🏀 KuBuckets Archive

St. John's (SJ) tried Okie Ball the right way with Norm Roberts and a NYC newspaper reported Norm got forced out, because some AAU and juco coaches reputedly channelled recruits away from him.

Next, SJ tried turn-the-other-cheek and tried Okie Ball the compromising way with Steve Lavin promising to work with the locals. He brought in his mentor Gene Keady--an Eddie Sutton disciple--for strategy. But the locals still wouldn't budge. By the end there was again no local talent playing for SJ., even though Okie Ball produced five 20 win seasons before Lavin got s-canned a year before the end of his contract.

Now, SJ is trying former SJ star and never a coach Chris Mullin who said he would recruit every local gym. Mullin has been an NBA exec, s-canned, then a scout. SJ is trying the Hoiberg model--a former school star with some NBA Front office experience. He hired Hoiberg's recruiter, a former SJ guy. Zip. Now Mullin has quickly added UK recruiter Slice Rohrssen apparently to try to get an in with the locals. If you can't beat them, join them.

Mullin wants Diallo.

Forgive them father, for they know exactly what they do.

@jaybate-1.0

Talk about a crap shoot for Diallo. Does he really want to be a part of the SJ experiment in his only year of college ball? They'll be lucky to play in March Madness. How many consecutive years have we gone now?

I haven't seen this much jockeying for a player in a long time. Especially when you see that the dynamics include teams recruiting him from all over the country.

You've seen St Johns pluck 2 assistants that just so happen to be the lead recruiter for Diallo. I bet every last dollar I own that the only reason either is on St Johns is because of Diallo. Why else would Slice leave his perfectly great UK gig for St. Johns? Why would the assistant from Iowa St. leave his perfectly good gig for St Johns? It will be funny if they lose out. I believe KU will land Diallo but man these late heroics being played by Mullin is something.

@BeddieKU23

Hypothesis: because Fred is sick, and Shaka has been lured to Austin, TEXAS is the new designated stack in the B12, and a push is on to make SJ the new stack school in the Big East to pre empt Adidas. Hence, two dump truck drivers are being moved into the BIG APPLE to make absolutely sure this happens.

Alternative hypothesis: Slice has been hired away by a new dump truck company.

Diallo or no, it looks as though a lot of these remaining undeclared players will be committing in the next two weeks. Might be some movement Friday at the Jordan Brand Classic which would present a dandy tv opporunity to showcase topnotch decisions. And we will know soon about Perry's decision, as NBA/NCAA deadlines are upon us.

Seriously, what if we don't get Diallo?

Our post situation was an unmitigated disaster last season.

We might then add Mike Thorne, who doesn't look that impressive.

And we've added Carlton Bragg, the only real reason for hope.

We're in a box. OAD Diallo please come save us.

Editor's Note: We shouldn't be in this spot in the first place.

@HighEliteMajor

"Editor's Note: We shouldn't be in this spot in the first place."

I'm with you.

We have a pile of assistant coaches famous for recruiting (only) and the largest D1 recruiting budget in the nation. Last I checked, we were considered a blue blood program playing in a tough conference. And to date we only have 1 guy signed?!

Plus... what about the major pluck down for those luxury pads? If I'm not mistaken, won't those palaces be available this fall?

Someone has some explaining to do...

Good question, if we don't get Diallo then I'll temper my expectations a lot for next year.

Thorne I thought was a cinch to KU if we didn't get Diallo, will now be swayed by UK. Plenty of PT there for him. Who knows maybe he's better than we think, he's a big bodied player who has improved each year. Him at the 5 backed up by Lucas sounds like a serviceable unit to me.

It's clear we need 1 or the other to ensure that Traylor won't get meaningful minutes. That's the real misery of missing on them.

@drgnslayr

Should we ask Lucy??

It is shocking that entire class could have such little interest in KU. But if we had 6 spots open we'd have 6 signed by now. Nobody wants to sit and develop anymore.

@BeddieKU23

Wonder what it would cost to hire Olivia Wilde as a part-time assistant coach? I bet our recruiting problems would be over instantly!

Surely it would cost less than luxury apartments...

@drgnslayr

Or at least a permanent seat at KU home games/ tourney sites with paid appearance fee's. How much does Judd get from UK a year??

@BeddieKU23

My reply is not befitting of the responsibilities I have towards KUBuckets... so I'll save it for myself.

@HighEliteMajor

I believe the logical answer would be view this from Rick Pitino's reported perspective and start looking at recruiting pool sizes as having some proportional relationship to which shoeco-agency complex one is aligned with.

Hypothesis: reliance on shoeco-agent complex A with a larger pool to draw from than shoeco-agency complex B with a smaller pool to draw from increases the probability of signing sufficiently high ranked talent at all 5 positions.

Remember those buttons a few years back.

"That was easy." :-)

Especially so, I believe, since Rick indicated that he thought the NCAA viewed what is going on, whatever specifically he may have been referring to, as okay.

I infer therefore that it does not matter if you change shoeco-agency complexes, contractual relationships permitting.

I am frankly more concerned about what we do, if we get the players without changing shoeco-agency complexes and have to deal with the apparent current "approach" of the NCAA to seeding the Madness, and then have to deal with the officiating the last ten minutes appearing to evidence XTReme Asymmetry.

I was proud of Wisconsin making it to the Finals, without what Bo Ryan tactfully called rent-a-players, but would like to avoid KU and Coach Self having to experience a similar phenomenon, what ever may have actually triggered the appearance of the phenomenon, just because they happen to have a strange circle pattern on the belt lines of their uniforms, as Wisconsin did, too.