Karl Anthony Towns.. another Jersey kid who chased an unattainable dream..
- Thread starter RutgersSam
- Start date
Thank you. I was trying to put what I wanted to say into words and you nailed it.
Players like Towns are NEVER coming here and it has almost nothing to do with Rutgers. The top players are going to the top programs. They want to maximize their exposure, as RU-JM said. Most don't want to be saviors or have the added pressure of single handedly rescuing a program. They also want to win. Put the situation another way - if someone had the choice of going to Wharton, Harvard Business School, or Rutgers Business School, who would criticize someone for choosing Wharton or Harvard? And that is not meant to be a knock on RU. The others are just name brands, just like Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas are in hoops.
Rutgers need to build a program. Players like Towns, as great as they are, do not build programs nor do they want to. They want to play for established programs.
This post was edited on 4/5 7:26 PM by WJLeggett
This is such an awful OP and thread.
Guys like Towns (and other guys like Tyus Battle in 2016 class) have had families helping them make great decisions based on a number of factors. Since Karl so obviously projected as an NBA player, he likely focused on the "one and done" scenario. By all accounts, he had the academic background/aptitude to succeed in college, but his pro prospects were just too good to pass up.
I love how people on here presume to second-guess families or people that have thoughtfully taken steps to give the kid a very high chance of success.
Guys like Towns (and other guys like Tyus Battle in 2016 class) have had families helping them make great decisions based on a number of factors. Since Karl so obviously projected as an NBA player, he likely focused on the "one and done" scenario. By all accounts, he had the academic background/aptitude to succeed in college, but his pro prospects were just too good to pass up.
I love how people on here presume to second-guess families or people that have thoughtfully taken steps to give the kid a very high chance of success.
You people call yourselves Rutgers fans? Sad. Kentucky might be an NBA factory, but when even our fans admit that they should rightly get all of NJ's top basketball talent, then you're marginalizing yourself and your university for life. You pathetic souls are casting Rutgers as a school that will never be worthy of achieving national level success.
Sad, beaten down fans here. Keep thinking this way about Rutgers and you will keep getting exactly what you deserve.
Sad, beaten down fans here. Keep thinking this way about Rutgers and you will keep getting exactly what you deserve.
I saw towns in HS too, had the same opinion. If he develops his defensive game I think he can be an all time great. Hoping the Knicks can get him or Okafor.
Originally posted by Mr_Twister:
Going to college for the purposes of playing basketball for 1 year and playing in the NCAA and NBA is not everyone's measure of success.
Towns has received a lot of publicity in the last couple of weeks, including his off-court successes. Whether he makes it in the NBA or not, it would be a fool's bet to think he won't be successful in whatever he goes into. Especially with the $$$ that he will be getting from that first NBA contract alone.
Going to college for the purposes of playing basketball for 1 year and playing in the NCAA and NBA is not everyone's measure of success.
Towns has received a lot of publicity in the last couple of weeks, including his off-court successes. Whether he makes it in the NBA or not, it would be a fool's bet to think he won't be successful in whatever he goes into. Especially with the $$$ that he will be getting from that first NBA contract alone.
I think everyone would have been thrilled if Towns thought RU was his best option.
Being a fan - but still being objective - Kentucky was a better option.
You fail to make a compelling argument, but you can't understand why no one agrees with you. You must be fun at parties.
The OP is correct from the standpoint that he would have been in the same situation for the draft regardless of where he went.
No, just realistic and smart fans.
Kids leave states all the time to go elsewhere to play sports. Kids from Ohio go to Michigan or Notre Dame and not OSU. Kids from Florida go to Alabama or LSU and not UF or FSU or Miami. Kids from California go to Notre Dame or Michigan or Florida State or Oregon and not USC or UCLA.
The idea that NJ kids should all stay home and go to Rutgers is some of the most moronic gibberish I have ever seen.
Should RU get in a position to recruit some of the better kids from NJ? Sure. But kids like Towns and others are always going to leave the state.
Sam if you had just said it sure hurt to lose Towns RU sure could have used him you would be fine. but the utter senselessness of your subject line took any kind of credibility you may have had away....far far far away. Just a word of advice more thinking before posting would give you a better response from the peanut gallery
No one said that all the best NJ players need to stay home. Most of us would be happy to see 3 or 4 of the Top-10 in-state talent stay home annually and we begin to see a trickle of the pipeline open in the reverse direction.
