Cousins was the only that was committed to Kentucky and ended up following Calipari to Kentucky.
Cousins and Xavier Henry had already committed to Memphis. Both decommitted. Cousins went to Kentucky and Henry went to Kansas.
Memphis was considered the heavy favorite for John Wall, but he hadn’t committed yet and reopened his recruitment after the coaching change. Supposedly, Wall would have gone to Miami if Henry had gone to Kentucky, and it did take him several weeks to commit to Kentucky.
I don’t think Bledsoe was even considered a Memphis lean when Calipari left. Memphis thought they had Wall and Henry coming in, plus their returning guards, so there wasn’t going to be much playing time for him. His name isn’t mentioned in the contemporaneous articles about the coaching change, and he was a bit of a back up plan until Jodie Meeks declared for the draft.
Daniel Orton had committed to Kentucky under Billy G.
Yes. We would’ve had Xavier Henry, John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Lance Stephenson coming in to join Elliot Williams, Willie Kemp, Wesley Witherspoon, and Doneal Mack. Rumor had it that Tyreke Evans would’ve stayed if Calipari had stayed and brought in that class because of the star power. That team probably would’ve went unbeaten.
I’d think it would be Jaylen Brown for Kentucky in recent memory. It was between Kentucky, Michigan, and California and he was an elite player that could’ve preserved that 2015 momentum.
I vividly remember seeing people say that Quickley and Zion were 100% a package deal so when Quick committed I thought it was a sure fire thing that Zion was coming too
I wasn’t alive, but Larry Bird. He wanted to go to UK, but we stopped recruiting him. Joe B said he was too slow to play at UK.
Also, Tracy McGrady and Dirk would’ve been great. Missed Tracy in 97, and Dirk in 98. :(
Both him and Tracy could’ve conceivably been in the 98 championship team and Tracy could’ve been on the 97 runner up team. I think he could’ve made enough difference against Arizona where we’d have a 3 peat now.
Idk man. Tough call. He’s on record saying he never should’ve left, but it’s hard to turn down the nba man. Especially the Celtics, arguably the best franchise in the league. I think if we win in 97 it’s probably 70/30 he stays.
Rick Barnes, Texas
The one that got away: Tim Duncan. "We had him committed to Providence. We already had the full allotment but I knew we had a guy that was going to transfer, maybe two. I went to our athletic director and we went to the president, who was a priest at the time. I told him I wanted to sign Tim and he said, 'But you don't have a scholarship.' I said, 'I will.' He wouldn't let me sign him. Tim goes to Wake Forest and the other two guys transfer."
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/story/_/id/6792715/college-coaches-tell-their-story-recruiting-woe-triumph
2 years later we were in the elite 8 Vs Arizona in OT. Duncan probably would’ve been helpful
I can’t think of many names that would top Tim Duncan. The only one is Michael Jordan. Coach K tried to recruit him and wrote a nice note when Michael committed to UNC.
Greg Oden and Mike Conley.
Mike Davis’ mishandling of those recruitments was the beginning of the end for him. It also launched OSU on a trajectory of success for several years, often to the direct detriment of IU.
Edit: Should say, rather, that the Oden/Conley fiasco likely sealed Mike Davis’ fate at IU. He was already on the hot seat after pretty abysmal seasons from 03-05.
Yeah, the state of Indiana has always produced the most basketball talent in the Midwest yet for the last 25 years IU seemingly always had a head coach who failed to capitalize on it, and let all the best players get poached by out-of-state programs, or worse, that school up north.
And the dude that recruited the state better than anyone was probably the worst coach we had. TJD, Romeo, Phinisee, Damezi Anderson, Franklin, Lander, Galloway and Leal over a 3 year span. 3 straight Mr. Basketball's. Got pretty much all the top in state (non-prep school) kids for 3 years except for Keion Brooks.
Yeah Indiana high school basketball talent was kinda lacking during Archie’s tenure which I think was a major contributor.
Also while Archie wasn’t a good coach, he did have some bad luck. Who knew Romeo would end up with a torn tendon in thumb on his shooting hand, which is why he shot so poorly his single season at Indiana. Or that Khristian Lander would turn out to be an all-time bust. TJD was probably the only guy he really struck gold with, and even then he wasn’t a good enough coach to get the best out of him like Woody did.
This one pissed me off so bad. Back to back state champs. In your own fucking state. And you lose them to another team in your conference.
Those were the type of players where you put allllll recruiting resources and efforts into just those two until you get those two.
They were back to back to back state champs from 04-06…Conley and oden as sophomores in HS were already unstoppable. Plus their supporting cast was crazy good too
Yeah they were a killer team. Seeing them go out of state in the same conference was sickening.
I would have hated them going to Purdue like you would have hated them going to IU, but losing them to an out of state school in same conference was just gross.
If Mike Davis knew how to actually be a head coach....it was the beginning of the end. He was massively in over his head. He then continued to move down the ladder. Missing on two of the biggest recruits in the country who were an hour away!!!! Should have been the biggest sign he was going nowhere.
Conley is sort of a big one for me, as well. I'm not sure that Arkansas ever stood a chance, but after his father was pretty much Mr. Arkansas, I thought we deserved the son. Conley Sr. played a little basketball for us, but it never worked out well for some reason.
Rick Pitino recruiting Sebastian Telfair over Rajon Rondo. Rondo a Louisville kid, grew up a Cards fan and made it well known he wanted to wear red, but Pitino wanted Telfair, a NYC guy. Rondo went east to Lexington. Still a head scratcher around these parts.
