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Is there a way to quantify the positive impact the new league is having on overall recruiting? It sure has seemed beneficial to schools like Providence and Seton hall not to mention I suspect the newer schools.

Can having a very basketball-first league with lots of national TV make the Big East among the nation's best 1-2 conferences in 5 years?

I wonder if the fact that Pitt, WV, and UConn no longer have games in the NY area against Seton Hall and St. John's (plus no longer play in the BE tourney at MSG) is having an impact on sending more recruits to the NY/NE teams (St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence). Nova, G'Town, and Marquette are recruiting pretty similarly to how they were before, but it does have to be taken into account that it was already a pretty high level (St. John's also had some good recruiting). I can't speak for certain about Xavier, they generally get pretty good recruits, but I think this year's class is probably better than average for them (any X fans care to weigh in?). Creighton seems to be doing decent, but I don't know for sure what their previous recruiting classes have looked like (Creighton fans?). DePaul is in on some guys, yet to see if any will be landed. Overall I'd say the new conference has been a boost to recruiting. Basketball first, New York exposure, every game on tv, great arenas (and overall facilities), great fanbases, great cities and really amazing coaches.

marquette wrote:I wonder if the fact that Pitt, WV, and UConn no longer have games in the NY area against Seton Hall and St. John's (plus no longer play in the BE tourney at MSG) is having an impact on sending more recruits to the NY/NE teams (St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence). Nova, G'Town, and Marquette are recruiting pretty similarly to how they were before, but it does have to be taken into account that it was already a pretty high level (St. John's also had some good recruiting). I can't speak for certain about Xavier, they generally get pretty good recruits, but I think this year's class is probably better than average for them (any X fans care to weigh in?). Creighton seems to be doing decent, but I don't know for sure what their previous recruiting classes have looked like (Creighton fans?). DePaul is in on some guys, yet to see if any will be landed. Overall I'd say the new conference has been a boost to recruiting. Basketball first, New York exposure, every game on tv, great arenas (and overall facilities), great fanbases, great cities and really amazing coaches.

Recruiting is a zero sum game. For every winner there is a loser. If you asked Dixon and Boeheim, and paybe even Pitino, if all things being equal if they would have preferred to stay in the BE, I'm sure they would say; "yes." I anticipate that Pitt will struggle because their pipelines to DC, NYC and Philly have been damaged with the move. WVU already is now recruiting kids from their own geography (OH, WV, etc.) instead of the NE corridor. I bet $ that in 5 years teams like Butler, Xavier and maybe even Creighton will be getting more recruits from DC to NYC than Pitt and WVU who at one time used to grab a ton of talent from these areas. In 3 years Pitt will be a middle to lower tier ACC team. I really think they are in trouble.

marquette wrote:I wonder if the fact that Pitt, WV, and UConn no longer have games in the NY area against Seton Hall and St. John's (plus no longer play in the BE tourney at MSG) is having an impact on sending more recruits to the NY/NE teams (St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence). Nova, G'Town, and Marquette are recruiting pretty similarly to how they were before, but it does have to be taken into account that it was already a pretty high level (St. John's also had some good recruiting). I can't speak for certain about Xavier, they generally get pretty good recruits, but I think this year's class is probably better than average for them (any X fans care to weigh in?). Creighton seems to be doing decent, but I don't know for sure what their previous recruiting classes have looked like (Creighton fans?). DePaul is in on some guys, yet to see if any will be landed. Overall I'd say the new conference has been a boost to recruiting. Basketball first, New York exposure, every game on tv, great arenas (and overall facilities), great fanbases, great cities and really amazing coaches.

This is a pretty good class for Xavier and they may not be done (which means they will only take a player that can make an impact and their maybe someone that is committed and looking). However, I really think that it will take a few seasons for Xavier, Butler, and Creighton to get that Big East brand out to kids. Xavier is doing well right now but they could really be killing it on the recruiting trail in a few years.

