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2025 Recruiting

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I don't follow basketball recruiting too closely but looking through that AreaCodes Basketball account and seeing the local (South Florida, Naples, and Central Florida) talent without any mention of Miami as current suitors. Can't compete in-state with Florida and FSU (forget the ACC) if we won't even attempt to keep local talent home.
 
Silentobserver said:
I don't follow basketball recruiting too closely but looking through that AreaCodes Basketball account and seeing the local (South Florida, Naples, and Central Florida) talent without any mention of Miami as current suitors. Can't compete in-state with Florida and FSU (forget the ACC) if we won't even attempt to keep local talent home.
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It's been an ongoing problem with L and his staff for years now. There's a lot of legit talent in Florida now. It makes absolutely ZERO sense why this staff continues to neglect the state of Florida in recruiting.
 
Silentobserver said:
I don't follow basketball recruiting too closely but looking through that AreaCodes Basketball account and seeing the local (South Florida, Naples, and Central Florida) talent without any mention of Miami as current suitors. Can't compete in-state with Florida and FSU (forget the ACC) if we won't even attempt to keep local talent home.
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I think that is because coach L has spent most of his coaching career in the Virginia, DC area, and that is where most of his High School contacts are:
 
mirasuegui said:
I think that is because coach L has spent most of his coaching career in the Virginia, DC area, and that is where most of his High School contacts are
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Understandable, but Coach L has been down here for a decade. Why hasn't he made an effort to recruit some of the state's better players, or made an effort to establish local relationships?

I'm not saying Miami's BB recruiting strategy should be similar to the football team, but at the very least there should be an effort to land some of these athletic wings.

Anyway, just curious.
 
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Silentobserver said:
Understandable, but Coach L has been down here for a decade. Why hasn't he made an effort to recruit some of the state's better players, or made an effort to establish local relationships?

I'm not saying Miami's BB recruiting strategy should be similar to the football team, but at the very least there should be an effort to land some of these athletic wings.

Anyway, just curious.
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agreed, I attended a basketball clinic by the late Shaky Rodriguez, Frank Martin was one of the speakers, he kind of alluded to the fact he wasn't recruiting this area as much, he mentioned when he recruits he wants to only deal with the parents.
 
Wonder if some of the "reporters" read these threads... probably not, but seems like asking Coach and staff (or Blake) about local recruiting philosophies and ongoing doldrums would be a worthy inquiry.
 
jkdood said:
Wonder if some of the "reporters" read these threads... probably not, but seems like asking Coach and staff (or Blake) about local recruiting philosophies and ongoing doldrums would be a worthy inquiry.
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I'd love to hear both of those questions asked. Unfortunately, there's VERY little media coverage around this program, and the few questions I do hear asked are the usual softballs like "how is the team's spirit holding up with all these injuries?"
 
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Silentobserver said:
Understandable, but Coach L has been down here for a decade. Why hasn't he made an effort to recruit some of the state's better players, or made an effort to establish local relationships?

I'm not saying Miami's BB recruiting strategy should be similar to the football team, but at the very least there should be an effort to land some of these athletic wings.

Anyway, just curious.
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This staff has done a poor job of recruiting the state of Florida because I don't think they see the state as a priority. Seems like they don't think there's enough talent down here to annually recruit the in-state kids. Since Coach L has been at Miami, his staff has misevaluated dozens of prospects down here. Every year there are a handful of guys who leave the state for college ball and end up tearing it up at their schools. A few of them have even gone on to play in the NBA a few years later. It's sad to think that there are guys from Florida who are in the NBA today who were never offered by Miami and some were never even recruited at all by the staff.

Another problem I think is that it's tough to recruit a state where there isn't a single person on the staff with Florida ties. Not the HC, assistants, DOBO, trainers, no one! Plenty of people on staff from the northeast US, but no one from the Sunshine State. Miami would probably be able to get away with this if the staff prioritized Florida enough to want to build relationships with the local coaches and kids, but since most of the staff is from NY, NE and the DMV areas it seems those are the areas receiving preference.

But aside from all of this, at the end of the day I don't think this staff does a good enough job of evaluating prospects. They overestimate the out of state kids (Omar Sherman, Ebuka Izundu, Rodney Miller, Gak, Waardenberg, among others) that end up not panning out or doing very little here and undervalue the in-state kids (John Collins, Tacko Fall, Justin James, Paul Reed, Anfernee Simons, among others.) who don't get offered or are lightly recruited by Miami and sign elsewhere for college eventually ending up in the NBA.
 
