More Recruiting

I just wanted to take the recruiting breakdown from yesterday a bit further, and give a comparative example of just how well Hewitt has done recently. It is no secret that in the ACC everyone ends up comparing themselves to Duke and UNC, so I thought it would be interesting to see how the probable depth charts of those two schools match up to GT for next year just to prove a point. The first chart is listed by experience, and you can see that not only does GT have comparable talent, but we will have a decent experience advantage as well - GT will have 5 sophmores or juniors who were all top 100 recruits in their classes on the roster, and that can't be undervalued.

UNC	RCSI #		Duke	RCSI #		GT	RCSI #
Seniors
Reyshawn Terry (Sr.)	#60					Mario West (Sr.)	#UR
Wes Miller (Sr.)	#UR
Juniors
Quentin Thomas (Jr.)	#55		DeMarcus Nelson (Jr.)	#18		Ra'Sean Dickey (Jr.)	#51
						Jeremis Smith (Jr.)	#74
						Zam Fredrick II (Jr.)	#85
						Anthony Morrow (Jr.)	#91
Sophmores
Tyler Hansbrough (So.)	#4		Josh McRoberts (So.)	#1		Lewis Clinch (So.)	#25
Danny Green (So.)	#15		Greg Paulus (So.)	#13		D'Andre Bell (So.)	#UR
Marcus Ginyard (So.)	#29		Eric Boateng (So.)	#39
Bobby Frasor (So.)	#31		Martynas Pocius (So.)	#53
			Jamal Boykin (So.)	#60
Freshman
Brandan Wright (Fr.)	#3		Gerald Henderson (Fr.)	#18		Thaddeus Young (Fr.)	#6
Wayne Ellington (Fr.)	#4		Lance Thomas (Fr.)	#20		Javaris Crittenton (Fr.)	#14
Tywon Lawson (Fr.)	#7		Jon Scheyer (Fr.)	#30		Alade Aminu (Fr.)	#UR
William Graves (Fr.)	#87		Greg Zoubek (Fr.)	#33

If you look at potential starting lineups - you get this, which is more interesting. GT might not be quite as talented as Duke and UNC, but it's darn close - and our team will again be much more experienced out of the gate. It's been a while since anyone in the ACC matched up this well down the roster with Duke and UNC (Maryland in '01-02, Wake in '04-'05, but neither kept the recruiting at those levels).

UNC	RSCI #	Duke	RSCI #	GT	RSCI #
Point Guard
Tywon Lawson (Fr.)	#7	Greg Paulus (So.)	#18	Javaris Crittenton (Fr.)	#14
Shooting Guard
Wayne Ellington (Fr.)	#4	Gerald Henderson (Fr.)	#18	Anthony Morrow (Jr.)	#91
Small Forward
Reyshawn Terry (Sr.)	#60	DeMarcus Nelson (Jr.)	#18	Thaddeus Young (Fr.)	#6
Power Forward
Brandan Wright (Fr.)	#3	Josh McRoberts (So.)	#1	Jeremis Smith (Jr.)	#74
Center
Tyler Hansbrough (So.)	#4	Eric Boateng (So.)	#39	Ra'Sean Dickey (Jr.)	#51
6th Man
Danny Green (So.)	#15	Martynas Pocious (So.)	#53	Lewis Clinch (So.)	#25

I don't think GT will be the favorite next year, but if UNC's class struggles a bit out of the gate (even the Fab 5 didn't blow people's doors off - they were a #6 seed), Duke and GT will be right there at their heels along with NCSU. These next couple of GT teams are going to be very deep and very good, Hewitt is doing a heck of a job building a program for the long term, not just for a run every couple of years. Obviously the '07-'08 season depends a lot on who goes pro and who doesn't, but GT is very possibly the ACC favorite entering that season - for the first time since ... heck, I don't really know.