Horn and his early recruiting

Darrin Horn’s first few months on the recruiting trail have yielded plenty of curiousity, but no commitments. That’s not unexpected.

The new South Carolina men’s basketball coach inherited a team whose core was intact, and which, even after two transfers, didn’t have much immediate flexibility. Horn will sink or swim in his first season with the team he has right now, but every other waking minute appears to be aimed at recruiting.

So whom is Horn targeting? Whom will he end up getting? That can’t be ascertained yet; Horn can’t get specific because of NCAA rules, and it appears much of the recruiting emphasis has been on laying the groundwork rather than all-out runs at specific players.

What we can gauge is an overall strategy and the caliber of players the Gamecocks are going after. I gathered this information from talking to Horn, recruiting experts, high school and AAU coaches and a few other sources.

Horn and his three young assistants have hit the recruiting trail hard, but the focus has not been on signing players for the upcoming season. Because the core of the team was returning, Horn wisely decided to focus on the 2009 and 2010 classes. (He did tell me they worked on one 2008 prospect, but that fell through.)

These days, recruiting is so ramped up – you might have heard about eighth-graders committing to Kentucky and Southern California – that it’s difficult for a new coach even to recruit one year ahead. Horn made late runs at Milton Jennings and Devin Booker, who will be high school seniors next year, but it was too late to sway them from their commitments to Clemson. Another 2009 prospect, Khris Middleton, chose Texas A&M.

That doesn’t leave many players in the state of South Carolina for Horn to target next year. Point guard Kenny Manigault, a teammate of Jennings at Pinewood Prep, could end up at USC. But if any immediate-impact players are signed for the 2009 class, it appears they’ll be from out of state.

In that case, small forward Lakeem Jackson from Charlotte might be the guy to watch. His stock is rising, so South Carolina could be in for a fight for his services. Jackson’s AAU coach, Shaun Wiseman, coached USC player Brandis Raley-Ross, but I’m not sure how much that helps.

The 2010 class holds a bit more promise, if for no other reason than Horn’s staff had a better chance to begin recruiting it early. It also helps that some good players in that class are from South Carolina:

Name …….. Pos. …… Ht. …… School
Eric Smith ….. PG ……..6-0 ……. Mullins
Offers from Clemson and USC
DeMarcus Harrison ……. F……. 6-4……. Greenwood
USC is interested, as are many high majors
Rashad Richardson……. G……. 6-3……. James Island
Should get more attention this season
DeAndre Hopkins……. G……. 6-3……. D.W. Daniel (Central)
Also a top football prospect
Jordan Harmon……. F……. 6-8……. Mid-Carolina
Best size of any 2010 instate prospect

So are any of these guys superstars? Are any of them program-changers? I’m always hesitant to say yes or no to those questions, because we’ve seen too many five-star guys amount to nothing, and just as many under-the-radar guys go on to become stars. That said, it appears fair to say Horn’s staff is going after the same level of players as Dave Odom and his recruiters.

That doesn’t mean they’re going after the same KIND of players. Horn brought in a new system, with an emphasis on length, shooting and running. For instance, while Eric Smith is the higher-rated point guard in the 2010 class, don’t be surprised if the Gamecocks prefer a bigger guy at the position, such as DeAndre Hopkins.

It also doesn’t hurt that Hopkins plays AAU ball for the South Carolina Ravens, who have sent Mike Holmes, Devan Downey, Zam Fredrick, Brandon Wallace and others to the Gamecocks. Ravens coach Dion Bethea seems to have a good relationship with Horn and his staff.

I’ve also been told that Horn’s assistants are using their contacts in other areas: Mike Boynton, a Brooklyn native, has been seen around New York, and Scott Cherry, who had two stints at George Mason, is working the Washington-Baltimore corridor.

So it hardly could be said the new staff members aren’t working hard. They clearly are. That doesn’t mean their efforts will pay immediate dividends, or that they will land a couple of top-100 players in each class. As rivals.com analyst Jerry Meyer said: “I suspect Horn is discovering that recruiting to South Carolina is going to be harder than he thought.”

Horn wants to get to a point where he can just say “South Carolina” and be able to start a conversation with any recruit. It’s going to take time, maybe an NCAA tournament trip or two, or a bit of luck. I remember my days at Maryland, when Gary Williams was struggling to rebuild the Terrapins and recruited a lower-tier top-100 player named Joe Smith. He ended up being the national player of the year and led the Terps to consecutive Sweet 16 trips.

Of course, a lot of luck is made. It’s not even luck, but a matter of working so hard that you improve your chances of finding the right prospect or two. Horn is working hard enough on the recruiting trail to do that, so the only question is whether it will be good enough, and if so, how soon.