KAEO Bruce Brown (2016)

[baseline47]

I agree with everything BThoops says re: UMass vs IU and GT. A couple of thoughts:

UMass is an excellent state Univ., in fact it's better than most state and many private colleges/universities (including those in power conferences). However, it seems to me most athletes are more interested in a college/university's athletic programs than they are academics. This is particularly so for male athletes dreaming of professional careers. Thus it's tough for UMass, a mid-major, to compete with power 5 conference schools.

Coaching: A mid major school can offset the advantages of power 5 schools with superior coaching. VCU's Shaka Smart competed successfully for talent as did Calipari when at UMass. Players are attracted to schools with great coaching. It's hard for mid-major schools to find/hire and retain the very best coaches. Smart has followed the big bucks to Texas; who can blame him for cashing in? Ask yourself, if your son was a very good Div. 1 basketball prospect with aspirations of a professional career either as a player or a coach, would you want him to play for DK? Be truthful now.

[Crank]

Would you want your son to play for Brian Gregory and his 55-71 record at Georgia Tech (one of Brown's other choices)? He'll get lots of TV exposure as the Washigton Generals of the ACC...

[Tman1319]

It would really depend on what you value as a parent. Talent will be found, regardless of where someone plays.

[NilesGold]

Tom Crean (IU coach) would be towards the bottom of the list of all D1 coaches I'd want my kid to play for.

[Chris20]

Ask yourself, if your son was a very good Div. 1 basketball prospect with aspirations of a professional career either as a player or a coach, would you want him to play for DK? Be truthful now.

Yes.

[baseline47]

Well, you all have much more faith in DK than I have.

I'm a graduate of and love my state U. I think it's a great university, a great place to go to school, but it doesn't have a great basketball coach. My opinion.

[MassDynasty321]

Well, you all have much more faith in DK than I have.

I'm a graduate of and love my state U. I think it's a great university, a great place to go to school, but it doesn't have a great basketball coach. My opinion.

Not disagreeing with your assessment of DK as a basketball coach, but he's not a bad guy to have recruiting someone like Brown. DK is uniquely positioned to be able to preach how meaningful it was to be a local kid at UMass putting the program on the national map. Obviously all coaches have their pitches, and not saying that this makes us at all a favorite to land him, but DK should have a few more tools to use when recruiting a top player from Mass vs one from Texas, DC, etc.

[Crank]

"I'm a graduate of and love my state U. I think it's a great university, a great place to go to school, but it doesn't have a great basketball coach. My opinion."

Something approximating this statement is likely being made on every hoops message board of every school with a veteran coach that missed the tournament this year. When you watch every play of every game of one team, you will see and focus on every weakness...and all but the very best coaches have plenty of them.

[Chris20]

Exactly, Crank. I obviously don't know any specific poster's viewing habits, but I would bet that there are many on here who watch UMass games almost exclusively. Which leads to a complete lack of perspective when evaluating the coach or pretty much anything else.

It's more common on here to compare a current team, coach, or player to the 1996 UMass team than it is to compare it/him to a current peer program in today's college hoop scene.

[eldonabe]

Well, you all have much more faith in DK than I have.

I'm a graduate of and love my state U. I think it's a great university, a great place to go to school, but it doesn't have a great basketball coach. My opinion.

Not disagreeing with your assessment of DK as a basketball coach, but he's not a bad guy to have recruiting someone like Brown. DK is uniquely positioned to be able to preach how meaningful it was to be a local kid at UMass putting the program on the national map. Obviously all coaches have their pitches, and not saying that this makes us at all a favorite to land him, but DK should have a few more tools to use when recruiting a top player from Mass vs one from Texas, DC, etc.

... and clearly he is a master craftsman with those extra tools.... you know, with all those Mass/New England players on the roster and all....

Umass has A LOT stacked against it when trying to lure some kid that has legitimate P5 level interest:

- DK is not building a great track record as an HC, so how does he sell (or bullshit around) that?
- Umass is not in a P5 conference and they have a really shitty television deal - so how does anyone sell that?
- As much as we all love Umass, there are regional perception issues that always seem to come up - you can sell around that, but it is still something to contend with
- Continued conference turmoil leaves many question marks on the future..... The odds of Umass ending up in the AAC are no more likely than ending up in the MAC or Sunbelt at this point - DK Cannot steer away from that one either

I know Umass has the new basketball facility opening not soon enough and that is a huge selling point, but the bottom line is if a kid has aspirations of getting paid, he needs to be on TV and he needs to be able to showcase himself in the big dance.

The biggest selling point DK has (IMO) is if he can get in the ear of a true game changer - he can sell being THE MAN not just A MAN on the team and getting all the [player] credit for resurrecting UMass. A guy that can be instrumental in selling UMass to a P5 (or AAC) conference and a guy who can hang his number next to Camby, Roe and Erving etc.....

