Players to target

The only time CMA's teams have been young was this season.  His teams are usually senior/junior laden and he typical always had 2+ JUCO's and at least 1 transfer that sits out and develops.

The reason the team was so young this year is because of a unexpected transfer in the 2nd best returning player, and because the Arkansas 2018 in-state class was so deep, he had to make sure to get them all.  They all played on the same AAU Team (Arkansas Hawks).  Arkansas landed their entire starting lineup which featured Reggie Perry, who grew up in Arkansas, and was a McDonald-All American.  Reggie decommitted late in his senior year after an Adidas camp trip to Italy, and shortly after committed to an Adidas school in Miss St... read into that what you will.

Arkansas also had a player in Khalil Garland who was a 4-star ESPN Top 100 player come in the 2017 class, who still hasn't gotten medically cleared to play, who was suppose to be a major impact guy, they let him stay on scholarship hoping he'd get cleared the following year and it never happened. So, all those things are what lead to him not having a typical Mike Anderson team last year. 

Seems like Mike Anderson almost always has a competitive season. What you described with injuries, transfers and other schools stealing recruits sounds like what we’ve been through with Mullin for four years.

These things happen at just about every school, but here it’s all we know year in, year out.

Borman's entire value is serving as a pied piper for the NY Rens kids. As a DOBO, those kids wouldn't be able to follow him -- he has to be a top three assistant. 

Cleveland is looking for a head coaching gig so I doubt he'd take a DOBO position. 
The best scenario is Watkins coming in as a Gene Keady special adviser role.

Briefly looking over the rosters Anderson had a Arkansas...it doesn't appear like he utilized transfers.  I find that odd with his style relying so much on depth and how young some of his teams have been.

I think the transfer game is the key to success here. None of our staffs have been able to finish off a roster since Jarvis and it has wasted some very solid cores. I'd rather not see 6+ transfers, but 3-4 seems almost necessary.  Hsu is the kind of guy that can make that happen. IMO with all biases aside, HSU would make or break MA's career at St. John's.  You need a guy like him.

Jarvis inherited a great roster and finished off nothing.

Borman's entire value is serving as a pied piper for the NY Rens kids. As a DOBO, those kids wouldn't be able to follow him -- he has to be a top three assistant. 

Cleveland is looking for a head coaching gig so I doubt he'd take a DOBO position. 
The best scenario is Watkins coming in as a Gene Keady special adviser role.

Briefly looking over the rosters Anderson had a Arkansas...it doesn't appear like he utilized transfers.  I find that odd with his style relying so much on depth and how young some of his teams have been.

I think the transfer game is the key to success here. None of our staffs have been able to finish off a roster since Jarvis and it has wasted some very solid cores. I'd rather not see 6+ transfers, but 3-4 seems almost necessary.  Hsu is the kind of guy that can make that happen. IMO with all biases aside, HSU would make or break MA's career at St. John's.  You need a guy like him.

A little confused about people on here talking about Hsu being a done deal (not you, but others), saying things like "when Hsu comes here".

One of the things we've heard about Anderson is that he runs a clean program.  Given Hsu's history at Binghamton (excuses or not), is that really a guy he wants on his staff?  Unless of course the guy was hired knowing he had no say on his assistants...which I don't think is typical.

A little confused about people on here talking about Hsu being a done deal (not you, but others), saying things like "when Hsu comes here".

One of the things we've heard about Anderson is that he runs a clean program.  Given Hsu's history at Binghamton (excuses or not), is that really a guy he wants on his staff?  Unless of course the guy was hired knowing he had no say on his assistants...which I don't think is typical.

Hsu has been cleared of everything. Assistant coaches do what they are told...they don’t go rogue and break rules and/or laws.

Hsu has been cleared of everything. Assistant coaches do what they are told...they don’t go rogue and break rules and/or laws.

Then why do you blame Matt for everything and absolve your boy Mullin in the composition of the roster?

Then why do you blame Matt for everything and absolve your boy Mullin in the composition of the roster?

Believe me Matt was no choir boy and that is well known. My issues with Matt are the way he self-promoted at the expense of others, the tension he created on the staff (not just here either), and his general incompetence with talent assessment and anything rated to the sport of basketball. 

Mullin deserves some criticism for entrusting all of the recruiting to Matt and for not backing Slice.

Then why do you blame Matt for everything and absolve your boy Mullin in the composition of the roster?

And I will just add comparing Matt in any way to Hsu is disrespectful. I doubt Matt could even diagram a flex with a gun to his head. Hsu could out-recruit him with his eyes closed, assess talent properly, and both develop and coach the talent on a high d-1 head coach level.

I think we have a good shot at this Hamlet kid

And I will just add comparing Matt in any way to Hsu is disrespectful. I doubt Matt could even diagram a flex with a gun to his head. Hsu could out-recruit him with his eyes closed, assess talent properly, and both develop and coach the talent on a high d-1 head coach level.

Just curious, if Hsu is an awesome recruiter, why hasn't he been at bigger programs so far? Also, I think Western Kentucky just picked up a 4 start recruit this past weekend. Not sure that was because of Hsu.

I think we have a good shot at this Hamlet kid

To be or not to be ... that is the question ...

Just curious, if Hsu is an awesome recruiter, why hasn't he been at bigger programs so far? Also, I think Western Kentucky just picked up a 4 start recruit this past weekend. Not sure that was because of Hsu.

He has been hurt by being linked to two programs that were caught cheating. He’d be a head coach if not for that.

