We need an opinion from Rivals own Russ Woods on recruiting

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Russ, I know you stop by at times. It would be great to get an unbiased opinion on the state of recruiting for Rutgers basketball.

What are the obstacles?

What's the opinion of recruits about the state of the Rutgers program?

What role (if any) does the lack of facilities impact recruiting at this level ?

I understand if you prefer not to answer this one....but, how are Jordan and the staff viewed by potential recruits?

 

[Russ Wood]

The biggest obstacle, that I see, is that it has been quite some time since Rutgers has made the NCAA Tournament. Making the tournament equals relevance to kids. If you are not making the tournament then having a winning record is crucial so you can get in the NIT.

Rutgers is in the B1G which is a good basketball conference. You have the BTN so games are televised or on BTN2GO. Those are good selling points along with the school itself.

Since I don't cover basketball recruiting for the Rutgers site I don't ask kids what they know/think of the program. I ask them about the schools they list. The last time I interviewed a kid that I knew Rutgers was recruiting was Jonathan Laurent. I watched Najja Hunter Sunday but Rutgers wasn't listed on his profile page on Sunday. Rutgers is on his page now because I updated it today.

Facilities play a HUGE role.

Kids want to see a nice arena, a comfortable locker room, spacious weight room with state of the art equipment, a nice training room and the meeting room where they watch video of practices and upcoming opponents needs to be HD with comfortable chairs. A practice facility is nice but not having one isn't the end of the world if you are on point with your other facilities. In fact, not every B1G school has a practice facility. You have to at least come close to matching other schools facilities when recruiting because the basketball facilities are where the players are going to spend most of their time.

I only have a one recruit sample size on how Coach Jordan and the staff are viewed by potential recruits --Laurent. He had lots of positive comments about Coach Jordan and Coach Shoes during his recruitment.

Jordan coached the D.C. Assault 17U AAU team in 2012 (Nate Britt, Kris Jenkins, Roddy Peters and for one game Melo Trimble) and the NBA. To have somebody who coached in the NBA should help open some doors in recruiting.

I hope I answered your questions.

 

[Russ Wood]

I forgot about 2016 Brewster Academy wing Alpha Diallo. He is listing Rutgers. I'll reach out to him and see what he has to say.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

The biggest obstacle, that I see, is that it has been quite some time since Rutgers has made the NCAA Tournament. Making the tournament equals relevance to kids. If you are not making the tournament then having a winning record is crucial so you can get in the NIT.

Rutgers is in the B1G which is a good basketball conference. You have the BTN so games are televised or on BTN2GO. Those are good selling points along with the school itself.

Since I don't cover basketball recruiting for the Rutgers site I don't ask kids what they know/think of the program. I ask them about the schools they list. The last time I interviewed a kid that I knew Rutgers was recruiting was Jonathan Laurent. I watched Najja Hunter Sunday but Rutgers wasn't listed on his profile page on Sunday. Rutgers is on his page now because I updated it today.

Facilities play a HUGE role.

Kids want to see a nice arena, a comfortable locker room, spacious weight room with state of the art equipment, a nice training room and the meeting room where they watch video of practices and upcoming opponents needs to be HD with comfortable chairs. A practice facility is nice but not having one isn't the end of the world if you are on point with your other facilities. In fact, not every B1G school has a practice facility. You have to at least come close to matching other schools facilities when recruiting because the basketball facilities are where the players are going to spend most of their time.

I only have a one recruit sample size on how Coach Jordan and the staff are viewed by potential recruits --Laurent. He had lots of positive comments about Coach Jordan and Coach Shoes during his recruitment.

Jordan coached the D.C. Assault 17U AAU team in 2012 (Nate Britt, Kris Jenkins, Roddy Peters and for one game Melo Trimble) and the NBA. To have somebody who coached in the NBA should help open some doors in recruiting.

I hope I answered your questions.

Russ....thanks for your comments. It confirms what many of us real Rutgers fans think about the state of recruiting and some of the obstacles.

Also....Rutgers just offered a Florida kid Aleem Ford from IMG. Any thoughts on him?

 

[RUonBrain]

Russ....thanks for your comments. It confirms what many of us real Rutgers fans think about the state of recruiting and some of the obstacles.

Also....Rutgers just offered a Florida kid Aleem Ford from IMG. Any thoughts on him?

