DeAndre Hunter, Gertrude, Dunn, Bond. Dont think any of them mentioned faith (even though they may have faith). To the personal connection point, thats literally every d1 coach lol. There has to be a connection between a recruit and coach
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The “wasting time” thing is hilarious to me. To make that charge you’ve got to 1) know how much time and resources were spent and 2) what the alternative “choice” would’ve been. As it is, you’ve just got people crying about not getting a commitment which is the only data point they have.
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“It’s just a matter of time before we hit on a 5 star.”
You raise an interesting data point; I just checked the history books, turns out we are the only school that a) won natty) and b) did not immediately grab a 5* recruit. Moreover, every school over the last 30 years recruited a 5* within 2/3 years of their natty. The only exception was Maryland… it took them over 10 years to get their bonafide 5*. Every. Single. One. Honestly, this goes back even beyond 30 years. So, based on this data, we are literally the only outlier and, in fact, completely on the other side of the spectrum going against 30 years of consistency. We barely get top 50 guys, what makes you think we are going to get 5*? Based on this pretty staggering data, knowing context, I think there is a very low probability we ever get guys like Jarin. We just can’t close these kids. Never have, never will.
Here’s a snapshot (I didn’t bother continuing because going even further back is obvious with Arizona and other blue bloods).
To Maryland’s credit, they gobbled up TONS of top 30 fringe 5* guys throughout this period.
Uconn: 5* -Castle (’23)
Kansas/Kentucky/Duke/Lville/Cuse: 5* - many
Baylor: 5* - George (’22)
Virginia: 0
Villanova: 5* -Antoine and Robinson (’19), Quinerly (’18)
UNC : 5* - Little and White (’18)
Florida: 5* - Boynton (’09)
Maryland: 5* - Stone (’15)
Michigan St: 5* -Brown (’03)
All this to say - it’s quite frustrating, especially in the context of not winning a tournament game in 5 years.
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My favorite post in a long time is someone on the Sabre posted Carla needed to make Bennett manage his time better. Rates as one of the best brain dead, dipshit posts ever.
People complaining about Bennett’s time recruiting Stevenson is funny. Not sure he has really invested much time with many ‘24 kids at all with the exception of Bliss so far.
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I’m not sure why this is breaking… I’d assume he will be suspended every season for a few games for something…
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I guess my question is when did Stevenson become a consensus 5 star? Of the 4 major services, only ESPN rates him as a 5. The other have him as a 4.
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Yeah, exactly. Assistant coach time is there to be wasted. A respectable part of the job is scouting and building relationships with kids who UVA could easily never need or have a spot for, much less intend to actively recruit in case multiple people at the same position get hurt, transfer or explode and leave early and you need to fill a lot of minutes quickly.
Plus, they’re teenagers and you never know how they or the team will develop. If a 3-star kid at a position the team is already deep in has good mechanics, good family and seems like a good kid, why not build a relationship? There’s no downside and if he suddenly grows 5" or the team gets depleted somehow at this position suddenly, you’ll be REALLY glad you did.
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I don’t know if he has been a consensus 5* but i believe he has dropped some in the rankings this year
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I think my point stands, that our program - and thus recruitment - is largely driven by faith, and thus faith underpins our culture and character… Is it always front and center? Not always, but the majority of the time a recruit mentions Tony’s faith in a recruiting article. I’m not being critical of this, generally. Just pointing out that this is largely an objective fact. Also, Dunn, Bond, Gertrude and DeAndre were NOT Jarin Stevenson type recruits. Literally all of them flew under the radar nationally, and were late pickups.If anything, that is our sweet spot. But relying on late bloomers, under the radar type guys is not the greatest strategy, and I would argue it has unintentionally become a “strategy” because our “culture” based recruitment puts us sometimes at a disadvantage and niche for VERY SPECIFIC individuals only.
Leon bond was a top 50 player with Bill self showing up to his games. Deandre Hunter was annihilating 5 stars and would have been a 5 star himself if not for injurues. Wr beat UNC and Gonzaga for Traudt and Gobzanga for Buchanan. Jarin is a player who if he stays in 2024 will end up being a kid ranked in the 60s/70s.
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How do you have an unintentional strategy? You’ve also somehow talked yourself into Gertrude, Dunn, Hunter, and Bond pickups being…a bad thing?
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Leon Bond was literally ranked 94 : Leon Bond, Virginia, Small Forward a consensus fringe top 100 guy.
Almost none of what you just said rating-wise is true. Deandre was ranked #90- you dont go from 5* to #90 because of injury…
Never understood why people try to rewrite history when there is an archive online of factual information and data…
I’m not sure what’s so funny. Could you imagine the number of beach selfies Tony could have taken if he wasn’t throwing his time away recruiting top talent?
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… hes ranked 60. Reread your own link. And look when hr committed what he was ranked
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You’re looking at the rating, not the ranking. He was ranked 60th in the class by 247. Jesus Christ.
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Ha! Haney is a lot of things, but a TB gatekeeper he ain’t.
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I didnt follow it at the time but thinking now, TB landing Dre then and Elijah now look like master class in HS player recruiting to me
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And when he committed to UVA he was ranked 40th
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Ok so Bond is 60, Traudt is 81, and Deandre was 87. ranking, not rating. Fact remains, none of them were even freaking close to top 25. (eye roll)
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Lol. This thread. To me it’s a bunch of who gives a shit. This is nothing like losing Power or Keels. But that’s just me.
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