Recruiting Update

[Fordham Road]

I dont think its a big deal, but 100% cool with taking it down.

Fay has posted how he is on scholarship. He said that hard work lead to D-1 scholarship or something like that. He posted it on facebook.

[ace93]

Would be nice if you could delete it off of the UMASS board as well

Sure would. I know it's out there and will be elsewhere, but I only have control over what's here.

[85]

I agree with the idea of taking it down.

With that, the Fay situation continues to confound. We recruited 2 brothers,  3 years apart.  We appear to have redshirted the older brother, for whom there was never any announcement that he had been signed. So now we may be stuck with a player for 5 years who was apparently a D3 level recruit, in an effort to get his brother 3 years down the road. To boot, the elder Fay now appears to be acting as a front man to try and help sway a recruit our way.

What can wrong with this sound recruiting strategy?

     

   

[In-The-Know]

Is that type of exchange allowed?  Is that why it was brought up on the UMass board?

Classic example of Pecora Paranoia!
Innocent Facebook Exchange becomes Watergate coverup material.

[Buzz]

Fordham has landed a commitment from Jermaine Myers, a 2012 PG from Blair (NJ), per a source.
--Alex Kline Recruit Scoop

[NYRam07]

Classic example of Pecora Paranoia!
Innocent Facebook Exchange becomes Watergate coverup material.

If you knew anything about NCAA bylaws you'd know that an exchange of that nature is exactly smiled upon. Although most likely harmless, those of us who care about our University and the welfare of our team would prefer not to draw attention to it. I'm sure your buddy Grasso knows ALLLLLL about toeing the line between permissible and non-permissible. Ask him for a tutorial.

[JohnG92]

I see where there's a teammate of Myers' at Blair, Alex Wolf, a 6-8 frosh who hails from Briarcliff Manor, NY, where Frank McLaughlin resides.

[John]

Fatty is 21 in June. He has played an awful lot of basketball with high level players. Most of us had already graduated at 21.  I think we have seen this played out over and over with a lot of the older prep players.  They often don't improve.  Why are some people so certain that a kid who is 21 is suddenly going to up his game and get a better handle and improve his shooting so drastically?  I think its at best 50-50 and given the player's age and number of games under his belt at various levels, 50-50 is a reach.

Really good observation, '85. I think a lot of us associate the word "freshman" with "potential", but fail to realize that these days, a "freshman" can be a 20 or 21-year old whose development is at an advanced level relative to their skills.

[ace93]

They might not mature much more physically, but they certainly can get better as players. Plenty of pros get better as players, so no reason a 20 year old kid can't get better.

[RAM71]

Another guard for 2013?

Zach Braziller‏@NYPost_Brazille
Fordham, UAB and George Mason now showing interest in 2013 guard Dayshon Smith, he said. #boyshoops

[ace93]

Any posts about Meyers should know go in the signed/committed thread.

[85]

1 year too late we could have had the Bristol-Myers combo......

[In-The-Know]

If you knew anything about NCAA bylaws you'd know that an exchange of that nature is exactly smiled upon. Although most likely harmless, those of us who care about our University and the welfare of our team would prefer not to draw attention to it. I'm sure your buddy Grasso knows ALLLLLL about toeing the line between permissible and non-permissible. Ask him for a tutorial.

Hey smart guy, there was no violation of NCAA bylaws,so why worry?  Stop the high and mighty b.s.  If Pec cared about any potential problem, he would have addressed it before it happened. lighten up!

[ace93]

Hey smart guy, there was no violation of NCAA bylaws,so why worry?  Stop the high and mighty b.s.  If Pec cared about any potential problem, he would have addressed it before it happened. lighten up!

I think it's murky, but truthfully nobody should be involved in recruiting other than the coaches.  Fay's message to Agbeko could certainly be seen as recruiting in that it is contact about his visit.

Good article on social media, http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/7510010/social-media-makes-mark-recruiting.  Read the side mini article on the right.  "The challenge for our office is ensuring that no individual is involved in the recruiting process other than our coaches, including on social media," said Jason Leonard, executive director of compliance at Oklahoma.  (my emphasis)

That said, we all know that players reach out to each other, but unless you have a previous relationship with the recruit, you could get snagged.

