By Steven DiMiceli
Discuss this on Yuku
America got it's guy, but Duquesne missed out on three players who could've been great contributors moving forward. With Micah Mason committing to Drake, Sim Bhular pledging for X and Maurice Aniefiok heading south to Ole Miss, the Dukes lost the three prospects fans were talking about the most. I'm not really sure how interested Bhular was in us, but I have to think we were very close on the other two. I have little doubt that Mason would've committed to us had we offered in the winter or maybe if we had offered at all. Recruiting is never over and there is still lots of room in the class of 2012. However, I really have the sinking feeling that we'll be doing nothing but settling in 2011. We've been to this rodeo before. A couple weeks left in the spring signing period with likely multiple scholarships to fill. Sometimes, it works out and we snag a late cast off from another program, but right now Robert Morris is beating us in that department having already brought Jervon Pressley without a sniff from the Dukes. More often though, we end up scraping the JUCO barrel or bringing in a guy just because they're tall only to have them leave in two years. Maybe Kenny Harper will end up here after all.
I do also want to point out this is not a bash on the coaching staff. These are just the breaks. When you run with the big dogs, you get bit sometimes. Just bad luck in a lot of ways. Publicly, all our eggs were in one basket it seemed, so it is a little concerning when there does not seem to be any clear direction for the rest of 2011 recruiting with no known commodities in the mix. Reality is probably not as dire as perception right now, and I'd like to think our days of bringing in crap for crap's sake are over. Like I said before, history does not give me reason to believe this, but I think one of these years I'll be proven wrong.
