The Riverside kids recruited each other. Artest put the whole thing together himself. Fran should get very little credit. They wanted to stay together and still get PT right away. Solution? Go to a school that's down. St. John's certainly satisfied that requirement, plus they could stay home. No brainer. Fran gets credit for not screwing it up, but that;s all. There was no heavy lifting like the current staff is doing chasing SP, RA, and MH.
The other thing about Fran that bugs me is he seems to get credit for recruiting all the players that made up the elite eight team in 99. Lavorr Postell who was a pretty good NBA player and arguably the best player on that team was recruited by Mahoney. Also, Tyrone Grant, who was the leading rebounder and second leading scorer, was also recruited by Mahoney. Without those two guys, that Jarvis team would have been nothing. So don't give Fran so much credit for the recruiting all the time. It kind of bothers me, because he doesn't really deserve it.