out). I have a feeling that our lack of heavy recruiting for a big man may be because Few thinks he can transform Olynyk into a 5.
In the end, our problems stem from having too much depth and not being able to offer starter’s minutes to a freshman. (Not the worst problem in the world).
See, this is what I'm talking about: "I have a feeling that our lack of heavy recruiting for a big man may be because Few thinks he can transform Olynyk into a 5."
We need reasons to help us explain WHY we are not getting recruits. One of the reasons maybe that recruits read some of these message boards and do not want to come because they do not like the comments.
How else can you explain why we missed out on so many recent recruits? A couple chose to go to WSU over us. Not every player wants to be a Zag. Lots of the "excuses" or reasons we come up with might very well be on the mark…but there is another mark apparently that is hitting home with recruits….and it’s message board comments.
I did not say I agree. But, I guess I can see why an 18 year old would be leery if he feels like the schools fan base is nuts.
In a perfect world, us fans should be able to say what we think. But, there is a cost involved too.
Strange stuff indeed.
Final 4 or Bust!!~
Question
why do you think that fans can say what they want? I think that respect and being civil should always be required when making comments on this board or any board. I believe that any time you communicate to or about other people they deserve respect. Facts or questioning certain things about players, teams, or coaches should be allowed and are expected. But after something has been stated so many times, the question then becomes, are you doing this just to see your comments on paper and have nothing to offer to anything.
Well yeah, of course.
Please don’t take me literallly. I do not mean we should be able to say horrible, nasty things.
The mods on this site wouldn’t allow it in the first place, and I wouldn’t say them.
But, we should be able to feel free to express our observations without fear that we will somehow cause the losing of a recruit…and do it in a way that is not disrespectful or civil.
Final 4 or Bust!!~
King Zag, Welcome!...and excellent first post
I agree with what you are saying. I Just twisted it to help make my example that there just might be something to recruit failures and comment blogs. Your reason is the better one though.
Final 4 or Bust!!~
Great Post! Recruiting at GU is such an interesting subject.
I’ve never heard of this phenomenon here on the east coast. We have so many large cities and so many big colleges that I don’t think this happens. Shoot, in Tobacco Row, all those cities and big-time programs are 30 miles apart. Plus there are so many other distractions.
My theory for the recruiting “woes” is that GU is pursuing higher rated recruits, and thus having less success. I actually think that we should go full bore for the “2nd-tier” recruit and then wait for lightening in a bottle. ( Matty Bouldin, Casey Calvary, etc) I would argue that that’s what happened at Butler. They got the perfect storm. It all came together. More pluses about the 2nd tier guy- maybe a harder worker, maybe a better team guy. Dumb analogy- are you going after the hottest girl at the dance? I admit the rewards may be greater, but your odds of success are definitely not going to be the best.
I think this is it
There’s no mystery behind the fact that highly sought-after recruits don’t always come to Gonzaga. Gonzaga is not the only game in town, obviously, and it’s not going to be the best fit for everyone. Even if you make a bunch of dumb simplifying assumptions, for example — say, if five Khem Birch types have an equal likelihood of choosing among five schools, one of which is Gonzaga — then we should expect to land exactly one of them, not all five.
This is why I HATE
when people on this website say “X-recruit doesn’t seem like Zag material/he seems like a bad egg/we don’t want him”
How do you know what his personality is? Let the coaching staff make judgments on player’s personalities. They get to meet them, we don’t.
This is of course my opinion, but if you don’t have anything nice to say about a potential recruit, don’t say anything.
I agree
In most cases, none of us know anything (exect what we read) about any of the recruits that come and look at GU. The coaches have their questions. The players have their questions. They spend time together and then talk about whether they think this recruit would fit into the program.
I cannot see many (if any) recruits (that the coaches and players would want) that would come in and be able to get many minutes immediately. Now they do need players to come in, learn the system and be ready in 2 or 3 years. Like I hope mr. K from Poland.
I wonder...
how much other bashing comes into play as well. For instance bashing on Hart, Few and Meech, the biggest 3 victims of this website over the last 2-3 years. I’m not pointing fingers, because i’m as bad as anyone else, even though I don’t post very often. I wish we had a resident player on the site that we could get insite from about questions like this.
Excellent questions
I wondered about something…Maybe, just maybe, Pangos told the staff that Birch may not be the guy. You know, behind closed doors, and that played into why Birch is not coing for an official visit? And partially why we backed off?
Pure conjecture, but tons of things go on behind the scences that we are not aware of. And, It’s nothing against Birch, it could be as simple as another players personal observations having an impact too.
Does Coach Few visit this site? Does he actually read the complaints, and act on them? Is this why the 3s have finally stopped raining down? Before I read the article that is linked to this fanshot, I would have never believed we could have any impact whatsoever.
Be carfuls what we say on here……..Merlin told me there would be spies.
Final 4 or Bust!!~
If it was me, I'd read it.
If you were an 18-22 year old kid, would you like to read about yourself? I think the answer is obvious. If you were Madonna or Michael Jackson or George Clooney or LeBron or Michael, etc, maybe you would eventually stop reading the tabloids and other drivel.
I was the 9th or 10th man on my college team. A site like this would have verified my existence, since we often spend much time discussing playing time, even way down the bench.
