Rutgers Looking Good! But ................

[LFBall]

You need Shoes!!! I really feel you have the head coach needed to make RU again competitive. In fact with the right staff, facility upgrade, marketing the excitement of a truly new era to RU fans and alumni, and that one coach who knows all the movers and shakers nation wide in the projects of Detroit, the streets of Flint, The parks on NYC and Newark, the folks like the Pumps running California stuff from behind closed doors, the real decision makes who strongly point in the direction where kids should attend school. RU needs that guy who can talk and relate street wise as well as that guy who understands the importance of education.

So many fail by always hiring yes folks or people with zero understanding of how to really make a deal to get a Micky D All American or how to legally assisting folks to help open doors to future recruits. If you think 80 percent of the BIG, ACC, SEC (for sure), and other big name conferences do not have that guy who can reach the Chicago HS coaches in ways they want you are mistaken and/or blind. Ditto many of the power AAU or Travel programs. Look around, look closely, and some things will come into focus. Look at the guy looking at the guy, seeing whats best. Know who is the true decision maker because often its not the HS Coach or even Parents. Even in NJ some things are nowhere like what they seem with the power HS Programs.

Recruiting for Stony Brook required getting that unknown D2 recruit, CAA or lower A10 player to commit. Recruiting for the BIG means getting that stud everyone else wants and everyone else will do what ever is necessary to succeed. YOU NEED SHOES PERIOD!!!! No need for a bunch of choir boys with blazers and button down shirts looking preppy. You need that guy who can slide in and out of gyms in the hood to the parks of Beverly Hills. You need that killer recruiter more than that nice guy scared of his shadow. I can tell you stories about local teams including RU and what they had to do many-many years ago to get the players they wanted. KEEP SHOES!

 

[rubaseball78]

I agree. I definitely needed shoes today. A little to cold to be outside in bare feet.

 

[ScarletLongIsland]

Trust In Shoes

 

[RickB113]

I trust pikiel to hire the right guys. He has Calhoun helping who might know a little something about how to do this.

 

[Plum Street]

Good post lfball .

 

[RU_DIO]

You need Shoes!!! I really feel you have the head coach needed to make RU again competitive. In fact with the right staff, facility upgrade, marketing the excitement of a truly new era to RU fans and alumni, and that one coach who knows all the movers and shakers nation wide in the projects of Detroit, the streets of Flint, The parks on NYC and Newark, the folks like the Pumps running California stuff from behind closed doors, the real decision makes who strongly point in the direction where kids should attend school. RU needs that guy who can talk and relate street wise as well as that guy who understands the importance of education.

So many fail by always hiring yes folks or people with zero understanding of how to really make a deal to get a Micky D All American or how to legally assisting folks to help open doors to future recruits. If you think 80 percent of the BIG, ACC, SEC (for sure), and other big name conferences do not have that guy who can reach the Chicago HS coaches in ways they want you are mistaken and/or blind. Ditto many of the power AAU or Travel programs. Look around, look closely, and some things will come into focus. Look at the guy looking at the guy, seeing whats best. Know who is the true decision maker because often its not the HS Coach or even Parents. Even in NJ some things are nowhere like what they seem with the power HS Programs.

Recruiting for Stony Brook required getting that unknown D2 recruit, CAA or lower A10 player to commit. Recruiting for the BIG means getting that stud everyone else wants and everyone else will do what ever is necessary to succeed. YOU NEED SHOES PERIOD!!!! No need for a bunch of choir boys with blazers and button down shirts looking preppy. You need that guy who can slide in and out of gyms in the hood to the parks of Beverly Hills. You need that killer recruiter more than that nice guy scared of his shadow. I can tell you stories about local teams including RU and what they had to do many-many years ago to get the players they wanted. KEEP SHOES!

I agree completely. People really have no clue how all this works. Keeping him will allow us to keep Corey and a Thiam I believe. If we don't keep these two and the others next year could be as bad as this year.

