Severe Lack Of Marquette Recruiting Coverage

[TedBaxter]

It's almost comical that none of the Marquette fan websites nor the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had anything to write about during the July evaluation period.  Nothing. If not for posters looking up articles or looking at twitter accounts for coverage, nobody would know who MU watched this July.

In contrast, the Rivals site for Wisconsin, BadgerBlitz, has stories and videos of potential Badger recruits from Wisconsin AAU tournaments.  I know Wisconsin tends to be more Midwest driven in it's recruiting and they are to the point where they are focused on one or two players, but to have ZERO coverage for Marquette is an absolute joke.

You could argue that two of the top 10 July AAU events took place at Mequon's Homestead High School.  If you took the Nike Lebron Camp, the Adidas Invitational, the Reebok event, the Nike Peach Jam, the two tournaments in Las Vegas, the two in Orlando and the Best of Summer in Anaheim, the two NY2LA events were as good as any of the rest that occurred and were definitely in the top 12, yet there was not one writeup except for a Marquette student who wrote up a report for another website or Mark Miller writing about Wisconsin kids.

If you are a recruit participating in the NY2LA tournaments and McGary was one of the players who participated, do you wonder how much of a draw Marquette basketball is when there is no local coverage in the newspaper and none of the fan websites covers it?

Sad and the Journal-Sentinel is wondering why people are buying newspapers and others wonder why people complain about subscription sites.

[GGGG]

According to the "other board," they count 29 outstanding offers.  From now until September 9 is a "quiet period," with officials and in-home visits beginning afterwards.  My guess is that Buzz and crew are going to narrow that 29 down, and have it further narrowed down for them, and we will be hearing quite a bit when fall begins.

[Golden Avalanche]

It's almost comical that none of the Marquette fan websites nor the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had anything to write about during the July evaluation period.  Nothing. If not for posters looking up articles or looking at twitter accounts for coverage, nobody would know who MU watched this July.

In contrast, the Rivals site for Wisconsin, BadgerBlitz, has stories and videos of potential Badger recruits from Wisconsin AAU tournaments.  I know Wisconsin tends to be more Midwest driven in it's recruiting and they are to the point where they are focused on one or two players, but to have ZERO coverage for Marquette is an absolute joke.

You could argue that two of the top 10 July AAU events took place at Mequon's Homestead High School.  If you took the Nike Lebron Camp, the Adidas Invitational, the Reebok event, the Nike Peach Jam, the two tournaments in Las Vegas, the two in Orlando and the Best of Summer in Anaheim, the two NY2LA events were as good as any of the rest that occurred and were definitely in the top 12, yet there was not one writeup except for a Marquette student who wrote up a report for another website or Mark Miller writing about Wisconsin kids.

If you are a recruit participating in the NY2LA tournaments and McGary was one of the players who participated, do you wonder how much of a draw Marquette basketball is when there is no local coverage in the newspaper and none of the fan websites covers it?

Sad and the Journal-Sentinel is wondering why people are buying newspapers and others wonder why people complain about subscription sites.

If July was quiet, it was for a reason.

I saw plenty of mentions of our Big East brethren both in recruiting interest articles and recruit commitment articles. Some programs are just flat out getting it done. Others are seemingly preoccupied by issues that remain fresh in their origin. Hell, even UConn seems to be handling their dysfunction better than us.

Truthfully, about a week ago, I had assumed we were done with 2012 since there's nary been a peep on any recruit committing to the MU program this summer. Could be worse though: could be last summer when we missed on the 'high five'.

[GGGG]

MU didn't land its first recruit for 2011 until October (Juan).  We already have one for 2012 (Ferguson) plus a transfer (Taylor).  With only two scholies left, I think it is a little early for us to be worried about "getting it done."

[MUMac]

If July was quiet, it was for a reason.

I saw plenty of mentions of our Big East brethren both in recruiting interest articles and recruit commitment articles. Some programs are just flat out getting it done. Others are seemingly preoccupied by issues that remain fresh in their origin. Hell, even UConn seems to be handling their dysfunction better than us.

Truthfully, about a week ago, I had assumed we were done with 2012 since there's nary been a peep on any recruit committing to the MU program this summer. Could be worse though: could be last summer when we missed on the 'high five'.

