NIT, Here We Come

[Brayden Green]

Rose is a tremendous recruiter of talent, but doesn't quite seem to know what to do with them once they're in the program. We've been saying the same things for years.

His best recruits to date have barely even played yet. Even his best players so far were not nearly as highly recruited as Mika, Nick Emery, TJ Haws, Dastrup, Childs, Baxter, Harding. As good as some of the previous recruits were, they were not highly rated guys. That's what you're not really noticing.

Agreed. He knew what to do with Mika, for example. He (and his staff) have done wonders with 3 and borderline 4 star guys. It will be interesting to see what he can do with an entire roster of 4 star players.

[BlueK]

Rose is a tremendous recruiter of talent, but doesn't quite seem to know what to do with them once they're in the program. We've been saying the same things for years.

His best recruits to date have barely even played yet. Even his best players so far were not nearly as highly recruited as Mika, Nick Emery, TJ Haws, Dastrup, Childs, Baxter, Harding. As good as some of the previous recruits were, they were not highly rated guys. That's what you're not really noticing.

Agreed. He knew what to do with Mika, for example. He (and his staff) have done wonders with 3 and borderline 4 star guys. It will be interesting to see what he can do with an entire roster of 4 star players.

Here is our recruiting the last several years, going back to 2007 which is as far back as ESPN tracks it. Since 2013 is when our recruiting took a big step upward. Of those 14 players, only Seljaas, Emery and Shaw are playing right now. The highest rated ones are yet to play, except Mika who we had just for one year and Emery this year.

2016
Gavin Baxter 4* -- #23 SF nationally
Connor Harding 4* -- #31 SG
Yoeli Childs 4* -- #12 PF

2015
Zac Seljaas 3* -- #56 SF

2014
TJ Haws 4* - #11 SG
Payton Dastrup 4* - #11 C
Dalton Nixon 3*
Ryan Andrus 3*
Jake Toolson 2*

2013
Eric Mika 4* - #3 C
Nick Emery 4* - #9 PG
Luke Worthington 3*
Jakob Hartsock 3*
Braiden Shaw 3*
Frank Bartley NR

Then compare those classes with these next two especially. This should tell you all you need to know about why we've been rebuilding. There is no comparison, talent-wise with what is coming vs. what we've been recently playing with.

2012
Jordan Chatman 2*
Cooper Ainge NR
Cory Calvert NR

2011
Damarcus Harrison 3* -- #37 SG
Isaac Neilson 2*
Nate Austin 2*
Ian Harward 2*

2010
Kyle Collinsworth 2* (--Yes, 2 stars. Kind of makes the case that Rose players overachieve)
Anson Winder 2*
Stephen Rogers NR (couldn't stay healthy. Was good when he did play)

2009 (ESPN started using star system in 2010)
Tyler Haws -- #51 SG (over achiever)
Brandon Davies -- #232 PF (over achiever)
Logan Magnusson

2008
Charles Abouo
Noah Hartsock

2007
Chris Collinsworth -- #34 PF
Jimmer Fredette -- #71 SG
Michael Loyd -- #97 PG
Nick Martineau

[BlueK]

On another site someone talked about what our effective recruiting class for 2016 is and compared their recruiting credentials with other schools' 2016 classes. It turns out because of the unique situation at BYU due to missions, the players actually entering BYU for next season (regardless of when they graduated from HS) are the equivalent of a top ten recruiting class which is what a class with 4-5 4* players would be ranked.

Mika 4*
Dastrup 4*
TJ Haws 4*
Childs 4*
Elijah Bryant -- equivalent of 3 star at least, maybe 4. When he announced his transfer he had offers from Big East school Butler, Miami (ACC), Texas A&M (SEC), Dayton (A-10). Those aren't just schools from nice conferences. They're actually very good teams.

[gingi]

Holy Cow BlueK. If I were a I wouldn't want to play us either for at least five years. It would be great to get them in an inescapable tourney match up.
Thanks for getting me back into my too familiar just-you-wait-til-next-year mode. But this time I meant it

[Gunk]

Great context, Blue. Makes me feel better about the world.

I think it is important to keep in mind for the past few years Rose has basically been achieving what he has with a couple of 2 star recruits and some nobody's on the team. While in the LDS world these guys are known as they are among the best LDS talent put there, stacked up against the rest of hoops world they aren't well-known. I think we tend to inflate the talent of the guys on the court.

Jimmer and Davies were almost completely unknown and both went on to the NBA. Have to give Rose some credit for that.

There's not much juice in the lemon. Rose is squeezing what he can out of it. Doesn't mean there aren't a few more drops but he's getting what he can get.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Schmoe]

I think there are different problems that a coach has to work around with more highly touted recruits and Rose is going to have to adjust to that. It's great we're getting these guys, but if we can't get them to realize that at this next level they can't all be the hero and need to play as a team, we're in trouble.

[BlueK]

I think there are different problems that a coach has to work around with more highly touted recruits and Rose is going to have to adjust to that. It's great we're getting these guys, but if we can't get them to realize that at this next level they can't all be the hero and need to play as a team, we're in trouble.

However, Mika, Haws and Emery have successfully played together for years already and their HS coach is now on our staff as well. I think the chemistry will be fine. Elijah Bryant was the star at Elon but he shot and scored a lot because he had to, not because he's selfish. Before Elon he played a year at a prestigious prep school with 4 guys who were blue chip players where his primary responsibility was to get them the ball instead of score himself. He's here because he always wanted to go to BYU but was a really late bloomer and just didn't get the offer in time. He'll fit in well I think. Dastrup and Childs also have the rep of being great teammates.

[Schmoe]

I wasn't trying to say that our players are going to be inherently selfish, just that they're used to playing a certain role and it takes good coaching to push them into new roles.