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New George Mason regime shying away from the 'Beltway Recruiting Battle'?

George Mason Basketball: New George Mason regime shying away from the 'Beltway Recruiting Battle'?

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Friday, June 10, 2011

New George Mason regime shying away from the 'Beltway Recruiting Battle'?

Jim Larranaga made a name for himself in Fairfax by recruiting well in the DC, Virginia, and Maryland area. Most of the Final Four team was comprised of overlooked talent that came from no more than 15-20 miles away from the George Mason campus. With the hiring of new head coach Paul Hewitt most fans wondered if our local recruiting would drop off or improve.  Hewitt is known as a excellent recruiter and so far he and his staff have been looking at some big name recruits but none really from the beltway area.  There's always been a knock on local teams here about letting all the good talent leave. Will all that be changing with the recent DC area coaching carousel?

Dave McKenna, writer for the Washington City Paper, writes about the DC area recruiting war that is about to go on with all the new head coaching changes among the local college teams. You'll notice Paul Hewitt and his staff are no where to be found in the article. Hewitt and his staff have ties elsewhere, Chris Kreider has the Georgia area and Roland Houston has Philadelphia. Hewitt himself seems to have reach all over judging by his recruiting track record but you have to wonder when the staff will throw their sword into the beltway recruiting battle. Perhaps he needs some time to learn the area and make a few AAU connections. I would imagine Mason fans would prefer to see some local talent come to Fairfax or maybe I'm in the minority on this. When you take a look at the starting lineup from this past season, really only Cam Long had local ties to the area.

Would it bother you if Hewitt and his staff shy away from recruiting along the beltway? Or do you not care where the talent comes from?

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25 Comments:

Anonymous Olivia Valentine said...

I personally don't care. If the recruiter has talent and commits to Mason, then I'm all for 'em. 

9:53 AM  
Anonymous Matt Cerilli said...

I am happy just getting the best talent available. The person could be from Alaska for all I care.

9:54 AM  
Anonymous IanBrinksman said...

No not at all -- I actually think it speaks better of us if we have a national presence. 

9:59 AM  
Anonymous NYYSUX said...

Hewitt is a crazy good recruiter, no need to worry, he will get the job done.

10:00 AM  
Anonymous c hirsch said...

Couldn't care less if the talent is local or not.

10:11 AM  
Anonymous Rmjank said...

Recruiting (inter)national players shows that we are a program with real ncaa presence.  But I'd like to see effort in local recruiting.  Our fanbase isn't quite "legion" yet, but it would sure be a proud day when we hear of a great new local recruit who grew up a Patriots fan.  And players coming in with an affinity for the team can only help with the "no I in team" issue.  Yeah, so I'd like to see our presence in the local gyms, but the bottom line still needs to be assembling the best team no matter where the players are from.  Perhaps if you're more or less equal on two guys, and one of them is local, go with the local guy.

10:19 AM  
Anonymous psyclone said...

Actually most of our current roster (Larranaga-recruited), with the exception of Arledge and Allen are NOT local.  We have more guys with NY ties (Pearson, Wright, Edwards, Gray). The rest are from all over--Texas, Florida, NC, etc.

11:23 AM  
Anonymous emjay613 said...

They could be from Mars as long as they can dribble, shoot, rebound, and defend. It makes no difference.  

11:35 AM  
Anonymous out1aw said...

Recruiting is about assessing talent and not reading scout reports. Recruiters got to see that talent. That being said, we're the George Mason Patriots not the Fairfax Va. Patriots. 

11:55 AM  
Anonymous Taylormade703 said...

I could care less where a kid comes from.  Once they put on a "Mason" jersey they are one of us!  I'd rather be in the Final Four with a team full of guys from the west coast than in the middle of the CAA with guys from Fairfax High School.

1:00 PM  
Anonymous gmuhoops said...

You miss the point on all my posts.

1:09 PM  
Anonymous Charlie T said...

To answer your question is rather simple. I really do not care where the talent comes from. I do care how the particular player represents GMU both on and off the court. A little to much "Dancing with the Devil" within some BCS schools is not something I think we can use when it comes to recruiting. No doubt about how important recruiting is and how difficult. I do think however his staff ,like every other staff,has their eye on the prize wherever it is. Selling the school,the program and themselves will be their true test.

3:01 PM  
Anonymous Justin Hay said...

I think you miss the point, Ryan.  Out1aw is trying to suggest that you need to put the ball in the hoop to win the game.

3:08 PM  
Anonymous out1aw said...

