Is Football easier to recruit than BB in FL?

[Bull Matrix]

Not sure that I would want USF to do it the UF way. Isnt Billy close to getting the NCAA to investigate their program for too many benefits to the players?? Anway, Miami is a better blueprint to follow because they were in the BIG EAST and had some success. They made the sweet 16 around the year 2000 I believe. The thing about basketball is that you dont have to recruit the best players to have a success year. Making the BIG DANCE would be a very success year for USF. Hell, I will take a bid to the NIT right now. I truley believe the BIG EAST and renovating the SUN DOME will help big time.

[WoolyBully]

Geography & conference affiliation has a lot to do with it. Growing up in North Carolina, football is entertaining, but the real meat-n-potatoes is basketball. All ACC - All The Time -  and it filters down to high school.  

Just look at what the ACC was like, pre-expansion. Before FSU('91), the ACC had no real football interest. Then, when FSU joined the ACC,  it was FSU in football and pick 'em for everyone else, with the exception of Wake Forest & Duke who reserved last place for many long years. However, once we flip to the hardwood, it was the inverse...'payback' for lopsided football scores was heaped upon FSU.  Duke, Wake, Carolina...they garner interest not just from the Carolinas, but from across the US.

For me...it's not a matter of getting top ten recruits. I'd be happy making it past the first  round of the conference tournament.  And until such time as we consistently have winning seasons and see NCAA appearances, we will not be garnering the blue-chips.  The Dean Dome or the Sun Dome. Not too hard to piece that one together....

[beastiebull]

It's strange too me for some reason.  There are basketball courts every where.  You can play this year round and don't even have to find all of your friends to play.  You would think we would have a ton of talent to go around.

I do notice here that there are not a lot of BB camps for middle school and h.s. players.  At least I don't see them.  In Chi-town where I used to live, there were camps all year round all over the place.  The camps had a strong marketing campaign by the organization and the city itself.  Both inner-city and the suburbs.

Shoot Surch, you're from FL, what's your excuse for not being able to ball then??  I recall schooling you outside of the dorms on several occassions!!   ;D  Just kidding brother.

[wagers]

Folks, there are a ton of great high school basketball players in Florida.  Look at the best players on NBA rosters....where are they from??  Florida is not middle of the road by any means in basketball.  It is more like top 5 in terms of talent.  

Look at some of the top college teams in the country.....Okla State, UCONN, Illinois, North Carolina.....they all have kids from Florida.

It's just recruiting them here at USF is tough, b/c nobody wanted to buy into CUSA.  Now with the Big East here.....they won't be such a tough sell anymore.

Also, the Sun Dome is not bad at all.   It actually compares favorably to the All-State Center in Chicago where DePaul plays.

Additionally, there are tons of high school and middle school camps here.....just look in the papers and they are advertised in early summer.

High school ball in Florida......each X-Mas there are some of the best high school tourneys around and they bring in the best teams in the country......Hooter's Tourney in St. Pete.....Kingdom of the Sun in Ocala.....City of Palms in Fort Meyers.....Kruel Classic in Ft. Lauderdale.    Many of the top teams in the country go home with losses to even just good Florida teams in these games.  People on this board attend many of these games.  You just have to check them out for yourself.

[Guest wildrover]

My one problem with the CUSA argument is that teams like Louiville, Cincy, Marquette even UAB (made sweet 16 last year) are all top tier teams and all are in CUSA.  I think recruits from Florida just never buy into USF regardless of the confernce they are in.  

[goodknightfl]

much easier to recruit fb... in fla... Fla is a football state... and bb players know that.. and want to go play where their sport is bigger... Ie kentucky, indiana, NC. or the ne usa.

[Markeymark]

My one problem with the CUSA argument is that teams like Louiville, Cincy, Marquette even UAB (made sweet 16 last year) are all top tier teams and all are in CUSA.  I think recruits from Florida just never buy into USF regardless of the confernce they are in.  

But all of those schools you mention have tradition...Cincinnati with Oscar Robertson, Louisville under Denny Crum, Marquette and Al McGuire, and UAB under Gene Bartow were all successful teams at the highest level of play. Contrast that with other CUSA schools like Southern Miss or Tulane, which don't have a great deal of tradition and seem to be about on the same level as USF.

Also, somebody mentioned UF coming out of nowhere which isn't exactly true - they went to a Final Four in the early 90's before lapsing into obscurity for several years before they hired Donovan.

[Supersurch]

Shoot Surch, you're from FL, what's your excuse for not being able to ball then??  I recall schooling you outside of the dorms on several occassions!!   ;D  Just kidding brother.

What do you mean, Lefty Lou?  All I had to do was force you to your right side, man.  LOL.  

Next time we meet, we need to play again.  But this time we'll go up to two points as opposed to eleven.  I'm hitting 31 in March.

[Supersurch]

 

Look at some of the top college teams in the country.....Okla State, UCONN, Illinois, North Carolina.....they all have kids from Florida.

It's just recruiting them here at USF is tough, b/c nobody wanted to buy into CUSA.  Now with the Big East here.....they won't be such a tough sell anymore.

Those schools you listed are in a class of their own.  They and others in that elite class take almost all of our four and five star recruits.  We then battle many other state schools for the leftovers.  UF gets a lot of their studs out of state.  

And yes, going into the BE will improve recruiting.  But I'm sure it's going to take a long time, five years at best.  During that time we're still going to be picking leftovers.  Being in a great conference means something, but not everything.  Look at Virginia Tech (ACC), Ruthgers (BE), Vanderbilt (SEC), Baylor (B12), ASU (Pac10).  Sure, maybe a success story here or there.  But a dynasty?  Unlikely.

[Bull Matrix]

UF, FSU, and Miami have had success in college basketball. FSU went to the elite eight with Coach Kennedy. UF went to the final four with Lon Kruger (McCullum was an assistant at the time). Miami went to the sweet sixteen under Coach Hamilton. So please, it is not impossible to have some sucess. I think a so-called basketball school like Memphis would kill to do what Miami did in 2000.