(09-13-2022 01:18 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  

(09-11-2022 08:59 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  I don't know how far back 247 goes in its recruiting rankings, but Jason McKrieth (probably about 22 years ago?) was a top 100 recruit nationally - pretty much throughout all the ranking services that existed back then. And Morris Almond (who checks in from time to time here) was as well, at least on 1 or 2 top-100 lists.

Those might be the only two top-100 recruits we signed out of high school in the last 30-35 years (apologies if I'm forgetting someone)? One or two signees might have been top 100 on some list or another, but not the main ones. Bobby Crawford was a top-25 recruit who transferred to Rice from Michigan after 2 years (or it may have been one - it's been awhile and I don't recall that without looking it up). We've had a few other transfers who were borderline top-100's.

The top 10 recruit we absolutely came close to was Emeka Okafor, who was from Houston. Willis Wilson nearly convinced him to come to Rice instead of UConn.

Still pains me that those Harris/McKreith (and then Almond) teams didn't make an NCAAT. Kept running into UTEP/Nevada hurdles we couldn't get over in the WAC tournament.

I remember we got UConn/Okafor to play at Autry ... played them to within single digits. Think it was that same season that we had what was eventually a top-ten Stanford team absolutely beat and missed a bunch of free throws.

And one last recruiting recollection ... I seem to recall Demarcus Cousins somewhat randomly having us in his final five.

Top 3. I think the stated reason was his mom could get a job as a nurse in Houston but I doubt we were really considered.