Blacknbengal
Well-Known Member
Mistakes in recruiting hurting SU
By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
[email protected]
Advocate sportswriter
Advocate file photo
Southern coach Ben Jobe says the Jaguars need to 'recruit five guys who can start right now.'
NORMAL, Ala. -- The only thing worse than the disaster on the court for the Southern University men's basketball team this season is the disaster off the court.
Southern, 4-11 and rated as the worst team in Division I, is so bad that coach Ben Jobe said the team needs to "recruit five guys who can start right now."
Undermining the Jaguars' chances of a turnaround this season and next season is the disaster of recruiting in spring 2002 -- perhaps the biggest blunder Jobe has made.
Southern signed five players, but none are with the team. Four of those were junior-college players who would be seniors next season. As it is, the Jaguars will have no seniors on the floor next season.
Only one of the signees -- 6-foot-8 forward Gabe Inglis -- even practiced or played with the team, but he left after appearing in three games in December. Another, 6-7 forward Kenan Oliver, signed in June, is instead playing for Division II Central Missouri State, where he's started seven games and averaging is 5.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
The recruiting failure comes after Jobe said all last season, the worst in school history, that improving the talent level was the top priority.
Jobe and former assistant Otis Hughley, who left in September for a job in the Denver Nuggets organization, were in charge of landing players. Current assistants Lee Carney, hired in June, and Dale Valdery, hired in September, did not recruit the class.
"We didn't do a good job," Jobe said. "We have to pick the people better."
Despite the failure to land junior-college talent, Jobe said the program's lack of talent forces him to continue to recruit junior-college players.
"I just told (the assistants) we need to recruit so hard that we recruit a starting five," Jobe said. "We need to recruit five guys who can start right now. That's the only way I know to do it.
"Unfortunately, it cannot be high school kids."
Jobe said most prep players with enough talent to be a Division I starter likely would not choose Southern and that the program would not be able to attract enough to fill its needs.
"The good high school player -- we're not going to get him," Jobe said. "We might be able to get one.
"You can't survive with high school kids anymore, unless your program's already set."
Though unsuccessful with junior-college players last season, Jobe said the program would try that route again to land the bulk of its signees this season.
"We have to just do that again," Jobe said. "We just have to do a better job."
Four of the five signees last season were from junior colleges.
Only Inglis, who had played at two junior colleges, played for Southern. Inglis, who averaged 23.0 ppg at Globe Technical Institute in New York last season, averaged 5.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 8.7 minutes in three games for the Jaguars. Jobe said Inglis left for personal reasons.
Jobe said three of the junior-college transfers did not qualify, even after attending summer school.
That statement would leave Oliver, 6-5 forward Travazz Buckley (16.5 ppg, 11.0 rpg at Faulkner State in Bay Minette, Ala.) and 6-6 forward Caleb Kennedy (16.5 ppg and 10.9 rpg as an honorable-mention All-American at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan.) as ineligible.
However, in October, Jobe said Kennedy would not play this season because he had suffered an ACL injury. Meanwhile, Oliver is playing for Central Missouri State.
The other signee was Kennedy's brother, Marcus, a 6-4 forward from John Carroll Catholic High in Birmingham, Ala. Jobe said in October that Marcus, named first-team All-Metro by the Birmingham Post-Herald and honorable mention all-state, "needs to be redshirted" but Jobe said in June that "one day, he will be a real exceptional player."
Jobe, who hasn't coached a winning team since 1997-98, is in the final season of a two-year deal. The school has an option for another two seasons with Jobe, who returned in April 2001 to the program he led to glory years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The school has not exercised that option, and Jobe said Saturday he was not thinking if he would or would not return next season, as has been his practice in a lifetime of coaching.
"I'm going to do the job the best I can, especially with the recruiting," Jobe said. "That's very important, regardless."
By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
[email protected]
Advocate sportswriter
Advocate file photo
Southern coach Ben Jobe says the Jaguars need to 'recruit five guys who can start right now.'
NORMAL, Ala. -- The only thing worse than the disaster on the court for the Southern University men's basketball team this season is the disaster off the court.
Southern, 4-11 and rated as the worst team in Division I, is so bad that coach Ben Jobe said the team needs to "recruit five guys who can start right now."
Undermining the Jaguars' chances of a turnaround this season and next season is the disaster of recruiting in spring 2002 -- perhaps the biggest blunder Jobe has made.
Southern signed five players, but none are with the team. Four of those were junior-college players who would be seniors next season. As it is, the Jaguars will have no seniors on the floor next season.
Only one of the signees -- 6-foot-8 forward Gabe Inglis -- even practiced or played with the team, but he left after appearing in three games in December. Another, 6-7 forward Kenan Oliver, signed in June, is instead playing for Division II Central Missouri State, where he's started seven games and averaging is 5.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
The recruiting failure comes after Jobe said all last season, the worst in school history, that improving the talent level was the top priority.
Jobe and former assistant Otis Hughley, who left in September for a job in the Denver Nuggets organization, were in charge of landing players. Current assistants Lee Carney, hired in June, and Dale Valdery, hired in September, did not recruit the class.
"We didn't do a good job," Jobe said. "We have to pick the people better."
Despite the failure to land junior-college talent, Jobe said the program's lack of talent forces him to continue to recruit junior-college players.
"I just told (the assistants) we need to recruit so hard that we recruit a starting five," Jobe said. "We need to recruit five guys who can start right now. That's the only way I know to do it.
"Unfortunately, it cannot be high school kids."
Jobe said most prep players with enough talent to be a Division I starter likely would not choose Southern and that the program would not be able to attract enough to fill its needs.
"The good high school player -- we're not going to get him," Jobe said. "We might be able to get one.
"You can't survive with high school kids anymore, unless your program's already set."
Though unsuccessful with junior-college players last season, Jobe said the program would try that route again to land the bulk of its signees this season.
"We have to just do that again," Jobe said. "We just have to do a better job."
Four of the five signees last season were from junior colleges.
Only Inglis, who had played at two junior colleges, played for Southern. Inglis, who averaged 23.0 ppg at Globe Technical Institute in New York last season, averaged 5.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 8.7 minutes in three games for the Jaguars. Jobe said Inglis left for personal reasons.
Jobe said three of the junior-college transfers did not qualify, even after attending summer school.
That statement would leave Oliver, 6-5 forward Travazz Buckley (16.5 ppg, 11.0 rpg at Faulkner State in Bay Minette, Ala.) and 6-6 forward Caleb Kennedy (16.5 ppg and 10.9 rpg as an honorable-mention All-American at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan.) as ineligible.
However, in October, Jobe said Kennedy would not play this season because he had suffered an ACL injury. Meanwhile, Oliver is playing for Central Missouri State.
The other signee was Kennedy's brother, Marcus, a 6-4 forward from John Carroll Catholic High in Birmingham, Ala. Jobe said in October that Marcus, named first-team All-Metro by the Birmingham Post-Herald and honorable mention all-state, "needs to be redshirted" but Jobe said in June that "one day, he will be a real exceptional player."
Jobe, who hasn't coached a winning team since 1997-98, is in the final season of a two-year deal. The school has an option for another two seasons with Jobe, who returned in April 2001 to the program he led to glory years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The school has not exercised that option, and Jobe said Saturday he was not thinking if he would or would not return next season, as has been his practice in a lifetime of coaching.
"I'm going to do the job the best I can, especially with the recruiting," Jobe said. "That's very important, regardless."
