districtballer
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Why has that been the case in the past?
Exhibit A- Columns like this one from Mitch Vingle at the Charleston Gazette:
http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/wv/2010/19/articles/charleston_gazette_w_va_mitch_vingle_column.html
When everybody expects you to go to big name school if you're good, it's tough to disappoint family and friends if you're leaning towards playing for a successful mid-major. How good you are in high school is often equated with where you go to college. While Vingle's column is tough to digest as a Ram fan, it does capture the pulse of what it is to be a mid-major fighting for relevancy among power conferences in vying for a quality recruits' services. It makes what Shaka and company are doing all the more impressive as a coaching staff.
Sometimes you are able to find one player that might not care, but Shaka have found several. Reco McCarter, Juvonte Reddic, Darrell Haley, and Pierria' Henry all had offers from power conference programs and yet chose VCU. That is pretty remarkable in itself as if you look back, the only such high school recruit during the Grant era that fit that description (picking VCU over offers from power conference schools) was Ed Nixon. Think about that for a second. For all the ooh-ing and aah-ing we did over our recruits during that period, only Ed ever had offers from a big conference school (Georgia and VTech). Joey, Lance, Myk, Larry, Brandon, Bradford Burgess, and Terrance Saintil all had mid-major offers.
Shaka is stepping it up big time. While we had one high school recruit in the 3 years of the Grant era choose VCU over an offer from a BCS school, Shaka has already had 4 in his first year on the job. Pretty remarkable.
Exhibit A- Columns like this one from Mitch Vingle at the Charleston Gazette:
http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/wv/2010/19/articles/charleston_gazette_w_va_mitch_vingle_column.html
When everybody expects you to go to big name school if you're good, it's tough to disappoint family and friends if you're leaning towards playing for a successful mid-major. How good you are in high school is often equated with where you go to college. While Vingle's column is tough to digest as a Ram fan, it does capture the pulse of what it is to be a mid-major fighting for relevancy among power conferences in vying for a quality recruits' services. It makes what Shaka and company are doing all the more impressive as a coaching staff.
Sometimes you are able to find one player that might not care, but Shaka have found several. Reco McCarter, Juvonte Reddic, Darrell Haley, and Pierria' Henry all had offers from power conference programs and yet chose VCU. That is pretty remarkable in itself as if you look back, the only such high school recruit during the Grant era that fit that description (picking VCU over offers from power conference schools) was Ed Nixon. Think about that for a second. For all the ooh-ing and aah-ing we did over our recruits during that period, only Ed ever had offers from a big conference school (Georgia and VTech). Joey, Lance, Myk, Larry, Brandon, Bradford Burgess, and Terrance Saintil all had mid-major offers.
Shaka is stepping it up big time. While we had one high school recruit in the 3 years of the Grant era choose VCU over an offer from a BCS school, Shaka has already had 4 in his first year on the job. Pretty remarkable.
