Recruiting hits; sleeper team and player

Dennis Dodd of CBSSportsline.com saw it, recognized it, and then named it, calling CU's recruiting class one of the five best in the nation by "down programs."

O.K., not a category you wish to be in long and not something to brag on but still progress. The program is where it is but with effort, passion and consistent execution on the field, new heights should be reached.

The Buffs' coaching staff is to be commended for grinding out a difficult season and coming up with some positives. Next season there will be more expectations and in two seasons, look out, because those expectations will become demands by the fans. If CU can hit six or seven wins in 2007, hardly McCartney-esque, the recruits will likely start paying even more attention to sales pitches and the rebuilding could be accelerated.

Colorado working the bushes

The Buffs are working hard already on the 2008 recruiting class, as Rivals.com shows.

One of the top projected senior running backs in that class, running back Jonas Gray out of Detroit, lists CU as one of his schools of interest. Also listing the Buffs is California tight end Blake Ayles, Portland defensive end Ethan Johnson, New Mexico quarterback Landry Jones, touted Colorado linebacker Jon Major, California lineman Tyron Smith.

BGT: The competition, obviously, will be stiff for these names but the program can establish a stronger foothold for their talent by ringing up wins on the field come fall. Nothing sells like winning, and the Buffs have to begin making that happen a lot more frequently in 2007. Do that to the tune of wins listed in the BGT comment in the previous story and with that success will come more impact players.

More Dodd

An interesting quote Dodd gleaned from longtime recruiting analyst Tom Lemming.

"(In a typical class), 10 are going to make it, 10 aren't, he said. "There are academics, social life, injuries. The truth is the more blue chips you have, the better off you are."

BGT: Recruiting is, like sales, like dating, a numbers game. You expect losses along the way but if you have enough sucesses, you come out a winner. Remember guys like Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson? Both notorious for the amount of strikeouts in their careers. Of course, as we all know, that is not how they have been remembered as players.

Recruiting observation

Hey, maybe it's just me but personally the thought of some prep player holding a news conference to let everyone know where he's signing a letter-of-intent smacks of being a diva.

Here's the dress, here's the makeup. Is there anything else we can get for you, Princess?

Yes, we love you. We love you more than anyone. Oooooooooooooh, you're so great.

It's completely understandable on some level to wait until the last moment to see where your talents might best fit in at a school (little competition to play) but to hold some major announcement when you really know where you have wanted to go to end up for some time is just about selfishness.

The feeling

Everyone knows ''the feeling" when they recognize it, even if they can't quite explain it.

Mike Paulus just has that vibe, you know?

One of the top quarterback recruits in the nation, just like his brother Greg once was before he decided to play basketball only at Duke, Mike Paulus is effusive in his confidence for new North Carolina coach Butch Davis. Take a look at these comments from Adam Powell's story on CarolinaBlue.com.

"I can't wait to be a part of what Coach (Butch) Davis is going to do. I really believe that UNC is going to turn into the Miami teams that he coached previously. I don't know how soon it will happen, but I hope to be a part of it, and I committed to UNC because I believed it was going to happen.

"Coach Davis just gives everyone he's around a load of confidence. His presence makes just makes me feel like were going to win," Paulus said. "I am very excited about what's going to happen the next few years.

BGT: So, who else elicits those kinds of comments? No, Dan Hawkins hasn't won jack on a national level, at least on the level that most fans care about, like Davis has, but his past success, his personality and people skills are getting recruits' attention. Once Hawkins starts winning games consistently, and it says here that will happen, his recruiting power is going to take on some serious heat.

Basketball Philosophy 101

This class is being taught by Professor Williams. His qualification for doing so is winning the national championship at North Carolina and winning more games than I can count as head coach of the Tar Heels and before that, Kansas.

His comments about his team's loss at North Carolina State.

"We weren't ready to play defensively from the first possession on. We didn't try to dictate with our defense. We allowed them to do what they wanted to do," he said in a CarolinaBlue.com article written by Eddy Landreth and posted on Yahoo Sports.

Let's hope that this is the approach the next head coach will take, as defense defines who you are and determines your ability to be an every-game competitor.

Williams bleeds when his defense is inadequate.

"To do something as silly as we did at the end of the half," Williams said, "to let someone catch the basketball, dribble it down the court and lay it up, I would rather someone just slice my wrist. That made me so dadgum sick. If I had had a gun, I would have shot somebody."

It should hurt and because he doesn't tolerate such slacking, because he is a teacher first, his teams have effort and knowledge and fundamentals that allow it to be a strong defensive unit in most seasons, which of course, equals a lot of wins.

Ballin' in the Big 12

Ninth-ranked Kansas put a temporary end to the hot streak of Kansas State, blitzing the Wildcats, 97-70, ending K-State's seven-game winning streak.

The Jayhawks were a machine, shooting 55 percent from the floor, holding its' opponent to 40 percent, and put five players in double figures, captained by Brandon Rush's 18 points.

The Cats made 30-of-41 from the foul line and was still drubbed.

BGT: Don't get too excited about Kansas. Yes, they have talent to dream about and can beat anyone on a given night but this team has yet to prove itself consistent and worthy of talk of being dominant. Still not sold on Bill Self's yo-yo's. Bob Huggins has done some excellent teaching in his first season in Manhattan but tonight showed he has a ways to go to close the gap on the Jayhawks. In time, his recruiting will allow for a run towards the top.

Oklahoma has proven it can beat up the weak kids in the neighborhood but what about the heavyweights? On Wednesday it punched in-state rival and seventeenth-ranked Oklahoma State in the mouth, 67-60, in Norman, behind unsung forward Nate Carter's 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. What didn't the guy do in that game -- officiate? Throw cheerleaders up in the air?

BGT: Jeff Capel's Sooners might be the sleeper team in the conference, the group that no one thinks about but the coaches. Watch out for them. And watch out for Carter, the best player you never heard of or hardly hear of. He's been on a roll. The seventeenth-ranked Cowboys, meanwhile, are looking rather ordinary after having lost for the fourth time in seven games. OSU is dangerous but beatable. They don't seem to know how to win, don't seem to bring the intensity. Capel, right now, might be doing a better coaching job than Pokes' coach Sean Sutton, with less talent.

BGT Note: The hits will keep coming as the BGT is prepped for a scheduled interview with CU athletic director Mike Bohn (Monday) and yesterday got a "verbal commitment" from Adam Munsterteiger of BuffaloStampede.com to talk recruiting. Also meeting with Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News on Friday morning to get the dope on Billy Gillispie and what makes him a magician down at Texas A & M. Hope to post that early next week.

Nuggets: Later this morning, check NuggetsNoise for a Chris Dempsey interview. Scheduling conflicts prevented me from posting last night.