[NU Sports] Recruits

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Because tall people (over 6"6") are statistical freaks of nature (for
you stats guys it's about three standard deviations from the norm), so
that puts it at approx .5% of the total population.

The number gets smaller when you consider those that can actually play
basketball, and even smaller when you consider the number that can play
basketball at a Division I level and like to study.

I also think that we have a lot more recruiting competition for smart
basketball players (Duke, Stanford, etc.) than we do for smart football
players.

Finally, our football program has demonstrated that it can graduate kids
into the NFL.  Our basketball program hasn't demonstrated that it can
graduate kids into the NBA.  So why would a smart kid with NBA potential
choose Northwestern over Duke?  The only reason that comes to mind is
that they would like to play close to home.  That's exactly why Mark
Aguirre went to DePaul and put that program on the map.  

There aren't many (maybe not any) north shore or suburban kids playing
in the NBA.  There ARE a lot of Chicago Public League kids playing in
the NBA.  So I would suggest that our basketball future is going to be
tied inextricably to our ability to identify and recruit some very
special kids out of the Chicago Public league and that may take a while.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Abrahamson [mailto:alan.abrahamson at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 3:10 PM
To: hakirsch at aol.com
Cc: Beamsley, Jeff; nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com; Dennis W. Brandt;
nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Recruits

At the risk of being contrary:

Five years ago, 16,000 kids applied for, what, 2,000 (1,800?) spots in
the Northwestern freshman class.

This year, same number of spots in the class but 36,000 applications.
Plus one of the great young coaches in the country. I don't think
Northwestern football is a particularly tough sell, frankly.

Which begs the q - why can't we find three good basketball players?!


Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 3, 2011, at 11:50 AM, "hakirsch at aol.com" <hakirsch at aol.com>
wrote:

> Besides the academic card our only other significant competitive
advantage to sell these out of state  kids who are eligible for NU and
are wanted by their state school is that they will likely get earlier
playing time or that we will build our program around them
>
> That's a tough sell that many 17 year olds may not buy
>
> Harry
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Beamsley, Jeff" <Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>
> Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 14:40:48
> To: Dennis W. Brandt<tbng at comcast.net>; <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
> Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Recruits
>
>
>
> Dennis wrote <snip>
>
> (Texas got one five-star running back and fifteen four-stars.  At
least
> one of those sixteen athletes must be Northwestern material.  Sigh.)
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Took a look at his class and you're right.  There were a couple of
kids
> that appeared to have the high school academic record that would also
> qualify for Northwestern (straight-A's, National Honor Society, etc.).
> The problem was that they were all from Texas.  In fact, Brown only
had
> to go out of Texas for one kid.  He was from Oklahoma and there was no
> mention of his academic success, so I suspect that he wouldn't have
> qualified for Northwestern.
>
> As we have mentioned before, Northwestern is only going get those
> outstate kids who DON'T want to play for an in-state school.  The
smart
> Texas football players can stay home and still have several good
choices
> for schools that blend academics and football.  They have to get
through
> all those choices BEFORE they become legit Northwestern prospects.
>
> Though Northwestern does recruit well in Texas that speaks more to the
> number of good football players that come out of that state than any
> advantage it may have over in-state schools.
>
> Jeff
>
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