GumbyDamnit! wrote:

marquette wrote:I wonder if the fact that Pitt, WV, and UConn no longer have games in the NY area against Seton Hall and St. John's (plus no longer play in the BE tourney at MSG) is having an impact on sending more recruits to the NY/NE teams (St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence). Nova, G'Town, and Marquette are recruiting pretty similarly to how they were before, but it does have to be taken into account that it was already a pretty high level (St. John's also had some good recruiting). I can't speak for certain about Xavier, they generally get pretty good recruits, but I think this year's class is probably better than average for them (any X fans care to weigh in?). Creighton seems to be doing decent, but I don't know for sure what their previous recruiting classes have looked like (Creighton fans?). DePaul is in on some guys, yet to see if any will be landed. Overall I'd say the new conference has been a boost to recruiting. Basketball first, New York exposure, every game on tv, great arenas (and overall facilities), great fanbases, great cities and really amazing coaches.

Recruiting is a zero sum game. For every winner there is a loser. If you asked Dixon and Boeheim, and paybe even Pitino, if all things being equal if they would have preferred to stay in the BE, I'm sure they would say; "yes." I anticipate that Pitt will struggle because their pipelines to DC, NYC and Philly have been damaged with the move. WVU already is now recruiting kids from their own geography (OH, WV, etc.) instead of the NE corridor. I bet $ that in 5 years teams like Butler, Xavier and maybe even Creighton will be getting more recruits from DC to NYC than Pitt and WVU who at one time used to grab a ton of talent from these areas. In 3 years Pitt will be a middle to lower tier ACC team. I really think they are in trouble.

I think what's interesting is Marquette never really seemed to get much of an advantage from the Big East in recruiting. We never really did get many recruits from the NE if any, I'm trying to think of some, Marquette peeps let me know if you can think of any.

Almost all of our recruits come from Milwaukee/Wisconsin/Chicago or south of the Mason-Dixon.

Some context on Creighton recruiting -- CU has traditionally recruited strong in Omaha, Iowa, Missouri, and midwestern jucos. The previous coaching administration (Altman) recruited California and Las Vegas, while the current administration (McDermott) has replaced those with a Texas pipeline and Minnesota/Wisconsin/Illinois targets, (and of course McDermott recruited in his own family effectively!).

I agree with others, and the Creighton coaches have said it themselves, that it will take a few years of national TV appearances, appearing in Big East arenas, etc. for the full effect of the Big East to be felt, but there's already a positive effect even though the move to the conference just happened in March. Creighton's landed 2 guys from the east coast (NY and NC) who were playing at jucos in IA and KS. The 2014's signed are from TX and CO. Safe to say we wouldn't have landed at least 1 of them if we were still in the MVC. Often in the MVC, we would make a kid's final list, only to see him sign with a BCS school. Wichita State is seeing the same thing this year... the Final Four appearance gets them on the list, but they lose out in the end on most kids, who want to play on national TV and in large media markets against the best competition.

Going forward, where we would really notice an effect would be if Creighton can pull a few freshmen off the east coast, while using geographic outlier status to its advantage in getting highly ranked kids from MN, IA, TX, CO, MO etc. who want to play in east coast cities while staying close to home. The regional B1G and Big XII schools can't offer that, and within the BE only Marquette (in TX and MN) seems to recruit the same area.

I think in Creighton's case the Big East (Weather the most important factor is the conference 'brand, the TV contract or the basketball first template is difficult to tell at this point...but all seem to be HUGE selling points) has definitely gotten some kids in the door to look around that maybe in the past would have dismissed the Bluejays as a Valley team out of hand.
My personal opinion is that it is unlikely that either of our current '14 verbals would be #RollJays if not for the new conference affiliation. (I know that Harrell specifically did mention the chance to play the conference tournament at MSG as something that he was looking forward to.)