 

[LFBall]

Rutgers needs at least one Assistant Coach who almost operates at a need to know level working to secure the stud recruits. Just open the door for the Head Coach to close the deal. Do you think our friend at the other school did not know what was happening with his program being the control freak he is? Do you think schools in the super high conferences set up "Friends of The Program" organizations to send birthday cards and feed the homeless while ging career advice? Please! Well, RU could just work hard to only be competitive............ With Northwestern! Sorry, it is what it is! Should have thought it through prior to changing leagues to one who does stuff in a far more grand way!.

 

[RU Husky]

Killer recruiter! SHOES? You must be kidding yourself.

 

[RUinFla]

If the HC and AD want him, fine. But it is their choice, not ours.
TL

 

[SirScarlet]

Glad we have a new thread on this...this topic hasn't been covered yet ;)

Just kidding lfball....keep the insights coming but I do find this debate indicative of how far we have to go in the sense that here's a guy (shoes) who has done a good job recruiting but has not single handily gotten us a top 30, 40, 50 class....yet he's described as the 2nd coming of the best recruiter ever.

I get it, he was habdicapped, he brought the beat kids we have in a while, blah blah blah

But this "shoes MUST stay or we are f*cked" narrative feels a little extreme to me

Hey, I could be wrong...but still seems a tad dramatic

 

[Jim_from_RU]

Idk where this idea of Shoes being a "great" recruiter came from. o_O

 

[upstateknight]

Why this obsession with Shoes? If the team was halfway decent I could see support for Shoes staying on board, but they have been historically bad. Get rid of everybody. Hobbs is exponentially better than Shoes. Hobbs has recruited and recruited successfully McDonald all-Americans. Stop worrying about next year this team regardless who was coaching may be a handful of wins better. This is a complete REBUILD, stop thinking short term.

 

[Knightmoves]

I trust pikiel to hire the right guys. He has Calhoun helping who might know a little something about how to do this.

I trust pikiel to hire the right guys. He has Calhoun helping who might know a little something about how to do this.

We won exactly one B1G game this season with Shoes recruits. And yet we cannot afford to lose him as our recruiter going forward with Coach Pikiel ?

Does not compute IMO.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I'm so sick of the incessant ass-kissing of this guy.

 

[RU-ROCS]

I don't understand all of the fuss over these:

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

I want Shoes.....if Pikiell wants Shoes. If he prefers sneakers I'm on in.

 

[Hondo77]

 

[ruman]

Great if he stays - fine if he goes

I will say if he was a real killer, other programs would be knocking his door down

 

[bac2therac]

Shoes is so wanted that no other major program apparently wants him

 

[knight82]

Rutgers needs at least one Assistant Coach who almost operates at a need to know level working to secure the stud recruits. Just open the door for the Head Coach to close the deal. Do you think our friend at the other school did not know what was happening with his program being the control freak he is? Do you think schools in the super high conferences set up "Friends of The Program" organizations to send birthday cards and feed the homeless while ging career advice? Please! Well, RU could just work hard to only be competitive............ With Northwestern! Sorry, it is what it is! Should have thought it through prior to changing leagues to one who does stuff in a far more grand way!.

 

[knight82]

Rutgers needs at least one Assistant Coach who almost operates at a need to know level working to secure the stud recruits. Just open the door for the Head Coach to close the deal. Do you think our friend at the other school did not know what was happening with his program being the control freak he is? Do you think schools in the super high conferences set up "Friends of The Program" organizations to send birthday cards and feed the homeless while ging career advice? Please! Well, RU could just work hard to only be competitive............ With Northwestern! Sorry, it is what it is! Should have thought it through prior to changing leagues to one who does stuff in a far more grand way!.

Should have thought it through prior to changing leagues. Got news for you, LFBall, Rutgers changed leagues for one reason - football

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

I often think, what if that Shoe hit him in the face and broke his nose ?

 

[MadRU]

If Pikiell wants shoes then great. Seems to know what he is doing. I will defer to him.

 

[RutgHoops]

Coach Pikiell (and coach Hobbs) worked under Jim Calhoun. Outside of Calipari and maybe Boeheim no one knew how to connect "to the guys that mattered" and "the guys behind the guy" better than Jim Calhoun.