"Real Rutgers fan" here...
(Was a member of the RAC PAC back in the day when Wenzel won the A10 in his 1st year, and I road tripped it up to Rhode Island for the 1st round loss to Iowa in the NCAA tournament.)

No one is saying it is just about facilities.
If that is all it's about, then it doesn't matter who the head coach is.
Of course we need better facilities, but does that mean we keep the current head coach until those facilities are built, and THEN evaluate if he is is the right guy for the job?
(so basically give Jordan until 2018, or 2019 before we decide if it's time for an upgrade?)


Can 1 head coach do a better job than another head coach at the same school with the same facilities?
Yes, or No?

 

[B1GNJHoops]

Bannon had an embarrassing scandal. Waters coached defense and toughness and did ok post scandal certainly not this bad 2.5 years after Rice.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

It would be nice to have at least one thread discussing an issue of importance without a few guys coming in and trying to turn it into another anti-coach tirade. The issue in this thread is the state of recruiting and getting an unbiased opinion from someone outside of the program.

 

[Caliknight]

Russ....thanks for your comments. It confirms what many of us real Rutgers fans think about the state of recruiting and some of the obstacles.

Also....Rutgers just offered a Florida kid Aleem Ford from IMG. Any thoughts on him?

Actually, his opinion just debunked them. The real basketball fans know a coach doesn't need a practice facility, something Choppin and one or two others swear is the reason we are losing, not the coaching.

 

[Caliknight]

"Real Rutgers fan" here...
(Was a member of the RAC PAC back in the day when Wenzel won the A10 in his 1st year, and I road tripped it up to Rhode Island for the 1st round loss to Iowa in the NCAA tournament.)

No one is saying it is just about facilities.
If that is all it's about, then it doesn't matter who the head coach is.
Of course we need better facilities, but does that mean we keep the current head coach until those facilities are built, and THEN evaluate if he is is the right guy for the job?
(so basically give Jordan until 2018, or 2019 before we decide if it's time for an upgrade?)


Can 1 head coach do a better job than another head coach at the same school with the same facilities?
Yes, or No?

Clearly that answer is yes. To win the national championship we need better facilities. To be competitive with half of our league and beat teams like Monmouth we need a better coach.

 

[ScarletRunner]

It would be nice to have at least one thread discussing an issue of importance without a few guys coming in and trying to turn it into another anti-coach tirade. The issue in this thread is the state of recruiting and getting an unbiased opinion from someone outside of the program.

If you filtered out the negative comments, this thread would consist of a dialogue between you and Russ Wood... Maybe you could just email the guy so there's no risk of hearing something you don't like.

 

[bowlgoal]

"Real Rutgers fan" here...
(Was a member of the RAC PAC back in the day when Wenzel won the A10 in his 1st year, and I road tripped it up to Rhode Island for the 1st round loss to Iowa in the NCAA tournament.)

No one is saying it is just about facilities.
If that is all it's about, then it doesn't matter who the head coach is.
Of course we need better facilities, but does that mean we keep the current head coach until those facilities are built, and THEN evaluate if he is is the right guy for the job?
(so basically give Jordan until 2018, or 2019 before we decide if it's time for an upgrade?)


Can 1 head coach do a better job than another head coach at the same school with the same facilities?
Yes, or No?

I was there for those 4 years. We had the same facilities. It's about going to Rutgers and playing for a guy who could coach. Wenzel brought enthusiasm and excitement and the team bought in. We now play in the Big 10. Bring in someone who can coach and everything else follows.

 

[Russ Wood]

I have not seen Aleem Ford. He is a Georgia kid who is now at IMG Academy. I’ve only seen one IMG Academy game in my life because they have so many teams and they don’t do a good job providing info as to which team is playing. I showed up at a game one night and instead of their high school team it was their post grad team. End result was I drove an hour to see them play and didn’t get to see the kids I wanted to scout…so I kind of gave up on them until they provide more accurate info.

I know Jacksonville and UNC-Wilmington were looking at Ford, but I do not know if they offered.

I've scanned a few threads and I see that yall have had a robust discussion about facilities vs getting a different coach. South Florida has a really nice arena, practice facility and weight room. They'll be lucky to win seven games this season. Maryland doesn't have a practice facility and they are No. 4 in the country.

 

[RUonBrain]

Crickets from Choppin and others who blindly follow.

