Recruiting

[cowboyjoe]

People used to get all over Dakich about his recruiting, but geesh! Take a little gander at this roster we have of fresh, soph and juniors. Something has to change somewhere.

[h2oville rocket]

Look at your chief rival's roster. You'll feel much better.

[Globetrotter]

i made a post about this about two weeks ago. I just don't see the light at the end of the tunnell.

[BleedOrange]

Dakich had no problems recruiting. His problem was obviously keeping the players he brought in.

Orr has a very weak roster and has given us no reason to think that he recruits better than Dakich. In fact, I give the nod to Dakich.

McElroy and Calhoun were supposed to be big recruits. McElroy is averaging 8 minutes a game and Calhoun doesn't see the floor. Madlock flaked out after sitting as a freshman and Haynes is green and needs a redshirt. All the while, Goins, Krauss, and Erger are TOTAL nonfactors. The only freshman, uh, newcomer, having any impact at all is 5-6. It's not like our 7 man rotation is SO GOOD that decent newcomers shouldn't contributing.

Furthermore, I can't recall seeing a starting guard tandem at BG weaker than the two we have now. Ever.

We'll see how Sealy and Black turn out. I'm not sitting on the edge of my chair.

[JimmyZ11381]

C'mon, I think we all need to wait this out. Yea, Dakich brought us some good recruits, but he also brought us Dusan Radadadavoyager, and a host of guys that transferred. I just don't understand how we can so quickly criticize Orr's recruiting. Orr is a better teacher as well. You can see that already with what he's done with Otis and the way that Larson has actually become relevant. Everybody was saying that Dee Brown was a bust last season, and he's been playing pretty good this year. Let's just be patient and watch us bring home another MAC title this year.

[Falconboy]

Let's just be patient and watch us bring home another MAC title this year.

Gotta love your optimism but sorry man it ain't happening this year. We're probably at best a couple of years away from competing again for the championship , season or tourney.

[BleedOrange]

C'mon, I think we all need to wait this out. Yea, Dakich brought us some good recruits, but he also brought us Dusan Radadadavoyager, and a host of guys that transferred. I just don't understand how we can so quickly criticize Orr's recruiting. Orr is a better teacher as well. You can see that already with what he's done with Otis and the way that Larson has actually become relevant. Everybody was saying that Dee Brown was a bust last season, and he's been playing pretty good this year. Let's just be patient and watch us bring home another MAC title this year.

Another MAC title? Yeeaahhhh!!! Uh, wait....take a look around the conference. Look at Sagarin, RPI, and kenpom. Is there any team other than Akron that is clearly an above average D1 team? Probably not. The MAC has fallen dramatically over the last ten years. Around 2000, the MAC had been the around 9th best conference in D1. Now, the MAC is around 16th or 17th. Frankly, the MAC sucks, and even then BG will be lucky to contend. I've always been a super strong advocate of the MAC, but I don't want to be delusional. BG hasn't been to the friggen NCAA tournament since the civil rights movement. We can win the next 10 MAC titles and nobody will give a sh1t if we continue failing to make the tourney.

[Globetrotter]

C'mon, I think we all need to wait this out. Yea, Dakich brought us some good recruits, but he also brought us Dusan Radadadavoyager, and a host of guys that transferred. I just don't understand how we can so quickly criticize Orr's recruiting. Orr is a better teacher as well. You can see that already with what he's done with Otis and the way that Larson has actually become relevant. Everybody was saying that Dee Brown was a bust last season, and he's been playing pretty good this year. Let's just be patient and watch us bring home another MAC title this year.

Wait this one out....This is his third class playing and 4th class out and still no diamond or even a sparkle to indicate a diamond. Plus no one is really freaking out here....just mentioning their apprehension.

One thing....what happened to Lamonta Stone..he was supposed to be our great recruiter for Michigan and...

