(12-28-2012 01:36 PM)Pressed Rat Wrote: "Todd Day and Dwight Stewart stay home to play for Memphis along side Elliot Perry and Penny Hardaway(if eligible his freshman year). "
The refusal of Larry Finch to sign Ted Anderson's kid to get Todd Day was the single biggest blunder in Tiger recruiting history. Todd and Penny would have been unstoppable. Not signing Dwight Stewart and Cory Beck at the same time compounded the mistake; thereby, giving AR its NC title.
The Tigers should have several titles.
Not taking the Todd Day package deal was a serious miscalculation on Larry's part. Todd Day turned out to be a superstar, and Ted Anderson's son never played a minute for Arkansas. But, the more important side-effect of not taking the package deal was that it allowed Nolan substantial access to the Memphis recruiting market.
I can understand why Larry didn't take the deal. Ted Anderson was a high school coach, Larry was the college coach. Caving to Anderson's demand to sign an inferior player (Ted's son), and have him on scholarship for
an entire year before Day graduated would clearly send the wrong message.
Of course, hindsight being 20-20, I think we can all agree that Larry should have taken that deal. Todd Day would not only have played with Elliot Perry, he would have played with Penny & David Vaughn. Another reason was that Todd Day graduated right after the Tigers' lost Gray & Alexander. Larry could have really used a player like Todd Day to help "right the ship".
The other reason was that Todd Day became a star at Arkansas. Arkansas was a juggernaut during Day's 4 years there. I expect that, without Day, they would have been good, but I doubt that they would have been as good without him there.
As for Corey Beck & Dwight Stewart.... I recall that the CA reported that Dwight Stewart signed with the TIgers, but that there was a problem with his paperwork, so he ended up at a Junior College. Neither he nor Beck had grades to play as freshmen anyway, and both had to go to Junior College to get to school. While these 2 guys would have helped the Tigers, they were role players at Arkansas. The stars on the Ark NC team were Corliss Williamson & Scottie Thurman.