Not as sure about Coach Few- although, echoing the sentiments of some recent posts here, this site is not exactly lighting up the cyberspace lately. Few could read a day’s worth of entries in about 15 minutes.
Hey- how about this thought……… How do we know there isn’t a mole(s) living here with us? Weren’t you guys teasing SoundPound about something like that recently. If I was a Zags player and a mole on this site, I would be really provocative and try to elicit some feedback and emotional responses to my entries. Hmmm
by MdZagFan on Jan 8, 2012 5:25 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
no offense but that's why you were a 9th/10th man on your team
almost every player at this level of the game are either cocky or confident. the very few who aren’t better learn not to read critical articles.
by TGood '07 on Jan 8, 2012 6:48 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I have always assumed that recruits, and even team members
either read, or have reported to them by friends who read, most of our comments..I really think coaches filter these types of things out..
That said, I think we keep our comments constructive, and when someone crosses the line on being too critical of 17 yr olds, Zach polices it pretty well.
Marquise reads this site?...
Go ahead and shoot those open 3’s – I trust you!
The older I get, the better I was.
by SpoCub on Jan 8, 2012 6:31 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
LOL, now that's funny!
Marquise is a dead eye from three {subliminal},
Marquise is a dead eye from three {subliminal},
Marquise is a dead eye from three {subliminal},
Marquise is a dead eye from three {subliminal}…..cont.
Final 4 or Bust!!~
I call BS
At this level if a player gets affected by a blog, how do you think they are going to react on the court in pre game warm ups with fans yelling a plethora of insults? If a blog can get to them they have no future in professional sports.
First of all I highly doubt any players read this blog. Secondly, bigger schools have blogs with much more seething and cruel comments from their fan base. (so much more is expected from the players).
This fanshot seems to be a lot of conjecture and an attempt to get some discussion going in light of the recent absence of consistent posting. on the main page.
"This fanshot seems to be a lot of conjecture and an attempt to get some discussion going in light of the recent absence of consistent posting. on the main page."
Are you kidding me? Ok, that’s it. I give up.
I am never, ever, EVER, going to attempt to add anything to this site again in an attempt to get discussion going.
Serious…that is the wildest thing I have ever heard on a blog site! Gimme a minute, I have to catch my breath.
ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!! {rolling on the floor laughing my F’ing ass off}
And coming from you….the same guy that says the regular season means nothing, I shouldn’t be surprised……wow. Let’s go ahead and lose all of our games…TGood says they are meaningless so what’s the point? Takes a little of the excitement away from the upcoming game with St. Mary’s though, huh?
Final 4 or Bust!!~
don't go crazy on me...
I like the side posting….good on you for trying to get some discussion going, I didn’t mean to say anything negative about that.
Just in the future please don’t try to tell me that the reason GU is losing big recruits is because of a blog. you want to talk about ROTFLMFAO….
Alright, to clarify, obviously regular season games don’t mean nothing… (sheesh i didn’t know everything was taken so literally). But my point remains that most of the regular season is not very meaningful. Each individual game doesn’t really produce any convincing evidence one way or another about the team’s success overall, where success overall is measured by postseason success. To me what matters most is the postseason and IMO what matters most in relation to post season play is how we are playing leading into it.
The fact that we are 13-2 means almost nothing to me compared to our opinions that we arrive at from our analysis of the team’s play against ND, MSU, Illinois, and Xavier cumulatively. And I suspect that how we play against Saint Mary’s both times and BYU both times will add to it in some degree.
It's all good TGood! {see what I did there?}
And don’t worry, I won’t go CrAzY on ya….I grant you a pass this one time. ;o)
The “side posting” is what keeps em coming back for more…so yeah, pretty much what blogs are for. If the only thing that happened around here was everybody agreeing with each other, and patting each other on the back, two things would happen. It would get boring, and people would stop coming back.
If you notice, I had already posted a new fanshot AFTER I claimed I would never come back again? Purely drama. But don’t tell anyone…it’s our lil secret.
Oh, the reason GU is losing recruits is because of this blog. haha
I said I never believed it myself, but the article that makes a case for it cannot be completley discounted, can it? Unless the players and/or writer is flat out lying? Naw.
Final 4 or Bust!!~
Yeah, I had pretty much discounted it
The author uses more innuendo than any actual evidence. The title talks about “recruiters” being frustrated by fan blog comments, but then he doesn’t interview any recruiters. The whole thing is based on recruits talking about how their feelings were hurt by angry comments made after they had already made their decisions. Is this news? Stupid, angry commenters have been around as long as there’s been an internet, and it’s really no surprise that (a) angry fans say mean and stupid things when they’re angry, and (b) players who have mean and stupid things said about them think that fans shouldn’t say such things.
But does any of this have any real impact on the decisions of recruits? I don’t see a persuasive argument that it does. And even if it did, Zag fans are much less mean and vocal than UW fans.
Just For Fun
Lets make Husky accounts on their site and rip recruits so they wont go to U-Dub = ) I will call my account Husky-Dawg. Everyone come join the party!!!!!
Just kidding…But it cant hurt to let the coaches recruit the players they want and not have us be armchair quarterbacks. The way i look at, if the coaches offer a player a scholarship, who are we to F#$% it up for them.
Go Zags !!!!
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