Severe Lack Of Marquette Recruiting Coverage

[LON]

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

What would your crack-head wife say about that?

[downtown85]

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

I'll offer the same deal for European recruits.  You guys can pay me to take a month off to travel around Europe to follow potential international recruits.   

[TedBaxter]

You guys can make fun of it, but the coverage SUCKS!!!

The second July NY2LA event at Homestead High School had 3 of the top 5 rated high school players in the 2012 class in the pre-summer rankings by both Scout and Rivals, including the young man both websites had as the pre-summer #1 player, Shabazz Muhammed and nobody covered it in the Milwaukee press. 

This isn't rocket science and you don't even have to interview the kid at an event.  You could watch who the MU coaches were watching and then talk to the AAU coach either at the event, by phone or by email.  Just a simple article on who the kid is looking at and a few tidbits about recruiting timetable, playing ability, high school season, etc..  Interviewing the AAU coach is how you get around the booster-high school player interraction that the NCAA doesn't like.

[brewcity77]

You guys can make fun of it, but the coverage SUCKS!!!

The second July NY2LA event at Homestead High School had 3 of the top 5 rated high school players in the 2012 class in the pre-summer rankings by both Scout and Rivals, including the young man both websites had as the pre-summer #1 player, Shabazz Muhammed and nobody covered it in the Milwaukee press. 

This isn't rocket science and you don't even have to interview the kid at an event.  You could watch who the MU coaches were watching and then talk to the AAU coach either at the event, by phone or by email.  Just a simple article on who the kid is looking at and a few tidbits about recruiting timetable, playing ability, high school season, etc..  Interviewing the AAU coach is how you get around the booster-high school player interraction that the NCAA doesn't like.

I'm honestly curious...which other local newspapers are you comparing them to? In Atlanta, Las Vegas, and other big cities with AAU events are there local journalists out there? I'm just wondering where the local interest is. Would their target market be interested in a bunch of teenage kids from all over the country playing? If it was a McDonald's All-American game type thing, I could see it, but when you are talking about 30+ teams at one event, I just don't think the local interest is there.

That's what sites like Rivals and Scout are there for, so you have a media outlet that covers it. But they need high subscription fees to offset the costs because there simply aren't enough people out there to get them the advertising dollars it would take to run it for a lower price. Like it or not, I really don't think there's enough local interest to justify local coverage.

[TedBaxter]

I'm not talking extensive coverage even, just a mention of some kind would have been better than nothing.

[GGGG]

Ted....you should actually read the paper then:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/125050944.html

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/125391893.html

[TedBaxter]

Well, I stand corrected that there wasn't a mention.  Thanks.

[Blackhat]

IWB and Mark Miller used to be gold mines back in the Crean days.  Buzz keeps it close to the vest.

Scout pay board is pretty much locals paying to share info with each other. Usually other sites premium info.

Which makes me laugh when they deride a guy for bringing info from scout board to this board.

  scouts coverage usually sucked, Rivals was superior.  If MU had a thriving board at Rivals i'd get an MU sub there because Jerry Meyer has solid info, good national boards.

[Skatastrophy]

IWB and Mark Miller used to be gold mines back in the Crean days.  Buzz keeps it close to the vest.

I totally agree.  Last time I said that "Buzz plays it close to the vest" I had people all over my butt here on the forums.  Maybe they've changed their mind by now?

[Warrior Forever]

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

I would factor that into my decision, absolutely.

[Canadian Dimes]

IWB and Mark Miller used to be gold mines back in the Crean days.  Buzz keeps it close to the vest.

Scout pay board is pretty much locals paying to share info with each other. Usually other sites premium info.

Which makes me laugh when they deride a guy for bringing info from scout board to this board.

  scouts coverage usually sucked, Rivals was superior.  If MU had a thriving board at Rivals i'd get an MU sub there because Jerry Meyer has solid info, good national boards.

What about IWB's more contacts than Bausch and Laumb!!   The Scout board used to tout him as a big outsider and recruiting guru.  His one big claim to fame was driving to Indiana to watch Dominic James after he committed.  $10 a month got all his info.  I think after he realized there was not real money in it he bailed. 

I will agree though that the websites from the bigger school , be it Rivals or scout that have bigger fan bases and bigger subscriptions and revenues do have an advantage.  You cannot deny that when a site moderator calls and interviews a recruit and then there is a big feature on the website it does not help in the whole process.  How much I dont know but a big article and then thousands of posters stating how much they would love having a kid cant hurt that schools chances. 

Georgi Dieng is a decent example of that during his recruitment they were in seemingly constatnt contact with him with Q n A artcicle and tens of thousands of posts about him.  Nothing from the MU boards except people posting info they gathered from the Louisville website.  Is that the single reason why he ultimately chose Louisville?  Probably not but it sure didnt hurt

[Boone]

Pretty sure IWB still has decent contacts, but for whatever reason he rarely makes his scoops public. Just find it funny that people are still willing to subscribe to a board where the members have to do ALL of the heavy lifting.

[bilsu]

You do realize that Buzz talking about who he is recruiting would be a violation. The only information about recruiting can come from players or their high school coaches. There is a reason you see Adam Zongoria list who the players say are recruiting them. He does not list who the coach says he is recruiting. What you do not know is whether Buzz has any serious interest in player A. Buzz may of said hi to player A and sent him some literature, but does Buzz really have any serious interest in that player. Maybe, if the player shows improvement or the top targets are lost. That is why I do not bother to pay for the premium board. MU has two scholarships and I do not need to know all 50 players that Buzz may be recruiting. Let me know when MU is in the player's final 3.

