Toughest Recruiting Miss ...

[MisterD]

Besides Kobe, because that's too easy. So the kid that you took the hardest when he picked not La Salle. Doesn't have to be us as the last choice, just our name in the mix at some point where you allowed for hope.

Kobe was before me anyway so he would have been out on my list anyway. I didn't really follow recruiting when we lost Armstrong, otherwise it would be him easy given the proximity to my hometown and where he ended up. I loved Dominique McKoy but more as a fit than a can't miss game-changing kind of recruit. So my answer is going to be Kyle Anderson. For however short period of time we were associated with him, for real or just in our minds, that was the best. Brimah is runner up, Morris twins in some weird outside "I think we have a chance, but I'm not sure how good that is" kind of way.

(What I'm really hoping is this devolves into "you fucking idiot, we never had a shot at _______". That would make this exercise a lot more fun.)

[glorydays]

Wilt Chamberlain graduated from Overbook in '55. We won the NCAA title in '54 and went to the finals in '55 with Gola. Loeffler left La Salle after the '55 season.

It would have been nice to have bagged the late Wilton Norman Chamberlain.

[spaceghost]

That brings us back to another recurring topic, GD. Wilt Chamberlain's recruiting

[coqui900]

Russ Smith. In a walk.

[MisterD]

Oh shit, that's a good one. Did we expect him to be Russ Smith of Louisville or would he have just been a strong BCS level get?

[broderickpresident]

A few that come to mind... To my knowledge we were at least involved with each: Lari Ketner, Jason Lawson, Marc Jackson, Richard Hamilton, Bryce Drew, Lavoy Allen

[jetstorm]

Aarac Murray sometimes you lose when you win!

[jellybean]

Elgin Baylor

[sweat83]

Tony Costner would have been a nice catch. I remember when he visited the campus in the early 80's. Hurt even more that he opted for St. Joe's.

[broderickpresident]

JB was La Salle really involved with Baylor?! I'd love to hear any info you have on that.

In my life as a fan (roughly 25 years), we've generally had the guards necessary to compete, but have missed out on countless bigs and swingmen that would have given us big minutes, but instead chose to languish on an ACC or Big East bench. Travis Garrison and Laron Cephas (both to MD) seem like good representatives of that group along with Frank Tomera (Clemson?)

[coqui900]

I loved Sam and Garland. But can you imagine if we replaced one of them with Russ Smith? Or Dunn?

If things broke the right way, our Sweet 16 team could have had a rotation of Russ/Duren/Galloway/Mills/Garland/Jerrell/Steve/Stardingher. It's probably one too many high-quality guards to have a realistic shot at happening (Would Garland come in knowing he has to fight for those minutes? Would Sam sign if we grabbed Russ? I have no idea about the scholarship availability, too.) but we can certainly dream.

On paper, that the best A-10 backcourt since the Jameer St. Joe's team and the best multi-guard sets since the Nova Final 4 team, probably. They're not as good as those teams but the distance isn't too great. We'd also have some more front-court depth to replace Steve when he got injured.

I still think our run would end at the Sweet 16, barring some major breaks. At the very least we wouldn't have been a bubble team having to sweat it out as much as we did. We could have even had an upper end of the bracket type bid.

We'd also have a lot more depth last season to weather the various injuries and inconsistent play.

[player71]

I can only go back to around the mid-90s in terms of recruiting but I would say Ketner was the biggest miss because a legit big man with the other players at that time could have changed the program.

[calsufan]

I seem to remember we recruited Richard Hamilton pretty hard as well, no? He would have been a real get.

[Deleted]

Some guys that could have put those mid-70's teams with JB, Billy Taylor, Charlie Wise, Glen Collier, and Joe DiCocco over the top were:

1) Jimmie Baker out of Olney HS. Total stud. Remember watching him play in the Narberth League. Had a great college career at UNLV and Univ of Hawaii.
collegehoopedia.com/players/jimmie-baker

2) Maurice Howard - La Salle came in second to Maryland for him. Mo liked La Salle so much he recommended it to his Maryland teammate Varick Cutler. Poor Varick had major knee problems and never realized his potential.

3) Sydney Sheppard out of Mastbaum. I believe he ended up going to Boston College and playing football instead. He was a physical specimen.

4) Billy Magarity out of Cardinal Dougherty - went to Univ of Georgia and had a fine career there.

A guy that could have put the Black/Butts/Lewis/Greenberg teams over the top was Dallas Comegys from Roman Catholic who had a nice career at DePaul. La Salle recruited him very hard.

Not sure how hard La Salle pursued Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble but imagine those two on the late 80's teams. I think they were set on leaving the area.

