Recruiting Misses

[aphilso1]

I just looked up two notorious names from Husker hoops recruiting's recent past: Elbert Robinson and Matthew Atewe. 

 

Atewe spent most of his first two years on the bench at Auburn, sat out last year as a transfer, and now is in his redshirt junior year at Washington.  Robinson is in his third year at LSU and has yet to make any kind of impact.  Both players are averaging only 2 points and 2 rebounds per game this year, and neither is getting more than 8 minutes/game of PT.  Pretty amazing that these were two guys that Nebraska couldn't afford to miss out on, and we at HHC drooled over to the tune of 40ish page recruiting threads.  Time has a way of putting things in perspective, and my perspective is that I'd much rather have the three-headed monster of Ed/Jordy/Jacobson than the Atewe/Robinson combo we thought we "needed." 

[Norm Peterson]

Nevermind.  Lame joke.

 

Elbert had potential but lacked work ethic.

 

Atewe was always, at best, a project.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Norm Peterson
Lame joke

[jimmykc]

Subject for off season: Who was our the biggest recruiting miss of all time? No one immediately comes to my mind which is kind of a sad commentary on our history of recruiting prospects.

[Huskerpapa]

Biggest recruiting miss, when we didn't get Wilt Chamberlain.

[HB]

20 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

Subject for off season: Who was our the biggest recruiting miss of all time? No one immediately comes to my mind which is kind of a sad commentary on our history of recruiting prospects.

 

I look at a "recruiting miss" as someone who we could have had but didn't recruit, vs. taking a swing at some great player and not signing him.   Examples of the latter would be Vernon Maxwell, who Randy Cip had a good relationship with, but ultimately lost out to Florida, or Mike Miller, who we also lost to Florida despite a lot of chatter that we had a chance.  Rumor is Danny was pissed at Jimmy Williams for spending so much time on Miller on a pipe dream,and for believing we had a  chance. (Danny should have cut Jimmy some slack; Jimmy recruited better than Danny coached).    Even a Mike McGhee, who was from Omaha, but with our program at the time and style of ball we probably weren't going to sign.  

 

A huge miss in the mid 80's was Cedric Hunter.   Could have had him, Moe didn't offer and he has a great career at KU.  Probably would have saved Moe's job, and who knows what happens from there.  Instead of offering Hunter we take some stiffs from out of state.   Daum could be in that category for Miles.   Some would say Ron Kellogg, although I don't put him in the same category since it was going to be tough to sign him, and good point guards have a greater impact than a wing.  Some might say Gesell was a huge miss for Doc.  

 

Going back to Jimmy's time, perhaps Bob Boozer.    They named a damn street after him in Omaha, and he played for K-State.

Edited March 2, 2017 by HB

[colhusker]

Bob Gibson to the Harlem Globetrotters! I refused to mention where he played in college.

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by colhusker

[hskr4life]

51 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

Subject for off season: Who was our the biggest recruiting miss of all time? No one immediately comes to my mind which is kind of a sad commentary on our history of recruiting prospects.

 

Jahili Okafor... he came for a visit once I think.  Absolutely should have sold him.  Big miss there.

 

(Sarcasm... and probably spelling)

[jimmykc]

HB: Thanks for the input. I would certainly agree with Boozer,who was a great college player, but since I was a K-State fan for that brief period in my life (we all make youthful mistakes) I was not sure whether Nebraska ever made a serious effort to recruit him. What I remember most from my life in Nebraska are the can't miss prospects who never panned out anyway. Moe had a guard from Las Vegas who fell into that category, Danny had his "best prospect ever" who ended up in Louisiana, and I think Barry had the guy who ended up at Oklahoma State and immediately shoplifted a Walmart. Busts all in our evaluation of talent. Instead we spent our time and effort on the Shang Ping, Lance Berwald, and David MacFarland's of the basketball world.

[jimmykc]

After pondering my own question all morning I came up with my answer. Alex Stivrins was a standout at Lincoln East recruited heavily by Moe who went to Creighton and followed Tom Apke to Colorado. He played a dozen years in the pros with 4 NBA teams and then overseas. Incidentally, his brother is my internist and his daughter is on the NU volleyball team. He would have definitely helped NU during the early eighties.

Edited March 2, 2017 by jimmykc

[Norm Peterson]

We missed on Alex Stivrins.  Good one, Jimmy.  And speaking of former East High kids, we missed on Shawn Redhage.  We missed on Matt Hill.  We missed on that bearded kid from Chadron or Alliance who went to Minnesota in the years of Tubby Smith.

 

We missed on Sheldon Jeter.

 

How long did you think it would take me before I brought up Sheldon Jeter?

 

I'm slow today, huh?

[atskooc]

We missed on T.J. Pugh, if I remember correctly.

[atskooc]

Lest we forget about our favorite basement, we missed on Mike Gesell.

[Navin R. Johnson]

55 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

We missed on Alex Stivrins.  Good one, Jimmy.  And speaking of former East High kids, we missed on Shawn Redhage.  We missed on Matt Hill.  We missed on that bearded kid from Chadron or Alliance who went to Minnesota in the years of Tubby Smith.

 

We missed on Sheldon Jeter.

 

How long did you think it would take me before I brought up Sheldon Jeter?

 

I'm slow today, huh?

 

Elliot Eliason is the big that was from Chadron.

