Many UCLA fans claimed that Lavin was not a good recruiter claiming the name value of UCLA was responsible for his successes. And when several high profile recruits signed with Stanford it was prove that Lavin wasn't much of a recruiter.
In my opinion his first two classes a SJU have establish him as one the best in college basketball. Note without a McDonald AA in the bunch. Man know his business!
Who went to Stamford?
The Collins Twins. Casey Jacobson, Curtis Borchardt, and Josh Childress. Jacobson and Childress were considered the two biggest misses. However, Matt Barnes and Jason Kapono were signed rather than Jacobson, and Lavin preferred Dijon Thompson over Childress. Dijon fractured his knee at the start of his 2nd NBA season, never came all the way back. His best year at UCLA was 18.4 pts, 7.9 rebs, 2.3 assists his senior year. Childress best at Stanford was 15.7, 7.5, 2.7 his last season there. Barnes just finished his 10th year in the NBA, and Kapono his 9th, after finishing his UCLA career as the 3rd all time leading scorer. Jacobson's been out of the league since 2008.
The Collins twins were problematic - THEY were the recruits at the infamous recruiting dinner that eventually got Jim Harrick fired. Continuing to go after them would have been a huge NCAA issue. Borchardt was a non starter in terms of recruitment - he was a high school senior when 6'11 Gadzuric and 6'11 future lotto Jerome Moiso were freshmen, and center Travis Reed was a soph (Reed transferred after that season, and was the WAC All Conference center for Long Beach State for 2 years, before a GREAT Euro career).