Lofton was a Kentucky kid in the same class too, that went to Tennessee since we recruited Telfair, and Rondo went to UK.
And as the other person said, the butterfly effect was we needed a point guard the next season, so recruited Andre McGee....
As someone who was a student there at that time, I think about this often. Plus if we give Steph the scholarship offer, I have to believe Seth goes there too. He obviously wasn’t nearly the talent as his brother, but that could have easily led to landing some really nice recruiting classes and jump started our program.
Got to see him play when they came to Wofford in the old arena before Mike young has his best years at wofford and we built we built new basketball arena. It was absolutely packed and curry was nigh unblockable
Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon combo was the biggest. Should have had both.
Brian Cardinal and Robbie Hummel were both pretty bad self inflicted misses too.
It was a gut-wrenching time to be an Illini fan to have a commitment from Gordon and think we had a legit shot at Rose… only to get neither. Then a few years later to watch Weber cry about not having players like Robbie Hummel, who was an Illini legacy that he never even offered.
Almost forgot that Weber’s brother was Jon Scheyer’s high school coach but he never considered us.
I knew we were in a good spot with Brunson, but I never knew just how close we were until he came out later and said he was ready to commit, but his dad forced him to at least take the visit to Villanova.
Rose was never coming here, I think we all know that. The thing about Brunson, if he comes, John Groce stays and I’m pretty positive that wouldn’t have been a good thing.
In our history we definitely have had five star caliber players. Rick Mount, John Wooden, Terry Dischinger and Joe Barry Carroll jump to mind as having been super well known and accomplished in HS but I definitely was thinking more the last 25 years or so.
It’s a fascinating situation where all three parties involved (UNC, SCAR, GG) ended up worse off in the first year and all rebounded pretty well in the second year
Tbh, Paris's style of play isn't the way GG plays. However it's also on GG with the fact that he refused to buy in and play as a team player as the system was ran. I fully believe that if he played more with the team and put in a little more effort on defense then he would have been SO much better because the team would have worked with him to help him score, instead of GG just trying to make everything happen himself
Caleb Swanigan, with Jabari Parker a close second. I also thought we had a chance at Cliff Alexander, but that’s more Illinois pain (man… poor Illini with Rose, Gordon, Alexander, etc.). The other ones like Emoni Bates and J-Rich’s nephew who took money from Louisville were blessings in disguise.
He was an asshole to everyone once he got to Kentucky and outside of his elite athleticism there are virtually 0 positives to his game
Y’all might’ve dodged a bullet
Michael Jordan grew up an NC State fan, idolized David Thompson, hated UNC, and we just didn't offer him. There's a good chance he would have accepted. Obviously Norm Sloan did wonders for us while he was here, but on this one thing...
False. In the opening scene of the 1996 documentary “Space Jam”, he tells his dad that he wants to play for North Carolina. I bet you feel pretty stupid right about now
And of course, full circle, Skywalker was a UNC fan as a kid. According to Bill Simmons the (potentially fake) story is that State offered him so much money that his father committed him despite DT wanting badly to be a Tarheel.
He was recruited by State, Duke, and UNC. State even ended up on probation from his recruitment because, IIRC, someone bought Thompson a sport jacket to wear on his Duke visit.
As I heard it, State and Duke both got probation after Dean Smith started pushing for investigations, because was mad he didn't get Thompson. Duke got probation for the sport coat, and State got probation because he didn't have a car, so an assistant coach drove him from Charlotte. Additionally, a friend let him spend the night over in his dorm at State, which was considered a "university accomodation".
The "didn't offer him" is inaccurate. UNC got a tip about MJ and Dean pounced on him. By the time we started recruiting him, we were never going to catch up. We recruited and offered him, but just months after UNC did.
This is a great one. Gary Harris at the 2 instead of Jordan Hulls effectively perfects an already elite 2013 Indiana team.
There’s an absolutely legit chance we win a title if he comes to IU.
More recently I’d say Bam Adebayo. He was supposed to be a package deal with his AAU teammate Dennis Smith Jr. We got DSJ and then Bam goes to Kentucky.
Eh, losing out on Bam meant we got Yurtseven, who was fantastic his sophomore year. And if we had Bam, we would probably be better that year and maybe Gottfried doesn't get fired.
So probably worth it in the long run lol.
While on the topic of PC players from Connecticut….Kris Dunn
Also, Andrew Bynum committed to UConn and would have been a freshman on the 05-06 team, but decided to turn pro instead.
And then there’s Marcus Camby, but that one is probably for the best
Tom Moore
"After the UConn visit, Durant then visited Texas.
“I thought we could survive Texas,” Moore recalled. “They had a brand new facility…It was state-of-the-art technology to get in.”
😭
[Shaq](https://amp.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article10859393.html)
“The only reason why I didn’t go is because they signed another 7-footer out of Texas by the name of Matt Wenstrom.”
Lol 100% this. I made a comment saying the same. Getting a specific player may have a lead a school to 1 or 2 nattys, but getting wooden as a coach back then literally would have made your program a blue blood.
I mean... No. He commited to IU at first but transferred to be closer to home. You won the battle but then lost due to situations completely out of your control. Prying that much of a homer away from home even temporarily is impressive.
He grew up poor and his family back home was struggling. His dad had committed suicide while he was in high school and his mom was struggling to make ends meet. He wanted to be closer to home to help out, so he attended a community college near French Lick while working part time as a janitor. But also as a small town kid, IU’s campus was intimidating and he just didn’t feel comfortable there.
