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In this day and age of AAU, high school recruiting analysts, high school players having representatives, agents, etc, there are really no more guys that fall through the crack. If this kid goes to a Southland school, there's no way that he's a Big East level type recruit, there's a big gap between Big East and Southland. Stars and rankings don't mean that much in the grand scheme of things, but I have a feeling this kid went to the right level.Originally Posted by Juice752
Tell that to Gordon Hayward and Paul George.
Gordon Hayward was a 3 star recruit and ranked top 100 in many recruiting sites. He was also a 6'7 shooting guard who was offered by Purdue, Butler and some Big 10 schools. So he turned down Purdue, his biggest offer, for Butler, a consistently top 25 team. There's not too much of a drop off between Butler and Purdue. Now if he had went to IPFW instead of Purdue or Butler then you would have a point.
Paul George was a also a 3 star recruit who was a ranked in the top 50 by Hoopscoop. He committed to Pepperdine going into the summer of his senior season, had a big summer on the AAU circuit. Because of a coaching change at Pepperdine, he opened up his recruiting, Pac 10 school then started to recruit him but because of the available playing time and the proximity of Fresno St to his home, he choose Fresno St. Again, the WAC is below the Pac 10, but not as big of a gap between the Big East and the Southland. George was also a 6'8 wing, he just choose a school where he would play right away.
The Stewart kid is 0 stars and his biggest offer was La Tech. He will probably have a good career at NW St, but Paul George and Gordon Hayward, he's not.
Yea, yea, yea.... and we shouldn't have recruited Daniel Porter and Antonio Baker because their only offer was from USL.... blah, blah, blah..
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap/...-iowa-hawkeyes
I don't get it, what does this link have to do with anything?
Northwestern St. beat Iowa. Upsets happen all the time in sports especially in the NCAA tournament. That doesn't mean that NW st is a better team than Iowa.
Didn't Miami (OH) almost beat Kentucky this year, then La Tech blew out Miami?
And about recruiting Porter and Baker, contrary to what a lot of people on this board think, in the grand scheme of things, there's not that much difference between the Sunbelt and WAC.
I think I've lost the point you're trying to make here.
1. Tech offered a kid who went to Northwestern (and Tech was his "best" offer).
2. Your contention is that he isn't that good because he is going to Northwestern and Tech is his best offer.
3. I think the counter-argument is that he might be (or have the potential to get) "good" because recruiting is an inexact science and the best players don't always sign with the biggest "name" schools.
4. You disagreed with this (I think).
I can see where you can make the case that difference in BE and Southland basketball is larger than the difference in WAC and SB football, but I think you're being pretty nebulous with your generalizations.
Recruiting is an inexact science. Evidence for that abounds.
And as for the difference in SB and WAC football, I think it depends on how grand your "grand scheme of things" is.
I don't know if Gary Stewart is a big loss or not. I do know that he's the second-best player that I personally saw this year, behind Markel Brown, who is going to Oklahoma State. I am not a full-time talent evaluator, and I don't get paid to do this for a living, but I do know a thing or two about talent when I see it (and my track record isn't too shabby, although you wouldn't know that). I think Gary Stewart can play, and he can play at a WAC level. I think he's a tremendous get for NSU and is going to be an all-Southland player for the Demons. That's my personal opinion, based on watching Stewart with my own eyes.
The fact of the matter is that saying "Tech should not be recruiting against NW St." is about as dumb as saying that Tech should not be recruiting against LSU, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas A&M and Ole Miss. Tech has to go after better players if the program is going to improve. Northwestern State has to go after better players if its program is going to improve. I personally believe the Demons got a good one in Stewart.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
That's bull crap. Yes, it's a lot tougher to fall through the cracks in today's society, but you're ignorant if you think it can't happen. Just look at Markel Brown. He played at Peabody, which is one of the best basketball programs in the state. It was widely known locally that he was probably the best player ever to come through the program. But he wasn't known nationally because he never played AAU ball until this past summer. He plays with Louisiana Select, blows up, gets a couple of big offers, and then ends the year at #35 on Max Preps' top 100. In fact, it's an absolute shame that Markel Brown wasn't a McDonald's All-American. He's the best player I've ever seen -- and that includes Greg Monroe, LaceDarius Dunn, Tweety Carter and Paul Millsap -- and I've been on record for a while as saying that. But he was under the radar due to a lack of national exposure.
Do you know anything about Vidalia, La.? It's in the middle of nowhere, about 90 minutes from Monroe, Alexandria and Baton Rouge. This is a very rural area, and these kids don't have all of the resources in the world available to them. It's very understandable if certain kids don't have the means to play AAU ball. Does it mean they can't play? No, it doesn't.
Here's the difference here. You "have a feeling" this kid went to the right level. But I watched the kid play with my own eyes. He is very good, as was his point guard teammate, Torren Dixon, the 3A MVP. This team, led by Stewart and Dixon, finished as the 3A runner-up in '09 and won the 3A title in '10. These are very good players who simply didn't get a whole lot of exposure because of where they lived and the lack of AAU presence.
the bold, the beautiful, theprofessor
Great point. That's probably the smartest post on this entire thread. People forget this.
HD
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