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King of Allapattah said:
This staff has done a poor job of recruiting the state of Florida because I don't think they see the state as a priority. Seems like they don't think there's enough talent down here to annually recruit the in-state kids. Since Coach L has been at Miami, his staff has misevaluated dozens of prospects down here. Every year there are a handful of guys who leave the state for college ball and end up tearing it up at their schools. A few of them have even gone on to play in the NBA a few years later. It's sad to think that there are guys from Florida who are in the NBA today who were never offered by Miami and some were never even recruited at all by the staff.

Another problem I think is that it's tough to recruit a state where there isn't a single person on the staff with Florida ties. Not the HC, assistants, DOBO, trainers, no one! Plenty of people on staff from the northeast US, but no one from the Sunshine State. Miami would probably be able to get away with this if the staff prioritized Florida enough to want to build relationships with the local coaches and kids, but since most of the staff is from NY, NE and the DMV areas it seems those are the areas receiving preference.

But aside from all of this, at the end of the day I don't think this staff does a good enough job of evaluating prospects. They overestimate the out of state kids (Omar Sherman, Ebuka Izundu, Rodney Miller, Gak, Waardenberg, among others) that end up not panning out or doing very little here and undervalue the in-state kids (John Collins, Tacko Fall, Justin James, Paul Reed, Anfernee Simons, among others.) who don't get offered or are lightly recruited by Miami and sign elsewhere for college eventually ending up in the NBA.
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Mostly agreed, however we've had plenty of out of state kids who got the program to its peak back in 2013 and 2016. However, recently we seem to "reach" on guys like Miller and Sam instead of looking at similar or better players that are close to home.
 
You would think at least ONE recent high-school player in South Florida (or elsewhere) would read this forum and anonymously give us the dope on this issue which has hit these pages a hundred times in the years I've been reading. Not sure if it would be fiction or real, but c'mon, anyone out there got some answers? Is it the fans, the city of Miami, the past of the "U", the staff and coaches, the lack of perks, say what?
 
Gables Canes said:
Mostly agreed, however we've had plenty of out of state kids who got the program to its peak back in 2013 and 2016. However, recently we seem to "reach" on guys like Miller and Sam instead of looking at similar or better players that are close to home.
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My criticism isn't directed to the top 100 players Miami has signed over the last few years that have contributed. My beef is more with the lower ranked prospects from out of state who this staff takes a chance on but doesn't pan out here. Something, that for whatever reason we don't do with in-state kids.
 
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jkdood said:
You would think at least ONE recent high-school player in South Florida (or elsewhere) would read this forum and anonymously give us the dope on this issue which has hit these pages a hundred times in the years I've been reading. Not sure if it would be fiction or real, but c'mon, anyone out there got some answers? Is it the fans, the city of Miami, the past of the "U", the staff and coaches, the lack of perks, say what?
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A lot of it falls on Miami's poor recruiting tactics, which leads to HS prospects, parents and coaches not having the trust in Miami's staff when it's time to make their decision. Take a kid like Marcus Allen (from Miami Norland) who graduates in 2024. While Coach Ham has already offered him a scholarship and is building a relationship with the kid and his family, Miami is currently still evaluating whether the kid is good enough to play in the ACC. If history has taught us anything about this staff it's unless he's ranked in the top 20 nationally, this staff won't offer Marcus until his junior or senior year of high school. By then it's too late. While he's spent the last 2-3 years building that trust with Coach Ham, Stan and CY, and the rest of their staff, Miami on the other hand is sitting on the side still wondering whether to offer or even recruit the kid at all. It's happened way too many times over the last 20 years. I can see why some of the past staffs may have big timed local in-state prospects, but don't understand why Coach L is still doing the same. You'd think by now Miami coaches would realize that there is some talent in Florida.

With that being said, some of it is on the kids, parents and their HS/AAU coaches big timing Miami, but those situations are few and far between. That normally only happens when you have a McDAA or dimwit who has their sights set on Duke, UK, UNC, etc because they simply think the grass is greener on the other side.

All in all, I think Miami needs to re-evaluate their approach in recruiting and start identifying the talent early. If you look at the 2023 and 2024 classes in Florida, it's pretty evident who the top prospects are, yet Miami has chosen to hold off on offering many of them.
 
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