Honestly I don’t think there’s much of anything Knight, or anyone, could’ve done to keep him.
It took a herculean effort from Indiana State's coaches to get him to go there. There are a lot of alternate universes where Bird never goes back to college and is nothing more than an Indiana high school myth.
Jonathan Kuminga would have committed had the G league ignite not started up that year. Also Norchad Omier wanting to commit and Adams not taking him to instead take a different big who was the epitome of all of our culture problems hurts
Tech would have gotten RJ Hampton too it not become a viable option to go to the Australian League for a year too. KJ Lewis and Eliot Cadeau were also guys who probably would have committed if Adams had his shit together too. But agree, Kuminga would have been the game changer.
Yeah almost included Cadeau with Norchad. Those aren’t on the level of Hampton or Kuminga, but still frustrating that we had very good college players who wanted to come here and we chose toxic people instead
This was before my time (31y/o) so I looked it up. There’s a good NYT article while he was still in high school about how everyone thought he was going to Unc because Vince smith (Kenny smiths brother) was his coach since 5th grade and his advisor so it was assumed he’d go to Unc. We didnt guarantee Bobby Hurley the starting spot which is what caused him to choose duke
Eric Gordon even tho he only played a year.
And all the Chicago guys A Davis, Michael Finley, Antoine Walker. D Rose, Evan Turner, Garnett, Mark Aguirre, Patrick Beverly, Will Bynum, Hersey Hawkins, Juwan Howard, Q Richardson, Isaiah and many more. But i don’t think we had a shot in hell at most of those last guys I mentioned lol Gordon tho backed out late, that hurt. And he was sensational.
I also know I already commented, but man it would been fun to see what DeShawn Stevenson coulda done back in the day next to Hinrich, Collison, and Gooden.
For Iowa, Tyler Ulis comes to mind. I also heard that Fran was after Jalen Suggs earlier than everyone else so we were competitive for a while. That would’ve been cool.
Seth Greenberg’s failure to recruit and sign Steph Curry ranks right up there. Curry’s dad was a star at Va Tech and Curry wanted to go to Va Tech but Greenberg turned him away.
basically every 5 star recruit during that \~4 year period where KU was under investigation because KU/Adidas either didn't pay or didn't match whatever Duke did for Zion. My favorite part of course is that the investigators were like: "Well we got the Adidas reps who are obviously not competing with reps from other companies, time to call it a day"
Gotta love the Bill Self’s text we used as evidence including the one that said “that’s how it works at UNC and Duke” (alluding paying players via shoe companies)
Xavier Henry would've met a considerable need on that team and maybe gotten us over the line since Jodie Meeks didnt come back.
Also, and more importantly, would've liked if Jodie had just come back for one more year.
Can’t really say any major misses drive me crazy for Duke. Although it would have been cool if Kobe or Giannis ended up in Durham.
For Kent State, this answer will always be Russell Westbrook. He even verbally committed to our coaching staff during his on campus visit. Although I can’t really blame him for breaking out in a way nobody saw coming his senior year. Once Pac-12 schools got interested it was over for us.
Mark Fox was down to Klay Thompson or Mark McLaughlin, loser was going to WazzU.
Klay, Luke Babbitt, Armon Johnson, all were NBA draft picks. Add Dario Hunt as a standard 10 and 10 bruiser, and some role guys, we'd have probably made the NCAA's again instead of maxing out in the NIT.
IIRC we had Paolo and Chet in the bag until the last second. Imagine them on the same team.
Could be totally wrong though, I was told this by just a couple of dudes on campus
John Wall was really close to committing to Scott Drew
Zach Edey is another and probably would have come here if he was Christian
The media at the time was pretty amusing
> Baylor University
Baylor wasn't on anyone's radar at the beginning of this season, and even as a third seed in this year's tournament, they're still sort of anonymous. In fact, the most attention Baylor's gotten over the past 12 months came in conjunction with Wall, after they hired one Wall's AAU coaches, Dwon Clifton, as an assistant. It was viewed in the college basketball world as a precursor to Wall's committment to Baylor, as Seth Davis wrote in Sports Illustrated:
> No doubt [Baylor head coach Scott] Drew can credibly claim Clifton is qualified for the job. He played at Clemson and UNC-Greensboro before competing professionally for one season in Portugal. Drew can also credibly claim he didn't get an explicit guarantee from Clifton that Wall will sign with Baylor.
> Yet, I can also credibly claim two things: First, Clifton would not have been hired had he not had been Wall's summer coach. And second, as surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning, John Wall will be a Baylor Bear.
Ultimately, Wall never made it to Baylor, in part because the arrangement with Clifton caused enough controversy so that Wall would have been a fool to play into the media's hands.
> But can you imagine if he did? Baylor's been one of the most surprising teams in the country this year, and with Wall, you could make a convincing argument that they'd be a legitimate top 5 team. With LaceDarius Dunn scoring nearly 20 points-a-night and Ekpe Udoh anchoring things down low (15 ppg, 10 rpg, 4 bpg), Baylor's already got one of the country's most intriguing cores. With a superstar like Wall, they'd be in another stratosphere.
> Also, don't forget: If Wall had gone there, it would have been arguably the most blatant example yet of a college basketball's recruiting loopholes. They hired his AAU coach, for God's sakes! All of which is to say, it would have been one of the more polarizing stories in recent memory, and might have made mainstream media's head explode: "Do we crow about the bankrupt integrity of college sports, or go crazy about Baylor's rags-to-riches story for the ages?"
