forums

The last 2 recruiting classes

I'm just so bummed how this season has played out. Coming off elite 8 and final 4 with a HC that may coach just another few years this season was one to push the chips in and go all in.

Honestly its going to be harder to get portal players to come join a non tournament team with no big outlook on the 2024-2025 season if few of the "stars" leave.
 
Advertisement
JZCane0825 said:
Watson and Casey were consensus top 150 players from very good high school programs and leagues. Watson's final 4 included Marquette and Xavier, who both do a very good job with their player evals. Casey had big time offers as well. I would say it's been less about evaluations and more about player development with them.
Click to expand...
Top 150 prospects in the basketball recruiting world doesn't mean much. There are plenty of top 150 guys who are playing at the lower levels of Division I basketball. If we're to contend in the ACC on a yearly basis signing only top 150 guys like we did in our 22 class isn't going to cut it.

Now, if they were consensus top 50-60 guys? I could see your angle, but over the years Miami has missed on a ton of evaluations. I know some folks get their panties in a twist when I mention it so I won't go there, but Coach L's inability/unwillingness to recruit Florida over the years may have only made things harder on him and his staff.
 
King of Allapattah said:
Top 150 prospects in the basketball recruiting world doesn't mean much. There are plenty of top 150 guys who are playing at the lower levels of Division I basketball. If we're to contend in the ACC on a yearly basis signing only top 150 guys like we did in our 22 class isn't going to cut it.

Now, if they were consensus top 50-60 guys? I could see your angle, but over the years Miami has missed on a ton of evaluations. I know some folks get their panties in a twist when I mention it so I won't go there, but Coach L's inability/unwillingness to recruit Florida over the years may have only made things harder on him and his staff.
Click to expand...
We literally just had a proof of concept where a Final Four Team featured players from New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Nicaragua. This program could and should absolutely continue to recruit the metros they've had success in. If you want to lump prep programs like Montverde and IMG, go ahead, but Florida is the furthest thing from a hoops hotbed as there is.
 
JZCane0825 said:
We literally just had a proof of concept where a Final Four Team featured players from New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Nicaragua. This program could and should absolutely continue to recruit the metros they've had success in. If you want to lump prep programs like Montverde and IMG, go ahead, but Florida is the furthest thing from a hoops hotbed as there is.
Click to expand...
I take it you don't follow HS basketball recruiting. There's no need to lump in the out of state players playing at the prep schools in Florida to know there is talent down here. The state of Florida has been producing NBA talent for a while now. Since Coach L has taken over at Miami, there have been around 40 guys make it to the NBA from the state and that's not including the guys playing pro ball overseas or the out of towners playing at the IMGs and Montverde's of the world. I'm not at all saying not to recruit out of state. Just saying we need to do a better job of recruiting in state. Aside from having an advantage of being able to build relationships with guys earlier than out of state schools, it would also give the staff more opportunity to make better evaluations because they'd be able to see the prospects more frequently. Not sure why that's so difficult for some to understand. We should be able and willing to recruit IN & OUT of Florida. Shoot, truth be told, can you imagine where we'd be had we kept Jamal Mashburn, Jr. (Gulliver Prep) and/or Devin Carter (Doral) from leaving Dade County?

By the way, since you want to mention the Final 4 team... You do realize that 3 of the 4 leading scorers from that team came by way of the transfer portal? Including Norchad Omier, who played his last 2 years of HS ball in Miami and who's HS coaches begged Miami to offer coming out of HS.

GO CANES!!
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
Notsince1985 said:
Since we're talking about Florida recruiting, is Zeke Battier supposed to be any good.
Click to expand...
If You Say So Wow GIF by Identity
 
King of Allapattah said:
Depends on what your definition of good is. I think he’s a D1 prospect. Just don’t think he’s in P5 stratosphere. Low to mid at best but who knows. Still hs 2 years before he graduates
Click to expand...

Well, Ransom has had like 2 legit P5 players in the past 50 years, so I was just checking it out.
 
Advertisement
gacaneaddict said:
I'm just so bummed how this season has played out. Coming off elite 8 and final 4 with a HC that may coach just another few years this season was one to push the chips in and go all in.

Honestly it’s going to be harder to get portal players to come join a non tournament team with no big outlook on the 2024-2025 season if few of the "stars" leave.
Click to expand...
I thought before the FSU game that this win would ignite a run towards peaking.

Yes BUMMDED also, not even a hint
 
Notsince1985 said:
Well, Ransom has had like 2 legit P5 players in the past 50 years, so I was just checking it out.
Click to expand...
Allapattah keeps banging this drum, despite everyone and their mother telling him that it's not WHERE the talent is from, it's WHAT the talent can do. L has had success with teams that didn't have a single scholarship student athlete from the state. The funniest part is that UF and FSU have similar roster construction. The few schools in the state where there is any semblance of an instate pipeline is at schools like FAU and USF. In other words, schools that have no choice but to concentrate on instate kids, because most kids have little to no interest in playing at those schools. Don't believe me, let's look at the rosters as they stand today.

