Switching to Adidas...

[NewJerseyHawk]

When is the last time we got a high level basketball recruit from one these AAU teams sponsored by Nike?

Pretty much the bulk of Mike Rice's first recruiting class....one can argue whether that was enough evidence, but it would have snowballed into consistently more classes at that talent level if Rice didn't implode....three straight players at Mack's level or Eli Carters level or even a somewhat overrated Seagears type of player would have been enough to get over .500 and towards a better status.

I also would not take the wins and losses into account for whether that class was deemed "good enough"....and again, an elite Top 25 national player has options far beyond going to RU and is a likely one or two and done player going to Kentucky or UNC/Duke etc....that's not the target or reality right now......the goal is to land a consistent pattern of Top 100 to 125 to Top 250 kids every year, so the program isn't reliant on one star player with a batch of role players behind that star.

90% of the Power 5 programs land kids at this level each and every year and this staff is finally the deepest staff of recruiters we've had in over 2 decades....I'm just looking at how much the staff has done with what is considered one potential star player (Sanders) and a couple of Top 150-250 players around him (Johnson/Williams) and some other not deemed elite players mixed in (JUCO's like Sa and pieces like Laurent/Eugene/Thiam etc....

If the talent level is consistently recruited at a decent level with a Sanders caliber player landed every other year, RU is fine and gets out of the basement of the conference. If Adidas shortens the list of that type of recruit, then it places more emphasis on what you miss out on and can counter with.....

The question becomes, does this change shorten the pool of the normal Power 5 type of recruit that has
Big East (Xavier, Creighton, Butler, St. Johns/Seton Hall, Providence, Georgetown type of recruits we need to compete or win over)...

ACC (Virginia Tech/Georgia Tech/Wake Forest type of schools vs UNC/Duke/Louisville national recruits

AAC (Cincinnati, Temple type of talent we've missed on)

Big Ten (Penn State/Illinois/Purdue/Minnesota etc).

Atlantic 10 (VCU/Rhode Island/Dayton or St. Joe's type of players)

As an example, Minnesota has landed 2 consecutive NJ kids from St Patrick or Blair Academy in their last two classes....I think we close that gap regardless, but we have to see it happen, for this to not be a concern.

I think if we land a couple of players in 2018 that we have been working for, then RU will take the next step needed and we may be OK, if we have a decent finish this season on the court....
then 2018 and 2019 becomes potentially much harder to raise the floor of where we are as a program.....this is an elite conference and we have to improve step by step and have a winning season to move forward, but it will take much more athleticism and talent that can play early to get it done.....

 

[Russ Wood]

Can anyone explain this to me. This gets said all the time but I find it hard to comprehend. Don't these programs want to put as many kids into high majors as possible? Are they really not going to let a school recruit the team because of shoe deal?

If a kid is choosing between Rutgers and another school, are they really going to tell him you should sign with the Nike school? Is he really going to listen?

Honestly, it depends.

If the prospect is really good and is in a single parent (lives with mom) household, the AAU program will, many times, take over his recruitment. So, in that instance the answer is yes.

If the prospect is elite (Top 25) or a consensus high four-star prospect, and he lives with both parents or both parents are involved in raising him, the AAU program will attempt to influence their choice to a school with the same shoe affiliation as the AAU program. So, in that instance the answer is yes.

These AAU Directors are getting six figure deals from shoe companies + apparel. Why? Because they have talented kids that HM D1 schools want and occasionally have some kids with NBA talent.

In return for giving these AAU programs all this money and all this apparel they need to return on investment. That return is keeping the kid wearing their brand in college and hopefully signing him as a pro and selling more shoes.

Nike has that juice. UA is getting that juice. Adidas, not so much. In fact coaches at Adidas sponsored schools have told me that they wished Adidas had that juice because it would make their job easier.

Rick Pitino had a McDonald's AA Nike AAU kid commit to him, only to reopen 48 hours later and ultimately commit to a Nike school.

Some of these kids listen to their AAU coach because in some instances that AAU coach has been that kids father figure since he was ten or eleven years old. And the kid believes that coach has his best interest at heart.