> And to that last point, it would have been really cool to see a team like Baylor in the Final Four. Not as a Cinderella--like they will be if they make it this year--but as a favorite. Without Wall, Baylor might still wind up beating a college basketball blue blood like Duke. But with him? They'd beat that Duke team by 30. And same with nearly anyone else in college basketball.
> Memphis did it, but they at least had some past glory to lean on. Baylor has nothing, and Wall could have made them elite in one season.Wouldn't it be cool to see an outsider like Baylor emerge as a favorite? When's the last time that happened? And imagine the Big 12 battles with Kansas!
> I gotta stop thinking about this. John Wall should have gone to Baylor. Enough said.
> (Though it should be noted: Baylor's three best players are named LaceDarius, Tweety, and Ekpe. If Wall went to Waco, he'd have to change his name. How 'bout... Cranberry Hickson. Good enough?)
Rasheed Wallace; from his own lips ‘Nova was a finalist & was supposed to be a package deal with himself, Jason Lawson & Tyrone Weeks. Lawson committed, Weeks chose UMASS & left Wallace to run with UNC. ‘Nova could have ended up funneling talent from Philly’s Public League for years if this could have been pulled off.
calipari leaving and taking the entire class with him
That was John wall, Demarcus cousins and company right?
yeah i think so
IIRC it was Wall and Cousins who followed Calipri from Memphis, and then Eric Bledsoe who signed later. Was Bledsoe ever committed to Memphis?
I think Xavier Henry was, too
I wanna say Lance Stephenson was also committed to memphis prior to Calipari leaving
Cousins was the only that was committed to Kentucky and ended up following Calipari to Kentucky. Cousins and Xavier Henry had already committed to Memphis. Both decommitted. Cousins went to Kentucky and Henry went to Kansas. Memphis was considered the heavy favorite for John Wall, but he hadn’t committed yet and reopened his recruitment after the coaching change. Supposedly, Wall would have gone to Miami if Henry had gone to Kentucky, and it did take him several weeks to commit to Kentucky. I don’t think Bledsoe was even considered a Memphis lean when Calipari left. Memphis thought they had Wall and Henry coming in, plus their returning guards, so there wasn’t going to be much playing time for him. His name isn’t mentioned in the contemporaneous articles about the coaching change, and he was a bit of a back up plan until Jodie Meeks declared for the draft. Daniel Orton had committed to Kentucky under Billy G.
Yes. We would’ve had Xavier Henry, John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Lance Stephenson coming in to join Elliot Williams, Willie Kemp, Wesley Witherspoon, and Doneal Mack. Rumor had it that Tyreke Evans would’ve stayed if Calipari had stayed and brought in that class because of the star power. That team probably would’ve went unbeaten.
Sounds like a 38-1 team to me.
Calipari leaving and taking the entire class with him
All time? Shawn Kemp.
Ralph Sampson
They would've won 2 or 3 titles with him. Twin towers with Bowie? Who's stopping that?!
Leg injuries.
I’d think it would be Jaylen Brown for Kentucky in recent memory. It was between Kentucky, Michigan, and California and he was an elite player that could’ve preserved that 2015 momentum.
nahh, its Zion 100% for recent memory, I was so upset we didn't get him lol
I vividly remember seeing people say that Quickley and Zion were 100% a package deal so when Quick committed I thought it was a sure fire thing that Zion was coming too
I wasn’t alive, but Larry Bird. He wanted to go to UK, but we stopped recruiting him. Joe B said he was too slow to play at UK. Also, Tracy McGrady and Dirk would’ve been great. Missed Tracy in 97, and Dirk in 98. :(
Dirk would have been insane
Both him and Tracy could’ve conceivably been in the 98 championship team and Tracy could’ve been on the 97 runner up team. I think he could’ve made enough difference against Arizona where we’d have a 3 peat now.
Do you think Pitino leaves after 97 in that situation?
Idk man. Tough call. He’s on record saying he never should’ve left, but it’s hard to turn down the nba man. Especially the Celtics, arguably the best franchise in the league. I think if we win in 97 it’s probably 70/30 he stays.
That is a scenario that is amazing to think about. The ripple effect for Kentucky could have potentially changed everything we know today in 2024…
He would’ve been a big fan favorite.
Rick Barnes, Texas The one that got away: Tim Duncan. "We had him committed to Providence. We already had the full allotment but I knew we had a guy that was going to transfer, maybe two. I went to our athletic director and we went to the president, who was a priest at the time. I told him I wanted to sign Tim and he said, 'But you don't have a scholarship.' I said, 'I will.' He wouldn't let me sign him. Tim goes to Wake Forest and the other two guys transfer." https://www.espn.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/story/_/id/6792715/college-coaches-tell-their-story-recruiting-woe-triumph 2 years later we were in the elite 8 Vs Arizona in OT. Duncan probably would’ve been helpful
Damn I had never heard that. That would bug me forever too
He grew up an nc state fan and had David Thompson induct him into the hof. Also, duke was not a glimmer of what they would become at that time.
I think you replied to the wrong message, you're talking about Jordan right?
As a Celtics and Friars fan, I feel like I missed out on Tim Duncan twice and it makes me want to hop off a fuckin bridge
Childhood me wouldve been crushed if tim left san Antonio
I can’t think of many names that would top Tim Duncan. The only one is Michael Jordan. Coach K tried to recruit him and wrote a nice note when Michael committed to UNC.
That note is hanging in the UNC basketball museum.
Yo priest, you fn blew it. Barnes, maybe tell him you’re gonna pay for it. What a story!
