We have all been tracking the reports about recruits. It never actually seems to stop. I’m not sure when it actually starts. There is no clear-cut date like Jan. 1. It just seems to go on and on. The names change every few months, but the game remains the same. How can Hometown U. get the quick, tall, smart, accurate kid from North West South Central Detroit to come to his university and play basketball?

We read all the reports and everybody is an expert. Anybody that wants to create their own web site and call it Recruiting Central, can. They all have their opinions on where Johnny will go to school because they just got off the phone with Johnny and he said that his recruiting visit to Hometown U. went really well. I would like to know when was the last time that Johnny actually said that a recruiting visit went bad.

We literally spend half of our time worrying about what some 17 year old kid has to say about where he will decide to further his education. I long for the days when we knew nothing until the kid signed his letter of intent and they published it that beacon of knowledge, the Dayton Daily News. As a kid, I remember nothing about the recruiting process. Even as a young adult there was little to be found. Of course that was in the day when the 17-year-old was not a nationally known sports figure. I do remember when Lew Alcindor chose UCLA, but that was only because he was already labeled the best basketball player ever.
I have read notes and message board cries from concerned fans about how much trouble we are in because we have not signed this player or that player.

* We have blown so many opportunities that it’s not even funny.
* Oliver Purnell obviously does not know what he is doing because he has not signed anyone over 6′ 5″ tall this year.
*We have allowed player after player to go somewhere else.
*We have had players say they were going to come to UD and then backed out. Obviously, this is his fault.

We place a player on a pedestal when he agrees to sign with us, but when he changes his mind, as 17 year olds tend to do, he is scum. We actually wish him bodily harm. This is just a guess, but I think some of us need to get a life.

Have any of you actually had the thought that what has happened with regard to recruiting in the last few weeks is actually good for UD? I know that this would be against popular opinion, but think about it. How many of us thought that we would stand at 3-0 on Nov. 28, 1999? Certainly not me and I am as blind to reality as possible when it comes to predicting the future for the Flyers. How many recruits thought that we would be 3-0? What do you think would happen if we actually did the unthinkable and beat UK on Monday? Geez, do you think that we might get a little bit of time on Sports Center? How about all of those kids with nothing better to do than put on the Deuce come Monday evening? What do you think would happen if we actually got one of those little numbers in parentheses in front of Dayton when our score was flashed on the screen?

A friend said something to me that other night and I found it to be rather insightful. “Win and they will come.” He could not have been more correct.

As soon as we start winning, the bigger names will come to the Arena to watch us play and actually think about playing there. We may be glad that UD has 8 scholarships to give over the next two years. When I mentioned to my wife that UC was number 1, she couldn’t believe it. “When I think of Number 1, I think of Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky, not UC,” she said. Well, guess what, all it takes is winning. There is a Catch 22 there, but like it or not, that is what we need. OP may have actually put a team in place that will get us into the spotlight. We may feel a bit of that bright light beginning at 7PM EST on Nov. 29, 1999.