[edr4225]

Didnt we win a MAC Championship last year? Do people forget about this? I dont understand why we are so quick to say that Coach Orr's team and recruits have been a failure. Now in the MAC tourney we didnt get it done, but this coach did get us a MAC championship. We havent won a MAC title since 1999 and we also got a chance to play in the NIT tourney. We havent played in the NIT since 2002, now thats not as good as the Big Dance, but its a good start for a new coach. I think we alll need to give Orr some more time to develop his vision for our team and see what his recruits can do. The season is far from over, so we cant call them all busts at this point. Go Falcons

[Falconfreak90]

Hey, watch that optimism edr!

It is a long season....let's see where BG is at the end before jumping off the cliff. We did lose our top 3 scorers from last season (Miller, Moten and Clements). I liked what I saw outta Brown the other night...we just couldn't hit any shots.

GO BG!~

[JWEIII]

It was all doom and gloom last year at this time too. Then the team came together, made a run and won the league. So they lost big at Akron. Akron is clearly the "class" of the MAC East, if not the conference - did we really expect to win on their floor? I didn't, but that doesn't mean this this team can't compete. They are going to be fine.

[hammb]

I'm not all doom & gloom on the season, coaches, or system, but I do understand the apprehension. The MAC is, yet again, a terrible conference, so certainly we can compete for, and perhaps even win, another league title. I also didn't go into this year with great expectations, we lost pretty much our entire offense from last year, so I figured that scoring was going to be our issue this year.

Since Orr's arrival I've liked how our team plays. The team plays tough defense rotating between man and zone throughout the game, and try to use that defense to create break opportunities for quick offense. However, our offensive scheme has left a lot to the imagination, but I think a lot of that might be not having the players to run the type of offense we want to run. Mainly, I think the scheme really wants a point guard who can initiate the offense by penetrating and finding the open man or finishing himself. Unfortunately we haven't had a PG that could do those things since Pardon graduated.

As to the subject of this thread, I definitely agree with some of the apprehension about the recruiting. Certainly when I look at the players in a vacuum I think there seems to be more athleticism with this group than we had a few years ago, but I'm not necessarily seeing better basketball players, at least not on the offensive end. Orr has yet to really bring in a truly talented scorer. I know it's only been 3 years, but it's not uncommon for freshman to come in and score in college basketball, and we really haven't seen that. Dee Brown & Scott Thomas have shown potential to develop into scorers, but that's about the best we've got. Orr really hasn't brought in a good PG yet either. Crawford has been impressive when I've seen him, so I'm hopeful he becomes that guy, but I haven't seen enough to definitely say he'll be the type of PG we need.

I must agree when I look at the recruiting of the current staff, everything isn't perfectly rosy. I do find it a little unsettling that the best player on this team (Polk), and only big men that get many minutes (Polk, Larson, Marschall) are all Dakich holdovers. I would have expected Orr to bring in a solid post player by now.




*Take this entire post with a HUGE grain of salt...I haven't gotten to a game since November*

[cowboyjoe]

I don't want to sound negative about our team because I love the way they play and I think Orr gets a lot out of our players as far as effort etc. I just worry that we have no one right now that is like any one of our top players from the last 10 years. We have no "go to" guy or "All MAC" type of player now or potentially down the line. Our 3 top scorers last year that led us to a title were Dakich recruits and now we are in trouble. Usually you can look at our team and see a freshman or sophomore that contributes a lot and you can say they will be a "1st teamer" when they are seniors. I don't see it right now. I think we can be above .500 this year in the league just because of how Orr's coaching...the recruiting will need to take us to the next level.

[Globetrotter]

I think we all said (or I said) wait for Calhoun, wait for Knight, wait for Goins, wait for McCelroy....these guys will be our scorers and are studs....and they are turning out to not be what we thought.

[falconfan1]

Incoming high flying wing Craig Sealey conbtinues with his excellent season at Columbus Brookhaven. Team is doing pretty well and Sealey scored 26 last night in win over Mifflin. This school has produced some very fine players and perhaps Sealey can give us some athleticism and scoring from the three spot. Cameron Black is a key at 6'10" coming in also- with our frontcourt graduations, these two will be counted on I believe. Black has a big wing span and good shot blocking skills. Hopefully, he can help in scoring also.

Go Falcons!