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Basketball recruiting update 3/24

What worries me more than stars or lack of stars or the numerical rankings of players is that if Katenda ('11) or Jankovic ('12) takes the last scholarship for the next two classes (and I would love to have either one of them) [Redacted]'s first two recruiting classes at Wake will have failed to address what is "arguably" our biggest need: a space eating big guy (a player who is 6'8 or taller and weighs at least 230 to 240 who camps out around the basket on both ends). That is very concerning to me.

I do realize that we could possibly add a post-grad for next year that fits that description but that's just a temporary one year solution. Do the coaches really think Melvin can come back and fill that role and/or does Washington have the potential to put on that much weight without it negatively affecting his skills?

Well Katenda used to be 240 before he got sick so he can gain that weight back so I'm not too worried about Katenda if he commits. Jankovic is a very skilled player but we are also recruiting some other PF's who are big bruiser types
 
Well Katenda used to be 240 before he got sick so he can gain that weight back so I'm not too worried about Katenda if he commits. Jankovic is a very skilled player but we are also recruiting some other PF's who are big bruiser types

If we land Katenda, Jankovic, or someone else who doesn't fit into the big bruiser category there won't be any schollies left for one barring a transfer.

It's just concerning to me that our recruiting to this point hasn't really addressed our biggest need.
 
Katenda has been described as an elite level rebounder from 3rd party sources. He would fill a huge need. Carson has potential down-low if he progresses. The hope is Andre and Daniel will be a lot bigger in 2 years. Daniel has had monstrous rebounding numbers this year.

This is the Wellman/Bz vision for Wake from what I see. I don't agree or really disagree yet but this is just my take on it:

I've noticed a trend with all our 2012 guys in that they had non-existent soph years and just blew up on the scene with great junior years. CMM didn't even play his soph year because of transferring. Washington averaged 3 points a game as a soph and averaged 16 and 11 as a junior. Rountree has just started turning a lot of heads this year. We were on them early and they are all tracking up. High majors were getting their first serious look at these guys and we felt comfortable with our talent assessment and offered early. For a comparison TC was tracking down as a prospect when he landed him.

All three recruits have been touted as having major high upside from 3rd party sources and their main weaknesses seem to be strength related... which is hopefully fixable for 16/17 year old kids. Also I don't think we should have to rely on any of these kids being major contributors their freshmen year but they have great potential to be good ACC level players for multiple years.

Also, they are all touted as high academic guys which I don't say to imply we recruited dumb guys before, but that we are going specifically after smart players. I'm not pimping this as a positive for Wake even though it is, but it is a positive for our team. From the reports I've heard about Bz's system is complicated and some players have had hard time picking it up. I will say a lot of that is failure on Bz as a teacher but it will help if he brings in quick learners. His most successful team ever was at Air Force with high level academic kids. I think the rosy picture that Bz and Wellman are praying for is combining that intelligence of execution with the upside athleticism of our current recruits, that are all at the very likely 4 year players, or maybe 3 years if they really blow up.
 
Fyc, That is a well explained view of our new recruiting strategy and deserves serious consideration. From my vantage point it doesn't seem likely to produce championship teams without a major star to lead us. Right now we have too many role players.
 
Fyc, That is a well explained view of our new recruiting strategy and deserves serious consideration. From my vantage point it doesn't seem likely to produce championship teams without a major star to lead us. Right now we have too many role players.

That is a more than fair concern. I really wish we had a different coach. I am jealous of teams that right now have the potential to land one of these hot up and coming young guys that will fill the program with energy.

But I also understand we are stuck in this situation for a few years. And my personality is one to try to find the possible bright side, and then pull for that.
 
Sounds like our povs are closer than I thought. However, I believe Bz is a bad hire and can't get my support. That is unusual for me since I lked Odomand Skip and Dino was okay.
 
