Recruiting Notes

• Fast-paced players: Sophomore guard Russell Robinson said the team had been pushing the ball on the offensive end. "I think we will run," he said. "We are real athletic, have a lot of athletes. We've got depth. In order for everybody to be happy we have to run, get playing time for everybody." As far as Robinson playing more two guard than point guard this season, Self said: "I would rather whoever gets it breaks it, (but) Russell has been a secondary handler right now."

It looks like this team is going to be running a lot. All quotes are smiliar to this one, and it looks like only 2 players will be splitting time at PG with Robinson able to run the ball from the SG position.

• Gridiron great: Future KU basketball player Sherron Collins continues to excel in football. Collins, a wide receiver, caught three touchdown passes in Chicago Crane's 32-28 victory Friday over CVCA. Collins has been rated the No. 10 senior basketball player in the country and No. 2 point guard overall by Rob Harrington of USA Today. Future North Carolina player Tywon Lawson of Oak Hill Academy is the No. 1 point guard.

Everybody has Collins as the #2 PG behind Lawson except for Rivals (who still have him as the 2nd best 4-star in all positions), who have Collins at #4. Morningstar is now a 3-star recruit on both Rivals and Scout. If they get Darrell Arthur they will end up with 2 Fives and 1 Three. Not bad for a small recruiting class.

Tech's recruiting class just got a lot better too with another 5-star pick up in Thaddeus Young. It looks like that Final Four run is finally paying off for them. They now have 2 Fives and 2 Threes (Rivals and Scout).

Shit no

Wake won't be able to defend. It's no fun to play defense. It's not like Roy is the master of defenses either, although he is not as bad as Prosser and running the secondary break off a made basket is cool as hell. Plus, teams that average 80-90 points per game are never known for their defenses.

By efficient I mean the caliber of players given the number of scholarships available. Granted UNC's class is huge and they are all good players, but Kansas only had 5 scholarships to give and all went to 4 or 5 star freshmen (depending on the analyst) and a 5 star transfer. Wright can play SG, SF, and PF. Downs can play SG and SF. Rush can play SG and SF. What's the real difference between SG and SF anyway? They're all wings. Even McCants was originally listed at SF on one of the recruiting services. Kansas didn't need post players as they recruited 3 4 star post players or 1 5-star and 2 4-stars, depending on the service, last year, and Giles looks ready to put up All Big-12 numbers this year. And they had to replace a PG and 2 wing players in Miles, Langford, and Lee. I will give you the one and done comment: Downs, Chalmers, and Downs all considered going pro and most analysts consider Wright the best pro prospect of the bunch. So all potentially could be one and done, depending on how their seasons go, although I doubt they would lose more than 1. I hope none end up like Randolph Morris.

Kansas isn't that backlogged at PG yet. Robinson and Chalmers are there this year. Hawkins won't play a whole lot except as a defensive stopper. They have 3, same as last year (but no Miles with guaranted 30+ minutes). Collins will be in next year while they lose Hawkins, so there will be 3 next year also if Chalmers doesn't go pro. Self has always said he prefers playing with multiple PGs so the backcourt can make better decisions. It worked well for Weber and him at Illinois, and I have no doubt it will work fine at Kansas.

Gray was originally recruited as a PG and played a lot of minutes at the position his freshman year. Childress didn't have any trouble finding his shots when he ran the point his Senior year, and I'm sure Gray won't have a problem this year given how down the ACC is this year in the PG slot.

Well

Sure rankings are subjective, but its a lot cooler to be considered to have a top class than to not have one, I guess.

I don't know if you can really call Kansas' recruiting "efficient"...first of all what does that mean? If you mean more "bang for the buck", I would have to go with UNC...they got players at all 5 positions (everything I hear says that Graves is a 2/3, even if he is kinda heavy right now) while, according to scout and most other recruiters, Kansas '05 is a PG and 3 SFs...which is cool, I guess. Somebody can play the 2 I'm sure.

You can't even really say that Kansas' players will stay in school longer considering Rush had been at least flirting w/ the NBA and the logjam KU will have at Point will probably force at least one (more) person to transfer out. I think most people think Wright is one and done and possibly Hansborough if he has a good enough year, but that's ok if these guys are anywhere close to as good as advertised. We'll see.

At any rate, this thread wasn't about Kansas, but UNC v. OSU for this year. I think it is a given that with all the hype surrounding the recruiting classes, next year's ACC/Big 10 challenge will feature a UNC v. OSU game which I think will be pretty cool to see...settle it on the court.

As for this year, we'll see. I think that Roy has proven himself a good enough coach that all the people who think we will be 8-20 again are just haters. Outside of Duke and BC, everyone in the conference took a hit. VT and Miami are solid, but they didn't really add anyone and they were 2nd tier teams last season. I still want to know who is going to shoot the ball for wake considering the best shooter also has to bring the ball up and defend the other team's point. Gray and Williams are good and all, but IMHO the supporting cast is somewhat lacking. Losing Paul and Downey will hurt, but the PG Dukes is supposed to be pretty good and Wake will have a lot of size. The real question I guess is will they be able to defend anyone finally?

Scout.com

Avg. Rating

2005 Kansas = 5.o
2006 UNC = 4.5

Who's recruiting is more efficient? But I really don't trust Scout.com over Rivals.com. Come on, is Q. Thomas really a 4-star for UNC? Were Trent Strickland, Richard Joyce, and Chris Ellis really 4 stars for Wake? Was Moulaye Niang really a 4 star for Kansas? Rivals is a much better recruiting service.

But I guess if my team was as bad as UNC's is this year I would be looking forward to 2006 and 2007 already too. I'll be very impressed with Roy if he manages to get this team a hgh seed (1-8 seed) in the NCAA tournament this year. This team is looking a lot like Kansas' 1999-2000 team, relying heavily on freshmen.

