The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

It has been three straight years since CUSA has had a player drafted in the NBA draft. The last player from CUSA was Will Barton at #40 in the 2012 draft. Had two players in 2011 and 4 in 2010.

That's not good news for the league. We need our best players to get drafted to help us moving forward.

I think hunter will get signed somewhere, but that may be about it.

(06-26-2015 07:33 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  That's not good news for the league. We need our best players to get drafted to help us moving forward.

I think hunter will get signed somewhere, but that may be about it.

Can you be realistic for a moment. 62 players get selected. About 10 of those players come from overseas. So you're talking about 50 picks for over 4,000 college basketball players. You think Hunter getting drafted from Georgia St is going to help the Sun Belt Conf. from National perspective? Probably not, but it will help GSU with recruiting. CUSA best players more often than not will not get drafted but it's not a bad thing for the league either.

(06-26-2015 09:13 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 07:33 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  That's not good news for the league. We need our best players to get drafted to help us moving forward.

I think hunter will get signed somewhere, but that may be about it.

Can you be realistic for a moment. 62 players get selected. About 10 of those players come from overseas. So you're talking about 50 picks for over 4,000 college basketball players. You think Hunter getting drafted from Georgia St is going to help the Sun Belt Conf. from National perspective? Probably not, but it will help GSU with recruiting. CUSA best players more often than not will not get drafted but it's not a bad thing for the league either.

Vince Hunter from UTEP

William Lee might be our next draft pick.

Jordan Clarkson was drafted last year. He started his collegiate career at Tulsa before playing a season at Missouri.

(06-26-2015 09:13 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 07:33 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  That's not good news for the league. We need our best players to get drafted to help us moving forward.

I think hunter will get signed somewhere, but that may be about it.

Can you be realistic for a moment. 62 players get selected. About 10 of those players come from overseas. So you're talking about 50 picks for over 4,000 college basketball players. You think Hunter getting drafted from Georgia St is going to help the Sun Belt Conf. from National perspective? Probably not, but it will help GSU with recruiting. CUSA best players more often than not will not get drafted but it's not a bad thing for the league either.

I can do math, but thank you for the breakout.(for what it's worth, I think 60 is the number you were looking for, unless you know of extra draft picks I don't). I also understand how few players make it to the league.

to get the best players in your conference, it helps to have players get drafted. When you see guys playing from our schools it gets the conference recognized. You don't think playing against pros at Memphis was a recruiting chip? I'm not saying this is some make or break deal, but having players from our conference get drafted on a somewhat regular basis is definitely a good thing for us all.

Its just one of many benchmarks that show that CUSA basketball sucks

(06-26-2015 10:36 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Its just one of many benchmarks that show that CUSA basketball sucks

I agree. I think things are moving in the right direction, but they aren't quite where they need to be yet.

(06-26-2015 09:21 AM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 09:13 AM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 07:33 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  That's not good news for the league. We need our best players to get drafted to help us moving forward.

I think hunter will get signed somewhere, but that may be about it.

Can you be realistic for a moment. 62 players get selected. About 10 of those players come from overseas. So you're talking about 50 picks for over 4,000 college basketball players. You think Hunter getting drafted from Georgia St is going to help the Sun Belt Conf. from National perspective? Probably not, but it will help GSU with recruiting. CUSA best players more often than not will not get drafted but it's not a bad thing for the league either.

Vince Hunter from UTEP

R. J. Hunter from GSU was drafted in the 1st round. I realized he was referring to Vince from UTEP.

Being drafted into the sport's pro league is one of several factors that affect recruiting. UKY gets almost every player it wants (at least partly) because of that, but it doesn't seem to help other SEC schools get great players with anywhere near the same frequency. It also is a "what have you done lately" thing since Bama under Sanderson had several NBA players, but look at that program since.

In terms of pro league influence on recruiting, there is about a 6 year 'window" between when a player becomes aware of pro league significance and his high school senior year. What he sees during that short span affects his thinking about a college choice. The coaching staff, the school's facilities and amenities, his ability to be comfortable at some distance away from home and the program's success at pro placement are all possible factors.

(06-26-2015 11:04 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 10:36 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Its just one of many benchmarks that show that CUSA basketball sucks

I agree. I think things are moving in the right direction, but they aren't quite where they need to be yet.

Things are moving in the right direction for UAB. I see no indication they are for the league.

(06-26-2015 11:26 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 11:04 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(06-26-2015 10:36 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Its just one of many benchmarks that show that CUSA basketball sucks

I agree. I think things are moving in the right direction, but they aren't quite where they need to be yet.

