also, howard being a part of the fab five gives him a lot of cultural cache, like penny, with the younger players that ewing, mullin, etc don't have.
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Oof lol that turned dark!
Though I'm sure many would agree, I think Scoscox is right about the cultural aspect, the 30 for 30 showed The Fab Five as sort of "bad boys" which I think is something recruits these days can really relate to, I could definitely see Howard being more of a hit like Penny is, even though Ewing is an absolute legend.
yea, ewing's in it for about 15 seconds.
also, i think i focused too much on the cultural thing there. penny is having success because he's cashing in on a personal relationship with the #1 prospect in the country. i don't think it's any deeper than that really
I think Penny's got many personal relationships in one of the most fertile recruiting areas in the country. That's not going to dissipate when James Wiseman has finished his one year. Now, if this season goes wrong and Wiseman appears to have a bad experience, that's going to cause him issues with future players like that.
agreed. and you're probably right about the connections, but i only mean that with regard to the stars aligning for this monster class. he is particularly fortunate to have coached the #1 player in the class and was able to recruit other talent based on that. i don't expect recruiting to fall off a cliff just that it probably won't be at that level.
AAU connections are important, that's for sure, I think if this monster class leads to some solid success, the recruiting will stay pretty high and competitive, do I expect it to beat Duke and UK year in and year out? Absolutely not. Another thing to consider is that Derrick Rose also went to Memphis, he's just as much a "cultural" legend in the eyes of recruits. I don't really think you oversold the cultural thing, I think it is prominent, and it does play a part in it. Just so happens that Penny has a lot of AAU connections as well.