UM--1 in state student athlete(Nick Cassano) a WALK ON
FSU--3 In state guys, 2 are walk ons, one is a transfer from St. Johns that hasn't set foot on the floor
UF--5 in state guys(2 are walk ons, 1 is a former 4 star rotting on the bench, 1 is a transfer from Iona(plays regularly) and the last is a solid contributor) UF seems to have an in at Dr. Phillips, because 2 of the 5 are from there.

At the Power schools, out of 9 in state kids, FIVE are walk ons. There's a legit reason why FSU and UF would want walk ons from the state, it's cheaper to attend school as an instate student, so asking kids to come and be walkons makes sense if they are local. Out of the remaining 4, you can argue that 2 actually do anything. Let that marinate. 2 out of 9 are actually legitimate, useful power conference players.

Lets compare that to the midmajor schools

USF--3 in state(FYI, there are 5 kids on the roster from Georgia)
FAU--5 in state(**** near all of these guys play significant roles)

Between these two schools, there are 8 student athletes from the state, and most of them are contributors.
 
Canedude08 said:
Allapattah keeps banging this drum, despite everyone and their mother telling him that it's not WHERE the talent is from, it's WHAT the talent can do. L has had success with teams that didn't have a single scholarship student athlete from the state. The funniest part is that UF and FSU have similar roster construction. The few schools in the state where there is any semblance of an instate pipeline is at schools like FAU and USF. In other words, schools that have no choice but to concentrate on instate kids, because most kids have little to no interest in playing at those schools. Don't believe me, let's look at the rosters as they stand today.

UM--1 in state student athlete(Nick Cassano) a WALK ON
FSU--3 In state guys, 2 are walk ons, one is a transfer from St. Johns that hasn't set foot on the floor
UF--5 in state guys(2 are walk ons, 1 is a former 4 star rotting on the bench, 1 is a transfer from Iona(plays regularly) and the last is a solid contributor) UF seems to have an in at Dr. Phillips, because 2 of the 5 are from there.

At the Power schools, out of 9 in state kids, FIVE are walk ons. There's a legit reason why FSU and UF would want walk ons from the state, it's cheaper to attend school as an instate student, so asking kids to come and be walkons makes sense if they are local. Out of the remaining 4, you can argue that 2 actually do anything. Let that marinate. 2 out of 9 are actually legitimate, useful power conference players.

Lets compare that to the midmajor schools

USF--3 in state(FYI, there are 5 kids on the roster from Georgia)
FAU--5 in state(**** near all of these guys play significant roles)

Between these two schools, there are 8 student athletes from the state, and most of them are contributors.
Click to expand...
Been saying this for years. People trying to apply football logic to basketball
 
Advertisement
Gables Canes said:
…have been a huge failure.

The 2022 class consisted of:

Watson - has flashed some potential but for some reason doesn’t see the floor anymore
Casey - highly rated guy that appears to lack physicality and any sort of offensive game
Aire - not sure what the staff saw here. He stunk
Danilo - see above with Aire

Overall, 2 guys who were total evaluation misses (Aire and Danilo) and 2 guys that haven’t developed. An epic bust of a class

The 2023 class:

George - still developing but he’s going to be a good player. I think we can temper the one and done talk though
Nwoko - there was a lot of excitement about him, but so far he’s been nearly unplayable. It’s clear L doesn’t trust him with spot minutes even during desperate times
Djobet - an unknown, could be following the same trajectory as Robinson (bench warmer)

To bring in 7 guys over the last 2 seasons and only hit on ONE is unacceptable. L has always been known for player development, so I’m not sure what’s happening here.

When you only bring in one portal player (Cleveland), it means you need to hit on your high school recruits. The last 2 classes have been busts to date, leaving us with zero depth. It’s disappointing to say the least, and one of the main reasons why this team is struggling so much.
Click to expand...
Going to tag onto this and go all the way back to the 2020 class. In hindsight, I should've titled this thread "The last 4 recruiting classes":

2020
Timberlake - huge bust; transferred after one season
Cross - same as Timberlake, was also rumored to be a culture problem

2021
Wooga - has been a hit. Has obvious flaws but overall has met or exceeded expectations when we recruited him
Joseph - solid role player who was asked to do too much this season. He's a contributor, so I'll consider him a hit
Robinson - Finally saw the court a bit late this season. Good for a few spot minutes of defense and that's about it. Seems like a good kid, but not a hit

2022 - I'll update my notes
Watson - never did much, transferred after 2 seasons
Casey - same as Watson, but he was rated fairly high. Bust
Aire - garbage
Danilo - garbage

2023 - I'll update with today's news
Nwoko - flashed at times, especially late in the season. Really disappointing to see him transfer out
Djobet - Jury is still out, but hope he sticks around and develops into a solid role player
George - Disappointing and inconsistent, but you see the flashes. I'll consider him a hit

So to summarize, in 4 years, we recruited a total of 12 players.
- 2 are starting caliber player (Wooga, George)
- 1 is a bench caliber role player (Joseph)
- 1 could potentially be a role player down the road (Djobet)
- 1 rides the bench and isn't ACC caliber (Robinson)
- 7 transferred out, and most of those contributed little to nothing while at Miami


It's no wonder we stunk this season. This is absolutely horrendous recruiting and results. For as much as L is applauded for player development, we haven't really seen any of that from the players in these 4 classes (except for Wooga).
 