Yep...another link

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/2823284p-9272032c.html

Some more fuel for the Fire

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051018/NEWS/510180400/1002/SPORTS

Rivals.com Rankings

I don't know if Denard was looking at Scout or if Rivals updated their rankings, but this is what Rivals looks like right now.

UNC 2006
Tywon Lawson - #2 PG
Wayne Ellington - #1 SG
Brandan Wright - #2 PF
Alex Stepheson - #13 PF
Deon Thompson - #18 PF

Kansas 2005
Chalmers - #2 PG
Wright - #1 SF
Rush - #2 SF
Downs - #8 SF

Self

Taking 3 different schools to the Elite 8 with many of another coach's players is impressive, any way you slice it. And it's pretty hard not to run the high-low at Kansas the last two years when you have one of the best post players in the country in Simien. Even Roy ran it his last 3 years at Kansas. It's not Self's fault his guards went cold from the 3 all year (except Miles). But don't worry, there will be much more running this year with the athleticism on this team and the lack (at least for now) of a dominant post player.

FYI - Rush was not a McDonald's All-American not because of talent but because he competed at a prep school (Mt. Zion) the last two years. He easily would've had that honor otherwise.

And another thing

While I'm at it, Bill Self is a terrible coach...not Matt Doherty terrible or Pete Gaudet terrible, but terrible none the less. He's a hell of a recruiter, but I think his system is terrible (the high post offense, which Jav swore he wouldn't run at Kansas yet he ran it everywhere else, including Kansas last year)...maybe he will pull a Pitino and win a NC when he finally just collects enough talent to blow everyone away.

Correction...

Brandon Rush, while a five-star, was not a McDonald's All-American. Kansas has 3 McDonald's All-Americans coming in, not 4.

And...

"Javier once told me that Roy Williams was tired of recruiting, that Bill Self is a better recruiter and that UNC would no longer be getting blue chip basketball players..."

I never said Roy was tired of recruiting. I said he hates recruiting and is tired of coaching. He's even said he may quit after 4-5 more years. He admitted he was ready to leave the college game but the recruiting class of Collison, Hinrich, and Gooden gave him new energy and enjoyment since those kids came from good homes, never asked for anything, and always gave 110% once they came to Lawrence.

Also, I never said UNC would no longer get blue-chip players. I've always said Roy will recruit better at UNC than KU, but Self will recruit better at KU than Roy did. The statements quoted above are just flat-out lies.

Not so fast...

Ohio State's class is still better. They have 4 five-star recruits, including the #1 player in the country. I'll also take Kansas' 2005 recruiting class over UNC in 2006. Kansas has 4 McDonald's All-Americans coming in and one five-star transfer eligible in December. That is 4 fives and 1 four versus UNC's 3 fives, 2 fours, and 1 three-star for 2006. And let's not get ahead of ourselves because a lot can change; Kansas' 2005 class would have been 5 fives if the fall recruiting rankings had held (Downs was downgraded after switching high schools), so players in the 2007 can still move up or down. Kansas' class won't be as deep in 2006 because they only have 3 scholarships, but one has already been given to the #4 PG in the class and another to a local player, so Kansas will bring in a small but solid class in 2006. Wait until you see what Self does in 2007 with all the scholarships opening up. Kansas' Midnight Madness was a who's who of blue chip recruits in the 2007 (and 2008) classes, with over 10 four and five-star recruits coming in to check out Allen Fieldhouse. 2007 (and 2005 for that matter) is a much deeper pool of talent than the 2006 class, which many consider to be weak and why Self has publicly said he may save his last scholarship.

I'll give Roy props for 2 good recruiting classes in a row (for once) in 2005 and 2006, but I'll still take Self's recruiting abilities over Roy. After all, if Roy can recruit better in UNC than KU, than it must be harder to recruit at Kansas than UNC, which makes Self's ability to recruit that much more impressive.

Self (04) - 1 five, 4 fours (lost a four after Galindo transferred)
Self (05) - 4 fives, 1 four, 1 three (our three star turned pro in baseball)
Self (06) - 1 four, 1 unranked, 1 remaining
Roy (04) - 2 five, 1 three (lost one of the fives to the NBA)
Roy (05) - 1 five, 3 fours
Roy (06) - 3 fives, 2 fours, 1 three
Ohio State (06) - 4 fives, 1 unranked

And let's see how they pan out before getting too excited. Shit, even Reyshawn Terry was a four-star. And J.R. Giddens was a five-star. We all know how both of those turned out for UNC and KU. We'll see what Self does with this year's team now that locker room cancer Giddens is gone.

And I wouldn't bank on Roy for a title in 2007 just yet. Kansas will be loaded, as will Duke. And they may not be handing out bs travelling calls in 2007 in favor of UNC (everybody knows that 'Nova travelling call was really a UNC foul).

Long, long ago

Javier once told me that Roy Williams was tired of recruiting, that Bill Self is a better recruiter and that UNC would no longer be getting blue chip basketball players...

Gentlemen, may I present what has to be the #1 recruiting class in America:

Tywon Lawson - #1 PG
Wayne Ellington - #1 SG
Brandan Wright - #1 PF - Nashville representing!!
Deon Thompson - #3 C
Alex Stepheson - #13 C

and just to be fair, our prerequisite 4-year player, William Graves (NR) from Greensboro (who says Roy deosn't recruit in-state?)

Maybe Ohio State's class is better, but that is only because of the hype around Oden.

We will definitely take some lumps this year, but 06-07, we are going to kick major ass...2 titles in 3 years for Roy, perhaps?

What do you think of Roy's recruiting now, Javi?

DMick