NCAAbbs

As previously reported...

http://www.caazone.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=79371

Recruiting is a strange phenomenon.

JMU fans are concerned because they signed a big that had only three other D1 offers.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, ETSU fans are estatic that the Bucs signed a big that apparently had no other D1 offers. He may turn out to be great, but my oh my how the expectations in JC have changed.

Hmm I am having trouble remembering.. how many DI offers did Jennings get?

R

Rod,

Your point is taken. But it doesn't address Doc's statement.

No one noticed when Jennings arrived. No one touted it as a great thing.

Doc's point is valid. We used to get Top 100 recruits. Not any more.

Have we ever gotten a Top 100 recruit? Who?


Time will tell, but I think this has been a solid recruiting class. The best we can hope for is a developing big man--we got that. If he is not "developing", then he's not coming to ETSU, UTC, Belmont, etc.

I don't know if they were top 100 recruits, but Zakee was very highly recruited and was all-Arkansas, Fields the same way coming out of Florida, and of course Nuckles coulda gone to Clemson.

Please name one Top 100 recruit ETSU has landed, I sure can't think of any.

R

I don't believe Alvin Brown is a top 100 recruit. My point was and is that fan expectations at JMU and the expectations at ETSU are very different.

Of course I understand that others are trying to make different points, but I just didn't want to be misunderstood.

First one to come to mind was Charles Thaxton. He was a top 50 recruit nationally. He was being recruited by NC and several other ACC schools. I still don't know why he came to ETSU.

He was a crowd favorite in the late 70s & early 80s, even though Jim Hallihan rarely let him play. He was recruited by Sonny Smith, who loved him.

The crowd would yell, "Thaxton, Thaxton, Thaxton" to get him in the game. I went to see an "old timers game" in the mid 90s and there he was. Still smiling. And the crowd yelled, "Thaxton Thaxton Thaxton."

Well thats one, but Thaxton 30 years ago certainly doesn't prove you point.

R

I haven`t seen anyone jumping through hoops because of Seth Coy, I think people are more excited that Coy is 6'11 more than anything considering there is a pressing need for big bodies. I haven`t heard any "well not that we have Seth Coy we're going all the way" type sentiment. From what I've seen on here the excitement level is much higher for Sollazo than anyone else in this class including over the more higher rated Jones.

I suppose I could have named more, but...........

Hmmmm. I believe you asked for one............

No need to thank me.

How about naming one after the iron curtain fell

But it still has nothing to do with you saying..
Rod,

Again as you say you point is taken but it doesn't address my statement. ETSU does not get top 100 recruits. In its glory years, its recent success or whenever it is by far the exception not the rule no matter what level of success ETSU was at. To me your post implied that before ETSU joined the A-Sun and Bartow became coach we
were some kind of recruiting powerhouse landing Top 100 recruit regularly, thats is not true, not even close to being true.

R

Did I say that?

Good thing you don't write for a living, Rod. I don't think you'd pass the mustard.

Nothing personal, mind you.

Doc, why don't you explain to young Roderick what I said. I believe he's confused.

No I read what you said I dont' need Doc to explain it to me but perhaps you would like to explain excatly why you made this post if I am wrong and it wasn't just another dig. Please explain the relevance of that post in this thread for any other reason then the one I said. You have been bitter for the last 25-30 years that ETSU hasn't been able to recruit a Top 100 player and just had to get it out. I am all ears. Please tell us the meaning of your post.

R

Uhmmm. I believe it was in response to THAT post.

A little too much coffee this morning, Roderick?

Fine since you wish to play word games and avoid the question I will spell it out for you. What was the point/reason/relavance of the following post you made in this thread if wasn't just another dig.

Quote:

.
. We used to get Top 100 recruits. Not any more.

It is not fundamentally untrue and misleading so what was your reason for That post, the one above I am sure you can't miss it

I think a lot of us would be interested in seeing some proof/sources of these former "Top 100 recruits" (plural) by ETSU rather than someone just saying 30 years ago we used to get this and we used to get that. I find it hard to believe we ever got any top 100 recruits to come to ETSU, but I would like to see some proof of it.

Let me ask you this-

In the 1970s, was there even the TERM "Top 100 recruit?"

It seems to me this term has come more from the Internet age than anything else. Scout and Rivals hold combines now, newspapers have recruiting experts, etc.

I remember circa 1990 the way I'd hear about the top recruits was from the back page of the preseason annual. Street & Smiths did a survey- usually a guy named Doug Huff of the Wheeling Intelligencer put something together to help supplement his income- and that was about it.

And so you'd get things like "CHRIS WALSH- QB GOING TO MIAMI- TOP RANKED PROSPECT IN THE NATION" primarily because he was Steve Walsh's little brother and he was going to Miami- which was at the time churning out all these great quarterbacks.

I don't know if Walsh ever played a down at Miami.

However, and Rod you do this all the time, the point that Kev is making is clearly that ETSU isn't getting the prospects they once did.

And there is a great arguement that can be made on this. The Bartow players are not the players recruited to the program during the DeChellis era, let alone those recruited by Alan LeForce when he was Robinson's top assistant.

But no, in the hopes of catching someone in a semantics error, you make a federal case out of nothing. I don't know the ranking of the prospects in 1978- and you don't either.

This is just as bad as you trying to make a federal case of the timing of Sam Oatman's injury. I mentioned it occurred during the loss to GSU in the 2001 Conference Tourney. You found out, years later, it occurred before the game.

