(11-22-2022 10:51 PM)CollegeMan33 Wrote: Schafer bear, BigRed, you guys think Burno is out recruiting Monty so far? He may very well but as of now I don’t see that! NIU hasn’t pressured anyone. Saying that’s what you want to do is different than actually doing it. Monty said we will be a top MAC defensive and rebounding team and they were. They won many games at home but couldn’t win on the road thus Monty was unsuccessful!
Oh, I can very much see the difference in the high pressure press defense they employ vs the style Monty used. It's different for sure. But, it's hard to do and...well...I've already said it.
The guys he inherited were pretty bad. Monty inherited some bad players too and, I'm not so sure what he left for Burno was much different, tbh. Monty had some good recruiting classes that completely crapped the bed. But he also had guys sprinkled in here and there but German was his diamond and made a lot of the other deficiencies disappear (or overcome-able). And Monty complete lucked out with German. How no other program in the country even made an offer to him is mind-blowing.
Nevertheless, he leaned heavily on German and two walk-ons down the stretch of his career and then when German left...he was screwed. He literally put all of his eggs in the German basket and then covid happened and German graduated and all of a sudden it was the three headed monster of Hankerson, Beane, and Mateen (yikes!). He didn't know Cochran could actually score a little at that point. That was also the team that blessed us with Anthony Crump for the next generation of young Huskie fans to watch until they have grandkids of their own. Oh yeah...and not one freshman in the "recruiting" class.
Hey, I'm all for utilizing the transfer portal but my gawd...can you get me one high schooler? I'm not even sure he offered scholarships to more than 1 or 2 altogether.
Monty had a little success recruiting in Milwaukee and southern Michigan but that was the the majority of the breadth of his footprint. I see Burno reaching to much farther corners to find talent. Then again, he's just had just one recruiting class where he was actually able to see the kids play as seniors in high school. He's definitely got another year of leash from me on the recruiting front.
I like the limited video I've seen of Zongo who is already committed for next year. It's early but he's got a lot of feelers out (something Montgomery never did in his entire tenure at the helm) so I'm still in a wait and see mode. He's got to secure some kind of post pressence to go with Niederhäuser (if he's something.)..and I worry we're all starting to put too much hope in him since he's yet to play and we're getting desperate and delusional about the what if of a guy we've never seen before.
So maybe it is true. Maybe we have become the lovable loser cub fans of MAC basketball.