Darion Atkins

[docrugby1]

6 years ago, .I attended a HS basketball game at my son's old prep school. Landon was a national power in lacrosse but BB was an afterthought. I was stunned to see a 6'8" skilled player with great athleticism playing for Landon.

He was a defensive, rebounding stud with good interior and outside scoring ability. Landon is a rigorous academic school and there was little doubt in my mind that this was a possible NU player. Furthermore, Landon's point guard , Joe Washington,was a D1 talent also.

I wrote BC but never heard from him. Fitz will always respond with a note that the area's recruiting specialist will check out the tip.

Darion Atkins was voted the ACC'c defensive player of the year for UVA

Joe Washington has been a 4 year starter at point guard for a very good George Washington University team. I know he turned down Harvard, so academics were not an issue but distance from home could have been a factor

I am not sure how everyone feels about sending tips to our coaches but the players I have "recommended" have gone on to good schools and successful college careers-maybe NU never had a chance at them but you never know

 

[NUCat320]

About the same time, I sent a note to Tavaras and did get a 'we are familiar and are tracking him' note. I would assume your note was read by someone, response or not.

Looks like Atkins committed relatively late and chose between ND and UVa, so NU could've had a shot. DePaul, Maryland, Seton Hall also offered, so I'd imagine that they were familiar by the time you wrote.

 

[Walker Fan]

This goes along with the other recruiting failures which includes with Fred Van Vleet's dad who sent a dvd of his son who had a 3.7 GPA at a high school in Rockford, Illinois to UofI and NU since he wanted his son to play at a school in Illinois. He also sent a tape to Champaign and the great talent evaluator Bruce Weber had him work out and said that the Illini were set at PG with Tracey Abrams. There was no response from NU. Van Vleet went to WSU and guided the Shockers to a Final 4 his soph year, an undefeated regular season his junior year and a loss by a bucket to the semi-pro team known as Kentucky in the Round of 32 and guided WSU to the Sweet Sixteen this season. BTW, he lit up the great Indiana team that beat NU in the Big 10 tourney for 27 points and is on everyone's 2015 NCAA all-tournament team.

NU's prior coach's total lack of recruiting cost NU on the potential National POY in Frank Kaminsky. (google Telander's article on March 16, 2015 on why Chicago fans should root for Badgers). Telander picks the scab known as the Kaminsky recruiting debacle again and states that Kaminsky's mom, a former NU volleyball player and his uncle, Jim Stack, NU's 5th leading bball scorer and his aunt all attended and played at NU and were all pushing Frank towards NU. Then came the campus visit where the former coach made the offer on a speakerphone and was not on campus and Frank was less than enthused about accepting the offer. Ouch!

Oh and one other example, I talked at a NU game to a good friend of Duje Dukan who attended Deerfield H.S. which is 10 miles from NU's campus. Duje is a 6'10" backup power forward and did not consider NU because of the prior coach. He would have looked good playing next to Shurna. Instead, Ryan signed him and did not play him for his first three seasons and started playing in the tourney last season as UW went to the Final 4 and lost to that semi-pro UK team by a bucket. Too bad he could have played on NU from day 1 and maximized his talent. Oh well! Time to look to the present and future and realize how much of a better place the program is in.

 

[wildkit_fan]

I love all the BS revisionist history of guys that really wanted to come here if only our dumb, lazy coach would have put in some effort.

We have no idea if Van Fleet would have come here. Like every other B1G program, it appears we didn't recruit him. 90% of the time, kids sign with the best program that offers them, simple as that. Talk to me the next time any kid gets and offer from Bo Ryan and decides instead to come to NU. Those kids have played in an NCAA finals and are a #1 seed this year... think they regret their decision for a second?

 

[healercat]

My son was in the same graduating class as Darion. Always was a great kid. Landon had a pretty good four year run with Christian Webster who went on to play for Harvard, Danny Rubin played at BC , Darion at UVA and Joe McDonald @ GW. Couple other guys walked on at bigger schools and others played a smaller schools. I also recommended that NU take a look at these kids and heard nothing back. Darion would have been a great 4 for us. and Joe Mac at PG would have been a nice addition.

 

[Walker Fan]

Until Dick Bennett took the job at UW in 1993, UW had not been a destination school. A coach like that and Bo Ryan, his successor, turned the perception of the program around and changed the culture and built what UW has become today. Now after approximately 20 straight years of making the tourney and recruiting and developing talent well, UW has built the top 1 or 2 Big 10 basketball programs and one of the top tier national programs. But my point is that that was not always the case that basketball players flocked to Madison. As for regrets, I don't think the players have any regrets but as fans, I regret that NU did not sucessfully recruit a player who became the national player of the year. But that's just me.

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Originally posted by wickerpark wildcat:
I love all the BS revisionist history of guys that really wanted to come here if only our dumb, lazy coach would have put in some effort.

The Law and Kaminsky situations are not revisionist history. They came straight from the source, and both expressed that BC was off putting (or absent) during the visit.

 

[DocCatsFan]

Originally posted by VirginiaWildcat:

Originally posted by wickerpark wildcat:
I love all the BS revisionist history of guys that really wanted to come here if only our dumb, lazy coach would have put in some effort.

The Law and Kaminsky situations are not revisionist history. They came straight from the source, and both expressed that BC was off putting (or absent) during the visit.

Go ahead and dig this up all you want. We all recognize that recruiting was not BC's favorite thing to do. And yet, of course, he did manage to get some of the best recruits Northwestern has ever had. Could he have tried harder and done better with recruiting? Probably. Would we have landed Frank Kaminsky? Probably not. WI did not have a "wet paint" sign outside of their locker room as far as I know.

Meanwhile, we are now getting consistently excellent recruiting classes (by NU standards, not necessarily by B1G standards yet). Hopefully that will translate to more than 6 B1G wins per season very soon, since that is really the point of all this.