I know [seen] a little about Brown's game, and he actually could be the kind of player that you could sell that vision too, and also snag another high lever recruit or two to come and play with him.

If DK is going to dress like a used car salesman, he should start acting the part and land one of these players..... Of course he has to figure out how to use the guy too and that is a whole different story....

[MassDynasty321]

Well, you all have much more faith in DK than I have.

I'm a graduate of and love my state U. I think it's a great university, a great place to go to school, but it doesn't have a great basketball coach. My opinion.

Not disagreeing with your assessment of DK as a basketball coach, but he's not a bad guy to have recruiting someone like Brown. DK is uniquely positioned to be able to preach how meaningful it was to be a local kid at UMass putting the program on the national map. Obviously all coaches have their pitches, and not saying that this makes us at all a favorite to land him, but DK should have a few more tools to use when recruiting a top player from Mass vs one from Texas, DC, etc.

... and clearly he is a master craftsman with those extra tools.... you know, with all those Mass/New England players on the roster and all....

Umass has A LOT stacked against it when trying to lure some kid that has legitimate P5 level interest:

- DK is not building a great track record as an HC, so how does he sell (or bullshit around) that?
- Umass is not in a P5 conference and they have a really shitty television deal - so how does anyone sell that?
- As much as we all love Umass, there are regional perception issues that always seem to come up - you can sell around that, but it is still something to contend with
- Continued conference turmoil leaves many question marks on the future..... The odds of Umass ending up in the AAC are no more likely than ending up in the MAC or Sunbelt at this point - DK Cannot steer away from that one either

I know Umass has the new basketball facility opening not soon enough and that is a huge selling point, but the bottom line is if a kid has aspirations of getting paid, he needs to be on TV and he needs to be able to showcase himself in the big dance.

The biggest selling point DK has (IMO) is if he can get in the ear of a true game changer - he can sell being THE MAN not just A MAN on the team and getting all the [player] credit for resurrecting UMass. A guy that can be instrumental in selling UMass to a P5 (or AAC) conference and a guy who can hang his number next to Camby, Roe and Erving etc.....

I know [seen] a little about Brown's game, and he actually could be the kind of player that you could sell that vision too, and also snag another high lever recruit or two to come and play with him.

If DK is going to dress like a used car salesman, he should start acting the part and land one of these players..... Of course he has to figure out how to use the guy too and that is a whole different story....

How did I know this was going to turn into a why don't we have kids from Massachusetts argument. There are a million factors that go into a kid's college decision. My point is only that in this one situation, DK has a unique recruiting angle that he doesn't with other recruits, and that GT and Indiana don't have with Brown.

[baseline47]

MassDynasty321 "How did I know this was going to turn into a why don't we have kids from Massachusetts argument. There are a million factors that go into a kid's college decision. My point is only that in this one situation, DK has a unique recruiting angle that he doesn't with other recruits, and that GT and Indiana don't have with Brown."

MassDynasty321, You're right. It belongs somewhere else. It just happened. Maybe it's all my frustrations with not being able to land another recruit for next year? And, also with the way the team finished last season? I didn't mean to hijack the topic.

[MassDynasty321]

MassDynasty321 "How did I know this was going to turn into a why don't we have kids from Massachusetts argument. There are a million factors that go into a kid's college decision. My point is only that in this one situation, DK has a unique recruiting angle that he doesn't with other recruits, and that GT and Indiana don't have with Brown."

MassDynasty321, You're right. It belongs somewhere else. It just happened. Maybe it's all my frustrations with not being able to land another recruit for next year? And, also with the way the team finished last season? I didn't mean to hijack the topic.

Don't worry, that wasn't directed at you .

Trust me, I'm as frustrated as anyone with how last season ended, but the bitter taste in everyone's mouth is making this board pretty miserable during the offseason. I try to view recruiting on a case by case basis, because I feel that's the most rational way to do so, outside of any strong crossover between recruits (people who played together in AAU/high school, strong pipeline in the area, etc.). Having said that, my biggest concern with Brown, outside of going against P5 schools, isn't that we have a poor track record with Mass kids, it's the seemingly tenuous relationship between UMass/DK and BABC.

[Calmass9]

Tom Crean is going to get fired if Indiana doesnt make the tourny next year, its a lock. Brian Gregory was solid at Dayton, probably a better coach than DK, but GT has been horrendous the last few years and I don't see them as some sort of a major step up the college bball food chain from UMass right now. I think we are very much in the running for Bruce and have a weird feeling we're going to nab him.

[NilesGold]

^ Just keep in mind that UMass, IU and GTech are per Brown the schools that are "staying in regular contact". They aren't his final 3 and they aren't the only schools recruiting him.

I feel pretty confident in saying that the UMass coaches have put a lot of time/effort into the recruitment of Brown. But I have no idea if it will, or will not, amount to a positive outcome.