Welcome Desmond White

[Petey Buckets]

So I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure KE has landed more 3 and 4 star high school recruits in two recruiting cycles than Dave did in six.

CKE
Fernandez
Dinkins
Elvis
Ball
White

CDP
Grayer
Mar
AJW

Now I didn't go through every single recruit of Dave's tenure, so I may have missed one or two, but I did confirm that guys like Kolek, Miller, Oduro, Otis, etc didn't have stars. Also I'm not counting high school rankings of transfers in from another school since I think that's a silly way to do it.

Either way, it's a pretty impressive way to quantify the difference in recruiting. KE is out here comfortably winning head to heads against other A10 schools. The fact that Larrañaga, Hewitt, and now KE have had no problems recruiting at or above Mason's level is a big part of the reason that I will ALWAYS hold onto the hope that Mason can eventually be a program that sustains long-term success.

 

[mkaufman1]

So I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure KE has landed more 3 and 4 star high school recruits in two recruiting cycles than Dave did in six.

CKE
Fernandez
Dinkins
Elvis
Ball
White

CDP
Grayer
Mar
AJW

Now I didn't go through every single recruit of Dave's tenure, so I may have missed one or two, but I did confirm that guys like Kolek, Miller, Oduro, Otis, etc didn't have stars. Also I'm not counting high school rankings of transfers in from another school since I think that's a silly way to do it.

Either way, it's a pretty impressive way to quantify the difference in recruiting. KE is out here comfortably winning head to heads against other A10 schools. The fact that Larrañaga, Hewitt, and now KE have had no problems recruiting at or above Mason's level is a big part of the reason that I will ALWAYS hold onto the hope that Mason can eventually be a program that sustains long-term success.

Agree with the difference in recruiting. My only question is where you saw that Grayer and Wilson was a 3 star since Rivals didn't have either of them as such. I'm guessing probably on another recruiting site.

FWIW they have XJ, Hartwell and Mar as 3 stars. Its also fun looking at what Rivals considers the best recruits in Mason history as there are some fun names on the list.

Fernandez is 3rd best behind Copes and Holloway.

 

[Petey Buckets]

Agree with the difference in recruiting. My only question is where you saw that Grayer and Wilson was a 3 star since Rivals didn't have either of them as such. I'm guessing probably on another recruiting site.

FWIW they have XJ, Hartwell and Mar as 3 stars. Its also fun looking at what Rivals considers the best recruits in Mason history as there are some fun names on the list.

Fernandez is 3rd best behind Copes and Holloway.

You'll get different ratings if you look at different sites, so I didn't want to spend the time doing an exhaustive dive on everyone. Mar, AJ, and Kolek are the only recruits I recall Dave "won" over similar A10-level competition. Nearly everyone else, even Grayer, Hartwell, XJ, etc, are guys where Mason was their best offer and A10-level schools weren't seriously interested in them. I'd argue that's much more important and I think the DP era has brought everyone on the boards around to that point.

 

[GMUgemini]

You'll get different ratings if you look at different sites, so I didn't want to spend the time doing an exhaustive dive on everyone. Mar, AJ, and Kolek are the only recruits I recall Dave "won" over similar A10-level competition. Nearly everyone else, even Grayer, Hartwell, XJ, etc, are guys where Mason was their best offer and A10-level schools weren't seriously interested in them. I'd argue that's much more important and I think the DP era has brought everyone on the boards around to that point.

Miller was obviously underrecruited as was Oduro; weird because Miller was first team all-Met and Oduro played for PVI (which everyone scouts).

 

[GMU79]

So I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure KE has landed more 3 and 4 star high school recruits in two recruiting cycles than Dave did in six.

CKE
Fernandez
Dinkins
Elvis
Ball
White

CDP
Grayer
Mar
AJW

Now I didn't go through every single recruit of Dave's tenure, so I may have missed one or two, but I did confirm that guys like Kolek, Miller, Oduro, Otis, etc didn't have stars. Also I'm not counting high school rankings of transfers in from another school since I think that's a silly way to do it.

