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Paul Biancardi on early 2014 recruiting by the Big East:

"The new Big East is off to a very good start in recruiting for the Class of 2014, as the conference has nine of the top ESPN 100 players already verbally committed...The Big East has built an incredible name in the basketball world, and when you look at the future of this conference, it will be dictated by the recruiting of the head coaches. If I had to give the Big East a grade today it would be an A-minus. They have plenty of high-level talent coming in, but no superstars."

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncbrecruiting/on-the-trail/post/_/id/5805/askcoachb-big-start-for-the-big-east

I couldn't agree more about the importance recruiting will play in the marketability of the Big East as a high major conference.

Nice to get some ESPN recognition for the 2014 recruiting, hopefully we can add more names.

True and his line about "hi-level talent w/no superstars" must be referring to the fact that no 5* rated prospects have signed in the conference yet. But as far as superstars, how the hell would we know yet. Anyway the typical Big East recruiting formula has always been to recruit 2*, 3* & 4* recruits and develop them into 5* star players, no Kentucky here. Glad to know it's business as usual so far.

FYI-- Biancardi was answering a question that was submitted by a guy on the Friar message board. A nice loaded question that was sure to get a positive response.

It's an exciting time for the conference. Recruiting is going absolute amazing. I can't wait for the rest of the commits. Who knows, we might end up with multiple top 10 recruiting classes next year.

marquette wrote:It's an exciting time for the conference. Recruiting is going absolute amazing. I can't wait for the rest of the commits. Who knows, we might end up with multiple top 10 recruiting classes next year.

The hoyas, quette, nova, prov, shu, & X all have decent to great shots at being in the top 25. Could you imagine 6 of 10 teams in the top 25 for recruiting in year 1!

TheHall wrote:True and his line about "hi-level talent w/no superstars" must be referring to the fact that no 5* rated prospects have signed in the conference yet. But as far as superstars, how the hell would we know yet. Anyway the typical Big East recruiting formula has always been to recruit 2*, 3* & 4* recruits and develop them into 5* star players, no Kentucky here. Glad to know it's business as usual so far.

Agree Hall. Kentucky has its philosophy on recruiting that I don't think any BE school should try to mimic. Those players 15-20 and above usually don't have the same immediate NBA expectations as the one-and-dones that Kentucky seems to attract without end. Give me a Jr or Sr layden team that has kids who have fully developed physiques and understand how to play D, and are good team players every day. I think sometimes getting the one and dones can even set the program back a year or more when they leave. I'm not saying don't go after the high talent; you have to. But in retrospect I think I'd prefer my program to go after high character 20-100 guys that come into it expecting to stay for 4 years to work on their game and enjoy their college hoops experience. If the BE continues to thrive with 14-15 recruits in that 20-100 range, sprinkled among the programs each year, this league is going to be deep and really tough.