Please answer the question.
(And this is not personal with you, believe it or not!)
:)

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Actually, his opinion just debunked them. The real basketball fans know a coach doesn't need a practice facility, something Choppin and one or two others swear is the reason we are losing, not the coaching.

Go read my OP again....it said facilities impacting recruiting and it is clear our facilities are not what good recruits want to see on a visit. Facilities play a HUGE role. As does our winning tradition...lol

With all due respect to Russ, who was kind enough to stop by....Maryland's program cannot be compared to Rutgers in terms of tradition and history....they can still thrive without having some things. They don't have a practice, but, I can almost guarantee that everything else they have is top notch and blows away the old crap Rutgers can offer a recruit.

Regarding facilities, I have maintained that....if you have a losing program for 25 years....you need whiz bang facilities to get recruits to take notice of your basketball program because it shows your commitment level. Nothing in this thread contradicts that.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Crickets from Choppin and others who blindly follow.

Please answer the question.
(And this is not personal with you, believe it or not!)
:)

Personal, that's funny.......you are just some guy on my computer screen.......Who just happens to be wrong about what the basketball program needs to be successful. Nothing you or anyone have said has changed my mind about what Rutgers needs to do......and it's not about getting the 6th coach in 25 years and still have the same crappy facilities that recruits probably laugh about after they go home after their visit......" I guess I can take Rutgers off my list,".....:thumbsdown:

 

[RUChoppin]

I was there for those 4 years. We had the same facilities.

That's a pretty sad statement. We have the same facilities we did 23 years ago, 6-7 years before the kids we're recruiting were born.

 

[Caliknight]

Go read my OP again....it said facilities impacting recruiting and it is clear our facilities are not what good recruits want to see on a visit. Facilities play a HUGE role. As does our winning tradition...lol

With all die respect to Russ, who was kind enough to stop by....Maryland's program cannot be compared to Rutgers in terms of tradition and history....they can still thrive without having some things. They don't have a practice, but, I can almost guarantee that everything else they have is top notch and blows away the old crap Rutgers can offer a recruit.

Regarding facilities, I have maintained that....if you have a losing program for 25 years....you need whiz bang facilities to get recruits to take notice of your basketball program because it shows your commitment level. Nothing in this thread contradicts that.

Facilities are more than a practice facility. They are the locker room and players lounge. I'm not certain, but I would wager those are in the realm of other teams.

I said it before and I will say it again. We aren't winning the national championship with these facilities. What a good coach would do, with these current facilities, would have the team competing with the bottom half of our conference and not getting blown out to teams like GW. Eddie isn't even reaching the level of facilities we currently have.

 

[RUonBrain]

Personal, that's funny.......you are just some guy on my computer screen.......Who just happens to be wrong about what the basketball program needs to be successful. Nothing you or anyone has said has changed my mind about what Rutgers needs to do......and it's not about getting the 6th coach in 25 years and still have the same crappy facilities that recruits probably laugh about after they go home after their visit......" I guess I can take Rutgers off my list,".....:thumbsdown:

Okay
I am wrong about what RUTGERS needs to have a better basketball program.

Hmmm.
What could we possibly need?

Facilities?
YES!

New coaching staff?
YES!

Am I missing anything else?

A larger budget for the coaching staff?
YES!
(But not this one! This one won't even let the assistant coaches COACH during the games, or teach REBOUNDING.)

Or do you think we only need the facilities, because we have the BEST COACHING STAFF AND HEAD COACH IN THE NATION!!

We couldn't POSSIBLY improve the team with a new coach, now could we?
After all coaches aren't responsible for recruiting and coaching.
That is all done by the MAGIC of FACILITIES!

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

Okay
I am wrong about what RUTGERS needs to have a better basketball program.

Hmmm.
What could we possibly need?

Facilities?
YES!

New coaching staff?
YES!

Am I missing anything else?

A larger budget for the coaching staff?
YES!
(But not this one! This one won't even let the assistant coaches COACH during the games, or teach REBOUNDING.)

Or do you think we only need the facilities, because we have the BEST COACHING STAFF AND HEAD COACH IN THE NATION!!

We couldn't POSSIBLY improve the team with a new coach, now could we?
After all coaches aren't responsible for recruiting and coaching.
That is all done by the MAGIC of FACILITIES!

Do you think about what you type or just ramble on with your ALL CAPS?