"Kids leave states all the time to go elsewhere to play sports. Kids from Ohio go to Michigan or Notre Dame and not OSU. Kids from Florida go to Alabama or LSU and not UF or FSU or Miami. Kids from California go to Notre Dame or Michigan or Florida State or Oregon and not USC or UCLA."
When is the last time that Rutgers got Top-10 student/athletes (hoops, football) from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee, Kansas, etc.?
Obviously lots of it has to do with the programs' lack of success and limelight, but lots of it is attributable to the palpable hangdog "oh well, leaving for greener pastures is OK" attitude of the fans and friends and families of the athletes. The greener pastures can be in the Garden State, especially with Big Ten admission. The stage is here to accomplish big things.
This post was edited on 4/8 1:04 PM by Mr_Twister
"Kids leave states all the time to go elsewhere to play sports. Kids from Ohio go to Michigan or Notre Dame and not OSU. Kids from Florida go to Alabama or LSU and not UF or FSU or Miami. Kids from California go to Notre Dame or Michigan or Florida State or Oregon and not USC or UCLA."
When is the last time that Rutgers got Top-10 student/athletes (hoops, football) from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee, Kansas, etc.?
Obviously lots of it has to do with the programs' lack of success and limelight, but lots of it is attributable to the palpable hangdog "oh well, leaving for greener pastures is OK" attitude of the fans and friends and families of the athletes. The greener pastures can be in the Garden State, especially with Big Ten admission. The stage is here to accomplish big things.
This post was edited on 4/8 1:04 PM by Mr_Twister
Any analysis that essentially puts some of the blame on kids leaving the state on the attitude of fans and friends and families of athletes is ridiculous. As if fans and alums and friends of athletes start making not going to RU unacceptable and voice that opinion it's suddenly going to make top recruits go to RU.
There's no doubt in my mind that if RU got better on the football field and in basketball, they'd keep more of the top kids in state. But reality is, IMO, that RU even if they get much better on the field is going to find kids are going to leave the state regardless. But with a better product, certainly, they can keep more in state that they do now.
But it doesn't change the point that the original post was a moronic post. How in the world can any person question an elite level high school basketball star from choosing one of the historic basketball programs of all time? And the "pasture" is different for every kid. I mean are you really going to question a top ranked football player for choosing say Michigan or Southern Cal or Notre Dame over Rutgers?
This post was edited on 4/8 3:19 PM by Ty Webb
This post was edited on 4/8 3:19 PM by Ty Webb
I never understood people who post on a thread that they consider to be awful. I typically ignore any threads that I feel that way about. That also accomplishes the desired objective of helping the thread drop to the bottom and die a quicker death.
Sam, don't worry, it will only be bac's "worst" thread until someone starts one ragging on Julie, lol.
This post was edited on 4/8 9:20 PM by GSGS
Ty you shouldn't have to ask but since you haven't heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184
Well if that's his point, it was kind of silly. Larry Bird actually committed and started at Indiana, one of the best basketball schools in the country. Bird, being a small town guy, got to Bloomington, felt uncomfortable and left. He went to community college then the local college at Indiana State.
So if the guy's point was that Bird did the noble thing and played for the down but not out Indiana State out of loyalty reasons, he'd be somewhat wrong. Bird opted to play for one of the most powerful programs in the country (who happened to be in state) but left when he couldn't fit in and eventually ended up at his local college.
This post was edited on 4/9 8:35 AM by Ty Webb
LOL, Ty. Bird, from Indiana, first went to Indiana University and then he went to Indiana State, but you don't see the connection to the point about state loyalty because IU is a big time program. That has to take the cake for all time.
Trying to equate Towns or any elite kid should have loyalty to RU with Bird choosing to go to IU isn't a sound analogy because it's much easier for a local kid with high college aspirations to choose IU, an elite level, historical power than expect a local elite kid to chose a lower level program like RU.
How you can't see that is puzzling.
Its the worst thread because it still is the worst thread. Do you even realize that Mike Rice would be recruiting Towns and he was canned. Your fantasy dream would never happen in any fantasy world actually. Towns never would have come here. You fail to even have knowledge of how pathetic the infrastructure and perception of Rutgers basketball