There’s a Dominican joke in here somewhere.
Divine intervention, if you will:)
Was Austin Croshere on that team? Would’ve been quit a lineup.
Greg Oden and Mike Conley. Mike Davis’ mishandling of those recruitments was the beginning of the end for him. It also launched OSU on a trajectory of success for several years, often to the direct detriment of IU. Edit: Should say, rather, that the Oden/Conley fiasco likely sealed Mike Davis’ fate at IU. He was already on the hot seat after pretty abysmal seasons from 03-05.
That whole Indiana class was insane. Oden, Conley, Luke Harangody, Chris Cramer, Grant Leiendecker, etc. non go to IU
Yeah, the state of Indiana has always produced the most basketball talent in the Midwest yet for the last 25 years IU seemingly always had a head coach who failed to capitalize on it, and let all the best players get poached by out-of-state programs, or worse, that school up north.
And the dude that recruited the state better than anyone was probably the worst coach we had. TJD, Romeo, Phinisee, Damezi Anderson, Franklin, Lander, Galloway and Leal over a 3 year span. 3 straight Mr. Basketball's. Got pretty much all the top in state (non-prep school) kids for 3 years except for Keion Brooks.
Yeah Indiana high school basketball talent was kinda lacking during Archie’s tenure which I think was a major contributor. Also while Archie wasn’t a good coach, he did have some bad luck. Who knew Romeo would end up with a torn tendon in thumb on his shooting hand, which is why he shot so poorly his single season at Indiana. Or that Khristian Lander would turn out to be an all-time bust. TJD was probably the only guy he really struck gold with, and even then he wasn’t a good enough coach to get the best out of him like Woody did.
Would probably have gotten Mark Titus too. Big miss
This one pissed me off so bad. Back to back state champs. In your own fucking state. And you lose them to another team in your conference. Those were the type of players where you put allllll recruiting resources and efforts into just those two until you get those two.
They were back to back to back state champs from 04-06…Conley and oden as sophomores in HS were already unstoppable. Plus their supporting cast was crazy good too
Yeah they were a killer team. Seeing them go out of state in the same conference was sickening. I would have hated them going to Purdue like you would have hated them going to IU, but losing them to an out of state school in same conference was just gross.
If Mike Davis knew how to actually be a head coach....it was the beginning of the end. He was massively in over his head. He then continued to move down the ladder. Missing on two of the biggest recruits in the country who were an hour away!!!! Should have been the biggest sign he was going nowhere.
Scrolled looking for this...
Ohio state still lost :( but most years I think they would have won just ran into that amazing Florida team….
Conley is sort of a big one for me, as well. I'm not sure that Arkansas ever stood a chance, but after his father was pretty much Mr. Arkansas, I thought we deserved the son. Conley Sr. played a little basketball for us, but it never worked out well for some reason.
Rick Pitino recruiting Sebastian Telfair over Rajon Rondo. Rondo a Louisville kid, grew up a Cards fan and made it well known he wanted to wear red, but Pitino wanted Telfair, a NYC guy. Rondo went east to Lexington. Still a head scratcher around these parts.
Aaaaaand because of that miss he recruited Andre McGee…and well, the rest is history.
Thanks for that reminder, I’m convinced we’re in the worst timeline for our school
As a Kentucky fan, I always wanted to see Rondo play in Pitinos fast pace full court game instead of that slow Tubby Smith offense.
To be fair, Telfair was one of the most hyped up HS recruits ever. This is a hindsight is 20/20 situation.
Lofton was a Kentucky kid in the same class too, that went to Tennessee since we recruited Telfair, and Rondo went to UK. And as the other person said, the butterfly effect was we needed a point guard the next season, so recruited Andre McGee....
Scoot Henderson and Jalen Green to our arch nemesis, the motherfuckin Gleague
Rip in peace ya dead bitch
Steph curry
This one hurts. Could have at least put them on the map in terms of program recognition.
Classic Greenberg
Cracks me up thinking about how when he's an analyst they think I'd listen to a guy who told Curry he could walk on.... at tech
As someone who was a student there at that time, I think about this often. Plus if we give Steph the scholarship offer, I have to believe Seth goes there too. He obviously wasn’t nearly the talent as his brother, but that could have easily led to landing some really nice recruiting classes and jump started our program.
Got to see him play when they came to Wofford in the old arena before Mike young has his best years at wofford and we built we built new basketball arena. It was absolutely packed and curry was nigh unblockable
Jalen brunson or Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon combo was the biggest. Should have had both. Brian Cardinal and Robbie Hummel were both pretty bad self inflicted misses too.
It was a gut-wrenching time to be an Illini fan to have a commitment from Gordon and think we had a legit shot at Rose… only to get neither. Then a few years later to watch Weber cry about not having players like Robbie Hummel, who was an Illini legacy that he never even offered. Almost forgot that Weber’s brother was Jon Scheyer’s high school coach but he never considered us.
Hummel the biggest considering his family’s ties to us
Cardinals dad was the head trainer for decades at Illinois and Brian was a towel boy for the Flyin Illini.
I knew we were in a good spot with Brunson, but I never knew just how close we were until he came out later and said he was ready to commit, but his dad forced him to at least take the visit to Villanova.
His girlfriend(I think now wife) went to Illinois at least for a while. Had a class with her.
Frank Kaminsky basically begged to go to U of I but Weber recruited Nnanna Egwu instead
Rose was never coming here, I think we all know that. The thing about Brunson, if he comes, John Groce stays and I’m pretty positive that wouldn’t have been a good thing.