It's not "brain" surgery. Better players play better.....they shoot better, they are quicker, they are more athletic, they have more lateral quickness, they get more steals, they deflect more balls, they get to the rim and finish, they make foul shots, they know how to dribble penetrate, they have great crossover dribble moves, they have great step back jump shots, they have great fadeaway jump shots, they have very good pump fakes, they have great up and under moves, they have a quick release on their short jumpers in the lane.....the list goes on and on.....these are mostly things that cannot be taught, either you have them or you don't. Coaching can refine some of these things. They can't invent them in a coaching lab.

So....it comes back to recruiting for any college basketball program. To be successful you have to remove any impediments to better recruiting. The horrible 25 year history cannot be removed. The next biggest impediment is facilities. Remove that impediment by investing in facilities and guess what happens?

You have a current coach that will be here for 2 or maybe more years. He gets better players and those better players win. WHY, because they have natural ability and get better when you teach them what they need to do. Those without natural ability are very limited and it shows on the court. Larry Brown could coach Foreman 24 hrs a day and guess what? He would still lack the lateral quickness to slide his feet and play great defense.

I'm ending this discussion with you. ,You can continue your crusade for the 6th coach in 25 years. Not that Hobbs is listening anyway, so, you are just rambling.,,I'll just stop reading or put you and several other people on ignore. Negative people irk me.

finally, you should take "brain" out of your screen name....it does not fit....lol

 

[Fzacsattac]

Lol

 

[wonchobody]

It's not "brain" surgery. Better players play better.....they shoot better, they are quicker, they are more athletic, they have more lateral quickness, they get more steals, they deflect more balls, they get to the rim and finish, they make foul shots, they know how to dribble penetrate, they have great crossover dribble moves, they have great step back jump shots, they have great fadeaway jump shots, they have very good pump fakes, they have great up and under moves, they have a quick release on their short jumpers in the lane.....the list goes on and on.....these are mostly things that cannot be taught, either you have them or you don't. Coaching can refine some of these things. They can't invent them in a coaching lab.
l

Yet nearly all of the non-P5 schools we play this season that aren't even world-beaters in their own conferences recruit these same less-talented players and still beat us or come close to it. It doesn't matter if they have seniors or not. Some beat us even while playing freshmen.

We can't keep making excuses for EJ anymore. I used to be able to live with one or two WTF losses a season. But this season has been WTF loss after WTF loss. With two of our wins being barely able to beat teams with RPIs in the 250s.

In that press conference what I really got out of it is that EJ doesn't know how to work with younger players. He is completely confounded by it. He gets frustrated by it. He expects them to approach the game like the pro's he's used to coaching. He believes that college kids should already have the motivation to improve. He says he can't teach them effort and heart. But I say, the best college coaches are able to motivate their teams. EJ is not long for college basketball, unfortunately.

So what's the difference between us and the teams that have been beating us? The ones that are supposed to be better have better players. The ones that aren't are out-coaching us. It's as simple as that.

You see if you can't recruit, then you have to coach them up. We can't just write off the team because we're not getting 4 or 5 star recruits when we are losing to YOUNG teams that are recruiting 2 or no star recruits. There has to be some level of accountability. We might still have Etou as a junior if EJ could coach him up. We might even still have some of his other band-aids like D'von if he was coached up. Maybe we'd have that senior or junior led team if EJ could coach up his players and they'd want to stay if they felt like they were getting better.

You say that coaches don't teach rebounding or do rebounding drills. Your hated coach Bob Hurley, runs them on the regular in high school. Did you watch his documentary? He runs the rebounding drill and tells his kids why he runs them. That there will be a moment in a game down the line that will reveal why he does it even though they hate doing the drills. And have you even seen the facilities and budgets he works with? I bet his high school team would beat our team or give them a lot to think about. He gets absolutely everything out of his players. Watching Mike Rosario when he was at St Anthony's and when he was at Rutgers is so shocking. Hurley never let Mike play the way he did when he was here and they won a National high school championship because of it. Mike also became a McD All-American b/c of it, not because of his play but because of how great the team was he played on.

Last year I gave EJ a pass because it was year two and also he didn't have the bodies and knew that fatigue was going to be a problem. This year he has bodies and was still losing. We were losing before the injuries and now with them it's gonna end up being a REALLY long rest of the season.

 

[scarletKNIGHT07]

Yet nearly all of the non-P5 schools we play this season that aren't even world-beaters in their own conferences recruit these same less-talented players and still beat us or come close to it. It doesn't matter if they have seniors or not. Some beat us even while playing freshmen.

