A10 Incoming Classes Ranked (Link)
Schmidt hopes he’s got another Nicholson up his sleeve in terms of recruiting.
We’ve lifted a terrifically comprehensive recruiting round-up article from the fine folks over at Cox Sports and provided the link below. Written by the New England Recruiting Report staff, the article gives each team a full paragraph in breaking down their incoming classes and placing them into categories. In case you don’t feel like clicking the link, VCU is bringing in a class that’s loaded even by high-major standards and Rhode Island and GW also have done extremely well this spring. (Full disclosure I do write for Cox, but didn’t write this piece. However, I will be linking to some A10 related stuff I did for them in the near future).
For the Bonnies, it’s more of the same in terms of whose coming in. The article places Schmidt’s class under a section called “strategic additions” along with Duquesne, La Salle and UMass which is his kind way of saying, “Your incoming class isn’t that talented”. We’ve seen it before, we’ll see it again.
However, they do have some positive things to say about J. Adams and as well as Mr. Taqqee and Marcus Posley. Much like the preseason rankings, it’s the same story each year with recruiting: Schmidt doesn’t sign any names of national note, but he clearly knows what he’s doing and does a fantastic job developing players inside his system once they arrive. This isn’t just about Andrew Nicholson either. Consider the final product of the following players during Mark’s tenure: Matt Wright, Charlon Kloof, Conger, Eric Mosley, Chris Matthews, Jon Hall and even Mike Lee during his senior season. Schmidt has shown and ability to sign and hit on at least one player per class and turn that player in a real, credible A10 talent. In terms of the current roster I think about guys like Dion Wright and Youssou Ndoye. Both of those players I could see being a potential all-league guy by their senior years.
Bottom line: Don’t worry about what the recruiting class looks like now; it will look vastly different in a few years. Sure, some of these guys will be swing and misses. That’s the case in classes all around the country. The key to recruiting is to hit on at least one or two guys per class. You don’t want to come strike out on multiple classes in a row; that’s how you wind up with a bad team.
http://www.coxhub.com/articles/atlantic-10-ranking-the-incoming-classes
