Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

No, Dayton will not join this league.

Until further notice, no one else is joining the league. It's 10 teams for next season.

All "contenders" are playing where they played this season.

Xavier has recruited at a pretty high level, but I think being in the Big East could further enhance recruiting.

Semaj Christon was a borderline 5 star kid last year. I think he was ranked in the high 20's to mid 30's by Scout and Rivals.

Brandon Randolph is a 4 star (Scout) kid coming in this year, and Jalen Reynolds (ineligible last year) was a 4 star recruit who'll see some good minutes next year.

Already for 2014, Mack has a commitment from Houston, TX forward Melvin Swift who is a Top 75 (Rivals) recruit.

Devaunte Smith-Rivera originally committed to Xavier, but decommitted and then signed with Georgetown. I never got the feeling he wanted to play in the A10 and was looking for a "bigger" conference type school.
That has happened to X a number of times where a kid would have X in their final 2 or 3, but ultimately commit to a Big East, ACC, Big Ten school.

I'm looking forward to Chris Mack and his staff being able to recruit kids to Xavier now that we're in the Big East.

X Factor wrote:Devaunte Smith-Rivera originally committed to Xavier, but decommitted and then signed with Georgetown. I never got the feeling he wanted to play in the A10 and was looking for a "bigger" conference type school.

Gonna be much harder to recruit Indiana with IU, Purdue (Big Ten), Notre Dame (ACC) & Butler (Big East) there too. Not to mention 2 Missouri Valley schools (Ind. St. & E'ville), Ball State and Valpo.

butlerguy03 wrote:

X Factor wrote:Devaunte Smith-Rivera originally committed to Xavier, but decommitted and then signed with Georgetown. I never got the feeling he wanted to play in the A10 and was looking for a "bigger" conference type school.

Gonna be much harder to recruit Indiana with IU, Purdue (Big Ten), Notre Dame (ACC) & Butler (Big East) there too. Not to mention 2 Missouri Valley schools (Ind. St. & E'ville), Ball State and Valpo.

How is this any different then recruiting Indiana in the past? All those teams were there before. Obviously with IU returning to power they are taking more but X has still been recruiting Indiana since then and will continue to recruit Indiana. I don't think they are worried about the last 4 teams you mentioned.

WIth Xavier and Butler now in the Big East and Steve Alford and Ed Schilling at UCLA added to who was already in Indiana recruiting, its going to be virtually impossible to enter and have any success.

Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame + Butler, Xavier, and UCLA?

Yeah, you may want to try elsewhere. (even Butler has gotten to the point where they target one or two in-state, but do the bulk out-of-state) For 2014, BU is on Trevon Blueitt (lead) a 4-star SF and Trey Lyles a 5-star (one and done) PF. They made Lyles cut list of 6 but he's almost certainly going to Duke or UK. Other recruits are out of state