FYC, I think that is a pretty good assessment. It sounds to me like [Redacted] is using the Grobe football recruiting plan for basketball minus the redshirting. Maybe that was one of the major factors that sold Wellman on [Redacted]. I just have a hard time seeing that strategy working out well at this level for basketball. The margin for error in judging talent is very small, 1 or 2 misses sets you back much further in basketball, basketball players tend to develop at an earlier age than football guys, it's much harder to fly under the radar in basketball, in football you're not competing against teams with one-and-done players, etc....
 
Almost all recruiting classes, even highly touted ones, have busts. The highly rated ATT class killed our program. Stabbed it in the face.

Also, 1 or 2 hits in basketball are much more significant than 1 or 2 hits in football. 1 Jimmer can transform a team for years.

ETA: Not saying these guys are anywhere near Jimmer potential or we need to find a Jimmer to be successful... just that the hit in bball recruiting are much more significant as 1 player has a much more profound impact on a team.
 
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That is a more than fair concern. I really wish we had a different coach. I am jealous of teams that right now have the potential to land one of these hot up and coming young guys that will fill the program with energy.

But I also understand we are stuck in this situation for a few years. And my personality is one to try to find the possible bright side, and then pull for that.

We're all pulling for the bright side. The question isn't what the bright side is. It's if Buzz can get us there.
 
Also everyone on the board has a hard on for Stevens, including me. And he dominates Bz in charisma, charm, resume, and age. But the one thing he always says is he recruits "Butler kids" and its very similar to the recruiting plan I laid out.
 
That is a more than fair concern. I really wish we had a different coach. I am jealous of teams that right now have the potential to land one of these hot up and coming young guys that will fill the program with energy.

But I also understand we are stuck in this situation for a few years. And my personality is one to try to find the possible bright side, and then pull for that.

We're all pulling for the bright side. The question isn't what the bright side is. It's if Buzz can get us there.

 
Almost all recruiting classes, even highly touted ones, have busts. The highly rated ATT class killed our program. Stabbed it in the face.

Also, 1 or 2 hits in basketball are much more significant than 1 or 2 hits in football. 1 Jimmer can transform a team for years.

ETA: Not saying these guys are anywhere near Jimmer potential or we need to find a Jimmer to be successful... just that the hit in bball recruiting are much more significant as 1 player has a much more profound impact on a team.

Right; the hits in bball recruiting do more for the program (and more quickly), but the busts hurt more, too. You only have 13 scholarships and you have to have 5 guys out there at a time. A couple of recruiting classes with no bona fide stars or even ACC starter-caliber players is going to put you in hot water real quickly.

Compound that with the fact that our roster currently sucks (unless you think 8-24 is all [Redacted]'s fault, which I find highly doubtful) and [Redacted] really needs most of these '11 and '12 guys to be productive, fast. I don't particularly like the guy or think he should've been hired, but I'm sure as hell rooting for him.
 
We're all pulling for the bright side. The question isn't what the bright side is. It's if Buzz can get us there.

I disagree. People have said multiple times that Wellman doesn't care about winning and he just wants a clean program. They say the culture thing is bullshit. There is no rhyme or reason behind or recruiting strategy. That is all wrong.

I am angry at the season but I don't think firing Buzz does our program any good right now and I see way too much blind negativity without reason behind it.
 
I disagree. People have said multiple times that Wellman doesn't care about winning and he just wants a clean program. They say the culture thing is bullshit. There is no rhyme or reason behind or recruiting strategy. That is all wrong.

I am angry at the season but I don't think firing Buzz does our program any good right now and I see way too much blind negativity without reason behind it.

But that doesn't mean the people who say that don't want to win and win with a clean program.

I haven't heard anybody say there was no rhyme or reason to the recruiting. I've seen people say they disagree with the rhyme or reason.

If that strategy could work, I'm fine with it. I'm just very skeptical that it could work in the ACC at the level we want.
 
This is the Wellman/Bz vision for Wake from what I see. I don't agree or really disagree yet but this is just my take on it:

I've noticed a trend with all our 2012 guys in that they had non-existent soph years and just blew up on the scene with great junior years. CMM didn't even play his soph year because of transferring. Washington averaged 3 points a game as a soph and averaged 16 and 11 as a junior. Rountree has just started turning a lot of heads this year. We were on them early and they are all tracking up. High majors were getting their first serious look at these guys and we felt comfortable with our talent assessment and offered early. For a comparison TC was tracking down as a prospect when he landed him.