We can't keep making excuses for EJ anymore. I used to be able to live with one or two WTF losses a season. But this season has been WTF loss after WTF loss. With two of our wins being barely able to beat teams with RPIs in the 250s.

In that press conference what I really got out of it is that EJ doesn't know how to work with younger players. He is completely confounded by it. He gets frustrated by it. He expects them to approach the game like the pro's he's used to coaching. He believes that college kids should already have the motivation to improve. He says he can't teach them effort and heart. But I say, the best college coaches are able to motivate their teams. EJ is not long for college basketball, unfortunately.

So what's the difference between us and the teams that have been beating us? The ones that are supposed to be better have better players. The ones that aren't are out-coaching us. It's as simple as that.

You see if you can't recruit, then you have to coach them up. We can't just write off the team because we're not getting 4 or 5 star recruits when we are losing to YOUNG teams that are recruiting 2 or no star recruits. There has to be some level of accountability. We might still have Etou as a junior if EJ could coach him up. We might even still have some of his other band-aids like D'von would have been here as a senior last year if he was coached up. Maybe we'd have that senior or junior led team if EJ could coach up his players and they'd want to stay if they felt like they were getting better.

You say that coaches don't teach rebounding or do rebounding drills. Your hated coach Bob Hurley, runs them on the regular in high school. Did you watch his documentary? He runs the rebounding drill and tells his kids why he runs them. That there will be a moment in a game down the line that will reveal why he does it even though they hate doing the drills. And have you even seen the facilities and budgets he works with? I bet his high school team would beat our team or give them a lot to think about. He gets absolutely everything out of his players. Watching Mike Rosario when he was at St Anthony's and when he was at Rutgers is so shocking. Hurley never let Mike play the way he did when he was here and they won a National high school championship because of it. Mike also became a McD All-American b/c of it, not because of his play but because of how great the team was he played on.

Last year I gave EJ a pass because it was year two and also he didn't have the bodies and knew that fatigue was going to be a problem. This year he has bodies and was still losing. We were losing before the injuries and now with them it's gonna end up being a REALLY long rest of the season.

I thought Bob Hurley had a separate dedicated rebounding facility, a dedicated foul shot facility, and a dedicated 3 point shot facility. It is unfair to compare until we build these facilities.

 

[rufeelinit]

I think Russ Wood was pretty honest in indicating that he is not very familiar with who RU is recruiting or what the current view of RU potential recruits is about the school's plusses and minuses. Yes new facilities would be nice and are needed at some point but that does not excuse the garbage under EJ up to this point.

 

[RUonBrain]

Good to see some reasonable and realistic posts.

I bet Eddie would love to have some of these posters as AD; lifetime contract with no accountability. EVERYTHING gets blames on facilities. It's really amazing.

Just because he was an alum and is a nice guy, he can do no wrong in their eyes.

Would love to see him change his ways and work out, but not very likely.
It's just a bad fit.

 

[ruman]

The biggest obstacle, that I see, is that it has been quite some time since Rutgers has made the NCAA Tournament. Making the tournament equals relevance to kids. If you are not making the tournament then having a winning record is crucial so you can get in the NIT.

Rutgers is in the B1G which is a good basketball conference. You have the BTN so games are televised or on BTN2GO. Those are good selling points along with the school itself.

Since I don't cover basketball recruiting for the Rutgers site I don't ask kids what they know/think of the program. I ask them about the schools they list. The last time I interviewed a kid that I knew Rutgers was recruiting was Jonathan Laurent. I watched Najja Hunter Sunday but Rutgers wasn't listed on his profile page on Sunday. Rutgers is on his page now because I updated it today.

Facilities play a HUGE role.

Kids want to see a nice arena, a comfortable locker room, spacious weight room with state of the art equipment, a nice training room and the meeting room where they watch video of practices and upcoming opponents needs to be HD with comfortable chairs. A practice facility is nice but not having one isn't the end of the world if you are on point with your other facilities. In fact, not every B1G school has a practice facility. You have to at least come close to matching other schools facilities when recruiting because the basketball facilities are where the players are going to spend most of their time.

I only have a one recruit sample size on how Coach Jordan and the staff are viewed by potential recruits --Laurent. He had lots of positive comments about Coach Jordan and Coach Shoes during his recruitment.

