Here are our recruiting halls over the last couple of years:
2008:
Mosley-4 stars (62 overall)
Jin Soo Kim- 3 stars
Goins---added late on a whim and a prayer after Gilchrist (top 150) stiffed us....
2007:
Bowie- 3 stars
Braxton Dupree- 3 stars (top 150 player...17th best center of that class)
Dino Gregory- 3 stars (had same player rating as brax)
Cliff Tucker - 4 stars (top 150 player)
2006:
Grevis Vasquez- 4 stars
Eric Hayes- 4 stars
Jerome Burney- 3 stars
Osby-2 star (worked out pretty well i'd say)
Landon Milbourne- 3 stars
Let's compare that with the class that came in after the NC, which people were frothing at the mouth at and heralding as one of the top in the country
Garrison- 4 star
Nik Caner-Medley- 3 star
Gilchrist- 3 star
McCray- 3 star
Jamar Smith- 4 star
Here is the point. Don't pretend like the recruiting has slipped off, because it hasn't. We are getting the same calliber players that we've always gotten, actually maybe better calliber players (if lance commits he'd be the best, maybe ever).
Now I say the recruiting isn't fundamentally flawed, but I would say that Gary missed on several recruits. Garrison was nowhere near the 4 star billing. Mike Jones (not included b/c he was in the 2003 class) never lived up to his 5-star billing. Brax was a big, big miss.
Plus consider the talent Gary has got to sign on the dotted line, but because of forces out of his control, never suited up. Agustus Gilchrist was a four star recruit who committed and then changed his mind b/c we wouldn't let his aau coach be an assistant, sure blame that on gary. Tyreke Evans committed here before it became known that he had undisclosed criminal charges (which didn't scare off sleazy calipari). Sean Clark strangely could not get admitted to Maryland after he signed, but somehow got into VIllanova (a private school). Terrance Jennings, a five star recruit commited to us last year, and then sleazy Patino convinced him to decommit (he hadn't signed yet) and he ends up at louisville.
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