All three recruits have been touted as having major high upside from 3rd party sources and their main weaknesses seem to be strength related... which is hopefully fixable for 16/17 year old kids. Also I don't think we should have to rely on any of these kids being major contributors their freshmen year but they have great potential to be good ACC level players for multiple years.

Also, they are all touted as high academic guys which I don't say to imply we recruited dumb guys before, but that we are going specifically after smart players. I'm not pimping this as a positive for Wake even though it is, but it is a positive for our team. From the reports I've heard about Bz's system is complicated and some players have had hard time picking it up. I will say a lot of that is failure on Bz as a teacher but it will help if he brings in quick learners. His most successful team ever was at Air Force with high level academic kids. I think the rosy picture that Bz and Wellman are praying for is combining that intelligence of execution with the upside athleticism of our current recruits, that are all at the very likely 4 year players, or maybe 3 years if they really blow up.

This is a really good take on the situation, and the recent posts on this thread are some of the best I've seen in a while on either board. It's about time the discussion became more objective and less foolish than it has been since the Stetson game. It's funny to me that the creation of this board stemmed from the leading proponents of the foolishness and downright mean-spirited stuff that was thrown Bz's way.
 
What cracks me up is how a bunch of arm chair quarterbacks think they more about recruiting than an NBA respected assistant coach, not to mention a guy than got Burks our of nowhere.

What excites me about all three of our 2012 guys is we offered and took early. Really early.

That tells me that these are the guys they most coveted and took them.

All three have tremendous upside and are very athletic.

I put more faith in Bzzz and our assistants than this board any day.
 
That is wise of you since he gets paid big money and we don't. On the other hand I have been around the ACC a lot longer than him. I think it might work in a mid major conference but not in a power conference.
 
What cracks me up is how a bunch of arm chair quarterbacks think they more about recruiting than an NBA respected assistant coach, not to mention a guy than got Burks our of nowhere.

What excites me about all three of our 2012 guys is we offered and took early. Really early.

That tells me that these are the guys they most coveted and took them.

All three have tremendous upside and are very athletic.

I put more faith in Bzzz and our assistants than this board any day.

The last coaching staff (2 of which are on this staff), took commits4 of our 5 freshman this year around the same time of year as the 3 commits this year. Yet many love to talk about how bad those kids are.

If somehow Coach [Redacted] (plus Coach Larue and Coach Battle) is somehow a better evaluator of talent than Coach Gaudio (plus Coach Larue and Coach Battle), then great.
 
What cracks me up is how a bunch of arm chair quarterbacks think they more about recruiting than an NBA respected assistant coach, not to mention a guy than got Burks our of nowhere.

What excites me about all three of our 2012 guys is we offered and took early. Really early.

That tells me that these are the guys they most coveted and took them.

All three have tremendous upside and are very athletic.

I put more faith in Bzzz and our assistants than this board any day.

If some other coach in the ACC was taking these same commits you would think nothing of it; you would not be impressed in the least. I believe your opinion is completely colored by the fact that we are recruiting them. 90% of the public information about recruits are highlight reels that their supporters put on the internet in order to draw interest. My only judgments about [Redacted] as a recruiter stem from his history of recruiting, which is unimpressive. If you want to trust Bzdeliks recruiting strategy, go ahead. The fact that he recruited Alec Burks does not make him a good recruiter. Why do you trust our assistants to recruit either? They are the ones who recruited the AT&T class which "stabbed us in the face", and they recruited the 2010 class which Buzz supporters have been throwing under the bus for months. The facts are that our last couple of recruiting classes have been highly regarded before they committed to us, and now people are falling in love with our recruits because they commit to us.
 
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I think if you asked basketball people about Wake's recruiting strategy most would laugh out loud.
 
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