EDIT: Just to clarify - I'm not saying that we would be desolate and recruitless, just that these two in particular would liklely not have chosen Creighton. I believe that the 247Sports crystal ball predictions were leaning heavily elsewhere on both of them. (University of Houston for Gilmore and Purdue for Harrell)

On the Xavier front, Recruiting has been pretty solid over the last few years overall with some minor setbacks (Dez Wells expulsion certainly didn't help). I definitely think the Big East gave us an extra boost with quite a few players though and obviously this 2014 class will probably end up being one of the highest ranked (potentially highest ranked) class in X history. Based on quotes from Mack, the staff and recruits it is obvious they are selling the new conference and specifically the new TV coverage.

FlyByNight101 wrote:I think in Creighton's case the Big East (Weather the most important factor is the conference 'brand, the TV contract or the basketball first template is difficult to tell at this point...but all seem to be HUGE selling points) has definitely gotten some kids in the door to look around that maybe in the past would have dismissed the Bluejays as a Valley team out of hand.
My personal opinion is that it is unlikely that either of our current '14 verbals would be #RollJays if not for the new conference affiliation. (I know that Harrell specifically did mention the chance to play the conference tournament at MSG as something that he was looking forward to.)

EDIT: Just to clarify - I'm not saying that we would be desolate and recruitless, just that these two in particular would liklely not have chosen Creighton. I believe that the 247Sports crystal ball predictions were leaning heavily elsewhere on both of them. (University of Houston for Gilmore and Purdue for Harrell)

You also have Sellers, the former Uconn assistant coach/lead recruiter, on the staff, which may not have happened if the Bluejays were not joining the BE.

MUSeashells&Balloons wrote:

GumbyDamnit! wrote:

marquette wrote:I wonder if the fact that Pitt, WV, and UConn no longer have games in the NY area against Seton Hall and St. John's (plus no longer play in the BE tourney at MSG) is having an impact on sending more recruits to the NY/NE teams (St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence). Nova, G'Town, and Marquette are recruiting pretty similarly to how they were before, but it does have to be taken into account that it was already a pretty high level (St. John's also had some good recruiting). I can't speak for certain about Xavier, they generally get pretty good recruits, but I think this year's class is probably better than average for them (any X fans care to weigh in?). Creighton seems to be doing decent, but I don't know for sure what their previous recruiting classes have looked like (Creighton fans?). DePaul is in on some guys, yet to see if any will be landed. Overall I'd say the new conference has been a boost to recruiting. Basketball first, New York exposure, every game on tv, great arenas (and overall facilities), great fanbases, great cities and really amazing coaches.

Recruiting is a zero sum game. For every winner there is a loser. If you asked Dixon and Boeheim, and paybe even Pitino, if all things being equal if they would have preferred to stay in the BE, I'm sure they would say; "yes." I anticipate that Pitt will struggle because their pipelines to DC, NYC and Philly have been damaged with the move. WVU already is now recruiting kids from their own geography (OH, WV, etc.) instead of the NE corridor. I bet $ that in 5 years teams like Butler, Xavier and maybe even Creighton will be getting more recruits from DC to NYC than Pitt and WVU who at one time used to grab a ton of talent from these areas. In 3 years Pitt will be a middle to lower tier ACC team. I really think they are in trouble.

I think what's interesting is Marquette never really seemed to get much of an advantage from the Big East in recruiting. We never really did get many recruits from the NE if any, I'm trying to think of some, Marquette peeps let me know if you can think of any.

Almost all of our recruits come from Milwaukee/Wisconsin/Chicago or south of the Mason-Dixon.

Lazar Hayward- Buffalo
Dwight Burke- Brooklyn
Pat Hazel- NJ
Damian Saunders (committed never attended)- Mass.
Tyshawn Taylor (committed never attended)-NJ
Brett Roseboro (committed never attended)- PA
Todd Mayo- WV
Derrick Wilson- Conn.

So Crean seemed to benefit from it much more than Buzz has.