Jordan coached the D.C. Assault 17U AAU team in 2012 (Nate Britt, Kris Jenkins, Roddy Peters and for one game Melo Trimble) and the NBA. To have somebody who coached in the NBA should help open some doors in recruiting.

I hope I answered your questions.

Good to see some reasonable and realistic posts.

I bet Eddie would love to have some of these posters as AD; lifetime contract with no accountability. EVERYTHING gets blames on facilities. It's really amazing.

Just because he was an alum and is a nice guy, he can do no wrong in their eyes.

Would love to see him change his ways and work out, but not very likely.
It's just a bad fit.

The one thing I always come back to for his staunch supporters - looking at all the responsibilities the job requires
Do people think he is really doing a good job as coach now and for the past two and a half years?

 

[RUskoolie]

You guys keep missing the point with the facilities argument. Do they autmoatically make us good? No. Do they attract better players? Yes. Do they attract better coaching candidates? Yes. Do they speed up player development? Yes.

Replace Eddie Jordan with some lightinging in the bottle coach that we would attract with our current facilities. Would we win a few more games? Very possible. But is there really a difference between firing a guy who wins 12, 10 and 7 and a guy who wins 13, 14, 12? No.

Nothing will change in hoops until there is a commitment shown by the school. Why people in their 50s 60s and 70s can't get this is just frustrating. You guys saw it happen with football and are seeing it happen now with wrestling, it's not that complicated. You must invest to see a benefit. But please, keep banging the drum that we need to get rid of Eddie just to hire another no name coach from a school no one has heard of and we can start having this arguement again in 2018-2019, because we will.

 

[wonchobody]

I don't think we are though. Most of us have been watching this program for decades. We've tried every coaching avenue other than hiring the Big-name guy or invest heavily financially.

Since that avenue is not available to us, does that mean that we have to shut off our desire for the program to succeed? Does it mean that it is impossible to be remotely competitive?
The answers are no and no.

If we hired that lightning in a bottle coach, yes, I would welcome the few more wins and hopefully a lot of hard-fought losses. He would provide us something to build upon.

What we are not seeing with Eddie is his ability to coach kids. I'm not as concerned about his program management. I'm more concerned with the his coaching because if he could recruit, he would not handle those kids well as a terrible coach. We've seen a lot of signs that he can't coach kids. And that's the risk we took when we hired him as a mostly NBA experienced coach.

We don't need facilities to have a program that interests the students or alumni. We just need a team that competes with all they got.

What you're suggesting is that we shouldn't care about how the team is being coached. Nor should we care to see if there's another guy that can get the most of their guys. It's pretty startling how low it's gotten and how much worse it could possibly get.

Let's call Eddie what he is. He is the caretaker of the team until the university is ready to invest in the program. Let's not be naive to think that he's going to be successful in a more invested program.

 

[megadrone]

I don't think we are though. Most of us have been watching this program for decades. We've tried every coaching avenue other than hiring the Big-name guy or invest heavily financially.



Let's call Eddie what he is. He is the caretaker of the team until the university is ready to invest in the program. Let's not be naive to think that he's going to be successful in a more invested program.

Perhaps that was the goal. Hire a coach in his 60s, that wouldn't embarrass the school in the Bannon/Rice sense of the word, until funding was available to really invest in the program, and the coach retires. If he actually puts a winning team on the floor, that's a bonus.

I'm not trying to make excuses but we only had 4 scholarship players in 2013 and right now we only have 8. A winning team for this year was a pipe dream anyway.

If they can play close to how they played the second half against Monmouth, it would make the current die-hard fans somewhat happy.

 

[rufeelinit]

You guys keep missing the point with the facilities argument. Do they autmoatically make us good? No. Do they attract better players? Yes. Do they attract better coaching candidates? Yes. Do they speed up player development? Yes.

Replace Eddie Jordan with some lightinging in the bottle coach that we would attract with our current facilities. Would we win a few more games? Very possible. But is there really a difference between firing a guy who wins 12, 10 and 7 and a guy who wins 13, 14, 12? No.

Nothing will change in hoops until there is a commitment shown by the school. Why people in their 50s 60s and 70s can't get this is just frustrating. You guys saw it happen with football and are seeing it happen now with wrestling, it's not that complicated. You must invest to see a benefit. But please, keep banging the drum that we need to get rid of Eddie just to hire another no name coach from a school no one has heard of and we can start having this arguement again in 2018-2019, because we will.

