tribecalledquest wrote:patnb wrote:BEARZ77 wrote:No doubt it helps, and it's your best insurance against it happening a lot. It also helps if you recruit kids with some local or University affinity. A kid from Chicago is more likely to stay at Loyola where family and friends can watch and support , but also conversely, can lead a kid to transfer home like Freeman did when a otherwise mediocre DePaul program came calling.
There's a reason UNI recruits almost exclusively Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and then Illinois and Missouri a bit as well. Within 4-5 hours of Cedar Falls is the Twin Cities, Madison, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha. Lock down the best "non P5s" in that area, build a "family setting" because you have so many similar kids that grew up playing with/against each other through AAU, where family can get to every home game with relative ease.
You also then are a safe landing spot for kids that left the area wanting to be closer to home - Paul Jespersen, Wes Washpun, Trae Berhow, etc.
100%. I know people will throw out random outliers but when MVC teams get some HS recruit from Georgia, Arizona, Florida, etc. that player is rarely a four year guy. Just thinking of Bradley over the years. One guy who did stay was Milos Knezevic from Vegas - but he was an awful player.
Here is a link to every member of the UNI basketball team this year - along with kids VC for next year. It's pretty clear what kind of "culture" and player Jake is, always has been, looking for
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharingWes was from Cedar Rapids, Iowa with a UNI offer out of HS but followed Cuonzo to Tennessee. After 1 year he wanted to be in Iowa and UNI was his landing spot
Paul Jesperson was from Merrill, WI and was recruited by UNI out of high school. Went to Virginia and when he wanted to come closer to home UNI was right in line with him again.
Trae Berhow is from Mayer, MN (just west of the Cities). UNI offered him out of HS. He went to Pepperdine. When he wanted to come back home UNI was first in line.
The only 2 players of note that aren't from IA, MN, WI, IL or MO the last decade or two are Isaiah Brown and Deon Mitchell - both out of the Austin, TX area.
A lot of programs talk about "family culture" but UNI takes it to another level. It's why transfers from the area that were recruited by UNI out of HS will give UNI the strongest looks when transferring. You can build a type of family culture by recruiting all over the country, but it does get different when you have kids all from within 4-5 hours of each other, grew up playing on the same AAU teams, or on rivals AAU teams, going to camps with each other, playing high school ball against each other. It takes more time, is a bit tougher, to do that when you have kids from Chicago, Dallas, North Carolina, Tennessee, etc.
It's what I pointed out when Sy Chapman committed to Illinois State over the spring after leaving UMASS. He was a very very high target for UNI out of high school from the Cities. He is the exact kind of player that UNI recruits like crazy in HS waiting for that exact situation. However, there was a reason UNI never reached out to him at all when he announced he was transferring and wanted back in the Midwest. Jake had a scholarship open. However, over the last two years at UMASS and everything that came out of there it was clear he didn't fit what UNI wanted as far as chemistry/family/culture. Meanwhile, he seems like an ideal fit in Normal, based on everything we've seen out of that program under Muller. Instead UNI went and grabbed Gonar Mar from GMU - who is also from the Cities.
I think more MVC programs would be smart to try to take a similar approach. There's a ton of really good talent in the Valley footprint to build those kinds of cultures for kids to want to be in and want to come back too.