Lari Ketner, Rashid Bey, Devin Gray, Lynyrd Stewart, Carlin Warley, Harry Moore, Jon Haynes, Jason Lawson, Alvin Williams, Marc Jackson and Cuttino Mobley were some early-mid 90's kids who La Salle recruited pretty hard. And don't forget Rashime Middleton and John Ashmore who committed but didn't qualify. Both would have been impact players.

[nepaexplorer]

Donyell Marshall. We were involved with him after his junior year at Reading HS, but then he blew up as a senior, and once UConn showed interest we were toast.

[MisterD]

Seriously? So UConn has "stolen" or stolen Marshall, Hamilton, Armstrong and Brimah from us over the past 2+ decades.

[broderickpresident]

Michael Tabb and Devin Baker were another couple bigs that could have helped in the early 90s.

KJ, Mobley wanted to play for us and we wouldn't take him IIRC, right? I think the thinking at that time was that Woods and Townes were good enough to take as prop 48s, but Mobley wasn't, unfortunately.

[broderickpresident]

May 5, 2014 15:11:34 GMT -5 MisterD said:

Seriously? So UConn has "stolen" or stolen Marshall, Hamilton, Armstrong and Brimah from us over the past 2+ decades.

I might be misremembering, but I think we had been after coatesville's shamon tooles, as well. He also went to UConn, but never played big minutes

[MisterD]

May 5, 2014 16:49:39 GMT -5 broderickpresident said:

KJ, Mobley wanted to play for us and we wouldn't take him IIRC, right? I think the thinking at that time was that Woods and Townes were good enough to take as prop 48s, but Mobley wasn't, unfortunately.

I'm ok with this one. Mobley, walking to a timeout, once mocked one of my roommate's haircuts and we got enough mileage out of it that I would never want to give that back.

[23won]

Speedy didn't "recruit" Mobley so it wouldn't be a miss. The same can be said for Darren Queenan, who played nearby at Norristown and IIRC finished as a top 10 NCAA scoring leader for his career.

KJMac's list is spot-on.

One other player who was a real miss and would have made a big difference, especially in the last 2 years when we did not fill this position and were hurt for it, was Damion Lee.

[glorydays]

May 5, 2014 14:53:55 GMT -5 @kjmac12 said:

Some guys that could have put those mid-70's teams with JB, Billy Taylor, Charlie Wise, Glen Collier, and Joe DiCocco over the top were:

1) Jimmie Baker out of Olney HS. Total stud. Remember watching him play in the Narberth League. Had a great college career at UNLV and Univ of Hawaii.
collegehoopedia.com/players/jimmie-baker

2) Maurice Howard - La Salle came in second to Maryland for him. Mo liked La Salle so much he recommended it to his Maryland teammate Varick Cutler. Poor Varick had major knee problems and never realized his potential.

3) Sydney Sheppard out of Mastbaum. I believe he ended up going to Boston College and playing football instead. He was a physical specimen.

4) Billy Magarity out of Cardinal Dougherty - went to Univ of Georgia and had a fine career there.

A guy that could have put the Black/Butts/Lewis/Greenberg teams over the top was Dallas Comegys from Roman Catholic who had a nice career at DePaul. La Salle recruited him very hard.

Not sure how hard La Salle pursued Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble but imagine those two on the late 80's teams. I think they were set on leaving the area.

Lari Ketner, Rashid Bey, Devin Gray, Lynyrd Stewart, Carlin Warley, Harry Moore, Jon Haynes, Jason Lawson, Alvin Williams, Marc Jackson and Cuttino Mobley were some early-mid 90's kids who La Salle recruited pretty hard. And don't forget Rashime Middleton and John Ashmore who committed but didn't qualify. Both would have been impact players.

Nice Piece of Analysis by KJ.

My memory gets foggy on some things but according to the link below. Kimble and Gathers left Southern Cal in '86. I guess we could have recruited them if they were homesick. My sense is that Loyola Marymount's Malibu Campus has some cosmetic advantages over 20th and Olney.

articles.philly.com/1986-05-04/sports/26051231_1_coach-raveling-stan-morrison-greg-bo-kimble

[coqui900]

Hank and Bo potentially going to La Salle was discussed in "Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story," a historically awful/great TV movie about the life and times of the beloved local star. Co-stats include Nell Carter and George Kennedy.

In the movie, they talk about La Salle showing interest in those guys. "La Salle! GREAT SCHOOL!" This was said by George Kennedy and really should be in all of our promotional material. I think they also have a fake La Salle team on the court at one point, too.

I don't know if this is a historically accurate document and I doubt that a movie where the production team doesn't realize the facial hair of the main character is falling off was well-researched.

[MisterD]

"That rim looks pretty low. Its like 8 feet."

"Its close enough, I'm not getting the ladder back out again."