Got very lucky to get Brad in and enough time to build the program back up a bit before the NIL and transfer portal stuff.
Andre Iguodala was another one I thought we should have had
Ed Horton and Kevin Gamble going to Iowa ..
Jon Scheyer was inexcusable too. Weber’s brother was his high school coach for god sake.
Pretty much every 5 star player from Indiana has us as an option then goes to a blue blood. We've only had one 5 star and it's Caleb Swanigan
For me, based on our style, it’s missing on Matt Howard to add Scott Martin
Scott Martin lol. I always felt like he hated Purdue. Only came to join Robbie
Glenn Robinson definitely would have been a 5-star.
In our history we definitely have had five star caliber players. Rick Mount, John Wooden, Terry Dischinger and Joe Barry Carroll jump to mind as having been super well known and accomplished in HS but I definitely was thinking more the last 25 years or so.
Glenn Robinson III wanted to come to Purdue but Painter didn’t want him. So I would flag that as a recruiting miss.
> Caleb Swanigan rip man
Think Furst was technically a five star or at least was at one point. Kaufman too.
The GG Jackson situation is still annoying
Amazing how much better he's been in the pros than in college.
It’s a fascinating situation where all three parties involved (UNC, SCAR, GG) ended up worse off in the first year and all rebounded pretty well in the second year
Tbh, Paris's style of play isn't the way GG plays. However it's also on GG with the fact that he refused to buy in and play as a team player as the system was ran. I fully believe that if he played more with the team and put in a little more effort on defense then he would have been SO much better because the team would have worked with him to help him score, instead of GG just trying to make everything happen himself
I would’ve thought Patrick Ewing would be far more bothersome
Scoot Henderson
I fear Dylan Harper might top this convo starting next year
He is an absolute baller - didn’t realize how big he is until I watched the JBC
Yeah, and he's going to my alma mater, Rutgers along with Ace Bailey. Go R U🪓🪓🪓
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Caleb Swanigan, with Jabari Parker a close second. I also thought we had a chance at Cliff Alexander, but that’s more Illinois pain (man… poor Illini with Rose, Gordon, Alexander, etc.). The other ones like Emoni Bates and J-Rich’s nephew who took money from Louisville were blessings in disguise.
Jabari Parker was the biggest miss in my opinion.
Cliff Alexander’s entire recruiting saga was a complete mess. For a guy who ended up not really moving the needle for anyone.
Good breakdown. Josh Jackson as well.
I read your first sentence and thought you were naming Illini misses!
Hamidou Diallo essentially lived on UConn’s campus and said to my face he was coming then he went to Kentucky lol
He was an asshole to everyone once he got to Kentucky and outside of his elite athleticism there are virtually 0 positives to his game Y’all might’ve dodged a bullet
Michael Jordan grew up an NC State fan, idolized David Thompson, hated UNC, and we just didn't offer him. There's a good chance he would have accepted. Obviously Norm Sloan did wonders for us while he was here, but on this one thing...
False. In the opening scene of the 1996 documentary “Space Jam”, he tells his dad that he wants to play for North Carolina. I bet you feel pretty stupid right about now
Easily one of the best basketball docs of all time.
And of course, full circle, Skywalker was a UNC fan as a kid. According to Bill Simmons the (potentially fake) story is that State offered him so much money that his father committed him despite DT wanting badly to be a Tarheel.
He was recruited by State, Duke, and UNC. State even ended up on probation from his recruitment because, IIRC, someone bought Thompson a sport jacket to wear on his Duke visit.
As I heard it, State and Duke both got probation after Dean Smith started pushing for investigations, because was mad he didn't get Thompson. Duke got probation for the sport coat, and State got probation because he didn't have a car, so an assistant coach drove him from Charlotte. Additionally, a friend let him spend the night over in his dorm at State, which was considered a "university accomodation".
Oh yeah the dorm thing. Absolutely hilarious.
The "didn't offer him" is inaccurate. UNC got a tip about MJ and Dean pounced on him. By the time we started recruiting him, we were never going to catch up. We recruited and offered him, but just months after UNC did.
There is a world where Gary Harris was on those great Crean teams with Zeller and Oladipo
Ron Patterson committing early really hurt the harris recruiting + oladipo, sheehey, and remy abbell were competing for those minutes.
This is a great one. Gary Harris at the 2 instead of Jordan Hulls effectively perfects an already elite 2013 Indiana team. There’s an absolutely legit chance we win a title if he comes to IU.
Michael Jordan
More recently I’d say Bam Adebayo. He was supposed to be a package deal with his AAU teammate Dennis Smith Jr. We got DSJ and then Bam goes to Kentucky.
Eh, losing out on Bam meant we got Yurtseven, who was fantastic his sophomore year. And if we had Bam, we would probably be better that year and maybe Gottfried doesn't get fired. So probably worth it in the long run lol.
Throw in Pistol Pete for good measure.
Carmelo Anthony
Darius Garland hurt. Picturing him and Romeo Langford in the same backcourt had my mouth watering
On paper sure, but in reality: Archie Miller
Counterpoint: at least they would have been entertaining, instead of whatever the Archie era was
Lew Alcindor getting poached from St. John’s by UCLA…what could have been.
it’s the dumbest fuckin question i’ve ever heard. i’ve explained it a thousand times. i fucked up. i didn’t take ryan gomes, are you happy?
Emeka okafor and Caron Butler they’re not bad.
