Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › Recruiting Projection
This topic contains 9 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by lehigh90 12 years, 2 months ago.
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November 26, 2012 at 7:20 pm #8149
Everybody knows that it is always easier to recruit when your team is having success and you have big name player(s) on the roster. If you look at the modern history of Lehigh hoops, they have had 2 short runs of high level success, what I would call the Queenan/Polaha era and the McCollum era. As we have discussed on this board at length, when you are having a burst of success you have to cash it in on the recruiting trail. Going back to the Queenan/Polaha era, after the success of that team and the NCAA games against Georgetown and Temple, Lehigh was able to recruit and sign two future program superstars in Dozie Mbonu and Bob Krizansky. Both of these guys in the post Queenan/Polaha era would go on to finish as top players in the program’s history, and I think both currently still stand as Top 5 All-Time Scorers. So, the success of Queenan/Polaha brought additional high level players to the program. Those 2 were not able to continue the success of the prior era, but both had great careers. Now that we are coming to the end of the CJ McCollum era (Big 3 Era, CJ/Gabe Era, whatever you want to call it), the question becomes will Lehigh cash it in on the recruiting trail? This upcoming class of Price, Kempton and Whitfield, is really the first test as these guys were recruited during and after the PL and NCAA run. I think the Chuku, Carter and Goldsborough class was a year premature on the cash in theory, but undoubtedly CJ helped there as well. So, who is going to be the next Mbonu and Krizansky, or even better, who is going to be the next McCollum, Queenan or Polaha?
Chuku? Price? Kempton? Carter? Goldsborough? Whitfield? 2 other potential scholarships?
This is a critical time for Reed’s recruiting.
November 27, 2012 at 1:55 am #8155Great post 90, as usual man, pretty well thought out. For LU to have some sustained success, AP/TK/SW has to be a CJ/GK/HG type class. In fact, adding JC into that mix as “newcomers” for next year, I think you need 2 all league guys with one of the two being legit league MVP talents. On top of that you need one of the other two to be atleast a HG type guy. Next year’s junior class, at best, is going to finish up 4 years with a C+/B- score. 3 Schollies, no starters in first two years(granted team was loaded) and at this point no guarantee starters next year either. I know CS has a shot and CB would as well, but not guaranteed right now. DC, JG, JC class gets an incomplete right now, but certainly the impact through 6 games is quite below what expectations were. AP/TK/SW + JC have to pretty much all break right for a legit sustained run, and agreed Reed/Co need to hit next years class hard as well. If you can get back to back home run classes you are pretty much set for next 4 years.
November 27, 2012 at 4:59 am #8158My best guess is that recruiting ins not yet done for this year’s class. I think we may still get someone in the late signing period, perhaps a late bloomer.
November 27, 2012 at 11:31 am #8159Assuming Bailey goes after this year, I certainly hope your right TMH in that otherwise we’re down 2 schollies again next year. I’d think we’d have some recruiting momentum after last years season and hopefully some more success this year. Was CJ Spring signing period or november, anyone remember?
Also, if you check game notes, it clearly lists BJ as a walk-on? Odd right? So are we really down 3 schollies this year?
November 27, 2012 at 3:24 pm #8162I have no insider info, but the feeling I get is that BJ is gone after this year. He clearly seems to view the Big 3 as “classmates” and even the groupings on the poster schedule have those 4 together.
As for the scholarship limit, I can see no reason on why the Athletic Department would so clearly note that BJ is a walk-on unless that is truly the case. Obviously he has had some unusual circumstances, so no one truly knows, but I have to think that he is not being counted against the scholarship limit.
The other question however, is if LU is going with the NCAA limit of 13 basketball scholarships, or limiting themselves to 12 like Lafayette and even Bucknell. Bucknell had 13 scholarships for awhile but it was apparently in order to balance their classes after some incoming and outgoing transfers and skewed the numbers. Is it possible the Lehigh too is trying to limit themselves to 4 classes of 3 scholarship athletes at a time? I can’t remember a class that included more than 3 scholarship players.