[Boone]

IWB has more contacts than just Buzz, or before him, Crean.

[Blackhat]

They were getting their info from somebody connected as Mark Miller and IWB used to give winks or suggest commits before they happened.   Doesn't happen as often these days.

[Blackhat]

Just wanted to add I respect IWB, he was giving out free info back in the day on the rivals board.  To me that shows he was dedicated to MU and wasn't doing this to swindle MU fans from a dime or two.   

Same reason I have great respect for the guys who own/run this board.

Dodds on the other hand.... what does he even do really? 


Dude never even sent me the all enchanting '77 DVD when I was a subscriber, swindled again.

[muhs03]

The great thing about the insider board is that you pay per month but have no idea whether the product is competitive with other insider boards or not since you likely dont subscribe to other schools. Shortly after I read both UConn and Syracuse's boards through some of my friends, I decided to cancel. FWIW, Scout is about 80% football and 20% bball. They just hired about a dozen attractive girls from different regions to drive around their assigned location and interview football players from 1 star to 5 stars. Then, their articles get tagged to certain school sites. Obviously, there are a lot more fball recruits than there are bball recruits thus more content. UConn's board didnt have their own insider but the top bball guys at scout would post often. At Cuse, they have an insider to their bball program that calls the shots well before the news hits the wire. Just didnt think marquettehoops.com was up to snuff.

[bilsu]

I have thought about this and I am sure it probably would not be a wise move. However, given how the Jouranl Sentinal went after MU's reputation, I would not give them press passes to MU games.

[MUMac]

IWB and Mark Miller used to be gold mines back in the Crean days.  Buzz keeps it close to the vest.

Not sure that I concur that this is the reason for IWB and Mark Miller.  They still have their contacts, just choosing not to report it there as frequently, IMHO.

[brewcity77]

I have thought about this and I am sure it probably would not be a wise move. However, given how the Jouranl Sentinal went after MU's reputation, I would not give them press passes to MU games.

That would just give them more ammunition and more reason to come after us. When Marquette failed to get ahead of the story, the only option was to take the lumps that were coming and let it run its course. Guys like Rosiak still do a good job, and the idiots that take Mike Hunt seriously probably weren't going to be donating money to Marquette any time soon anyway. It's pretty much all blown over now, all we should hear from it in the future is when it comes up as a new AD is hired.

[GGGG]

I have thought about this and I am sure it probably would not be a wise move. However, given how the Jouranl Sentinal went after MU's reputation, I would not give them press passes to MU games.

Not a good move.  As a previous supervisor of mine once said "never pick a fight with a company that buys their ink by the barrel."  You will never win that fight.

[Golden Avalanche]

I totally agree.  Last time I said that "Buzz plays it close to the vest" I had people all over my butt here on the forums.  Maybe they've changed their mind by now?

I don't think "people" were all over your butt.

Pretty sure it was just me who said it's a bullshit statement and then IWB quoted your post and wrote that it wasn't exactly true.

Buzz' top targets were well known last summer and well talked about in this forum. Not sure how that jibes with keeping everything "close to the vest" but I'm sure someone will explain it.

Besides, there is no correlation between the belief that Buzz is more secretive than the FSB and a lack of newspaper articles.

[Skatastrophy]

I don't think "people" were all over your butt.

Please step away from my butt.

[Blackhat]

 when buzz is at tourneys or reporters talk to prospects we know who is considering us.

what i mean by close to the vest is scout isn't getting early leaks on commits, like we did with D James, Mathhews, etc.  I think Cadougan might have been but that was IWB on sportsbubbler.  Guys like Ferguson, R. Smith, D. Gardner we all get confirmation on commits at the same time, free and scout premium.

[IWB]

What about IWB's more contacts than Bausch and Laumb!!   The Scout board used to tout him as a big outsider and recruiting guru.  His one big claim to fame was driving to Indiana to watch Dominic James after he committed.  $10 a month got all his info.  I think after he realized there was not real money in it he bailed. 


Wow - I love it when people take shots at me, especially when they are behind screen names. I usually don't comment in threads like this on any board, but there is a line in here that got me. "His one big claim to fame was driving to Indiana to watch Dominic James". Really? That is my one big claim to fame? No, it wasn't that I watched MU rcruits like Chris Grimm play in Michigan, or Johnny Wolf in Ohio, or Ryan Amoroso in Minnesota, or recruits like Brandon Ewing, Dameon Mason & Jerel McNeal play in Illinois..... couldn't be any of those things. Hell, when the IHSAA decided that Ooze couldn't play in high school, I went down to interview him and watched Simeon play Julian with him.

I had built up a network of high school, college and AAU coaches from coast to coast. I went to AAU tourneys and high school games, open gyms and individual workouts. I provided and traded information with most of the national recruiting experts that you are familiar with.  To this day, I have college coaches from several different programs call me an ask for my opinions on kids.

In 2008 I left MarquetteHoops when I started with the Milwaukee Journal. I am no longer with the Journal but just because I don't post the way I used to, just because I don't work for another site right now doesn't mean I don't have a handle on things, doesn't me I don't know what is going on.

So, I have done more than just "drive to see Dominic James in Indiana" Canadien Dimes, how about you?