about a young man from Mills who is supposed to be a good player.
He is considering several offers from mid major schools, none of which is UALR. But one thing he said in the article struck me. He wanted to play in an offense that got up and down the floor quickly.

The reason that struck a chord, is that more than one media person has told me in the last few years, that the reason local players didn't want to play for UALR is because they didn't like the grind it out offense we played. Just thought I'd pass that on.

(03-19-2015 09:49 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  about a young man from Mills who is supposed to be a good player.
He is considering several offers from mid major schools, none of which is UALR. But one thing he said in the article struck me. He wanted to play in an offense that got up and down the floor quickly.

The reason that struck a chord, is that more than one media person has told me in the last few years, that the reason local players didn't want to play for UALR is because they didn't like the grind it out offense we played. Just thought I'd pass that on.

I don't remember local stars gravitating to us when Newell had us getting up and own the floor quickly.

(03-20-2015 07:00 PM)Jim T Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 09:49 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  about a young man from Mills who is supposed to be a good player.
He is considering several offers from mid major schools, none of which is UALR. But one thing he said in the article struck me. He wanted to play in an offense that got up and down the floor quickly.

The reason that struck a chord, is that more than one media person has told me in the last few years, that the reason local players didn't want to play for UALR is because they didn't like the grind it out offense we played. Just thought I'd pass that on.

I don't remember local stars gravitating to us when Newell had us getting up and own the floor quickly.

No, even Newell couldn't get local kids (unless you count the twins from Jacksonville) interested in UALR. Could Wes Flanigan...Joe Kleine...Dennis Nutt? Like I said before, Ron Kestenbaum did get Tim Scott (he was ineligible and went Junior college and then the pigs) and Derek's half brother Duane Washington (who later transferred to MTSU and played briefly in the NBA) so it is not impossible. Just few and far between. It will be that much harder for a coach with no ties to Arkansas, at least, for the first year or two.

I could care less if they were from Mongolia. I just want the best players we can get. If some are local players, fantastic, but ultimately I don't care.

How is the quality of basketball in Mongolia?

(03-20-2015 11:12 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  I could care less if they were from Mongolia. I just want the best players we can get. If some are local players, fantastic, but ultimately I don't care.

I couldn't care less where our players are from either. But, if we ever were seen as "the place to go" by local players we could occasionally sign a highly ranked kid, the type of player that we couldn't get from out of State.

I agree, but I think the best way to do that is build a winning program. Winning will breed interest in the local players. We have to be relevant for locals for locals to want to play here.

I will take them from anywhere.

I would think juci would be the easiest sell but I don't care there either.

Just recruit the best talent you can and play a system that works with rose kids.

(03-21-2015 02:11 AM)eh9198 Wrote:  I agree, but I think the best way to do that is build a winning program. Winning will breed interest in the local players. We have to be relevant for locals for locals to want to play here.

You make a good point. When we have a winning program, a coach that can persuade area high school coaches to send some of their best players to him, who plays a style that kids enjoy playing, and fans enjoy watching, that's when things will turn around. If you're not relevant locally, then I don't think you can be relevant nationally.

Newell never recruited in state kids. Said the talent level of instate kids was not that great and kids at that level were a dime a dozen in Indiana. That said he also passed twice on Scottie Pippen who wanted to transfer to UALR after his sophomore AND junior years at uca. Made no sense to anybody.