[Mick]

[quote author=Mick link=topic=14908.msg160895#msg160895 date=1460769108]
[quote author=Publius link=topic=14908.msg160857#msg160857 date=1460743634]
In retrospect, Trent Johnson's mishandling of Jeremy Lin's recruitment was his biggest mistake.  If we hadn't jerked him around, we could have had 4 players that ended up in the NBA on our team.

Well, wait a second.  Lin was nowhere near ready coming out of high school.  he applied to Stanford, Low APR U and UCLA, but they all wanted him to walk on.  He applied to all of the Ivies, but only Harvard and Brown would even guarantee him a spot on the team.  And his Harvard coach told the Paly coach that Lin was a "Division III player."  Kerry Keating, recently fired SCU coach was the UCLA assistant who offered Lin a walk on spot and said in retrospect that Lin would probably end up starting at UCLA.  As a Sophomore at Harvard, he didn't even start, when Stanford beat Harvard 111-56.  Lin was 0-6 from the field, had 5 personal fouls, no rebounds, no steals, no assists.  0-3 from 3 point range.

Lin worked his tail off, made second team all-Ivy his soph year, then continually improved through his senior year.  But he wasn't ready for Pac 12 ball as a high school senior.
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Agreed. My son played at Mountain View HS and was Lin's year so he played against, and as his team's best defensive player tried to guard, Lin a couple of times. My son's senior year he also played against Drew Gordon who I think was a SO at the time. If I had been given the chance to bet on which of the two would be an NBA player, I would have lost a lot of money. Lin was a good HS player but not an obvious future star in Division 1, much less the NBA.
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I think part of the challenge for Lin was strength.  The Harvard coach said he was the weakest player on the team and could squat just 110 pounds when he arrived.  He had doubled it by the end of his soph year, though.

Incidentally, both of my boys played volleyball at Bellarmine, and Mountain View was their big rival.  Two of Mountain View's players (Brad Howard, brother of Stanford hitter Brittany Howard) and Devin Stearns joined my son on Princeton's team.  My younger son played on the same club team as Jake Steubner, now on Stanford's roster.

[Mick]

[quote author=Mick link=topic=14908.msg160895#msg160895 date=1460769108]
[quote author=Publius link=topic=14908.msg160857#msg160857 date=1460743634]
In retrospect, Trent Johnson's mishandling of Jeremy Lin's recruitment was his biggest mistake.  If we hadn't jerked him around, we could have had 4 players that ended up in the NBA on our team.

Well, wait a second.  Lin was nowhere near ready coming out of high school.  he applied to Stanford, Low APR U and UCLA, but they all wanted him to walk on.  He applied to all of the Ivies, but only Harvard and Brown would even guarantee him a spot on the team.  And his Harvard coach told the Paly coach that Lin was a "Division III player."  Kerry Keating, recently fired SCU coach was the UCLA assistant who offered Lin a walk on spot and said in retrospect that Lin would probably end up starting at UCLA.  As a Sophomore at Harvard, he didn't even start, when Stanford beat Harvard 111-56.  Lin was 0-6 from the field, had 5 personal fouls, no rebounds, no steals, no assists.  0-3 from 3 point range.

Lin worked his tail off, made second team all-Ivy his soph year, then continually improved through his senior year.  But he wasn't ready for Pac 12 ball as a high school senior.
[/quote]

Agreed. My son played at Mountain View HS and was Lin's year so he played against, and as his team's best defensive player tried to guard, Lin a couple of times. My son's senior year he also played against Drew Gordon who I think was a SO at the time. If I had been given the chance to bet on which of the two would be an NBA player, I would have lost a lot of money. Lin was a good HS player but not an obvious future star in Division 1, much less the NBA.
[/quote]

I think part of the challenge for Lin was strength.  The Harvard coach said he was the weakest player on the team and could squat just 110 pounds when he arrived.  He had doubled it by the end of his soph year, though.

Incidentally, both of my boys played volleyball at Bellarmine, and Mountain View was their big rival.  Two of Mountain View's players (Brad Howard, brother of Stanford hitter Brittany Howard) and Devin Stearns joined my son on Princeton's team.  My younger son played on the same club team as Jake Steubner, now on Stanford's roster.