[colhusker]

2 hours ago, jimmykc said:

After pondering my own question all morning I came up with my answer. Alex Stivrins was a standout at Lincoln East recruited heavily by Moe who went to Creighton and followed Tom Apke to Colorado. He played a dozen years in the pros with 4 NBA teams and then overseas. Incidentally, his brother is my internist and his daughter is on the NU volleyball team. He would have definitely helped NU during the early eighties.

Derek Sailors who was also at East would have helped us too.  He ended up at New Mexico State

[Fullbacksympathy]

Alton Mason and Shawn Redhage were from the same HS class.  Both ended up at ASU.  

 

Roburt Sallie hurt the most of any I can remember.  

[HB]

Good  one on Sallie.  Ultimately, I also think Mike Daum, Khiry Thomas and Justin Patton will go down in history as huge misses, if you count not deciding to recruit them a "miss".   With those guys, or even just one of them, I don't think some of the other threads are on the board right now....

[49r]

I don't think you can call a guy that doesn't end up at a P5 or G5 school a miss.

 

Doc Sadler was famous for getting in recruiting battles with Arkansas Little-Rock.  Do we want to go back to that time?

[hskr4life]

Ultimately everything happens for a reason... We miss on guys we "should" have... "could" have every year.

 

We also have guys that are other schools "misses"

 

Ed, Glynn, Jordy, Petteway, ect.  

 

I think it evens out in the end, and everything ultimately happens for a reason.

[hhcmatt]

Should have went with "dodged bullets" with the title instead of the bait and switch "recruiting misses" because this thread has turned into a dupe of the all the other coulda/woulda/shoulda threads on the board.

 

We're looking for 'high school crush who is now a train wreck at the reunion' types here.

[jimmykc]

Technically we did get Sallie, he just forgot to bring along the homework his dog had eaten several years before.

[hhcmatt]

30 minutes ago, jimmykc said:

Technically we did get Sallie, he just forgot to bring along the homework his dog had eaten several years before.

 

I suppose this topic Extenze to him.

[Dead Dog Alley]

We could have hired Dana Altman as an assistant when Danny took over, but didn't. He went to Kansas State instead - and took Mitch Richmond with him.

[HB]

20 minutes ago, Dead Dog Alley said:

We could have hired Dana Altman as an assistant when Danny took over, but didn't. He went to Kansas State instead - and took Mitch Richmond with him.

 

Instead Danny hired Fran Frashilla, and he stayed a week.  When Fran left Danny hired Gary Bargen, who brought T Buchanan and Derrick Vick.  Not Richmond and Charles Bledsoe, but serviceable.  On always wondered what would have happened if he had hired Dana. 

[AuroranHusker]

12 hours ago, HB said:

 

Instead Danny hired Fran Frashilla, and he stayed a week.  When Fran left Danny hired Gary Bargen, who brought T Buchanan and Derrick Vick.  Not Richmond and Charles Bledsoe, but serviceable.  On always wondered what would have happened if he had hired Dana. 

 

And Gary Bargen is a big reason why Danny Nee had a job for all those years, imho. After Bargen left to go into administration at NU, Nee's hoops fortunes plummeted.

[Dean Smith]

On 3/2/2017 at 7:51 AM, HB said:

 

I look at a "recruiting miss" as someone who we could have had but didn't recruit, vs. taking a swing at some great player and not signing him.   Examples of the latter would be Vernon Maxwell, who Randy Cip had a good relationship with, but ultimately lost out to Florida, or Mike Miller, who we also lost to Florida despite a lot of chatter that we had a chance.  Rumor is Danny was pissed at Jimmy Williams for spending so much time on Miller on a pipe dream,and for believing we had a  chance. (Danny should have cut Jimmy some slack; Jimmy recruited better than Danny coached).    Even a Mike McGhee, who was from Omaha, but with our program at the time and style of ball we probably weren't going to sign.  

 

A huge miss in the mid 80's was Cedric Hunter.   Could have had him, Moe didn't offer and he has a great career at KU.  Probably would have saved Moe's job, and who knows what happens from there.  Instead of offering Hunter we take some stiffs from out of state.   Daum could be in that category for Miles.   Some would say Ron Kellogg, although I don't put him in the same category since it was going to be tough to sign him, and good point guards have a greater impact than a wing.  Some might say Gesell was a huge miss for Doc.  

 

Going back to Jimmy's time, perhaps Bob Boozer.    They named a damn street after him in Omaha, and he played for K-State.

All I have is Kerry Trotter's word (and I'm sure he would never remember me so this isn't holding up in a court of law), but this is what he told me at one of Tom Brosnihan's practices. He said that he (Marquette), Vic Lazzaretti (Marquette & Loyola Marymount), Dave Hoppen, Bill Jackman, and Ron Kellogg all played on the first Bison team together and agreed to all play together at Creighton and Cedric Hunter promised to follow Kellogg the next year if Creighton had given the head coaching job to Broz. Most of them did not want to play for Moe and they assumed Broz would get the job when Apke moved to Colorado. They weren't happy when Reed got the job which is at least part of the reason Alex Stivrins left as well. Trotter "thought" Alex would have stayed and played for Broz. 

 

Now I know this is the "wrong" Nebraska team but boy would have that changed the basketball landscape around here. And how did Nebraska have so many D-1 players back then? Five in one year and that would have been 7 all together in four years and I'm sure I'm missing someone just because I always do.