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In state kids?


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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
11 hours ago, noahjb24 said:

Should we start-up the conversation again after the Creighton game last night??

 

We don't need to recruit more in this state as much as change/re-evaluate our overall strategy because quite frankly the results have been pretty poor.

And Creighton...Those guys were a three seed with zero scholarship players from Nebraska on the roster 3 years ago so it's not like having guys from the state as part of your roster is a required ingredient for success.

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7 hours ago, hhcdimes said:

 

We don't need to recruit more in this state as much as change/re-evaluate our overall strategy because quite frankly the results have been pretty poor.

This!

Who we have and haven't offered is water under the bridge, as far as I'm concerned. The greater point is that local kids should be part of our overall strategy. I think when MIles and Doc both arrived, one of the first things they heard was, "You have to go out of state to recruit because Nebraska doesn't have any talent." So I just don't think they saw any sense in putting the resources into it. I think our recruitment locally really doesn't involve much more than following up when some local coach calls them and tells them to give a kid a look. 

The basketball scene, in Omaha especially, has changed. A lot more athletes are skipping football now, and AAU play has increased exposure. You can see how many more kids are getting scholarships now to lower level schools. There's not a giant dividing line that says, "he can only play in the Summit League." There's a lot of grey area, and some of those kids could find a role on a Big Ten team. 

I get that this isn't a cauldron of bigtime talent that will take you to the Final Four, but we're just trying to get to the dance. Roster stability is incredibly valuable. Having a couple local kids improves your chances of having four year players who can contribute in a big way by their senior year. Giving a marginal out of state players a scholarship usually means more roster turnover. 

I don't think we have a strategy locally and have not established many strong ties with local AAU or high school coaches. The main point with dragging Thomas and Patton into the conversation is that we didn't put the work into figuring out if they could play. I suspect we gave Arop a scholarship too early because of the embarrassment of missing on those two. We didn't do the work on Arop either. I love this board for its (relative) lack of negativity, so I didn't post this earlier but there were people in the basketball community who were surprised that NU offered him so early. His reputation at that time was that he was a terrific athlete but lacked fluid motor skills. They weren't down on him, they just were surprised that somebody would offer that early before he showed he could develop high level basketball skills. Maybe it was just talk from some local magpies, but I heard it nevertheless.

I know everyone thinks we have bigtime talent now, but really all we've done is edge over the line into Big Ten level. My fear is that when we get to next year, when we could be ready to make a move, we'll be battling depth issues because we'll lose another couple kids after this season. I think we could have made a move this year if we had a couple of experienced seniors on the team, and there are probably a couple of Nebraska kids currently on other schools' rosters who could have provided that. 

I don't want to play the "well, who would you trade off the roster?" game. It's a joke for anonymous message board posters to do that, as if they have any talent evaluation skills. I'm talking about an overall strategy: Build roster stability with a couple local kids you can count on. And what I'm saying is that we're not putting the resources into finding out who they are.

 

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To me if you are winning it does not matter, people are happy.  If you are losing you better have some local kids on the team, but if you are losing without any local kids on the roster, that is when you have major problems from the fan base.  In some cases it seemed like poor timing for some NE kids.  When we have some extra scholarships to give, there is not many quality kids to offer to and when we are short of scholarships that is when you have a few kids you could take a chance on.

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47 minutes ago, Navin R. Johnson said:

 In some cases it seemed like poor timing for some NE kids.  When we have some extra scholarships to give, there is not many quality kids to offer to and when we are short of scholarships that is when you have a few kids you could take a chance on.

When has Nebraska been short on scholarships?

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  • 3 weeks later...

My worry has become a reality... I think Aguek's brother Akol is going to be a better prospect than him. He is a sophomore at Prep and through two games he is averaging 16 points 8 rebounds 4 blocks and 2 assists. He is more of a guard than Aguek and has much better footspeed/quickness with that pre knee surgery explosiveness (5 dunks in two games)...

 

Last I heard he was close to 6'6. Maybe the previous issues won't affect him as he attends Prep and not South? Maybe he's not a Nebraska level player? I am not 10% sure. 

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On 11/17/2016 at 6:53 AM, Chuck Taylor said:

The main point with dragging Thomas and Patton into the conversation is that we didn't put the work into figuring out if they could play. I suspect we gave Arop a scholarship too early because of the embarrassment of missing on those two. We didn't do the work on Arop either. I love this board for its (relative) lack of negativity, so I didn't post this earlier but there were people in the basketball community who were surprised that NU offered him so early. His reputation at that time was that he was a terrific athlete but lacked fluid motor skills. They weren't down on him, they just were surprised that somebody would offer that early before he showed he could develop high level basketball skills. Maybe it was just talk from some local magpies, but I heard it nevertheless.

 

We are a team that loves to recruit highly skilled 6'6" to 6'8" guys which is not a product that Nebraska produces in abundance. We can do well pulling these guys out of Illinois, Indiana, etc.

 

To me it's about focusing two things that this state can provide that will translate to this team: Point Guards and anyone with a parent who was 6'6"+ and athletic. You will lose out on guys like Thomas this way but it leads you to identify the potential Daums and Pattons of this state and gets you one of those PGs who minimally is some tough as nails Nebraska kid who comes off the bench for 4 years instead of random lottery ticket like Bakari or Tarin Smith.

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both Justin and khyri's recruiting periods were very bizarre. the second our staff found out khyri was attending prep school, they offered and he committed. I'm not sure/ can't remember if there was some formal agreement before it all went down. Was it just academics that kept Miles away from him? I will say this, aguek never looked the part of big ten player to me, but ever since khyri won the boys and girls club slam dunk contest I've wanted him on CU's roster. I think it was just a miss, talent eval wise, and locking up aguek at a way too early date was a knee jerk reaction

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