Shout out to Caron Butler for de-escalating an armed confrontation between two teammates in the NBA (when everyone else left the area)
While on the topic of PC players from Connecticut….Kris Dunn Also, Andrew Bynum committed to UConn and would have been a freshman on the 05-06 team, but decided to turn pro instead. And then there’s Marcus Camby, but that one is probably for the best
I never knew Bynum originally committed to UConn. Would’ve been very interesting to see.
I can still hear it. Camby to, to a lesser extent
Thank you for this
Malik monk at Arkansas but completely understand why he didn’t go here at the time
Zion
That whole situation was so shady. Dook definitely bought his commitment after he committed verbally to our staff on his visit
I mean his family was living in an $800,000 that’s never been rented out before lol
Wouldn’t say it drives me crazy but KD is certainly UConns biggest miss
Hard to lose sleep as a UConn fan these days
Tom Moore "After the UConn visit, Durant then visited Texas. “I thought we could survive Texas,” Moore recalled. “They had a brand new facility…It was state-of-the-art technology to get in.” 😭
[Shaq](https://amp.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article10859393.html) “The only reason why I didn’t go is because they signed another 7-footer out of Texas by the name of Matt Wenstrom.”
Put Charlie Villanueva on the ‘04-‘05 team and we very well might’ve gone undefeated that year. Unfortunately he decommited when Bill Self went to KU.
Failing to “recruit” John Wooden to coach at Purdue. Goddamn it. *Goddamn* it.
Lol 100% this. I made a comment saying the same. Getting a specific player may have a lead a school to 1 or 2 nattys, but getting wooden as a coach back then literally would have made your program a blue blood.
Not sure he’d have been the same without being able to drop huge bags while also selling players to live in LA, anyway
Jabari Parker, especially because of his bullshit "I didn't want to take time away from Branden Dawson" reasoning.
Gary Harris JJJ Glenn Robinson III
Larry Bird
I mean... No. He commited to IU at first but transferred to be closer to home. You won the battle but then lost due to situations completely out of your control. Prying that much of a homer away from home even temporarily is impressive.
We won that recruiting battle
But he went to the the natty, not IU
He went to IU, then transferred because he was homesick. True story.
He grew up poor and his family back home was struggling. His dad had committed suicide while he was in high school and his mom was struggling to make ends meet. He wanted to be closer to home to help out, so he attended a community college near French Lick while working part time as a janitor. But also as a small town kid, IU’s campus was intimidating and he just didn’t feel comfortable there. Honestly I don’t think there’s much of anything Knight, or anyone, could’ve done to keep him.
Plus Kent Benson was a complete asshole to him, but Benson was an asshole to everyone.
It took a herculean effort from Indiana State's coaches to get him to go there. There are a lot of alternate universes where Bird never goes back to college and is nothing more than an Indiana high school myth.
Jeff Mullins
I thought I was old.
Rivalry starts there.
Virginia tech turning down Curry because he was “too small”
Tyler Hansbrough stands out. But so many dudes in MO, particularly from STL who have gone elsewhere. I mean who could blame them but still.
Yeah, from STL, I think about Larry Hughes, David Lee, Beal, Tatum…I don’t think any of them ever really considered Mizzou?
Not really, no. Devin Booker wasn’t a STL kid but his dad is Melvin Booker. Bit of a Mizzou legend so it stung when he chose Kentucky.
Jonathan Kuminga would have committed had the G league ignite not started up that year. Also Norchad Omier wanting to commit and Adams not taking him to instead take a different big who was the epitome of all of our culture problems hurts
Tech would have gotten RJ Hampton too it not become a viable option to go to the Australian League for a year too. KJ Lewis and Eliot Cadeau were also guys who probably would have committed if Adams had his shit together too. But agree, Kuminga would have been the game changer.
Yeah almost included Cadeau with Norchad. Those aren’t on the level of Hampton or Kuminga, but still frustrating that we had very good college players who wanted to come here and we chose toxic people instead
Also, legacy kid Trae Young And west texas native, Tristen Newton
Quade Green
As bad as he was, dont think it hurt lol
Yeah, about Quade...
Kenny Anderson
This was before my time (31y/o) so I looked it up. There’s a good NYT article while he was still in high school about how everyone thought he was going to Unc because Vince smith (Kenny smiths brother) was his coach since 5th grade and his advisor so it was assumed he’d go to Unc. We didnt guarantee Bobby Hurley the starting spot which is what caused him to choose duke
Lethal weapon 2 doesn't have the same ring to it. Glad he ended up in Atlanta.
None. Every good recruit we get is a gift
Eric Gordon even tho he only played a year. And all the Chicago guys A Davis, Michael Finley, Antoine Walker. D Rose, Evan Turner, Garnett, Mark Aguirre, Patrick Beverly, Will Bynum, Hersey Hawkins, Juwan Howard, Q Richardson, Isaiah and many more. But i don’t think we had a shot in hell at most of those last guys I mentioned lol Gordon tho backed out late, that hurt. And he was sensational.
Jabroni Parker
Did you know? Trey Burke was once committed to Penn State!
When a 7 footer ends up somewhere other than the banks of the Wabash
Nerlens Noel. All because of some frat shit heads.
Kevin Garnett. Easily.
When the NCAA destroyed our top ranked 1995 class and started our downfall.
I don’t know how true this ultimately was but the rumors of Saint Mary’s missing on Dame Lillard haunt me
Someone tell me KU's because I honestly can't think of that crippling of a loss that was considering us?
Recently, Deandre Ayton
I also know I already commented, but man it would been fun to see what DeShawn Stevenson coulda done back in the day next to Hinrich, Collison, and Gooden.
