that's actually not true at all, RU has just had poor recruiters and wound up left with projects at a Top 350-400 level, because they've bypassed the level of the recruits that land at mid majors and chose not to develop them,.....that is because they've shot too high, trying to get national recruits or regional elite players High 4* to 5* kids that take a long time to commit....when you do that, the rest of the next tier of kids makes a earlier decision and goes elsewhere and you are left with scraps afterwards.....it's why we have Doucoure already as a 2018 verbal for the last 5 months, because we aren't throwing all the eggs into Naz Reid or some other unrealistic kid that is almost certain to go out of state....It doesn't mean you should ignore that player, but the efforts have to be smarter.
RU is not taking scraps anymore, they are just not at the Top 50- 60 national level kid that you and many other fans believe we should immediately land without a lot of things in place....there is an army of over 200 kids I watched yesterday and probably another 200 at the Nike and Adidas camps this weekend, that can immediately upgrade RU's roster and trust me, RU will get a few over the next 6 months....they may not be kids you prefer to see (they may not be local), but watching the event from yesterday, there is no distinguishing factors for kids from FLA, NC, DC, VA, WI, MI, IN, IL, CA, LA or any of the other states represented in our area....it's a media driven event that convinces schools fans that they have to land local or in state recruits, when kids have dozens of choices on where to play and start their sports careers.
Everyone has the answers pegged on why RU hasn't won before, but RU hasn't invested in itself until now for over 2 decades and hasn't hired a legitimate staff until Rice was hired and that went sideways.....if we just stay on track with this current staff for a couple of recruiting cycles, the results on the court and in recruiting will be there.....but that does not mean Top 20 classes like UNC, Arizona, Kentucky, Duke or a one-off scenario of a large class like some schools put together....
There are some thought process involved that fans are so insecure with their programs and status, that coaches are reluctant to even mention a recruit is being targeted or recruited....It may be easier to recruit that player without 50 fan sites/bloggers clogging their twitter account or cell phones and some coaches just want to coach.....but some fan bases cannot handle the 2 out of 50-75 batting average....fans whine when 48 out of the 50 targets choose another school and micro-manage the 2 that a school lands....or complain that the staff failed 48 times, when they really only need 2-3 recruits each cycle to succeed.
RU's targets are not unrealistic on a lot of levels...they aren't chasing kids that are not interested in coming to RU, but schools like RU, SHU and others don't want to get killed in the media by not appearing at events, games for a local recruit they most likely know isn't coming to their school....A lot of it is perception-based and that doesn't win games, getting the right kids to your program, wins games....some schools wan to win the media/headlines and others just churn out wins or stay consistently in the mix most seasons....
