Running 2019-2020 college hoops thread

Not sure what talent comes out of there, but Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon didn't have problems with recruiting talent there.

 

They never got players from Pittsburgh, IIRC.

I think they were great at taking three star kids from NYC and keeping them for four years.

Adams might have beeen the only big recruit and he was from New Zealand (?).

Hell, going back to Smith, Aiken, Lane... none of them were from Pittsburgh.

 

Howland had Ernie Ziegler -- a big NYC recruiter -- on staff. Ended up going with him to UCLA before taking the Central Michigan head coaching job. Ziegler is back on staff at Miss State with Howland.

 

Basketball isn't football. I follow Rhode Island, and can't remember the last time we had a non-walk on, scholarship player, and we've done fine over the years. Lately, we've mostly been recruiting from the DMV - Direct flights run from the D.C. airport to Providence a couple times a day, and they're cheap, so I imagine it's not a hard sell to recruits, friends and families. Pittsburgh has to be similar. We're not talking about like, St. Bonaventure or Maine here.

 

It was Barry Rohrrsen who brought in all of the NYC talent. When he left to take the Manhattan head coaching job is when you saw a noticeable drop in talent. Dixon also was mad at the school for switching from Adidas to Nike and leaving for the ACC so he essentially stopped recruiting. The last "class" he had had three grad transfers. He was doing the back end version of a one-and-done.

 

You're right, I got Ziegler and Barry mixed up. I know Ziegler has been with Howland at basically every stop, so that's where I got it confused.

 

Rohrrsen's illustrious career has included being fired by UNLV for being too dirty.

 

You're not wrong. During Pitt's 15-year run from 2001-2016 of making sweet 16s and winning Big East titles only one role player came from the area: DeJuan Blair.

 

I don't get the allure of going to college in the area you grew up and live. Get away to go to college, especially basketball. I can see why kids want to stay in Michigan, Ohio, Alabama ... to play football.

It goes back a long way. When Frank McGuire left St Johns to coach North Carolina, he still recruited NYC. They went. Durant wanted nothing to do with Maryland or Georgetown. Most of the DMV kids leave.

 

Hey, I knew I wanted to go to college away from my home area and it had nothing to do with sports. Natural impulse among many teenagers.

 

I stayed in state, but I was about four hours away from home.

 

Staying in state but being hours from home not an option for us Delawareans.