[El Jefe]

I'm sorry if I opened a can of worms on this subject, but I thought the posting in the UMass board was harmless.  It is common for prospects to be paired up with frosh players during their vists in order to give the prospects insight into the school.  This goes on outside the world of athletics and at the high school level. A student trying to decide on a high school is often invited to a "day in the life" and can sit in on clases with an existing student.  The post-visit email exchange appeared to be nothing more than a thank you by the prospect.  I believe the exchange was already removed by the original source when I saw the second-hand account on the UMass site.  For all I know, the UMass poster's account of the exchange is not even true.  I would have more of a problem with this if the exchange on social media were by a fan, but even there the line can be blurry. 

http://basketball.about.com/od/recruiting/a/Are-You-A-Booster.htm

The NCAA is never going to be able to penalize schools for comments posters make on Boards like this.  I think their biggest concern is the slime booster that is reaching out with more than just praise. 
   

[ace93]

El Jefe, I hear you and you are right that what is posted on the UMass board might not be accurate, but posted as it is the sequence of exchanges starts with Fay reaching out to Agbeko which to me makes it very different.  At that point it could be interpreted as a recruiting effort, which a player should not be doing.  Nobody said anything about the visit not being appropriate.  When you say the exchange was removed by the original source are you referring to Fay and/or Agbeko or the original poster on the UMass board?

[El Jefe]

I was referring to Agbeko.  I searched for the original exchange, but could not find it despite finding some older Twitter posts by him. 

[ace93]

I was referring to Agbeko.  I searched for the original exchange, but could not find it despite finding some older Twitter posts by him. 

The exchange was on Facebook, not twitter.

[FU85]

Fellas,
     I see Sterling Gibbs is out at Texas and looking to transfer, should I get that idea going or leave it alone since we just dealt with the sledge transfer. I say we got no shot.

[joeb]

do your best to shake things up, we have nothing to lose.

[shortshot]

Sterling Gibbs - 6' PG. Not sure he is what we really need now. He would also have to sit out a year. Last ship should be to a big - a JUCO transfer if we can't get a 4 year recruit.

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/10/sterling-gibbs-transferring-out-of-texas/related/

[Fordham Road]

former Duquesne point guard T.J. McConnell announced he would transfer to Tucson for the remaining two years of his career, which will begin in 2013-14 after the customary one-year transfer purgatory, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday.

[ace93]

former Duquesne point guard T.J. McConnell announced he would transfer to Tucson for the remaining two years of his career, which will begin in 2013-14 after the customary one-year transfer purgatory, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday.

While that is newsworthy, I am not sure that type of news is what this thread was created for.  We don't always do a good job of it, but we should keep the news here to only that news that involves our recruiting.

The Sterling Gibbs news above is a bit of a stretch, but technically speaking we could be an option for him.  We were never an option for McConnell since he'd have to sit out 2 years as per A10 rules.

[JohnG92]

Do we hear next Wednesday on Reggie?

[Rich93]

Do we hear next Wednesday on Reggie?

I think in the article it stated he was going to make his decision by the end of the month. 

[JohnG92]

thanks Rich, I am keeping my fingers crossed, I believe I read somewhere that his parents were interested in a religious type education/setting for him.

I'm not a coach, but he looks like a player who can contribute right away with huge room for improvement. He reminds me of some of the MAAC level players in the Big Nick days we used to get to come here.

[PA Ram]

The reason I replied to this thread (or as you said over and over and over again) was due to the quote another poster made "  I thought Fatty and Canty both looked very, very promising as freshmen."  Not sure how someone could say very, very promising for a guy who hardly played and IMO showed little his first year. But my glasses are not rose colored. 

I stand by the 'promising' line.  Part of it is because I think "promising" is a bit subjective so we could have different interpretations.  Mostly, though, it's because of what John wrote.  He has size, he has athleticism and he's a guy who has great attitude and is only just a freshman - the kind of enforcer that this team has been lacking for an incredibly long time.  Your basketball acumen could be way better than mine but to be able to grab a 6'9 kid who can move like him and has his attitude is a great get for our program imo. What about him would you have changed?  Then, ask yourself if he had that one thing - would he still have come to Fordham or gone higher? 

 He's going to have 3 more off seasons in the weight room and 3 more seasons to get accustomed to A10 play and improve his game.  I still am very impressed with what he showed as a freshman and think he's being judged too harshly here (or maybe dismissed too quickly as a potential impact player for us as a junior & senior).  I tend to think that big guys develop more than smaller guys who may have been the same size they are now throughout HS.  A 6'9 athletic guy who can act as an enforcer and possibly develop into more is a great addition imo.