November 27, 2012 at 6:48 pm #8167Could we be looking at a starting 5 next season of:
MM (1) AP (2) SW (3) JC (4) TK (5)?
I think that could be a real possibility. I think Reed needs to give a lot of thought early next season, to potentially turning the page and starting with a clean slate to try and rebuild quickly. If history is repeated the incoming group after the McCollum era may be more talented that what is on the current roster (Big 3 excluded). In my opinion, guys like CB, AD, JG, CS, DC and SC may never be true impact players (potential to be first or second team PL). Maybe you try to get a core group together for a 4 year run, and hope they develop quickly. Just a thought.
If you look at the major impact guys in recent history, they all pretty much were starters day 1 on campus. I can’t think of a stud Lehigh player that sat for an extended time on the bench before getting big minutes. If you look at a list from the last 25 seasons you have guys like Queenan, Polaha, Krizansky, Mbonu, Olivero, Logie, Glenn, McCollum, Knutson, Hall, McKnight and all were starters Day 1. Guys who transferred in later like Rowland and Knight also were starters day 1. The only impact guy who may not have started for 4 seasons that I can recall would be Eppehimer, but not sure about that.
To muddle this a bit more, I think that if Reed is going to try to make a jump up the coaching ranks, this is the obvious offseason to do it. Maybe he can move up to a MAC, A-10 type of job. If Lehigh again wins a conference championship and has a respectable NCAA showing, his worth may never be higher. Does anybody who has had interactions with Reed have a feeling on this? Could he be happy at Lehigh for the long-term or is this a stop on his step up the ladder? This is going to be the most critical offseason since McCaffrey left and David Duke took over.
November 28, 2012 at 5:28 pm #8185Not to beat a dead horse, but who would have predicted that through 7 games Cory Goodman (my new favorite LU player due to his blogging) would have outscored our ENTIRE freshman class. Wow.
Predicting a starting 5 for next year is a very dangerous game at this point, but I don’t see 4 guys with no college experience starting at once. This is the hype game we get into with these freshman we know little about (although granted we have a lot more info/video on AP and SW especially than we did for JG for example). I don’t see SW and JC starting together, as they seem to be somewhat similar players. Also CS, AD, and SC will have all been solid rotation guys for at least 2 years at that point and I don’t see all 3 being shut out of the starting 5. I could see something like MM at the 1, AP at the 2, SC or AD at the 3, JC at the 4, and maybe CB at 5. I don’t want to pencil in TK as a starter with such little info on him although he will be easily the tallest player on the squad next year.
Here is another thought, do we need to be concerned about DC possibly tansferring? We all know he has very high aspirations for himself, and I’m sure this isn’t how he envisioned the first quarter of his college season going. Might he go somewhere else in search of some court time? Obviously we graduate a ton of minutes next year, but even so, he’s behind CS, SC, AD with AP is coming in next year. Not to mention that JC and SW both look capable of playing some 3, and there will be zero available minutes at the 1.
November 28, 2012 at 9:23 pm #8190I love the early projecting, adds to the conversation, although probably not too accurate. I guess my point is that you sort of know what you have pretty quickly at a mid-major. No stars are going to sit for full seasons. I think you also can be forced to play your best 5, regardless of position, like Lehigh is being forced to do this season. I think DC transferring is a definite possibility if he doesn’t get any run. I mentioned that before on here, and I think it becomes more likely by the game. I put his odds on being back next year at 50/50. Just have a bad feeling about how this is going.
Off to coach my 10 year old son in travel hoops as they have their opener tonight. He plays on the wing and wears #3. Just guess who his favorite player is? Only wish he had CJ’s game.
November 29, 2012 at 7:21 am #821190, Your son is a great player. Enjoy him:). You never know, remember CJ was overlooked.
November 29, 2012 at 1:53 pm #8213Thanks norcal for the kind words.
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