The early signing period comes to a close on Wednesday. As the ink dries on the letters of intent, many so-called recruiting experts will assess who signed where. Some fellow A10 members are in line for national recognition when the experts hand out their grades. Fordham – yes, Fordham – has a national Top-20 recruiting class. Flyer Fans should not hold their breath waiting to see how UD ranks in the fall period. Barring a surprise signing in the next several days, most recruiting experts will rank the UD fall class near the bottom of the A10. Moreover this will mark the second straight year that the UD classes were similarly rated.

What? Near the bottom of the A10? Isn’t Sammy Smith a quality recruit? UD did sign Brooks Hall didn’t they? Well, yes from all reports Sammy will be an impact player in the A10. Sammy is generally considered one of the ten best players in the state of Ohio and reports of his play in AAU competition are glowing. And Brooks looks will be as good — maybe better — than advertised. Flyer fans should be excited at the opportunity of seeing Brooks Hall and Sammy playing together the next three years. So why are the UD recruiting classes held in low regard? For one, it’s due to improved recruiting by other conference members like Fordham. And partly it is due to the size of the UD recruiting classes. Successful recruiting requires not only signing quality players, but it also requires signing enough quality players to maintain depth and enable a program to “reload, not rebuild.” Most recruiting rankings consider the talent of the players signed, the number of players signed, and how well the signings address team needs.

The low ranking of the UD recruiting classes isn’t a negative reflection of the abilities of Brooks, Sammy, or Keith Waleskowski. It reflects the Flyers’ inability to sign more of those types of players. In the spring of 1999 UD had the opportunity to sign as many as three additional players. There were six scholarships available for the early signing period now coming to a close. But out of those two signing periods the only player currently in line to play for the Flyers is Sammy Smith. The inability to sign additional players last spring and this fall does not mean that we are staring at a return to single digit wins in the immediate future. Far from it. Next year’s roster will have talent at most positions regardless of what happens over the next four-and-a-half months. But depth is missing at two key positions, center and point guard, as evidenced by a quick look at the current 2000-01 roster:

Center — Keith Waleskowski
Power Forward — Yuanta Holland, Nate Green
Wing Forward — Cain Doliboa, Brooks Hall
Shooting Guard — Tony Stanley, Sammy Smith, Nucleus Smith
Point Guard — David Morris

In addition, three of those players will be seniors next season. UD is looking at a very young, very inexperienced team in 2001-02 unless the April signing period brings several quality recruits. And with eight scholarships available in the next two years, one begins to wonder if the NCAA will view scholarship reductions as no penalty at all. After all, a cynic might say that in the past eight months Dayton only signed one player, so how could they possibly sign eight recruits in the next year?

In fairness, any assessment of recruiting is incomplete until the spring signing period concludes. Once the NCAA announces the penalties for the violations in the recruitment of Brooks Hall, Coach Purnell and his staff may find it a little easier to get signatures on the dotted line. But it is getting to be slim pickings when searching for quality players in the late signing period. With increasing numbers, top high school seniors prefer to sign in November. Some estimate that nearly 70% of the consensus Top 400 high school seniors will sign in November. Many of those who didn’t sign early have significant grade issues and are headed for junior college programs. Still others are holding off at the request of bigger schools that want to evaluate the player during their senior year and see how their fall recruiting turned out. One such example is Erik Daniels who reportedly put off signing until the spring to see if Ohio State would get involved.

So what does this mean for Flyer fans? For this year and next year, not a lot. Whatever happens this April is not likely to translate into wins or losses on the court next year. But this April will be a very critical period for the 2001-02 edition of the Flyers. As we look forward to the start of the regular season, one more question remains unanswered. Can Oliver Purnell and his staff recruit enough good players to enable Dayton to be thought of as a perennial contender for an NCAA berth?