Things are moving in the right direction for UAB. I see no indication they are for the league.

ODU

(06-26-2015 11:20 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Being drafted into the sport's pro league is one of several factors that affect recruiting. UKY gets almost every player it wants (at least partly) because of that, but it doesn't seem to help other SEC schools get great players with anywhere near the same frequency. It also is a "what have you done lately" thing since Bama under Sanderson had several NBA players, but look at that program since.

In terms of pro league influence on recruiting, there is about a 6 year 'window" between when a player becomes aware of pro league significance and his high school senior year. What he sees during that short span affects his thinking about a college choice. The coaching staff, the school's facilities and amenities, his ability to be comfortable at some distance away from home and the program's success at pro placement are all possible factors.

Always a good time for a Bama reference, huh?

Kentucky is an outlier. You can't use them as a reasonable comparison to any team. But, telling your recruits that they will get a shot at Kentucky every year is a huge recruiting tool. Lsu got the number one recruit this year. It doesn't help to sell kids on getting to face off against Kentucky every year.

Here are the other conferences who have not had a player drafted in the past 3 years. (Sun Belt has had one player drafted in each of the past three years)

These are CUSA's peers

American East
A-Sun
Big South
MAAC
MEAC
Northeast
SWAC
Southern
South land
WAC

These non power 5 conferences have had players drafted in past three years
OVC
MVC
SunBelt
Mountain West (7)
mAC
CAA
Big Sky
A-10
AAC
Horizon
Patriot
WCC
Summit
Big West

(06-26-2015 11:20 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Being drafted into the sport's pro league is one of several factors that affect recruiting. UKY gets almost every player it wants (at least partly) because of that, but it doesn't seem to help other SEC schools get great players with anywhere near the same frequency. It also is a "what have you done lately" thing since Bama under Sanderson had several NBA players, but look at that program since.

In terms of pro league influence on recruiting, there is about a 6 year 'window" between when a player becomes aware of pro league significance and his high school senior year. What he sees during that short span affects his thinking about a college choice. The coaching staff, the school's facilities and amenities, his ability to be comfortable at some distance away from home and the program's success at pro placement are all possible factors.

I can shed some light on Bama's success under Coach Sanderson. When I left UAB I went to Tuscaloosa for graduate school, and worked with the athletic tutoring program. Now, on the football side, Derrick Thomas had a car. Derrick deserved a car. Plus, he already had three or four kids by that time. He was the only one. On the basketball side, all the basketball guys had cars. From the starting five to the last guy on the bench.

Funny how recruiting dropped off when he left, huh?

Pete Maravitch was undoubtedly one of the best college basketball players of all time. In each of his three season at LSU, 1967-68, 1968-69, and 1969-70, Pete was a consensus 1st team All American averaging 44.2 PPG and 6.5 RPG for his career. He average over 43 points per game each of his three years at LSU. He was selected third in NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks and signed a $1.9 million contract - huge at the time. He went to have an excellent pro career which would have been even better but for his knee problems.

Yet LSU was not a great team while Pete was playing for the Tigers. For the 1967/68 season they were 14-12, for 1968/69 13-13, and for 1969-70 they went 22-10. His is an excellent example that one player does not make a team or a league.

Great. Now we have two posters who apply examples in the 60’s to today's circumstances and somehow think they are relevant.

(06-26-2015 03:38 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Great. Now we have two posters who apply examples in the 60’s to today's circumstances and somehow think they are relevant.

Of course you are the best judge of what is relevant and what is not.

(06-26-2015 03:22 PM)CajunBlazer Wrote:  Pete Maravitch was undoubtedly one of the best college basketball players of all time. In each of his three season at LSU, 1967-68, 1968-69, and 1969-70, Pete was a consensus 1st team All American averaging 44.2 PPG and 6.5 RPG for his career. He average over 43 points per game each of his three years at LSU. He was selected third in NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks and signed a $1.9 million contract - huge at the time. He went to have an excellent pro career which would have been even better but for his knee problems.

Yet LSU was not a great team while Pete was playing for the Tigers. For the 1967/68 season they were 14-12, for 1968/69 13-13, and for 1969-70 they went 22-10. His is an excellent example that one player does not make a team or a league.

Pete Maravich played before the 3 point shot and the "dunk" came to college BB. (Here it comes 9911) I was at the LSU @ Bama game where Pete alone scored 69 points in a game LSU lost (over 200 total points were scored in that game). Pete (in his "floppy socks") was a big draw wherever he played. As you said, LSU during Pete Maravich time was not a good TEAM. Shortly after he left, they fired Press Maravich, his father, as BB coach.