Don't quite understand your comments.  It was well known that Buzz was in Vegas recruiting.  He and the staff have been around the country.  Because we do not have articles, that means the staff is not getting it done?  Logic 101 failed you.

The original post by Ted is that the MU sites and local press do not cover MU recruiting the way other sites for other programs do.  We do not see articles on recruits that are of MU interest on any site.  As Ted mentioned, 2 of the bigger tournies were in our backyard, yet no coverage.  Everyone see's the links to other website's programs, none seem to come from a MU based site.  That was his point.

[Skatastrophy]

There are plenty of articles about Marquette recruiting if you look around.  I don't bother to post them because I don't find it interesting to discuss potential recruits that are listing 10-20 programs that they supposedly have offers from.  If you want articles about kids mentioning Marquette, there are plenty of them out there.

[brewcity77]

Hmm...I don't think it's been any quieter than usual. We're still being regularly linked with Steve Taylor, Shaquille Cleare, Kris Dunn, and Mitch McGary. New names, like Buddy Hield, Zena Edosomwan, Terry Brutus and Zach Auguste are being mentioned with us frequently. And future stars like Kevon Looney and Tyus Jones are mentioning us as having made offers for as far out as 2014.

The quiet period has officially started, hopefully we'll get some guys on campus for unofficial visits, then get those last two 2012 scholarships filled by October. My bet is that within three months, we'll have a much clearer picture of our 2012 recruiting class.

[Warrior Forever]

I could not agree more.  That's the problem when there is a lack of competition.  The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is the only game in town.  Therefore, there is no real incentive to make big effort on the Marquette beat.

Todd Rosiak does a nice job during the season, but once it ends, the coverage disappears.  Rarely do you see a story about a potential recruiting, etc.  Journalism has gotten lazier over the last 10 years.  That's why you've seen such a rise in sites such as this one.

[nyg]

What does Rosiak do the other six months of the year?

[GGGG]

You have it wrong. The rise of info on the internet has caused newspapers to struggle. Not vice versa. And MJS knows that an article on MU recruiting has a limited audience and that audience gets their info off the internet anyway. I actually think MJS has improved quite a bit over the last decade. Do you know how bad some newspapers are out there?

Do you think that the philly paper has extended nova coverage this time of year for instance?  (I checked - they don't)

[GGGG]

Rosiak helps out hardricourt on brewers coverage. I think MJS used to have a national baseball reporter who they didn't replace and now hardricourt fills that role partially with rosiak doing some simple game reports. Makes sense since there is little overlap to their seasons.

[NersEllenson]

If July was quiet, it was for a reason.

I saw plenty of mentions of our Big East brethren both in recruiting interest articles and recruit commitment articles. Some programs are just flat out getting it done. Others are seemingly preoccupied by issues that remain fresh in their origin. Hell, even UConn seems to be handling their dysfunction better than us.

Truthfully, about a week ago, I had assumed we were done with 2012 since there's nary been a peep on any recruit committing to the MU program this summer. Could be worse though: could be last summer when we missed on the 'high five'.

And what was the reason July was "quiet" in your opinion?  You do realize that 65% of the Top 100 remain non-committed at this point, right?  Which programs in your expert view are just flat out getting it done? 

The bigger issue could be, that it could be reverting back to what we were in the Tom Crean years - capable of landing 1 good recruiting class only every 4 years - right??  Where our high five list would include maybe 1 five star and 1 4-star, neither of whom would choose us...at least Buzz has been able to land Top 100 kids in 3 straight classes - something his predecessor failed to do.

[Warrior Forever]

You have it wrong. The rise of info on the internet has caused newspapers to struggle. Not vice versa. And MJS knows that an article on MU recruiting has a limited audience and that audience gets their info off the internet anyway. I actually think MJS has improved quite a bit over the last decade. Do you know how bad some newspapers are out there?

Do you think that the philly paper has extended nova coverage this time of year for instance?  (I checked - they don't)

Respect your opinion but couldn't disagree more.  Do most of these sites have any access to Buzz, the administration, fellow reporters, etc?  Of course not.  Most of these sites are pure conjecture.

As for the argument about there not being a big audience, that's a different discussion.  I agree there is not a huge audience for Marquette recruiting but it's the niche stuff that is working today.  Game stories are fading in importance.  The future is in the details.

