Re: Alvin Mitchell is a Bearcat

From: pete lyness
Date: 09 Mar 2007 - 05:07 PM EST

Possibly the most ignorant comment ever posted on
BearcatNews.
1) it is about time to stop talking about "this
difficult situation." In my book, he is basically on
the same playing field as every other coach in the BE.

Fairchild... your right! We should have expected
better from this recruiting class. Given the time he
had to recruit and the success they had this season
Cronin should have been able to get everything he
needed and then some.

Pete

--- dfairchild <address@hidden> wrote:

dmuc,

Thank you for your post. My frustration was not
with Mick's recruiting or
our recruits, but Pete's laziness (see below). You
have said something more
than a platitude. I can learn something from your
post. I disagree with
some of your points, but atleast I have something to
actually think about.

Points where I disagree

1) it is about time to stop talking about "this
difficult situation." In my
book, he is basically on the same playing field as
every other coach in the
BE.

2) "All of them seem like guys who will learn the
system and play for 4
years and all are TOP 150 ranked...that seems like
an incredible job!" Some
of these recruits have a little bit of baggage with
them, it may be that
some never don a UC uni or leave before their
eligibility is exhausted.
I'll wait and see.

3) It will be great to land McClain. I'm sure some
of the more sober posts
on the forum would decrease.

4) You make a very good point regarding Vaugn and
Warren and their
supporting cast. Still, a new cast is not going to
improve Warren's 60% FT
shooting.

5) It's nice to look at the previous classes, but
one thing that you do not
capture is the recruiting need for any given year.
This year - there are
two important needs - a PG and a center. We haven't
landed either, yet.
People have been highly critical of Huggins
recruiting of pg and centers,
especially in his last 5 years at UC. Could it just
happen to be, that the
real tough work of recruiting is recruiting PG and
centers?

It is my observation that it is easiest to recruit
wings, more difficult to
recruit PF, and then PG and C. So, for me, Mick
still has someting to prove
as a recruiter. Once the next signing period is
over, maybe BN will put up
a poll. Right now, on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being
great), I give Mick a
3.5.

Go Cats!
DF

After pointing out key stats regarding Warren - here
is Pete's lazy reply -
"Also, I don't care what you copied and pasted about
Warren. He is a solid pg... and will only improve
with
a year under his belt. "

No substance, all smoke.

-----Original Message-----
From: address@hidden
[mailto:address@hidden Behalf Of
address@hidden
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 11:42 PM
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: [UC Basketball] Alvin Mitchell is a
Bearcat

DF,
First of all, getting enough "decent" players
alone to field a team in
this difficult situation does demonstrate good
recruiting (but we've danced
around this topic before). Even so, Mick IS
recruiting good players. As
mentioned in my earlier posts...building a team
around 4 year players is a
recent key to success in college B-ball (see my
previous posts for
explanations). He has recruited 5 players that rank
anywhere from #26 to
#135 (either on Rivals, Scout or ESPN)...and given
most of them are
#120-#150 (but as most people on here note...after
the top 25-30, the rest
of the top 200 are basically the same). All of them
seem like guys who will
learn the system and play for 4 years and all are
TOP 150 ranked...that
seems like an incredible job!
Now combine the fact that we add a McDonald's
All-American PF, who has 2
years of big time college experience and a year in
our system (Mike
Williams). Then add a 6'10" player (Adam H.) who
has a year in our system
(heck, any 6'10" guy better than Ronald Allen that
UC gets is a huge
success...our Center this season was either a slow
SF (Sikes) or a walk on
Tight End Barwin). Now factor in the rumor that
McClain (a top 50 recruit
and a Top Center) will commit, and Boom! That's
sounds unbelievable to me!
Event though I would like a top PG...I think that
getting the best players
available is the key for these first 2 years. We
were simply not talented
enough all this season.
Yes, I agree that we don't have a PG, and that is
perhaps the most
important position on the court. But , most good
PG's were already off the
table before Mick even got the job. I'm confident
that in 2008 we will get
a solid PG...Angelo Johnson, Jordan Theodore, Kemba
Walker, Chris Wyse, etc.
and I think that's where Mick is banking his money.
Combine a PG with all
the freshman coming in next season who will have a
year experience, Vaughn
as a Junior, and most likely Yancey Gates (a baby
Fortson) and we are on our
way! It's not like we were going to build a Top 10
team overnight, so I
think having a shot a Top 25 team in year 3 is
incredible and a result of
"Great" recruiting!
On another note, I agree that our PG play this
year was absolutely
horrible and that it is vital to Tourney success!
But maybe part of the
reason that our PG were so bad was because Warren
and Vaughn tried to do too
much...and in turn, didn't play the point that well.
NVE iwas in a league
of his own. But Taron Barker's only starting season
he had Maxiell, Hicks,
Field...guys much better than the current team.
Legree had Fortson and Art
Long and crew. K-Satt was good as a frosh with all
the studs around him,
but struggled as a soph unitl Logan took over. And
I agree that Vaughn is
more or a SG, but that's what I thought about
Logan...but by the time he was
a senior, he had that rare gift of knowing exactly
what to do with the ball
everytime! He wasn't faster than any PG's and
certainly wasn't taller...but
he had the instincts. I think Vaughn has a lot of
that in him...he was just
asked to do way too much as a freshman AND didn't
have very much talent
around him to work with.

And for those who don't think 5 Top 150 players
is an achievement...look
at some of the past UC High School recruits (only
guys that came to UC as
freshman, not transfers or JUCO's). To make it
fun...I'll list the
transfers and JUCO's in ().

2000
Field Williams #120-150
Rod Flowers- Not Ranked
(Antwan Jones-?)
(Jamaal Davis-Not Ranked in HS)
(Immanuel McIlroy-Not Ranked in HS)

2001
Jason Maxiell #25-40
Jamaal Lucas-Not Ranked
John Meeker-Not Ranked (Walk On)
(Jimmy Hubbard-Not Ranked in HS)
(Derek Hollman-Not Ranked in HS)
(Taron Barker-Not Ranked in HS)

2002
Chadd Moore #50-80
Eric Hicks #68-88
Armien Kirkland #109-136
(Tony Bobbitt- #24-50 in HS/Prep)
(Kareem Johnson-Not Ranked in HS)

=== message truncated ===

____________________________________________________________________________________
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go
with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail

Follow Ups:
: Re: Alvin Mitchell is a Bearcat, jon breiner

References:
- Re: Alvin Mitchell is a Bearcat
  - From: dfairchild

To subscribe, please follow the instructions here.