Either way, it's a pretty impressive way to quantify the difference in recruiting. KE is out here comfortably winning head to heads against other A10 schools. The fact that Larrañaga, Hewitt, and now KE have had no problems recruiting at or above Mason's level is a big part of the reason that I will ALWAYS hold onto the hope that Mason can eventually be a program that sustains long-term success.

Yep, Hewitt could recruit. He just couldn't coach.

 

[GMU79]

Agree with the difference in recruiting. My only question is where you saw that Grayer and Wilson was a 3 star since Rivals didn't have either of them as such. I'm guessing probably on another recruiting site.

FWIW they have XJ, Hartwell and Mar as 3 stars. Its also fun looking at what Rivals considers the best recruits in Mason history as there are some fun names on the list.

Fernandez is 3rd best behind Copes and Holloway.

I was always disappointed in Holloway. Was supposed to be a great shooter. He wasn't.

 

[mkaufman1]

You'll get different ratings if you look at different sites, so I didn't want to spend the time doing an exhaustive dive on everyone. Mar, AJ, and Kolek are the only recruits I recall Dave "won" over similar A10-level competition. Nearly everyone else, even Grayer, Hartwell, XJ, etc, are guys where Mason was their best offer and A10-level schools weren't seriously interested in them. I'd argue that's much more important and I think the DP era has brought everyone on the boards around to that point.

Agreed- at the end of the day rankings are important but I always like to see who Mason is competing against for a recruit. I'd much rather see them against peers and above than below programs.

 

[GSII]

I'd argue The Virus could only recruit 6'6 tweeners that couldn't shoot. One big in Copes which he had to give his uncle a job to get. Jackson was good. Others couldn't get enrolled. Sucked at transfers too, ie Royal. If it wasn't for Larranaga's guys, we would of been an even hotter dumpster fire.

 

[GMUgemini]

I was always disappointed in Holloway. Was supposed to be a great shooter. He wasn't.

He was a pretty great shooter with one of the fastest releases we’ve ever had. He just lost interest in playing.

 

[GMUgemini]

I'd argue The Virus could only recruit 6'6 tweeners that couldn't shoot. One big in Copes which he had to give his uncle a job to get. Jackson was good. Others couldn't get enrolled. Sucked at transfers too, ie Royal. If it wasn't for Larranaga's guys, we would of been an even hotter dumpster fire.

Porter? Shevon Thomas? Marko was pretty good. CJ Jackson had himself a career at Ohio State after decommiting post-firing.

 

[mkaufman1]

Porter? Shevon Thomas? Marko was pretty good. CJ Jackson had himself a career at Ohio State after decommiting post-firing.

Uh, who is Shevon Thomas?

 

[gmujim92]

Uh, who is Shevon Thomas?

Peterson’s cousin

 

[GMUgemini]

Autocorrect after typos are not my friend.

 

[GMU79]

He was a pretty great shooter with one of the fastest releases we’ve ever had. He just lost interest in playing.

Gotta agree to disagree here. How do you know his lack of shooting ability was because he lost interest in playing?

 

[Patriotsince81]

So, back to Desmond.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Ksj0EBvi0

 

[Old Man]

Miller was obviously underrecruited as was Oduro; weird because Miller was first team all-Met and Oduro played for PVI (which everyone scouts).

Miller may have been all-met, but it was from a public school in Loudoun County (Loudoun Valley, 4A iirc) and not in the higher tier of Va. public schools. No one was looking at him. Valley was on the radar for track and xc, that was about it.

 

[GMUgemini]

Gotta agree to disagree here. How do you know his lack of shooting ability was because he lost interest in playing?

He shot 41% from 3 his sophomore year on pretty high volume. And then it dropped off precipitously before he quit the team in his senior season…

Go back and look at some highlights. His release was insanely quick (almost as quick as Lee from Davidson).

 

[tblack33]

He shot 41% from 3 his sophomore year on pretty high volume. And then it dropped off precipitously before he quit the team in his senior season…

Go back and look at some highlights. His release was insanely quick (almost as quick as Lee from Davidson).

The talent was 110% there, off the court issues sunk him after his freshman season.

 

[GMU79]

The talent was 110% there, off the court issues sunk him after his freshman season.

You guys probably know more about that than me, so I'll defer.

 

[HoopsAdmin]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXIPdU0dJo