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+--- Thread: Rutgers fab five - Things looking up for ru basketball (/showthread.php?tid=2545)
- Keyser Soze - 07-11-2002
<font size="5">Interested recruits signal big change for Rutgers</font>
July 11, 2002
By Dan Wetzel
SportsLine.com Senior Writer
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- In many ways, the fact that all five came to campus on the same day (or at least tried to) was a coup unto itself because just one year ago, when Gary Waters was still an unknown coach from the Midwest, half of New Jersey had already written him off at Rutgers.
Waters is a deliberate, determined guy, and upon arriving from Kent State to a place he knew almost no one, especially influential high school and traveling team coaches, and bringing a staff of Midwesterners, he sat himself down at the state university and over the first few months called just about none of them to make an introduction.
Gary Waters built the Kent State team that went to the Elite Eight.(Allsport)
This was against every conventional wisdom known to college basketball and a lot of coaches were a bit put off that the new coach at Rutgers didn't seem interested enough in recruiting to even pick up the phone.
"You are on my list," Waters said when introduced to a lot of New Jersey guys a year ago at the Adidas ABCD Camp, the prime-recruiting event of the summer, as it played out here in North Jersey.
He was back at the same camp Wednesday but his list is different now, after the feel good 18-13 season where the greatest accomplishment was changing the attitude and karma of the downtrodden program. Now his list includes most of the top players in the Northeast who, maybe surprisingly, suddenly all have lists that include Rutgers for the first time in a long time.
That includes the five studs that tried to come to campus one day this spring -- Paterson's Marquis Webb and Darryl Watkins, Jersey City's Terrence Roberts, Bloomfield's Jamar Nutter and Will Sheridan from Delaware. All but Sheridan (whose car broke down on the drive up) arrived with their parents and immediately began talking about all attending Rutgers together.
It was supposed to be another Fab Five type deal. Or at least a Rutgers Five. The media played it up big.
"We started thinking about it when we were all there," said Webb, a terrific guard prospect out of high school powerhouse Paterson Catholic.
In reality, the Rutgers Five probably won't happen. The kids are now backing down from the original quotes in area newspapers about being a program-changing group.
"We shouldn't have talked about it," Webb said. "It became a big thing, 'These guys are all going to go to Rutgers.' We should have kept it to ourselves. We are not planning on it now. If it happens, it happens."
The reality is at least one of the five will head somewhere else in the Big East. Rutgers may wind up with only one or two of the talented group. And that would be a coup unto itself.
The truth is, few programs have better changed their perception in a 12-month span the way Rutgers has. Waters has gone from being grumbled about because of his methods to embraced by the locals with rare speed.
"Last year me and a couple AAU guys were talking," said Tommie Paterson, the coach of Paterson Catholic where Webb and Watkins play, "and they didn't think Rutgers would be that good. But they came out there and were good, they were great at home and you could see he did a really good job. He won some kids over. And coaches. Guys are now saying, 'Hey, when Rutgers gets some guys they are going to be good.'"
That was the plan all along for Waters, a straight-talking Detroiter who had never recruited the Northeast before taking the job. He did, however, turn Kent State into what would become a Final Eight team and he did that by getting players to believe in themselves and each other.
But Rutgers was a mess after the final ugly days of the Kevin Bannon era. When Waters arrived he decided to put off recruiting and spend most of his time building up the confidence of the players. It was a slow process but it showed his priorities and it paid off on the court.
"A lot of people wondered why we hadn't been out, been with the coaches and really set the ground work for our recruiting," he said Wednesday. "But I really felt we had to clean up the house first so people felt comfortable coming into that house."
Now he is inviting everyone for a visit.
"This spring we spent a lot of time bringing coaches up, seeing the place. You know what's funny is here in New Jersey many of the people we brought in had never seen the total campus of Rutgers. It was amazing. We spent a lot of time with coaches. Then we had a camp that we brought in teams, the top teams in New Jersey in and now they are beginning to understand what we are all about.
"That is going to pay dividends someday. I don't know how soon, but someday."
Rutgers has always been one of the most puzzling jobs in the nation. As the state school of a talent rich state, centrally located along the Northeast corridor, with a fine campus, diverse student body, top-notch facilities and membership in the Big East, there is absolutely no reason it can't be a top program.
But it never seems to quite get there.
But maybe now it will. Waters is a guy kids gravitate too. His Christian beliefs make him someone parents love looking over their children. He obviously can coach the game and his up-and-down, pressing style of play is what the modern player covets.
So maybe it was inevitable that a Rutgers Five would at least be discussed. But no one thought it was going to be this soon, especially after the unusual start a year ago.
"But if we had done everything quickly we'd be running around here struggling," Waters said. "In order to have success you have to set a foundation."
That foundation is in place, the building has begun. Maybe with this group, maybe not, but that all five came is a statement about the health of Rutgers. That the entire state now seems at least interested is another.
"It's changing in New Jersey," Paterson said. "If not with these kids, then with the younger kids. I actually think it's a great place to go."
Edited By Keyser Soze on July 11 2002 at 7:36
- Galt - 07-12-2002
Ken's had sex with all of them
- Keyser Soze - 07-12-2002
i saw that one coming a mile away
- Galt - 07-12-2002
Yeah, I usually let the low-hanging fruit for the less-capable posters, but I'm too busy right now to put any thought into it.
I apologize for stooping everyone.
- Keyser Soze - 07-12-2002
its okay, we can't all be Godlybillionaire, errr I mean DIG.