Georgetown? Duke and UK I understand. But Rico has to understand that SJU is building this thing up back to a "big" program once again as well. Those schools all want to play against SJU at MSG. We thrashed teams like Duke, Uconn last season. He has to realize that he'll be competing at the top with a few more pieces here at SJU. Not too many more talented forward combos out there than Harkless and Gathers IMO. Lots of promise here. Gathers can be part of the "big time" future over next few years and earn full-time minutes doing so.
Agree with your entire post, MCN. I've stated above what I think is transpiring with his recruitment.
Yeah, hard to say. He had "big" schools recruiting him before too. Hard to say what is lip service and what isn't. He isn't talking to these schools right now anyway. We'll have a chance to see when his season is over. I still like the fact that he's just concentrating on the season and isn't shopping schools right now. Once he re-assesses in the spring we should have a better idea. He just needs to realize that he'll be a bigger deal here than some of these other places.
I have not doubt that Lavin can sell "big" in many different way: NYC Media Capital of Word; Nationally Televised Games; Big East; MSG; etc.
But at the end of the day, when kids think of big, they don't think about the things i mentioned. They think of consistent winning, NBA, recent program history, NCAAs, etc. None of which we can claim right now. For us it's all about potential, and to be honest, we are a bit of a risk (Lav's health, transfers, uncertainty of BE).
I don't feel good about Gathers anymore :-(