Good point by '85 on Fatty being 21.  I definitely wasn't thinking that when I wrote it.  I agree with ace that he can better but I do expect that Canty has more growth in him than Fatty does due to their age. 

[85]

former Duquesne point guard T.J. McConnell announced he would transfer to Tucson for the remaining two years of his career, which will begin in 2013-14 after the customary one-year transfer purgatory, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday.

Is Tucson a school?

[RamFan78]

I stand by the 'promising' line.  Part of it is because I think "promising" is a bit subjective so we could have different interpretations.  Mostly, though, it's because of what John wrote.  He has size, he has athleticism and he's a guy who has great attitude and is only just a freshman - the kind of enforcer that this team has been lacking for an incredibly long time.  Your basketball acumen could be way better than mine but to be able to grab a 6'9 kid who can move like him and has his attitude is a great get for our program imo. What about him would you have changed?  Then, ask yourself if he had that one thing - would he still have come to Fordham or gone higher? 

 He's going to have 3 more off seasons in the weight room and 3 more seasons to get accustomed to A10 play and improve his game.  I still am very impressed with what he showed as a freshman and think he's being judged too harshly here (or maybe dismissed too quickly as a potential impact player for us as a junior & senior).  I tend to think that big guys develop more than smaller guys who may have been the same size they are now throughout HS.  A 6'9 athletic guy who can act as an enforcer and possibly develop into more is a great addition imo.

My acumen is not better or worse than most, just an average fan. I just based my opinion on what I saw on the court this past year. I could see using very very promising for a guy like Smith or even Fatty who at time exhibited some good basketball. In Smiths case he showed that he could develop into a productive scorer if he just harnesses his game a little more and develops consistency. You can argue that Canty did not get the opportunity the other 2 got in terms of playing time but maybe there is a reason. Maybe the coach did not think he was ready to play major minutes and contribute. If so that would be why I refrain using very very promising for Canty as opposed to Smith or Fatty who actually have enough playing time for someone to draw a conclusion.

Even though I have been criticized for being somewhat down on Canty I have said quite often that he hustles and shows enthusiasm. I am also sure he is a good character guy for the team. That does not always translate into being a good player or turning into one. Sometimes a streak of nastiness helps as well. The jury is still out. I am not sure what your definition of an enforcer is. In theory given the amount of blocks and rebounds he got this year as well as his overall interior defense (and yes with our guards this year he needed to cover up a lot) Bristol I thought was somewhat of an enforcer.

[PA Ram]

My acumen is not better or worse than most, just an average fan. I just based my opinion on what I saw on the court this past year. I could see using very very promising for a guy like Smith or even Fatty who at time exhibited some good basketball. In Smiths case he showed that he could develop into a productive scorer if he just harnesses his game a little more and develops consistency. You can argue that Canty did not get the opportunity the other 2 got in terms of playing time but maybe there is a reason. Maybe the coach did not think he was ready to play major minutes and contribute. If so that would be why I refrain using very very promising for Canty as opposed to Smith or Fatty who actually have enough playing time for someone to draw a conclusion.

Even though I have been criticized for being somewhat down on Canty I have said quite often that he hustles and shows enthusiasm. I am also sure he is a good character guy for the team. That does not always translate into being a good player or turning into one. Sometimes a streak of nastiness helps as well. The jury is still out. I am not sure what your definition of an enforcer is. In theory given the amount of blocks and rebounds he got this year as well as his overall interior defense (and yes with our guards this year he needed to cover up a lot) Bristol I thought was somewhat of an enforcer.

wasn't being sarcastic btw with the acumen line.  I don't know hoops nearly as well as football so I typically defer to someone else who might see the game better than I do. 

By enforcer I mean a guy who either keeps the other team from getting the easy move to the hoop that oftentimes results in a momentum shifting slam or responds to someone who does. 

I still wonder what characteristic you'd add to Canty's game that would make you feel better about him heading into next year since I really think that for a 6'9 guy who is not rail thin, this is as good as our program could hope for at this point.  Part of the problem is that he had to play at all imo.  Would have been much, much better for his overall development imo if we had the luxury of red shirting him last year.