For the first time all spring and summer, I am getting the feeling that our class will not be as good as it should be.
While the staff has worked extremely hard to build relationships with the class of 2018 and work the recruiting landscape, what needs to be done to land the type of kids that most on this board would want isn't going to be and may never be done. Can you be a top half of the conf type team living off of top 125-300 recruits? Yes if you develop those players well and get lucky with some under recruited kids but it leaves a very narrow margin of error.
Some inside the NJ HS/AAU ranks feel a shake up in the staff may be needed. The staff lacks a "politician" who everyone from a HS and AAU level "likes". Brandon Knight is well liked in NJ and PA and was a great hire by RU, he is the kind of person I mean. When you hire a coach whose background is with one specific HS or AAU(especially one that is unliked by the other locals), there is a lot of jealousy and efforts to help aren't made. It leads you to depending on that one program for your kids and some of those kids may not allow their HS or AAU team to have influence on their recruitment. I also think the staff's personalities play a part in this.
For the first 4 years we had heard that the reason we aren't getting kids is because we weren't winning and people didn't want to play for bad teams. In reality the staff that was put together was not a high level staff and was learning on the run. Rutgers is showing you that if you have the right staff recruiting wise, you can get good kids right away. Are they getting great kids, no absolutely not. But they are in a position to be competitive sooner than we started under Coach Willard.
Where are we and what to expect? I think we are in a bit of a reset in terms of our targets. That's why you see a lot of new offers going out. All signs point to Naz Reid heading to L$U to join his GF. As far as new targets, I like some most of the kids we are now offering but they aren't Naz Reid, King, and JQ types. I still think Valdir is a 100% lock. I think Jake Forrester is our main target and a lot of effort is being put into his recruitment. I don't think Lou King is a lost cause, but I also don't feel we lead at this time and we need more then UK to not offer to land him. I want to see how much effort we put into recruiting The SF from Iona Prep, as he def has some potential but I don't know if he is on the top of the Tier B recruits. Kids like Nelson, Moore, and Martin are who we are now focusing on to go with Valdir, Forrester, and hopefully King.
Let's hope we get a few of those commits before the end of September and then enjoy a great season!
While the staff has worked extremely hard to build relationships with the class of 2018 and work the recruiting landscape, what needs to be done to land the type of kids that most on this board would want isn't going to be and may never be done. Can you be a top half of the conf type team living off of top 125-300 recruits? Yes if you develop those players well and get lucky with some under recruited kids but it leaves a very narrow margin of error.
Some inside the NJ HS/AAU ranks feel a shake up in the staff may be needed. The staff lacks a "politician" who everyone from a HS and AAU level "likes". Brandon Knight is well liked in NJ and PA and was a great hire by RU, he is the kind of person I mean. When you hire a coach whose background is with one specific HS or AAU(especially one that is unliked by the other locals), there is a lot of jealousy and efforts to help aren't made. It leads you to depending on that one program for your kids and some of those kids may not allow their HS or AAU team to have influence on their recruitment. I also think the staff's personalities play a part in this.
For the first 4 years we had heard that the reason we aren't getting kids is because we weren't winning and people didn't want to play for bad teams. In reality the staff that was put together was not a high level staff and was learning on the run. Rutgers is showing you that if you have the right staff recruiting wise, you can get good kids right away. Are they getting great kids, no absolutely not. But they are in a position to be competitive sooner than we started under Coach Willard.
Where are we and what to expect? I think we are in a bit of a reset in terms of our targets. That's why you see a lot of new offers going out. All signs point to Naz Reid heading to L$U to join his GF. As far as new targets, I like some most of the kids we are now offering but they aren't Naz Reid, King, and JQ types. I still think Valdir is a 100% lock. I think Jake Forrester is our main target and a lot of effort is being put into his recruitment. I don't think Lou King is a lost cause, but I also don't feel we lead at this time and we need more then UK to not offer to land him. I want to see how much effort we put into recruiting The SF from Iona Prep, as he def has some potential but I don't know if he is on the top of the Tier B recruits. Kids like Nelson, Moore, and Martin are who we are now focusing on to go with Valdir, Forrester, and hopefully King.
Let's hope we get a few of those commits before the end of September and then enjoy a great season!