GMUHOOPS, i thank you for your compliment.GMUHOOPS, when you said “point” I assume you meant the thesis of your post… Are we (George Mason) missing the boat on the local recruiting war?Here, I addressed your thesis. "We're the George Mason Patriots, not the Fairfax Patriots." It’s a big world out there; no boundaries. Second, the question that ends your post has a disconnect with your thesis. I wouldn’t mention it, but if you have such a narrow view of what you want as a response, you must not have such a conflict with your thesis and post ending question. I took the liberty to address both. There is a consequence beyond loyalty that recruiting outside your region carries. The further your recruiting arm reaches, the further you stress on video, paper analysis and scouting reports. When offering scholarships to kids who are out of the top 100, busts become much more prevalent.

5:06 PM  
Anonymous Guest said...

I think the point was that we are not winning the local recruiting battles with teams like VCU, ODU, Georgetown etc. If big talent were to come out of the DMV area, they probably wouldn't be coming to Mason based on the trend in the area.

5:58 PM  
Anonymous Taylormade703 said...

Is there anybody here would would rather have:
a) choir boys from Fairfax who stink at basketball than
b) players from whereever who get us to the Sweet 16 every year?

6:53 PM  
Anonymous Matt K. said...

It really doesn't matter where someone is from, but that Hewitt gets the best talent available to come and play for Mason.  With that being said, Baltimore has a great amount of talent, and I am surprised we haven't hit anyone from there.  There are lots of areas with good talent though, so it really doesn't matter.

7:05 PM  
Anonymous Egross said...

To play devil's advocate here for a second (because it seems most of the readers of this post "don't care where the talent comes from"), not having good ties to the local area may cost the team some talent.  Let's say, a local kid playing for an AAU coach who has ties to ODU, VCU, Gtown, etc. is deciding where to go to play basketball.  He really respects his AAU coach and goes to him for advice on where to play.  The AAU coach feels comfortable sending kids up to Gtown or VCU because of his relationship with their staffs.  George Mason misses out on this kid because the staff is recruiting elsewhere and not making the local ties.  With all the big name schools close by, I am a little worried that some good local talent will end up at UMD, Gtown, ODU, VCU.  I think that was more the point of the article.  To simply look at it and say talent is talent is indeed a logical answer, but I think the article was about the possibility of good talent not coming to Mason because they may take Mason's disinterest in recruiting in the local area as a bad thing and their coaches would not have relationships with our staff.  I think it may make a difference in those cases, but it never hurts to try to have a national scope as well.  Good teams have a little home cooking as well as foreign flavor when it comes to talent and what makes them great teams and sweet 16 teams is the ability to blend that talent.

10:55 PM  
Anonymous Jay8151 said...

"Just bring the talent baby" ---By me.    It doesn't matter where the recruits come from, as long as they can play and want to win a National Championship.  However I would like to see Petersburg High standout point guard Frank Mason commit to the school.  As always, "Go Mason"

11:42 PM  
Anonymous JD said...

I think we all recognize the amount of talent in the area, and I think that the new staff should put a focus into recruiting locally simply because there is so much right here in DC.  When you look at guys like Kevin Durant or Michael Beasley going halfway across the country you can't help but wonder what got them to leave with the number of good programs in the area.  There was a small write up on ESPN yesterday about local recruiting battles, you can read that here if you're interested.
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/31796/foretelling-washington-d-c-s-aau-bloodbath

12:44 PM  
Anonymous Dsntsm said...

"Success=Higher Profile  and Higher Skilled Recruits" and the ability to compete to sign these recruits. Its just the natural progession and growth and transition to a "bigger-time" program. VCU is going to do it, and Mason can too. Sorry, local stars in the D.C. area which Mason may have jumped at a few years ago, no longer merit any attention.  That's progress.

2:36 PM  
Anonymous Mooky_l3d said...

So

8:06 PM  
Anonymous Matt said...

Don't care.  But when you are scouring for talent the should be lookng here as well.  If that is happening and they like what the see else where then they should get who they think will help win games.  The bonus to local talent is that they may have family close by which can add stability to starting life on campus in a DI program. 

12:10 AM  
Anonymous DB said...

Just because the writer does not mention GMU in his article does not mean that we are not recruiting locally.  I was looking at either Rivals or Scout yesterday and I noticed we are invloved with a bunch of local kids for 2012 and 2013.

2:26 PM  
Anonymous Mooky_l3d said...

And what I mean is they should get the best talent where ever it is.  Here or there I like the recruits anywhere.  In a house or a box at the beach or on some rocks.  If they can play bring'em on to Fairfax.

10:51 AM  

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