SO WHAT, SHERLOCK? How does that effect the point that DeChellis made that his absense was a factor in the loss?

Maybe Kev made an exaggeration to prove a point.

HORRORS! HE HAS NO CREDIBILITY WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!

What kind of credibility do you expect to gain by calling him out on this, even if you are right?

That ETSU has always sucked and we should happy with whatever tripe the coaching staff can lure to the basketball mines?

It's not Kev's credibility that's on the line here. Take the arguement out and you'll clearly see it's yours.

A little lingo from an Indiana Jones movie for you, since it's in style again!

As I have pointed out many times Pitt I didn't make the discovery years later, you didn't make the post about it till years later and I called you on it in that same thread. The timing of the injury was important in that case becuase you made a big production on how well Oatman was playing and it was only after he got hurt and left that game that GA Southern came back and beat ETSU when the fact was he never played in the game so it blew your whole story out of the water. Instead of just telling the story you had to embellish it and make Oatmans injury a bigger deal than it really was. YOu keep trying to rewrite history Pitt and sorry not going to let it happen. Not years later,, days later after I let you keep adding little touches to the story to make it bigger and better. You made the whole thing up, as someone who is supposed to be a reporter you would think facts would be more important then just trying to tell a good story.
But I guess fiction is really your strength, those fantasy football pieces you wrote about ETSU football were the best things I have read from you.

R

I am not a Bartow fan or a fan of the ETSU adminstration but it gets tiresome to see people bashing them for everything. Bartow doesn't get Top 100 recruits?? So .. Neither did Robinson/LeForce or DeChellis and they went to the NCAA 6 times between them, whats your point? Is he getting bad recruits? No he seems to be bringing in some talented players. He also until this year really didn't understand how to recruit for need not just hey this guy is a great athlete lets get him and add him to the other 10 guys I have for his natural position and make him play the 5 at 6'6 180 pounds. Yes he has had several players leave the program since he became coach but that was trend that started before he got here and seems to be part of a larger growing problem in college basketball. I think even Jennings commented on how players today are impatient about playing time and knowing thier roles on teams and accepting them.

Bartow's problem isn't recruiting it is X's and O's, he is a bad bench coach and he must be a bad coach in practice because most players don't seem to get any better during their time at ETSU under him. He has proven he can't teach defense make half time adjustments or do much of anything when losing other then stand on the the sidelines like a deer in the headlights. No I don't like Bartow and if he got fired tomorrow I might even throw a little party down at Poor Richards for the board members.(Even Pitt if he set at a different table) But bashing him for something nobody at ETSU has done is just silly.

R

That is all the absolute truth, the way it happened. Any attempts by Pittiful to twist those facts only adds to his reputation as a you-know-what.

On the other hand, he is correct, I believe, in talking about "top 100" recruits - almost. Parade magazine (the newspaper insert) has, at least since the early 80's, if not earlier, had a "top 50" (or similar) for both football and basketball. I believe football came first, though. I was about to make the same point but he beat me to it.

I did no such thing.

Again, I repeated what DeChellis told me in an interview, that Oatman's injury was a factor in the loss to GSU.

THe reason? Let's see here- and here's a convienence you've forgotten to tell everyone- oh yes- it's that YOU KEPT SAYING EDDIE D WAS A LOUSY COACH!!!!!

And to prove it you kept bringing up the loss to GSU.

Now you completely ignore Oatman's injury in the defeat, and the fact that if Oatman was unavailable for the entire game such a defeat would be even MORE excusable than if he was hurt during the game.

So Eddie D had even more room for forgiveness for the tourney loss.

But, hey. That's okay. Say I'm disingenuous. Change the facts. Go ahead.

Because I'm not the one who kept saying "Boy, we'd have been so much better off if Buzz Peterson was hired here."

Hate to break it to you, but even if people do believe your historical rewrite, on the credibility scoreboard it's, as always . . .

ADVANTAGE PITTSBURGH!

Geesh. All because you asked and I answered.

Here's how I knew Charles Thaxton was a top 50 player: I knew Sonny Smith (his son and I were close friends) and I knew some of the other coaches at ETSU at the time.

When Hallihan wouldn't let Thaxton play, it was unbelievable to just about everyone because:

a. He was so much better than the starting center

b. He was a top 50 recruit the year Sonny got him. It was mentioned often. I can't remember the publication - may have been Parade, I don't know. But he was a top 50 that year. I remember seeing the list.

YOU ASKED FOR ONE. YOU GOT ONE. NOW YOU DO NOTHING BUT COMPLAIN.

No wonder you sit on this board all day long.

Forget it you obviously aren't going to answer my real question, the one I posted in BIG BOLD LETTERS underlined and all. You are going to keep addressing the the other thing and acting like you don't understand.

I never,, ever pointed to the GA Southern loss as prove that DeChellis was a lousy coach, I have said often he wasn't a good coach when he got here and he left here as a good coach( good, not great) Again you are trying to rewrite history and again you didn't just post the quote that DeChellis told you that after the game You went into great detail about Oatmans play during the game and his getting hurt late in the 2nd quarter that led to ETSU losing etc. YEah you did, go ahead and deny and lie but yeah,, you did. I know you think you will be proven right if you can just get that last post in and misdirect it.

R

I do find it strange though that absence someone who only averaged 5 minutes in 9 conference games would be singled out as a the reason for a loss.

R