[Deleted]

May 5, 2014 16:49:39 GMT -5 broderickpresident said:

KJ, Mobley wanted to play for us and we wouldn't take him IIRC, right? I think the thinking at that time was that Woods and Townes were good enough to take as prop 48s, but Mobley wasn't, unfortunately.

They may have backed off of Mobley because the MAAC had a limit on the number of Prop 48 players you could accept. I might be imagining this, but I seem to recall it was one every two years, and that wasn't per sport. It was only one regardless of what sport the kid played.

[23won]

I remember the spring of Kimble and Gathers' senior season. Back then folks committed after the senior season was over. I clearly remember them interested in La Salle and La Salle chasing them. There would have been crazy talent on the 87- 90 era teams if they had committed.

[jellybean]

Hank Gathers wanted to stay local and La Salle was the frontrunner. He also wanted to play with Bo Kimble. Lefty went after them hard. The two of them were on campus a lot. Ultimately Kimble talked Gathers into taking a recruiting trip to USC. I was told Hank still wanted to stay local but Kimble swayed him. ( Does this remind you of the Morris twins?)

Another miss, was Malvern Prep's 6-7 Charlie Floyd (Wake Forest). Paul Westhead was a tremendous recruiter. He brought in a great class with Joe Bryant and others. Ultimately, he decided that he was going to "put all his eggs in one basket". He wanted one star/superstar a year. That was Charlie Floyd. We didn't get him and we were mediocre.

As previously, mentioned Dallas Comegys was a real tough miss. He had all the city schools after him. His sister is a La Salle grad. The PCL Finals or Semi-Finals were at SJU Fieldhouse. The opposing fans gave him a rough time. I think Dallas had a sub-par game and Roman lost. Dallas was so angry, I think he committed to DePaul's Joey Meyer right after the game. I can still remember Joey Meyer leaning against the wall at the FH.

Talk of Sydney Sheppard from Mastbaum. He was a remarkable two sport athlete at Mastbaum. He was part of that Joe Bryant recruiting class because he verballed to La Salle. Ultimately, he flipped to BC. I lost track of him but he never was much of a football or basketball player at BC.

Another tough miss for me was 6-11 Ron Wister. He was a pretty good big man in the 70's from St. Joseph's of Camden. Came down to La Salle and Temple. Picked the Owls. In those days, the NBA had a 10 round draft. Sixers picked him in the 9th round. Currently the HC at Haddon Heights (or Haddon Twp) in SJ.

[jellybean]

May 4, 2014 17:56:11 GMT -5 jellybean said:

Elgin Baylor

Buddy Donnelly was the PG on the NIT Championship team. While serving in the US Army, he was stationed in the Washington DC area. The story I heard was Buddy went to the playgrounds for pickup games. He played against this HS kid who was really really really good. Remember he played with Tom Gola. Buddy asked the kid where he went to HS and was he looking at colleges. That player was Elgin Baylor.

Baylor was not a good student. I believe he dropped out of HS after his Soph season and went to work. Ultimately, went back to HS and was POY in Wash., DC. The times were different in those days. Baylor had only one offer to a college. I think it was Florida A&M but not sure.

I know that Buddy told the coaching staff at the time. I am not sure if they had him on campus for a visit or not. I believe that La Salle admissions turned him down.

Baylor went out West to Idaho. I think a few things went against him out there. The coaching staff was fired and I think the academics caused Baylor to leave. He went to University of Seattle and played UK for the 1958 NCAA Championship.

I worked for a company based in Tacoma WA. The President played against Baylor in a Ping Pong Tournament at Seattle U. He made it to the finals where he faced Baylor. He said Baylor was unbeatable. That must have been something to see.

[theneumann64]

I was an infant so I can't speak definitively, nor do I know if they were ever interested seriously, but I feel comfortable saying our L Train Era teams with Kimble and Gathers on them could have contended for a National Championship.

[coachd]

May 6, 2014 18:45:45 GMT -5 theneumann64 said:

I was an infant so I can't speak definitively, nor do I know if they were ever interested seriously, but I feel comfortable saying our L Train Era teams with Kimble and Gathers on them could have contended for a National Championship.

I'm not sure they could have entered La Salle academically. If we had gotten past Clemson in Lionel's senior year we would have made the Final 4 that year.

[baab]

Not quite the same caliber but Bruce Atkins, if I recall, originally committed to LaSalle but changed his mind. I think Doug Arnold also, maybe someone remembers the details of that.
If you want to include all Big 5 schools, the #1 is Artis Gilmore, who I have heard would have gone to Villanova in the 69-70 season but for academics and George Raveling leaving to join Lefty Driesell's staff at Maryland. As I recall Penn had some crazy sort of near misses in their glory days too, including Adrian Dantley and Alvan Adams. Gene Banks would have gone there had freshmen been eligible in the Ivies at the time.