[ringout]

And what was the reason July was "quiet" in your opinion?  You do realize that 65% of the Top 100 remain non-committed at this point, right?  Which programs in your expert view are just flat out getting it done? 

The bigger issue could be, that it could be reverting back to what we were in the Tom Crean years - capable of landing 1 good recruiting class only every 4 years - right??  Where our high five list would include maybe 1 five star and 1 4-star, neither of whom would choose us...at least Buzz has been able to land Top 100 kids in 3 straight classes - something his predecessor failed to do.

If Hoopaloop chimes in here, we'll know who he is for sure.

[Litehouse]

I'm not a subscriber to the premium board on the other site, and I really don't want to start into a debate whether it's worth it or not (some people obviously feel it's worth it, so great for them).  However, I just assumed that most of the people that had more interest in recruiting info were discussing it there, which left fewer table scraps for the rest of us.

[Boone]

IWB doesn't provide much info anymore on the premium board so subscribers pay for the privilege of sharing info they dig up on the net with each other.

[brewcity77]

IWB doesn't provide much info anymore on the premium board so subscribers pay for the privilege of sharing info they dig up on the net with each other.

Yeah, not sure why. YoungMUFan is good at finding stuff, he clearly does a lot of research, but outside of him, there's really not much there 

[Boone]

Someone recently started a thread there entitled "Why do I pay for this premium forum?"  Given the lack of "insider" info passed along, why indeed?

[NersEllenson]

If Hoopaloop chimes in here, we'll know who he is for sure.

LOL - I was setting a trap..you gave it away now!  Golden Avalanche is about is negative as they come on Buzz, yet very supportive of Crean...so just as he wants to tweak those of us with his normal pessimistic posts on Buzz's recruiting...I feel compelled to tweak back with pointing out his guy Crean wasn't exactly a home run hitter on the recruiting trail EVERY YEAR at MU.  Ultimately I'm sure this is why he left, as he struck out so much, and felt going to IU would make his home run rate improve...which it has.  Recruiting to MU isn't as easy as many of us alum/fans would like to think/hope.

[ringout]

LOL - I was setting a trap..you gave it away now!  Golden Avalanche is about is negative as they come on Buzz, yet very supportive of Crean...so just as he wants to tweak those of us with his normal pessimistic posts on Buzz's recruiting...I feel compelled to tweak back with pointing out his guy Crean wasn't exactly a home run hitter on the recruiting trail EVERY YEAR at MU.  Ultimately I'm sure this is why he left, as he struck out so much, and felt going to IU would make his home run rate improve...which it has.  Recruiting to MU isn't as easy as many of us alum/fans would like to think/hope.

Sorry man.

[NersEllenson]

Sorry man.

No worries..was just kidding...but your analysis was astute!

[GGGG]

Respect your opinion but couldn't disagree more.  Do most of these sites have any access to Buzz, the administration, fellow reporters, etc?  Of course not.  Most of these sites are pure conjecture.

As for the argument about there not being a big audience, that's a different discussion.  I agree there is not a huge audience for Marquette recruiting but it's the niche stuff that is working today.  Game stories are fading in importance.  The future is in the details.

So, would you subscribe to the print edition of the MJS if they had more in-depth recruiting articles on MU basketball?

[Skatastrophy]

So, would you subscribe to the print edition of the MJS if they had more in-depth recruiting articles on MU basketball?

Right now it would be the only place to get it.  I would definitely... wait for one of you guys to scan it and post the articles to MUScoop? :p

[rocky_warrior]

I'm willing to take next July off if you guys pay for me to fly around the country and write journals on recruits 

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

LOL - I was setting a trap..you gave it away now!  Golden Avalanche is about is negative as they come on Buzz, yet very supportive of Crean...so just as he wants to tweak those of us with his normal pessimistic posts on Buzz's recruiting...I feel compelled to tweak back with pointing out his guy Crean wasn't exactly a home run hitter on the recruiting trail EVERY YEAR at MU.  Ultimately I'm sure this is why he left, as he struck out so much, and felt going to IU would make his home run rate improve...which it has.  Recruiting to MU isn't as easy as many of us alum/fans would like to think/hope.

Sounds like just the tactic we need to stop all of our threads from degrading into those tired debates of the past.