Earlier this week the recruiting pundits claimed prized Top-100 prospect Dante Jackson a Xavier Musketeer, much to the chagrin of die-hard Flyer fans tracking the Greenfield McClain standout’s progress for more than a year. He plans to make it official on Thursday.

It was a bitter pill. Not so much because the Flyers lost a talented recruit, but because of where he opted to take his services. Flashes of Romaine Sato, Josh Duncan, Derrick Brown, and others come to mind as recent hot commodities spurning the Red and Blue for the Blue and White. Lost in the shuffle are the recruiting victories such as Mark Ashman, Edwin Young, Devin Searcy, and Chris Wright – players firmly on the Muskie radar from the very beginning but ultimately deciding on UD. Jacob Pullen could add his name to that listing in the next 45 days.

If recruiting victories hinged only on sales pitches, Dayton would never lose a recruiting battle under Head Coach Brian Gregory. Nobody works longer hours and nobody agonizes harder over defeat. Perhaps no one is more passionate about his or her job than BG either. The man is intense and the obvious signs of him instilling the Michigan State machismo at UD are everywhere to be found. The players are bigger, stronger, faster, and more athletic than fans have seen in recent memory. No matter what’s said however, some kids are going to fall through the recruiting cracks. Rest assured the Flyers did everything in their power to lure Dante Jackson to Dayton. But those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and in many ways the Flyers haven’t helped their recruiting cause. For BG and his cronies, much of that was in motion long before they took over.

Xavier and Dayton remained firmly joined at the hip. But as academics and opportunities blend, finer details sometimes emerge that set one school apart from the other. Like it or not, the Muskies can hang their hat on a few more things that appeal to wide-eyed recruits looking to be the next LeBron James. Dayton hasn’t advanced in the NCAA tournament since 1990. Coincidentally, that is the same year the Flyers last sent a player to the NBA. These things might seem like window dressing to the fans, but they matter to recruits. When a pair of schools are neck and neck, these are the kinds of things that make a difference. Unfortunately, Gregory and his staff are victims of this reality as much as anyone. Flyer fans can point to the DePaul debacle in the NCAA tournament, but outside of that, the new regime has exceeded most expectations from the very beginning. Were it not for Trent Meacham’s untimely exit, there’s a good chance UD finds the postseason a year ago.

If anything hampers UD recruiting, it’s not the current coaching staff. It’s not the university itself or those in UD academia. It’s not the lack of city nightlife. It’s Flyer history. NCAA flameouts and an inability to recruit program-changing difference makers that excel at the next level are to blame. It’s hard to believe UD fans must champion the tired name of Negele Knight as our NBA hero while far less successful schools such as St. Bonaventure and Duquesne have guys like JR Bremer and Mike James cutting teeth on NBA paychecks at the moment. Schools such as Hampton, George Mason, East Tennessee State, Murray State, UT-Chattanooga, Miami University, Kent State, Weber State, and Valparaiso have earned NCAA immortality more recently and on a much grander scale than the Dayton Flyers. Unacceptable.

Until NCAA victories and NBA player development become mainstays of the Dayton program, other programs doing these things can wow prospects with Upper Deck mug shots and Billy Packer quotes. Kids are impressionable. These things make a difference to some. Dante Jackson had his own reasons for sure, but we’ll never know exactly what they were.

The silver lining is Brian Gregory has Dayton on the up tick. It wasn’t long ago that Dayton recruited a talented BCS-level prospect, missed out, and turned to a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference plan B option. Those days are dead. Not only is UD landing better primary targets (Roberts, Meacham, Wright, Johnson), the secondary options look pretty good too. Five years ago, losing a kid like Dante Jackson meant scouring the local YMCA for a suitable replacement. Today it simply means we target another player with the same skill set and potential upside. And who’s to say the secondary option isn’t ultimately better than the first? All four incoming recruits for 2006 have difference-maker potential. And there’s already good evidence to believe all of them are better prospects than many rated higher, which is good news because they were all well-regarded in their own right. Kurt Huelsman makes plays, Marques Johnson is athletically uncompromised, London Warren is jet-quick with terrific hops, and Andres Sandoval has the experience and size to control opposing point guards. As for 2007, Chris Wright and Devin Searcy are athletic frontcourt players with basketball ability that flies in the face of the overused Big White Stiff stereotype Dayton cannot seem to shake.

Recruiting is about casting a wide net and leveraging market saturation. Salesmanship is all about numbers. Sooner or later the message sinks in with two or three special individuals that buy into what the coaches are selling. We’re already at that point. So to think of how good things can be when Dayton finds out how to win in the Big Dance and send a couple studs to the NBA is downright tasty. That’s because Gregory has already narrowed the gap considerably selling only himself, the university, an opportunity to play early, and perhaps a chance to build something from the ground up. Once the Flyers have all the same cards to play on the recruiting trail, I’m confident BG can deal a Royal Flush better than the next guy. I look back at those #1 recruiting classes at Michigan State as solid evidence. There are more Dante Jacksons in UD’s future. Losing these battles has never been so painless. It’s been 25 years since fans could say that.