(05-11-2020 11:21 AM)NJDuke97 Wrote: (05-11-2020 10:12 AM)JMUNation Wrote: (05-11-2020 08:10 AM)Dukester Wrote: The good thing about JMU Men's basketball is anytime a player leaves it is because they were recruited over. That has been a constant theme I have heard for a long time.
Recruited over just means the coach felt the new player was better than the player on the roster. We fans have no clue who is better. If you recall, Lefty was criticized for doing this when he took over but now everyone just accepts it as common practice.
There was a movie in the 70s or 80s about a college player heavily recruited out of high school once he gets to college he struggles against the better talent. The coach decides he wanted to recruit over him. I think the actor was Robbie Benson?
The feel good ending has Benson winning a championship game by being the leading scorer and hitting the game winning shot. In a post season meeting with the coach that tried everything to run him off, he tells the coach to take his scholarship and shove it.
Pushing kids out has been happening since I can remember. People use to care but not anymore. Winning is the be all end all for most but not me. I think a good coach is honest with his players. They usually choose to leave on their own knowing they are not going to play. If they want to stay, then they can drop to walk on status and remain a part of the team perhaps earning a scholarship back at some point.
I think Dukester is suggesting that every time someone from JMU basketball transfers we say it’s because they are recruited over rather than leaving for greener pastures or because they didn’t like JMU or the coaches etc. I sense he’s suggesting that this is is a common excuse for a problem with JMU basketball and that our program is and has been unstable but maybe I’m reading into his comment incorrectly.
I think we all have a feel for who leaves of their own volition and who is recruited over. There are others where maybe they see the writing on the wall, could have stayed on with a different or reduced role etc. sometimes it’s hard to tell for sure but this is pretty common especially where there is a coaching change and I’m not going to get upset about 12th and 13th guys rotating out of programs.
Ideally you don’t want to lose core players but when there is a coaching change sometimes you do and if in our case those core guys didn’t have results on the court it’s less of a concern than if they had won or won big. If The net result is a turned over roster with more talent versatility and better balance between classes I’ll take it.
I read Dukester the same way you did. I can’t remember any player that left JMU for a better program aka greener pastures until this year with Wilson, Banks and Parker. I did not see anyone say when these guys left that they were recruited over. What was said was that they were replaceable. They played on a 9 win team.
Byington seems to have retooled with better talent than what left but time will tell.
JMU has had its share of transfers through the years but those players transferred down to get more playing time. They did not leave for greener pastures. Lou Rowe and other coaches have moved players out but I don’t recall hearing that these players went on to have great careers at better programs.
JMU has been bad for so long not because of players leaving for better programs but because our coaches did not recruit well enough. Brady had some solid classes. Lefty always recruited well enough to put a winning team on the court. Everyone else recruited poorly. Poor recruiting led to bad teams and bad players riding the bench on bad teams.
Maybe Dukester would be happier if we stated through the years that the coaches are attempting to recruit over. He is correct in one respect, the players brought in to replace the ones that left were usually no better so the losing continued and no one was actually recruited over based on the end result.
I believe that Byington is attempting to recruit over Dobbs and Richey. Lou’s best players have transferred so Byington is not going to stay pad with Lou’s second team players. That would be a good way to have single digit wins again this year.
