Recruiting

[JACKGUYII]

It sure seems to becoming increasingly difficult to get quality recruits to Brookings to compliment the talent we already have. Certainly we are targeting more talented players than ever before who are also coveted by other schools and the competition is immense. Lots of examples of talented players in the area (particually Minnesota) who are comitting to mid major schools far from home who in some sense have less presence, noteriety and following than SDSU. Are we reaching too high or not looking at enough players outside our normal footprint. We have no problem looking at recruits for football in the states that have a volume of talent so should we be doing more of that in Basketball? I think we are really close to putting together a team that can win the Summit and perhaps make some noise in the tournament, but feel we should be very selective with those three scholarships and maybe look a little farther from Brookings to find it. If Nagy just traveled 2400 miles than perhaps that is alreay happening. Are there inate challenges to bringing DI level kids to SDSU that we can never get around? Is it funding issue for recruiting?

[Hip2daHop]

Re: Recruiting

I realize Kampe and Oakland have a luxury being in a metro area... .but, I think they stay in on high major kids who for one reason or another transfer in... all of a sudden he has the guy from UMKC, one from St.John and a U of Mich guy ready for next year.. Guess you could say we possibly do the same thing with Cougill

[filbert]

Re: Recruiting

I don't think it has become "increasingly difficult" to recruit to SDSU.

It has been and always be especially challenging to land good basketball prospects at SDSU.

Brookings is a small town. Most top prospects come from urban areas. (That's not a profound statement--most people in the U.S. live in urban areas.) Therefore Brookings is outside the experience and comfort zones of many good basketball players.

The climate doesn't help.

Regarding football--the competition for good basketball players is much, much, MUCH more intense than for football players. There are more D-I basketball programs than there are D-I football programs (about 100 more basketball programs than FBS+FCS combined). Plus, one really good player can turn an entire basketball program around, where one really good player is just one of 22 starters on a football team, so the relative impact of each player, except at the very, very top of the heap, is less in football than in basketball.

I think that SDSU coaches have to be especially careful to recruit kids who will be comfortable off the court in Brookings almost as much as they have to recruit for on-court ability. Unhappy players off the court translate into serious issues with on-court performance.

That's why IMHO we need to get as many of the local players--within 500-750 miles, bascially north of a Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City-Denver line--as we possibly can. The perfect fit for SDSU is probably a relatively under-recruited kid, likely from a smaller high school, who either blossoms late or falls off the recruiting radar due to injury or something like that, who comes to Brookings and turns out to be a diamond in the rough--like Nate Wolters. Or, kids that our coaches make connections with early, and get them signed early--like the Madison kids. Or, kids fitting some of the above description who sign for a "big" school and then decide that isn't for them--Djkstra, for instance.

That's (again IMHO) how recruiting at SDSU will have to be done (regardless of who's the coach), until we have a run of six or seven straight NCAA appearances including a Sweet 16 appearance or two, at which time we start turning into something a bit more like Gonzaga. But that's a long, long, long way off, if it ever happens.

[bigticket1]

Re: Recruiting

I realize Kampe and Oakland have a luxury being in a metro area... .but, I think they stay in on high major kids who for one reason or another transfer in... all of a sudden he has the guy from UMKC, one from St.John and a U of Mich guy ready for next year.. Guess you could say we possibly do the same thing with Cougill

Even Oakland needs to take chances on kids and hope they develop though - Keith Benson only scored 4 pts/game his senior year of high school,and was not that highly recruited.

[StefaniGermanotta]

Re: Recruiting

I don't think it has become "increasingly difficult" to recruit to SDSU.

It has been and always be especially challenging to land good basketball prospects at SDSU.

Brookings is a small town. Most top prospects come from urban areas. (That's not a profound statement--most people in the U.S. live in urban areas.) Therefore Brookings is outside the experience and comfort zones of many good basketball players.

The climate doesn't help.

Regarding football--the competition for good basketball players is much, much, MUCH more intense than for football players. There are more D-I basketball programs than there are D-I football programs (about 100 more basketball programs than FBS+FCS combined). Plus, one really good player can turn an entire basketball program around, where one really good player is just one of 22 starters on a football team, so the relative impact of each player, except at the very, very top of the heap, is less in football than in basketball.

I think that SDSU coaches have to be especially careful to recruit kids who will be comfortable off the court in Brookings almost as much as they have to recruit for on-court ability. Unhappy players off the court translate into serious issues with on-court performance.

That's why IMHO we need to get as many of the local players--within 500-750 miles, bascially north of a Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City-Denver line--as we possibly can. The perfect fit for SDSU is probably a relatively under-recruited kid, likely from a smaller high school, who either blossoms late or falls off the recruiting radar due to injury or something like that, who comes to Brookings and turns out to be a diamond in the rough--like Nate Wolters. Or, kids that our coaches make connections with early, and get them signed early--like the Madison kids. Or, kids fitting some of the above description who sign for a "big" school and then decide that isn't for them--Djkstra, for instance.

That's (again IMHO) how recruiting at SDSU will have to be done (regardless of who's the coach), until we have a run of six or seven straight NCAA appearances including a Sweet 16 appearance or two, at which time we start turning into something a bit more like Gonzaga. But that's a long, long, long way off, if it ever happens.

Where did Dykstra first commit?

[2002jack]

Re: Recruiting

Dykstra initially committed to Iowa State.