What he’s done at WKU is mind-boggling. WKU is my second team and I’ve posted for years on here about their rich history, but that was done with lesser players. He’s got them listed with 4 and 5 stars and he’s involved with high level transfers.

Everyone loves this guy. He’s hysterical. And nobody is more connected to the prep/JUCO/transfer markets. We need that creativity here. I think Arkansas will see the difference that approach makes with Musselman being a big transfer guy.

For those that are against transfers, the problem we had here is that Matt doesn’t know anything about basketball and couldn’t assess talent well.

I take no position or another on this- this is more just a question. I see it talked often on here- Matt's a traitor, Rat Matt, he is the source to Zach, he caused Slice exit etc.

1. How do we know he was Zach's source? Never liked Zach but could he have not got info other ways.

2. The Slice dilemma clearly the two were not compatible but does that not just go to the heart of Mullins issues? Failing to have an environment where 1 has a limit to amount of transfer offers and the other the limit to HS offers. How do we know Matt himself forced out Slice?

3. Locker room- how do we know he caused those issues?

From what I have seen on here its like we all just accept those facts and I am just trying to grasp where this all came from. It just seems silly that a an alum and former manager here would want to damage his own alma mater program during his tenure here. While I do not like the transfer only philosophy this other extra stuff just leaves me confused.

I take no position or another on this- this is more just a question. I see it talked often on here- Matt's a traitor, Rat Matt, he is the source to Zach, he caused Slice exit etc.

1. How do we know he was Zach's source? Never liked Zach but could he have not got info other ways.

2. The Slice dilemma clearly the two were not compatible but does that not just go to the heart of Mullins issues? Failing to have an environment where 1 has a limit to amount of transfer offers and the other the limit to HS offers. How do we know Matt himself forced out Slice?

3. Locker room- how do we know he caused those issues?

From what I have seen on here its like we all just accept those facts and I am just trying to grasp where this all came from. It just seems silly that a an alum and former manager here would want to damage his own alma mater program during his tenure here. While I do not like the transfer only philosophy this other extra stuff just leaves me confused.

Matt caused big problems at Iowa St. as well. Him being Zach’s source is so well known that it’s difficult to even explain.

Common sense will tell you that when one assistant is being cited for credit and his whereabouts are consistently updated while the rest of the staff isn’t mentioned there is something going on. Slice is a worker. Nobody will ever tell you different. He goes to basketball events socially when he’s not paid for it. He’s old school and doesn’t run to beat reporters and posters for credit.

Matt mistakenly gets credit from some here for the recruiting at Iowa State. His role was much smaller there. There is a reason he has never and will be never move up from a recruiter role. He’ll never be a first assistant or associate head coach. He has to hitch his wagon to a coach and be a lap dog. When someone threatens his only value by trying to recruit he gets jealous and goes game of thrones. He’s like a less wise Varys.

I give him credit for his creativity in recruiting and his hard work. He’s a basketball fan. Hsu is a basketball man.

He’s a basketball fan. Hsu is a basketball man.

Ha, I like this quote. Hopefully this dude joins the staff shortly.

I also like Hsu. What are his chances of joining the staff.

Matt caused big problems at Iowa St. as well. Him being Zach’s source is so well known that it’s difficult to even explain.

Common sense will tell you that when one assistant is being cited for credit and his whereabouts are consistently updated while the rest of the staff isn’t mentioned there is something going on. Slice is a worker. Nobody will ever tell you different. He goes to basketball events socially when he’s not paid for it. He’s old school and doesn’t run to beat reporters and posters for credit.

Matt mistakenly gets credit from some here for the recruiting at Iowa State. His role was much smaller there. There is a reason he has never and will be never move up from a recruiter role. He’ll never be a first assistant or associate head coach. He has to hitch his wagon to a coach and be a lap dog. When someone threatens his only value by trying to recruit he gets jealous and goes game of thrones. He’s like a less wise Varys.

I give him credit for his creativity in recruiting and his hard work. He’s a basketball fan. Hsu is a basketball man.

Not even trying to defend Matt but 2 of your statements make no sense. So Matt caused problems at Iowa St.? Then why did Hoiberg hire him again before the ink was even dried on his own contract at Nebraska? And we knew Matt's whereabouts and no one else's why-because Matt would tweet (in addition to Zach's tweets) and the other lame coaches were never out on the recruiting trail.

Not even trying to defend Matt but 2 of your statements make no sense. So Matt caused problems at Iowa St.? Then why did Hoiberg hire him again before the ink was even dried on his own contract at Nebraska? And we knew Matt's whereabouts and no one else's why-because Matt would tweet (in addition to Zach's tweets) and the other lame coaches were never out on the recruiting trail.

Hoiberg loves him...he’s a loyal lap dog. His career depends on keeping the coach happy and making himself appear to be indespenaible. The problem there (and here) was with his fellow assistants and some knowledgeable fans and admins. When Hoiberg moves back to Iowa St. I don’t think Matt will be welcome to join him.

As for your mention of tweets...that’s clearly not what I was referring to. Let him tweet his miniature little hot dog fingers off. It’s the “recruitment being headed up by Matt Abdelmassih” crap in article after article that rubs people like me and MANY others the wrong way. Slice doesn’t operate like that—neither did any of our other staff members. Matt had a network of people to disseminate his info through. Mullin is not blameless in this, but Matt is a little trickster that batted his eyes and made master happy.

Once Matt left with his booster seat Zach couldn’t buy a scoop!