Have we made an investment in facilities for wrestling? I think we brought in a well regarded assistant coach to help with building the program.

 

[RUskoolie]

Have we made an investment in facilities for wrestling? I think we brought in a well regarded assistant coach to help with building the program.

We increased the amount of available scholarships we've had over the years, which has made recruiting easier. That attracted better players sine we had more money, that got us ranked, us being ranked put pressure on the AD to move us into the RAC. Now we are in the RAC and have one of the best "wrestling arenas" in the country. Being in the RAC gets the program closer to the black. Now that we're that close more people want to invest and see how far we can take this thing (as in hiring name assistants now). Now all wrestling needs is a practice facility and we'll have almost everything we need to compete for a national title.

It starts with investment, like anything in life.

I don't think Eddie is a great coach. All I am saying is, nothing much will change without investment. If things could just change then all of our sports programs with dilapidated facilities wouldn't stink every.single.year.

 

[ejgonz]

I don't think we are though. Most of us have been watching this program for decades. We've tried every coaching avenue other than hiring the Big-name guy or invest heavily financially.

Since that avenue is not available to us, does that mean that we have to shut off our desire for the program to succeed? Does it mean that it is impossible to be remotely competitive?
The answers are no and no.

If we hired that lightning in a bottle coach, yes, I would welcome the few more wins and hopefully a lot of hard-fought losses. He would provide us something to build upon.

What we are not seeing with Eddie is his ability to coach kids. I'm not as concerned about his program management. I'm more concerned with the his coaching because if he could recruit, he would not handle those kids well as a terrible coach. We've seen a lot of signs that he can't coach kids. And that's the risk we took when we hired him as a mostly NBA experienced coach.

We don't need facilities to have a program that interests the students or alumni. We just need a team that competes with all they got.

What you're suggesting is that we shouldn't care about how the team is being coached. Nor should we care to see if there's another guy that can get the most of their guys. It's pretty startling how low it's gotten and how much worse it could possibly get.

Let's call Eddie what he is. He is the caretaker of the team until the university is ready to invest in the program. Let's not be naive to think that he's going to be successful in a more invested program.

I slightly disagree. We have never hired a good coach (without other issues like Rice and Bannon) and surrounded them with good assistants. Waters was a fantastic coach and his downfall was bringing his entire staff from Kent st. If we left Waters in place and kept recruiters similar to Hill, we would be SOOO much better off now.

 

[RUChoppin]

Given our situation, and no additional commitment in terms of dollars/facilities - we need to identify some young assistant coaches who have strong player development abilities and a "system" style that allows two-star kids to compete, and hire one of the to be HC. We need to embrace that we are a stepping stone school for coaches on the rise, and string together a few of them who have the ability to get the most out of lesser-regarded players.

EJ isn't that guy.

Now, any future coach is going to have to combat the same things. 38 year old arena, little in the way of facilities to attract talent, low salaries for assistants, etc... and it's going to either a) drive them off so they won't take the job, or b) stifle recruiting in the next regime (or regimes). It will only get worse as the RAC gets more out of date.

We need a solid commitment to improved facilities, and "shovels in the ground" (so to speak) to show that it's not just a fantasy plan in someone's mind - and then we need to bring in a coach who can capitalize on it. One or the other won't cut it - need both better coach and better facilities.

 

[RutgHoops]

Freeman was one of the hottest JuCos in the country. Sanders was a kid a ton of programs wanted. Both were four star recruits. Foreman was a Rivals Top 150 kid with offers from Alabama, Auburn, Iowa State, Minnesota, Pitt, and Providence, . Laurent had offers from Alabama and Georgia Tech. Doorson from Pitt. Diallo from Marquette, Oklahoma State and Nebraska. Williams had offers from Dayton, GW, Iowa, St. Johns and temple.

Eddie's first class has played less than one third of their Sophomore year. And our best 2015 recruit is hurt. And we have ONE non-Eddie recruited Senior or Junior on the team.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

What you never know when you did the "WHAT OFFERS A KIDS HAD" game is what were they told with the offer.

DJ Foreman could have been offered by Minnesota and told he would have a shot at the rotation, but would most likely be redshirted.....or we have 2 Upper Classmen ahead of you, but starters minutes could be available in 3 years. All of those kids you mentioned had a straight line at PT at RU. Very probable not the same at the other schools. Every program needs stars, starters, role players, projects, and practice players. For Sanders the offer was Rutgers as a star at tennessee the backup to the senior PG.

