BGG has a new recruiting plan............

What a genius. ODU, Va. Tech and VCU are all in the Top 20 and don't go after the national teamers but recruit heavily in state - along with JMU and Mason - and now Big Game George decides he's gonna do it, too. What a trailblazer!

In seriousness, I applaud his decision to go after more state players. Maybe next he'll decide UVa isn't too good to play James Madison regularly and will go back to playing George Mason every year.

However, I'll believe all this when I see it. Gelnovatch has too much access to top talent through the U18 team and through Reynold's being a regional ODP coach that the Cavs won't be tempted to go after players. Look at this year's team and I see a lot of guys who A) had some youth national team experience and B) who aren't from the Commonwealth but who we don't have to worry about leaving early.

Also, I find it disingenuous of BGG to be complaining about P40, particularly players who wouldn't be part of this year's team. Ben Olsen, Jason Moore and Kyle Martino leaving early aren't why this team is the worst one at UVa since the Carter Adminstration.

Yes, he lost Eskandarian early and that is very tough to replace. And, to a lesser degree, losing LeBlanc hurt too. But, this team is struggling because A) Gelnovatch didn't plan properly for seniors leaving B) because a key senior became disenchanted and trasnfered, C) the players he indentified and recruited aren't as good, or haven't developed, as he had hoped and needed and D) his coaching style has turned his player's off and they aren't buying into his schtick. Yes, not having Esky made a difference, probably enough to have UVa squeak into the NCAAs, but this team still would have had a lot of problems, even with Eskandarian.

Maybe recruiting the top in-state kids will now make a difference (Steve Jolley, Chris Carrieri and Wade Barrett and David Stokes, all from Virginia, certainly would have) but I think more changes than that need to be made.

 

one could read from this article that bgg's experiences of losing quality players would lead to him holding some of his more talented players back so that they don't advance so quickly and leave the program after a year or two. this could explain some of his actions this year - or perhaps i'm analyzing too deeply and he's justbad at decision making, player handling and judging talent.

 

I think point D is the major problem w/ this program--he has no schtick..there is nothing to buy into!! The only thing he can sell is the allure of going to UVA and the benefits of being UVA athletes. Then I would say pt C is the 2nd major problem. It's not that the players aren't good..but they don't improve once they get to Cville..and that goes back to the first point...For example, even after J-Moore, Bennie and the other players left for pro 40..the program has some good players.Yet, they had no direction and pretty much played based on what they already knew. And that's the main reason we saw some of those players leave for project 40 and MLS. Why stick around when u have no chance of getting better or winning the big one ?

 

Trust me, it's the latter...

 

"Presently,he has one player,freshman midfielder Will Hall, who could bail ahead of time."

Hall has been rock solid for the Cavs all year. Wathching him play its hard to believe hes just a freshman. Would be yet another blow to the Cavs if he bailed early.