Per his Twitter account.
Not sure if TK and staff are just swinging & missing lately, or if we're even not really in the picture on some of these "higher rated" late recruits? Are we wasting time & resources going after guys we had no chance at--meanwhile, guys we could have a shot at don't feel the love & end up somewhere else?
Tough to recruit--I get it. But for the moment, anyway, I'm not holding my breath on any late signees for UT that will be able to contribute much...Hope I'm wrong.
Hard for Toledo to recruit against Tennessee, but, if you're ever going to win that battle, it would probably be with a local kid who liked the idea of playing in his hometown. As I said on another thread, what we really needed was for TK and his staff to realize two years ago how good this kid was and make him an offer then. He did tear up the City League his senior year, so it's not like he was hiding under a rock or something. We missed the boat that year on Darrington and Damajeo Wiggins.
(05-04-2017 03:33 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote: [ -> ]Per his Twitter account.
Not sure if TK and staff are just swinging & missing lately, or if we're even not really in the picture on some of these "higher rated" late recruits? Are we wasting time & resources going after guys we had no chance at--meanwhile, guys we could have a shot at don't feel the love & end up somewhere else?
Tough to recruit--I get it. But for the moment, anyway, I'm not holding my breath on any late signees for UT that will be able to contribute much...Hope I'm wrong.
Coach K said on his last weekly radio show that "There will be more to come" when asked about spring signings. Agree, it looks like they swung and missed big time.
To be fair...we couldn't "not" recruit Jacob Epperson, and for all I know all parties involved knew it was just for "show"...same goes for Darrington: we didn't recruit him out of high school, and he puts us on his final list of 4--even if just for "show" again, we needed to recruit him this time around. I didn't think either one was ever really considering UT, though. Don't know if we even made an offer to Donnal, being local as well, but I'm not a big fan of "one & dones" to build a program so no huge loss beyond the contribution he would have made next season.
Of bigger concern to me is that 2 pretty good, mid-major bigs from Illinois & NY fairly recently chose other comparable programs over Toledo offers...either one, I believe, would have provided some contribution in the low post even as true freshmen, and would have set us up nicely for the season after that. As of now, when Knapke gets in foul trouble next season (and he will), we have really no solid option. We needed to land one of THOSE guys, and didn't.
(05-04-2017 04:39 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote: [ -> ]To be fair...we couldn't "not" recruit Jacob Epperson, and for all I know all parties involved knew it was just for "show"...same goes for Darrington: we didn't recruit him out of high school, and he puts us on his final list of 4--even if just for "show" again, we needed to recruit him this time around. I didn't think either one was ever really considering UT, though. Don't know if we even made an offer to Donnal, being local as well, but I'm not a big fan of "one & dones" to build a program so no huge loss beyond the contribution he would have made next season.
Of bigger concern to me is that 2 pretty good, mid-major bigs from Illinois & NY fairly recently chose other comparable programs over Toledo offers...either one, I believe, would have provided some contribution in the low post even as true freshmen, and would have set us up nicely for the season after that. As of now, when Knapke gets in foul trouble next season (and he will), we have really no solid option. We needed to land one of THOSE guys, and didn't.
Darrington was a non qualifier, that's why he ended up at a JC.
(05-04-2017 05:37 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote: [ -> ] (05-04-2017 04:39 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote: [ -> ]To be fair...we couldn't "not" recruit Jacob Epperson, and for all I know all parties involved knew it was just for "show"...same goes for Darrington: we didn't recruit him out of high school, and he puts us on his final list of 4--even if just for "show" again, we needed to recruit him this time around. I didn't think either one was ever really considering UT, though. Don't know if we even made an offer to Donnal, being local as well, but I'm not a big fan of "one & dones" to build a program so no huge loss beyond the contribution he would have made next season.
Of bigger concern to me is that 2 pretty good, mid-major bigs from Illinois & NY fairly recently chose other comparable programs over Toledo offers...either one, I believe, would have provided some contribution in the low post even as true freshmen, and would have set us up nicely for the season after that. As of now, when Knapke gets in foul trouble next season (and he will), we have really no solid option. We needed to land one of THOSE guys, and didn't.
Darrington was a non qualifier, that's why he ended up at a JC.
There are still some good transfer candidates out there don't give up hope.
(05-04-2017 04:16 PM)Dwight Wrote: [ -> ]Hard for Toledo to recruit against Tennessee, but, if you're ever going to win that battle, it would probably be with a local kid who liked the idea of playing in his hometown. As I said on another thread, what we really needed was for TK and his staff to realize two years ago how good this kid was and make him an offer then. He did tear up the City League his senior year, so it's not like he was hiding under a rock or something. We missed the boat that year on Darrington and Damajeo Wiggins.
I don't think TK can be blamed for not offering a player who was not going to qualify academically at UT. As stated previously, Darrington's academics were the reason that he went to a junior college rather than a DI program
guys aren't using their official visits and listing toledo as a final choice for show. TK and staff went after some bigger name recruits and were 2 for 4 (Rose and W Jackson/Epperson and Darrington). At least we are going after good players and getting some or getting close. Need to win the MAC to get completely over the hump recruiting wise.
(05-05-2017 04:11 AM)pono Wrote: [ -> ]guys aren't using their official visits and listing toledo as a final choice for show. TK and staff went after some bigger name recruits and were 2 for 4 (Rose and W Jackson/Epperson and Darrington). At least we are going after good players and getting some or getting close. Need to win the MAC to get completely over the hump recruiting wise.
According to verbalcommits, Rose's other offers were Univ. of Illinois-Chicago, Buffalo, Ball State, Western Illinois, and IUPUI. It's nice to beat out other MAC schools for a guy, but I wouldn't call him a bigger name recruit.
(05-05-2017 05:40 AM)Dwight Wrote: [ -> ] (05-05-2017 04:11 AM)pono Wrote: [ -> ]guys aren't using their official visits and listing toledo as a final choice for show. TK and staff went after some bigger name recruits and were 2 for 4 (Rose and W Jackson/Epperson and Darrington). At least we are going after good players and getting some or getting close. Need to win the MAC to get completely over the hump recruiting wise.
According to verbalcommits, Rose's other offers were Univ. of Illinois-Chicago, Buffalo, Ball State, Western Illinois, and IUPUI. It's nice to beat out other MAC schools for a guy, but I wouldn't call him a bigger name recruit.
Perhaps Rose can be considered a "big name" recruit because of the name Rose that he shares with his NBA MVP uncle Derrick.
In most cases Toledo is going to lose out in recruiting players like Epperson and Darrington who are also being recruited by the Big Boys. But with Epperson being a legacy recruit and Darrington being a local recruit, I have know problems with Toledo taking a run at them. In addition, don't forget we lost out initially on 3 Star Willie Jackson to Missouri. But I think having recruited him out of High School gave Toledo an inside track when Jackson decided to transfer back to a School closer to his home in Cleveland. But for the most part, Toledo's success is going to be tied to recruiting players with potential that the coaching staff can develop like a Nathan Boothe, a Juice Brown, a Jaelan Sanford. But that shouldn't preclude them from going after higher level players who they think they have a legitimate shot at!