With the paper pieces that Jordan has it is only fair to judge him after next season. Sanders Johnson Williams Freeman ?????? on paper has the look of a team that is near or close to the GWs, SHU, Creightons, WF that we have lost to. Freeman is an enormous loss to this team and it is understated by almost all.

Personally until there is a change in culture Jordan can't get this done. That is opinion and a guy isn't/shouldn't be let go in Year 3 because of it.

 

[bac2therac]

Freeman was one of the hottest JuCos in the country. Sanders was a kid a ton of programs wanted. Both were four star recruits. Foreman was a Rivals Top 150 kid with offers from Alabama, Auburn, Iowa State, Minnesota, Pitt, and Providence, . Laurent had offers from Alabama and Georgia Tech. Doorson from Pitt. Diallo from Marquette, Oklahoma State and Nebraska. Williams had offers from Dayton, GW, Iowa, St. Johns and temple.

Eddie's first class has played less than one third of their Sophomore year. And our best 2015 recruit is hurt. And we have ONE non-Eddie recruited Senior or Junior on the team.

who is responsible for Etou leaving?
who is responsibe for no recruits signed for next year
Freeman is gone after next year, he will not be a part of any post season here, is there a replacement
will Corey Sanders stay here no matter who the coach is?
tell me going 7-25 or 8-24 is showing improvement
the signs were there when Eddie couldn't win or play defense with a solid group his first year with better talent than they have now..yes Mack/Jack/Moore/Judge represented better talent overall than what we currently have

 

[bac2therac]

well they are working on meeting with an architect and that bill goes up to be passed by the NJ politicians so yes it is moving toward a practice facility...you hire your next coach in mind with the announcement of the facility and you let him sell the vision.

if I was a big donor why would I give money toward the project with Jordan as head man...please tell me why

 

[RUsojo]

If we could recruit over some posters on the board that would be a good start.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

You guys keep missing the point with the facilities argument. Do they autmoatically make us good? No. Do they attract better players? Yes. Do they attract better coaching candidates? Yes. Do they speed up player development? Yes.

Replace Eddie Jordan with some lightinging in the bottle coach that we would attract with our current facilities. Would we win a few more games? Very possible. But is there really a difference between firing a guy who wins 12, 10 and 7 and a guy who wins 13, 14, 12? No.

Nothing will change in hoops until there is a commitment shown by the school. Why people in their 50s 60s and 70s can't get this is just frustrating. You guys saw it happen with football and are seeing it happen now with wrestling, it's not that complicated. You must invest to see a benefit. But please, keep banging the drum that we need to get rid of Eddie just to hire another no name coach from a school no one has heard of and we can start having this arguement again in 2018-2019, because we will.

Another .guy who gets it.

This is program where sub .500 and missing the NIT was the norm for 25 years. These idiots want to fire and the hire the 6th coach in 25 years. Invest in the program, level the playing and let the current coach bring in better players....everyone knows better players play better....except the idiots now attempting to take over the board with their ant-coach crusade.

 

[SirScarlet]

Find me one person who doesn't think facilities are important. You can't. Cause that's too easy

For me, the frustrating part of this debate/discussion is that there seems to be a group of folks who use facilities as a crutch to rationalize the poor coaches we have hired for the past 20+ years. What are any of them doing now that is significant? Nothing. So we made a bunch of really bad hires.

Would great facilities have helped them? Probably. But they probably would have all failed cause they were/are simply not high level coaches.

And lastly, good coaching trumps good facilities any day of the week. Let's at least all agree to that, please.

We need to get the next coaching hire right. Cause if we dont, new facilities aren't going to do d!ck.

 

[RU-Choppin-Ohio]

well they are working on meeting with an architect and that bill goes up to be passed by the NJ politicians so yes it is moving toward a practice facility...you hire your next coach in mind with the announcement of the facility and you let him sell the vision.

if I was a big donor why would I give money toward the project with Jordan as head man...please tell me why

You say stupid things every day, but this may take the cake. So now, big donors will not make a long term investment in the program because of the current 62 year old coach who will be gone within a few years? The key there is "long term".

Your crusade has reached such heights of stupidity not seen since......well, they have never been seen. Your new tactic is to try to convince people that Jordan has to go before donors step in...lol. You should send a message to the AD, Julie Herman...I mean Hobbs.