If Coach Pikiell believes coach Vetrone is the best fit for the job than I am quite confident he will have a spot on the staff. If he believes someone is a better fit than I would be encouraged because I (1) believe Coach Pikiell knows what he is doing and (2) think Vetrone has been a pretty good recruiter here.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

If Pikiell wants shoes then great. Seems to know what he is doing. I will defer to him.

agree, this is just message board opinions and conversations....to think that WE know better than Pikiell and his advisor Calhoun is kinda silly.

 

[daneman100]

So there is one assistant spot left after Hobbs and Ricard. Would you choose Shoes over Young or Knight is given the choice?

 

[RutgHoops]

So there is one assistant spot left after Hobbs and Ricard. Would you choose Shoes over Young or Knight is given the choice?

I think the Knight ship sailed when we hired Hobbs as assistant HC. Knight wasn't coming here without that title and acknowledgement as our #1 assistant.

 

[daneman100]

I think the Knight ship sailed when we hired Hobbs as assistant HC. Knight wasn't coming here without that title and acknowledgement as our #1 assistant.

I understand that, but I was making a point that there are other options that may be superior to Shoes.

 

[RUtrumpet92]

Should have thought it through prior to changing leagues. Got news for you, LFBall, Rutgers changed leagues for one reason - football

Yeah, no matter how right or wrong rhe rest of the post may be, it is silly to imply we should have stayed in the American Athletic Conference if we are not willing to hire/keep an assistant like Shoes to push the recruiting envelope. How many more millions per year are we taking in while in a conference with other large state universities for the first time ever?

One more time. If Pikiell wants him, great. If not, great. I trust the guy coming from Calhoun's tree to know what we need to do to compete.

 

[ScarletKnight1]

shoes is good, but...

 

[NewJerseyHawk]

It's a matter of what Year One looks like and unless someone can guarantee me that we can assemble a staff that can land better players in the next 30-90 days connected to what we have with Shoes, then obviously we can move on. We have moved on from Macon, OKoren but we have not (for an obvious reason) made a decision that clearly identifies what Shoes means. I think for those questioning whether we should or should not move on from Shoes as if it makes sense, then someone asked me why he hasn't been secured as a definite assistant????......my response would be, then why hasn't RU moved on from Shoes....??

It's clear he has value, but I don't believe he is as important as Karl Hobbs or whatever other potential assistants may have interest. I think we can create a position for Shoes outside the staff, but it would limit his recruiting. But it would bridge the gap for Year One, which is important to turn things around moving into 2017 recruiting this summer.

Shoes is not irreplaceable, but we do need to make sure we don't cut off our nose despite our face here either. Pikiell and Karl Hobbs will look pretty bad if we finish 8-23 next year vs 13-18 or better....we are all diehards here, but the common RU fan isn't going to look at anything other than wins and losses....or are we improved from last year to next year.......you can sell something on the uptick for recruiting for 2018, which is Year 3 of Pikiell's regime here, if you have an improving Year one. 2017 is halfway done by the time we finish July of this year.....You are always recruiting one year ahead of your results.

 

[RocktheRac]

Shoe b dooby do....... why the love? BTW Sanders has his NBS college mix video out. His followers think he is NBA bound. I didn't know that Sanders makes rap videos. Maybe his suspension thing had something to do with this.

 

[motel00]

The fact that the Jordan years were not good is not on Shoes' head. Most if not all programs rely on the recruiting efforts of all of the assistants. Shoes certainly seemed to be doing his part. O'koren contributed nothing. Van something but not enough. Personally I'd love to see him stay but I don't know that Pikiel is going to do it for reasons I posted elsewhere. It'd be great for continuity and he does seem like he can contribute.

 

[BKIn118]

Shoe b dooby do....... why the love? BTW Sanders has his NBS college mix video out. His followers think he is NBA bound. I didn't know that Sanders makes rap videos. Maybe his suspension thing had something to do with this.

That mixtape was put out by his AAU affiliate. Those guys want to promote kids that could be pros they've been involved with to increase their own profiles.

Corey may have had nothing to do with it

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

Google Vetrone and look at his past and his resume. What's going on with Canary Islands, Spain, and people only wanting to play for RU and B1G if he is there?

Smells bad too me.

Before you go saying...do you want to win OR everyone does it, ask yourself. Are the rules same for Rutgers and other schools? We know the answer is no.