Re: Recruiting

[Louis DAmbrosia_CH]

I'd like to bring this point up in regards to recruiting the JUCO
pipeline.  Has this means of recruitment all but dried up?  I'd like to
say it certainly has to a point, the reasons for my opinion stem from
the influx of high school talent that have made the leap directly to
the NBA from high school.  This makes the second, third and fourth tier
high school players more coveted by big time programs.  These programs
are now desperate to get kids with any type of D1 talent thus snatching
up these second, third and fourth tier players that would most
certainly would have gone the JUCO route.  

When UNLV started this trend in the mid 80's and UC following suit in
the early 90's with 5 JUCO starters in the final four (91'-92') there
was plenty of "undiscovered" talent.  Today, I think many would be hard
pressed to find that many JUCO transfers out there and are immediately
contributing to their teams success like  UNLV's and UC's title runs. 
I'm not saying that their isn't JUCO talent out there, I'm saying that
there just isn't as much as years past and now a days its a bigger
gamble.

My final point is that the days of getting 5 JUCO starters to make a
run at a national championship are long over and in my opinion we will
never see that situation again.  While I think the the few JUCO's that
do pan out (ie: McElroy, Mickeal, Bobbit) don't outweigh the many that
don't work out and end up creating more of a distraction and upset team
chemistry.  Should we abandon the JUCO route altogether? Certainly not,
however when it comes down to picking a freshman with solid D1 skills
and an all-world JUCO transfer that has made his reputation on beating
above average high school talent, I'd certainly go with the freshman.

I found this list interesting, you can see a significant fall off of
the amount of JUCO players in the 80's/90's to present day 00's
Here is an alphabetical list of other key Final Four team members who
previously played for junior colleges:
Player, Position        Final Four Team(s)      Junior College  

George Ackles, C        UNLV '91                Garden City (Kan.)
Jarvis Basnight, F      UNLV '87                Mount San Antonio
(Calif.)
Mookie Blaylock, G      Oklahoma '88            Midland (Tex.)
Corie Blount, C         Cincinnati '92          Rancho Santiago (Calif.)
Roy Boone, G            Wisconsin '00           Coffeyville (Kan.)
Karl Brown, G           Georgia Tech '90        Chipola (Fla.)
Terry Brown, G          Kansas '91              Erie (Pa.) & NE Okla.
A&M
David Butler, C         UNLV '90                San Jacinto (Tex.)
Jason Cipolla, G        Syracuse '96            Tallahassee (Fla.)
Bennett Davison, F      Arizona '97             West Valley (Calif.)
Jason Detrick, G        Oklahoma '02            SW Mo. State-West Plains
Alex Dillard, G         Arkansas '94 & '95      Southern Union (Ala.)
Ebi Ere, G              Oklahoma '02            Barton County (Kan.)
Dean Garrett, C         Indiana '87             City College of San
Francisco
Armon Gilliam, F-C      UNLV '87                Independence (Kan.)
Ricky Grace, G          Oklahoma '88            Midland (Tex.)
Harvey Grant, F         Oklahoma '88            Independence (Kan.)
Evric Gray, F           UNLV '91                Riverside (Calif.)
Darrin Hancock, F       Kansas '93              Garden City (Kan.)
Lenzie Howell, F        Arkansas '90            San Jacinto (Tex.)
Bobby Jackson, G        Minnesota '97           Western Nebraska
David Johanning, C      Kansas '91              Hutchinson (Kan.)
Larry Johnson, F        UNLV '90 and '91        Odessa (Tex.)
Dontae' Jones, F        Mississippi State '96   Northeast Mississippi
Herb Jones, F           Cincinnati '92          Butler County (Kan.)
Archie Marshall, F      Kansas '86              Seminole (Okla.)
Erik Martin, F          Cincinnati '92          Rancho Santiago (Calif.)
Aaron McGhee, F-C       Oklahoma '02            Vincennes (Ind.)
Johnny McNeil, C        Georgia Tech '90        Chowan (N.C.)
Lincoln Minor, G        Kansas '88              Midland (Tex.)
*Andre Owens, G		Oklahoma State '95      Midland (Tex.)
Gerald Paddio, F        UNLV '87                Seminole (Okla.)
Ryan Randle, F-C        Maryland '02            Allegany (Md.)
George Reese, F		Ohio State '99          Independence (Kan.)
Randy Rutherford, G	Oklahoma State '95      Bacone (Okla.)
Moses Scurry, F		UNLV '90                San Jacinto (Tex.)
Daryan Selvy, F         Oklahoma '02            Carl Albert (Okla.)
Jozsef Szendrei, C      Oklahoma '02            Northeastern (Colo.)
Keith Smart, G          Indiana '87             Garden City (Kan.)
Elmore Spencer, C       UNLV '91                Connors (Okla.) State
Dwight Stewart, C       Arkansas '94 & '95      South Plains (Tex.)
Tom Tolbert, F          Arizona '88             Cerritos (Calif.)
Nick Van Exel, G        Cincinnati '92          Trinity Valley (Tex.)
Mark Wade, G            UNLV '87                El Camino (Calif.)
Russell Walters, F      Mississippi State '96   Jones County (Miss.)
Quannas White, G        Oklahoma '02            Midland (Tex.)
Andre Wiley, F          Oklahoma '88            Compton (Calif.)

    *Owens played his first year for Tallahassee Community College.