USA Today: Early look at the 2013-2014 Top 25

[BillEsq]

How did this turn into a SLU vs. Depaul thing anyways?

[yorost]

Yes, yes, I agree on the star system, but DePaul in the mix with 4 and 5 stars, plus signing some, while St. Louis is not is a clear sign of the draw of the two programs. That's the only issue, which program is a bigger draw for recruits. As much as people say history doesn't count, it does, and in a way it is very tangible with DePaul vs St. Louis. St. Louis might be stronger now, but DePaul's 80's and being stronger than St. Louis while leading up to the Big East move got them into a better conference. Unless St. Louis joins a better conference, this will continue to pay dividends for DePaul in recruiting compared to St. Louis. If St. Louis joins the Big East and continues to make the tourney, yeah, they could become a stronger draw then DePaul within a few years. To do it in the A10, though, they'll need a much longer sustained run of success to pull it off.

[BillEsq]

Yes, yes, I agree on the star system, but DePaul in the mix with 4 and 5 stars, plus signing some, while St. Louis is not is a clear sign of the draw of the two programs. That's the only issue, which program is a bigger draw for recruits. As much as people say history doesn't count, it does, and in a way it is very tangible with DePaul vs St. Louis. St. Louis might be stronger now, but DePaul's 80's and being stronger than St. Louis while leading up to the Big East move got them into a better conference. Unless St. Louis joins a better conference, this will continue to pay dividends for DePaul in recruiting compared to St. Louis. If St. Louis joins the Big East and continues to make the tourney, yeah, they could become a stronger draw then DePaul within a few years. To do it in the A10, though, they'll need a much longer sustained run of success to pull it off.

LOL that star system is just crap...

and i agree with you on the St Louis not being the big draw. I know it rankles so Slu fans but it doesn't bother me. I meant to post this in another thread in a while back but i don't think that Slu's recruiting will change that much whether they are in the BE, A-10 or Summit conference. Its a high academic defense minded school and has been now for at least 5 head coaches and the school recruits a certain type of player right now with its facility upgrades and commitment to that system the school can basically walk up and get whatever player it likes and let the other schools fight Kentucky for the stars.

[yorost]

St. Louis can walk up to and get whatever player it likes? What about all the players you gave offers to that chose other schools? ESPN shows you had offers to players for next year's class that instead chose Col. St., Richmond, N. Iowa, Ball St., TCU, and Valpo. You don't think being in a better conference would have helped you land any of them?

[DumpsterFireA10]

St. Louis can walk up to and get whatever player it likes? What about all the players you gave offers to that chose other schools? ESPN shows you had offers to players for next year's class that instead chose Col. St., Richmond, N. Iowa, Ball St., TCU, and Valpo. You don't think being in a better conference would have helped you land any of them?

It more than likely would. See my screen name.

[BillEsq]

St. Louis can walk up to and get whatever player it likes? What about all the players you gave offers to that chose other schools? ESPN shows you had offers to players for next year's class that instead chose Col. St., Richmond, N. Iowa, Ball St., TCU, and Valpo. You don't think being in a better conference would have helped you land any of them?

Yorost let me rephrase that. I mean St. Louis can go after the players that fit its system without having to deal with the madness of dealing with AAU coaches, and trying to compete with the Kentucky's of the world . High profile recruiting is quite a different monster. I didn't mean it quite so literally. obviously slu doesn't get every player it offers. Heck I think they have more offers than scholarships. When i typed that i was thinking that it was easier for SLU to focus on finding players that fit its program than chasing after the big stars. I didn't mean that they always get their recruit (hmmm 100% recruiting would be nice). I probably should have worded that better.

And just because i like to bash those recruiting sites. The funny thing is the two commits slu has for next year didn't even get listed until they committed. Slu seems to rarely get any player that is listed as an offer yet seems to get commits before the kids recruiting bio is even up. Heck last i looked we weren't even listed as an offer for the most recent commit. I just don't understand them, maybe someone else has a lil more insight on how they work or i need to pay to get into the premium sites. Is it just me or the sites i look at or is it just about all of them?

[yorost]

I don't pay a ton of attention to them, either. I think it's just a case of the higher prestige the recruit the more interest he draws. Too many recruits to bother for not enough site interest at some point, so they stop being comprehensive.

[mel ott]

that's why it's always interesting. The Jays had a #4 that was a cancer to the team. Then we get a transfer in Gibbs (former top 100 who went to Gonzaga) who got hurt and has bad knees and a kid with virtually no ranking (Doug Mc)--- you never know until they blend as a team. I am excited though that CU will get higher ranked recruits while hopefully retaining the high character and team atmosphere Coach Mac had.

[Jet915]

that's why it's always interesting. The Jays had a #4 that was a cancer to the team. Then we get a transfer in Gibbs (former top 100 who went to Gonzaga) who got hurt and has bad knees and a kid with virtually no ranking (Doug Mc)--- you never know until they blend as a team. I am excited though that CU will get higher ranked recruits while hopefully retaining the high character and team atmosphere Coach Mac had.

Creighton has had a few 4 star recruits come in and for the most part, they have bombed. One was a cancer (Stinnett) like Mel said, one ended up transferring to Pacific after one year (Bock) and one became all-conference and now playing overseas (Lawson). I'm hoping in the Big East, Creighton will consistently get top 150 players yearly and occasionally 4 star players who are high character, team oriented. I think that will be the major test of the coaching staff, whether they can recruit at a high level or not.

[yorost]

Lunardi's turn (with seeds)...

Big East
6 Marquette
8 Creighton
9 Georgetown
11 Villanova
11 Xavier
8OUT Providence
8OUT St. John's

AAC
(2 Louisville)
3 Connecticut
3 Memphis
11 Cincinnati

A10
8 La Salle
9 VCU
10 St. Louis
8OUT St. Joseph's

Makes no sense to me. How is a conference with 7 teams bubble or better going to get no high seeds while a conference with 4 teams bubble or better going get 3 high seeds? They might be the 3 best teams, but seeding is on accomplishment and not quality. It should be very hard for a top heavy conference to land so many high seeds due to a limited number of top flight wins available in conference. On the flip side, if the Big East has 7 of 10 that close the only way a 6 seed is our top is with extreme balance, something like 7 conference losses wining the conference (keep in mind with 7 in play the OOC had to be very good for the Big East). I suppose he's just ranking teams, but it doesn't look like very reasonable seeding given the teams involved.

edit: Forgot the link: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology