Wade Knapp, Kyle Weems, Jay Tunnell, and Theron Wilson

[ShockCity]

People don't seem to understand that you can't just write some names down on a piece of paper and "poof" they become Shockers. The game of recruiting is TOUGH!!! Especially when you are talking about a state where D-1 talent is relatively hard to come by and you have so many schools clamoring for these kids. Look at how many D-1's there are in the area! Reality is that WSU is not going to get every kid they want.

[pinstripers]

I absolutely agree with that. We did not offer Josh Young or Theron Wilson, though, and in hindsight, we should have. Weems we did offer.

[Overtime]

I grew up in Topeka and know Tunnell"s father. It is icorrect that playing time or anything else was an issue........Straight from the horse's mouth, " Jay wanted to come to WSU,Turgeon would not offer and we couldn't wait any longer"...That's a fact....All we had to do was offer and the whole family would have loved to have Jay here in Wichita

[RoyalShock]

I'm trying to think of who would have been in that recruiting class for us. Here is my recollection:

Ryan Martin
Jared Young
Ryan Bradley
Phil Thomasson
Wendell Preadom

Also IIRC, only Ryan Bradley was an early commit. If so, and Overtime is correct, Turgeon definitely missed on Tunnell

[Denny Crane]

Do we add Ryan Wedel of Drake to that list?

http://www.godrakebulldogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=71123&SPID=8121&DB_OEM_ID=15700&ATCLID=1575343&Q_SEASON=2008

Now we have an entire starting lineup...the weak link being Knapp, who has turned into a solid player.

[Shocker85]

I grew up in Topeka and know Tunnell"s father. It is icorrect that playing time or anything else was an issue........Straight from the horse's mouth, " Jay wanted to come to WSU,Turgeon would not offer and we couldn't wait any longer"...That's a fact....All we had to do was offer and the whole family would have loved to have Jay here in Wichita

What do you people see in Jay Tunnell that I don't? He's a fair player on a horrible team. Having or not having guys like him aren't going to make or break a program. Heck, on a good team he's a role player.

--'85.

[Denny Crane]

I grew up in Topeka and know Tunnell"s father. It is icorrect that playing time or anything else was an issue........Straight from the horse's mouth, " Jay wanted to come to WSU,Turgeon would not offer and we couldn't wait any longer"...That's a fact....All we had to do was offer and the whole family would have loved to have Jay here in Wichita

What do you people see in Jay Tunnell that I don't? He's a fair player on a horrible team. Having or not having guys like him aren't going to make or break a program. Heck, on a good team he's a role player.

--'85.

The question is really:

Is Tunnell better than those people we actually did sign? (see Royal's list)

I think the answer is yes.

Martin and Thomasson were solid, but we only had them for two years.

[hutchshox]

Ryan Martin was not a part of that class, Ryan Bradley was as well as Gal Mekel, Arbry Butler, Chris Brown, Wendel Preadom, David King was a redshirt. JT is the only one from that class still around. Add in Jared Young and Phil Thomasson, who I think was a redshirt on the Sweet 16 team and that is alot of guys MT either missed on or did not contribute much for much time and there you have the lack of recent success. Plus the group of guys who GM could not get here that MT either had signed or committed (also Guy-RIP). That is a huge disadvantage to basically give away two recruiting classes. Hats off to GM for the work he has had to do with such little talent and depth when he got here!

[ShockTalk]

I know that we offered Weems, but I don't know for sure what our position was on Austin - I don't think we were interested. I believe Weems and Austin really wanted to go as a package and that's what MSU offered. As it's all turned out, Weems is now much better off without Austin around.

[molly jabali]

why did the wedel kid transfer?he seems like he would have been a nice pickup here.

[Overtime]

I agree that Tunnell's not great ..But he's a big guy that can shoot...we could use him

[rrshock]

I agree that Tunnell's not great ..But he's a big guy that can shoot...we could use him

A big body is always nice to have. Isn't he 7 feet tall? And he wanted to come here, but MT didn't want him? Gotta really wonder about that one.

[RoyalShock]

Ryan Martin was not a part of that class, Ryan Bradley was as well as Gal Mekel, Arbry Butler, Chris Brown, Wendel Preadom, David King was a redshirt. JT is the only one from that class still around. Add in Jared Young and Phil Thomasson, who I think was a redshirt on the Sweet 16 team and that is alot of guys MT either missed on or did not contribute much for much time and there you have the lack of recent success. Plus the group of guys who GM could not get here that MT either had signed or committed (also Guy-RIP). That is a huge disadvantage to basically give away two recruiting classes. Hats off to GM for the work he has had to do with such little talent and depth when he got here!

Tunnell is a senior. Mekel, Butler an Brown would only be juniors/3rd-year players (along with Durley). They were in the following class.

I'm pretty certain Martin was in the same class as Tunnell. Ryan's junior year was 05-06, just as that was Tunnell's freshman year.

[ShockTalk]

Denny Crane - How is Ryan Wedel part of this discussion? As he went to Arkansas State out of high school, it would appear all schools that were in an upper mid-major conference or larger also "missed". Normally, that's a good indication that you (WSU) made the right decision to not sign a player. On this board, many question why we are even looking at certain kids because of who else is looking at them or offering.

As to how Drake got him, I have no idea. I assume that many times when a school gets a player who's leaving another school, there are unique circumstanes involved or they were just in the right place at the right time.

I have no knowledge of Wedel's situation, just asking how you view, or possible consider, that we missed.

[SubGod22]

We looked at Wedel but he had very few offers.

Tunnell committed very early. Turgeon wasn't ready to offer but it's not like signing day was approaching.