Last edited:
Gables Canes said:
Going to tag onto this and go all the way back to the 2020 class. In hindsight, I should've titled this thread "The last 4 recruiting classes":

2020
Timberlake - huge bust; transferred after one season
Cross - same as Timberlake, was also rumored to be a culture problem

2021
Wooga - has been a hit. Has obvious flaws but overall has met or exceeded expectations when we recruited him
Joseph - solid role player who was asked to do too much this season. He's a contributor, so I'll consider him a hit
Robinson - Finally saw the court a bit late this season. Good for a few spot minutes of defense and that's about it. Seems like a good kid, but not a hit

2022 - I'll update my notes
Watson - never did much, transferred after 2 seasons
Casey - same as Watson, but he was rated fairly high. Bust
Aire - garbage
Danilo - garbage

2023 - I'll update with today's news
Nwoko - flashed at times, especially late in the season. Really disappointing to see him transfer out
Djobet - Jury is still out, but hope he sticks around and develops into a solid role player

So to summarize, in 4 years, we recruited a total of 11 players.
- 1 is a starting caliber player (Wooga)
- 1 is a bench caliber role player (Joseph)
- 1 could potentially be a role player down the road (Djobet)
- 1 rides the bench and isn't ACC caliber (Robinson)
- 7 transferred out, and most of those contributed little to nothing while at Miami


It's no wonder we stunk this season. This is absolutely horrendous recruiting and results. For as much as L is applauded for player development, we haven't really seen any of that from the players in these 4 classes (except for Wooga).
Click to expand...
Recruiting success typically lags behind on-court success. We were the NIT runner-up in '15 and then made the tourney three straight years. The '16-'19 classes produced:

Bruce Brown
Dewan Hernandez
DJ Vasiljevic
Rodney Miller

Lonnie Walker
Chris Lykes
Sam Waardenburg
Deng Gak

Zay Wong
Ant Walker
Harlond Beverly

That's 3 NBA players and number of other starters/contributors, with very few misses.

Then you had the '20 class, which was honestly really wonky evaluation-wise given COVID. Cross and Timberlake were top prospects on paper that clearly should not have been, but that class might as well be a throwaway class.

Then you have relatively down classes in '21 and '22 coming off of a 10 win season and then a surprise run to the Elite Eight, but that class was already signed at that point. If anything, the '23 class produced a (likely) NBA draft pick in George - who you fail to account for in your breakdown. Let's see how the Final Four bump class coming in performs.
 
Last edited:
JZCane0825 said:
Recruiting success typically lags behind on-court success. We were the NIT runner-up in '15 and then made the tourney three straight years. The '16-'19 classes produced:

Bruce Brown
Dewan Hernandez
DJ Vasiljevic
Rodney Miller

Lonnie Walker
Chris Lykes
Sam Waardenburg
Deng Gak

Zay Wong
Ant Walker
Harlond Beverly

That's 3 NBA players and number of other starters/contributors, with very few misses.

Then you had the '20 class, which was honestly really wonky evaluation-wise given COVID. Cross and Timberlake were top prospects on paper that clearly should not have been, but that class might as well be a throwaway class.

Then you have relatively down classes in '21 and '22 coming off of a 10 win season and then a surprise run to the Elite Eight, but that class was already signed at that point. If anything, the '23 class produced a (likely) NBA draft pick in George - who you fail to account for in your breakdown. Let's see how the Final Four bump class coming in performs.
Click to expand...
Good point, and I edited to include George.

There is certainly a lag, but either way you slice it, only hitting on 2 or 3 out of 12 is pitiful. You need to be hitting at least 50%.
 
Advertisement
Gables Canes said:
Good point, and I edited to include George.

There is certainly a lag, but either way you slice it, only hitting on 2 or 3 out of 12 is pitiful. You need to be hitting at least 50%.
Click to expand...
We were horrendous for multiple seasons and didn't see the bump from our recent success until this year's class. IMO, we are going to struggle with '25 high school recruiting given how bad we were this year.
 
JZCane0825 said:
We were horrendous for multiple seasons and didn't see the bump from our recent success until this year's class. IMO, we are going to struggle with '25 high school recruiting given how bad we were this year.
Click to expand...
We were horrendous for multiple seasons, especially 20/21 because a large part of the season we were fielding 7 healthy scholarship players and paying the price for the FBI bull****.

What made the Elite 8 team so good was we fielded a couple of 6th year seniors and a 5th year senior. The Final Four team was a veteran team with experienced guys off the bench in Beverly and Walker. Joseph was an energy guy.

Jim has had a lot of success pulling in transfers. There is a lot of opportunity here for quality mid tier guys who want to play in the ACC. I'd focus on kids with 2 years of eligibility remaining.
 
Advertisement
Back
Top