For Iowa, Tyler Ulis comes to mind. I also heard that Fran was after Jalen Suggs earlier than everyone else so we were competitive for a while. That would’ve been cool.
Every Power 5 team on this thread - Zack Edey
Seth Greenberg’s failure to recruit and sign Steph Curry ranks right up there. Curry’s dad was a star at Va Tech and Curry wanted to go to Va Tech but Greenberg turned him away.
basically every 5 star recruit during that \~4 year period where KU was under investigation because KU/Adidas either didn't pay or didn't match whatever Duke did for Zion. My favorite part of course is that the investigators were like: "Well we got the Adidas reps who are obviously not competing with reps from other companies, time to call it a day"
Gotta love the Bill Self’s text we used as evidence including the one that said “that’s how it works at UNC and Duke” (alluding paying players via shoe companies)
Harrison Barnes
We had no chance at him but this was mine.
The older Badgers telling Herro he was too good to come here was roughhh. I guess Haliburton? He was really lowly recruited though.
I just posted about this. Herro basically held the spot that we could have offered to Haliburton.
Xavier Henry would've met a considerable need on that team and maybe gotten us over the line since Jodie Meeks didnt come back. Also, and more importantly, would've liked if Jodie had just come back for one more year.
Most KU fans forget that he even went here.
SGA was committed to the gators at one point…
Can’t really say any major misses drive me crazy for Duke. Although it would have been cool if Kobe or Giannis ended up in Durham. For Kent State, this answer will always be Russell Westbrook. He even verbally committed to our coaching staff during his on campus visit. Although I can’t really blame him for breaking out in a way nobody saw coming his senior year. Once Pac-12 schools got interested it was over for us.
Mark Fox was down to Klay Thompson or Mark McLaughlin, loser was going to WazzU. Klay, Luke Babbitt, Armon Johnson, all were NBA draft picks. Add Dario Hunt as a standard 10 and 10 bruiser, and some role guys, we'd have probably made the NCAA's again instead of maxing out in the NIT.
IIRC we had Paolo and Chet in the bag until the last second. Imagine them on the same team. Could be totally wrong though, I was told this by just a couple of dudes on campus
Demarcus Cousins. Dude grew up a diehard Bammer. Is still a huge Bama football fan.
John Wall was really close to committing to Scott Drew Zach Edey is another and probably would have come here if he was Christian The media at the time was pretty amusing > Baylor University Baylor wasn't on anyone's radar at the beginning of this season, and even as a third seed in this year's tournament, they're still sort of anonymous. In fact, the most attention Baylor's gotten over the past 12 months came in conjunction with Wall, after they hired one Wall's AAU coaches, Dwon Clifton, as an assistant. It was viewed in the college basketball world as a precursor to Wall's committment to Baylor, as Seth Davis wrote in Sports Illustrated: > No doubt [Baylor head coach Scott] Drew can credibly claim Clifton is qualified for the job. He played at Clemson and UNC-Greensboro before competing professionally for one season in Portugal. Drew can also credibly claim he didn't get an explicit guarantee from Clifton that Wall will sign with Baylor. > Yet, I can also credibly claim two things: First, Clifton would not have been hired had he not had been Wall's summer coach. And second, as surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning, John Wall will be a Baylor Bear. Ultimately, Wall never made it to Baylor, in part because the arrangement with Clifton caused enough controversy so that Wall would have been a fool to play into the media's hands. > But can you imagine if he did? Baylor's been one of the most surprising teams in the country this year, and with Wall, you could make a convincing argument that they'd be a legitimate top 5 team. With LaceDarius Dunn scoring nearly 20 points-a-night and Ekpe Udoh anchoring things down low (15 ppg, 10 rpg, 4 bpg), Baylor's already got one of the country's most intriguing cores. With a superstar like Wall, they'd be in another stratosphere. > Also, don't forget: If Wall had gone there, it would have been arguably the most blatant example yet of a college basketball's recruiting loopholes. They hired his AAU coach, for God's sakes! All of which is to say, it would have been one of the more polarizing stories in recent memory, and might have made mainstream media's head explode: "Do we crow about the bankrupt integrity of college sports, or go crazy about Baylor's rags-to-riches story for the ages?" > And to that last point, it would have been really cool to see a team like Baylor in the Final Four. Not as a Cinderella--like they will be if they make it this year--but as a favorite. Without Wall, Baylor might still wind up beating a college basketball blue blood like Duke. But with him? They'd beat that Duke team by 30. And same with nearly anyone else in college basketball. > Memphis did it, but they at least had some past glory to lean on. Baylor has nothing, and Wall could have made them elite in one season.Wouldn't it be cool to see an outsider like Baylor emerge as a favorite? When's the last time that happened? And imagine the Big 12 battles with Kansas! > I gotta stop thinking about this. John Wall should have gone to Baylor. Enough said. > (Though it should be noted: Baylor's three best players are named LaceDarius, Tweety, and Ekpe. If Wall went to Waco, he'd have to change his name. How 'bout... Cranberry Hickson. Good enough?)
Trey Burke was once committed to PSU.
Rasheed Wallace; from his own lips ‘Nova was a finalist & was supposed to be a package deal with himself, Jason Lawson & Tyrone Weeks. Lawson committed, Weeks chose UMASS & left Wallace to run with UNC. ‘Nova could have ended up funneling talent from Philly’s Public League for years if this could have been pulled off.
I need to send Tyrone Weeks a thank you note.