quote:
Bob, not going to spend the time charting it, but I am guessing we've never had such a run on 'Top-100' rated talent in program history as we have had the last couple of recruiting cycles, in terms of just sheer numbers.
Next season's roster, out of the predicted 11 scholarship guys...seven will have been rated in ESPN-100 in their high school class. Of the other four guys not rated, two are international (Trocha and Vila). And then there is Tavario Miller and Hampton.
Obviously some highly rated guys pan out and some do not. Hibbert, Alexander, Branch, Reese, Elijah Thomas, Alex Robinson...all highly rated 4-star guys who didn't pan out particularly well for A&M. Then there is always a 3-star guy like Middleton who was underrated. But the percentages should generally favor that given a heavy volume of 4/5-star talent coming in, that you are bound to get some hits (like an Elston, Caruso, House, Trocha, Gilder, Davis, and Hogg, etc.).
Yeah, and we're recruiting at a higher level now than we were, I'm just saying that sometimes it looks like all the pieces are coming together and then they don't. This is why I'm all about the one-and-done and graduate transfers. In college basketball, you can really only worry about the next season because you never know what can happen after that.
The time I'm really talking about is in 2008 we signed Loubeau and Harris, both four star prospects.
Then in 2009 we signed Middleton and Hibbert and added Ray Turner. (Jeremy Adams would be added later) Middleton wasn't top 100, but he was 140 on the Rivals rankings so pretty close.
Then in 2010 we signed Keith Davis, Tobi Oyedeji, Daniel Alexander and Kourtney Roberson. No need to go into what happened with Oyedeji, that's a tragedy obviously. And Keith Davis was a four star on Scout before he went to prep school the year before, and Kourtney Roberson was in the ESPN 100 but went to prep school the next year so he wasn't when he actually got to A&M. And Daniel Alexander was a four star on ESPN and ranked #94 on the ESPN 100.
On top of that, we already had Jamal Branch committed since he was like six years old and he was a four star nationally ranked guy and Jordan Green was ranked 107 by Rivals. (ESPN doesn't rank past #100) And everyone expected us to land J-Mychal Reese in 2012 who was going to be the greatest basketball player in the history of Brazos Valley.
So over that stretch everyone but Ray Turner and Jeremy Adams were either in or very close to being in the "top 100." But coaching changes, injuries, and various other cosmic forces kept that group from all being on the court together.
My point is simply don't wait for the future in college basketball.