Michigan State University Athletics
Signing Day Press Conference
11/10/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 10, 1999
EAST LANSING, Mich. - It is a very exciting day for us because I think we have done something that is critical to our program and that?s recruited two players that are not only national recruits but are two players that fit in to what we need here. And I think that is very critical. You have to recruit to your needs and I think you have to recruit people who are capable of keeping you at the level of that we are trying to maintain as a team right now.
In Zach Randolph we got a wide body guy who could be one of the best back-to-the-basket players that we have had here at Michigan State, in a lotta, lotta, lotta years. If there has been one maybe achilles heel to our program, I don?t think we?ve been able to score enough in the post or get players that want to play their back to the basket and score in the post. I think at 6?8 or ?9 and 260, I think that he has the body to do it. He has great hands, and he?s got a knack to score around there as he has done and has developed into one of the premier post players in America.
In Marcus Taylor, it seems like I have recruited him for so long and there are so many different reasons why I think he will be a great player but probably of all the reasons that I?ll get into in a minute, the number one reason is I think he?s stood the test of time. It seems like every year I go to the camps and there be some new hot shot shooting at him and every year when the camp ended he was still ranked as the best guard to come out of there, and he has done it since his freshman year. He?s taken on the pressures of carrying maybe the media attention that he?s gotten since seventh or eighth grade. And he hasn?t changed his attitude. He hasn?t changed his work ethic. I think it tells you a lot about the character and the type of family that he comes from.
What he brings to the table for us is a player that has played with a lot of our guys through out the summer, I think that he proved that he will compete with any player at any level. He?s done that since when he?s been in seventh grade. I think he has great offensive skills: the ability to use his right and left hand equally as well and has a great understanding for the game. I think where a lot of players were out playing basketball games he was doing what few players have done and that is working on his individual skills. That is hard to do and again that is one of the things I love about him most is he wasn?t satisfied with being the best in one area he does truly want to be the best player that he can be. And I think that Marcus Taylor will bring a lot of excitement and enthusiasm and yet I keep the humility that he?s kept through the recruiting process and all the years he?s gotten the attention that he?s gotten. When he?s around campus and our guys he doesn?t handle himself any different and that?s why our guys like him so much.
I feel extremely fortunate that we?ve landed two premier players and yet two players that we feel we need at the positions that they play to maintain a top-notch program. And what we do with our third scholarship, we plan on recruiting another player. We plan on searching the globe in the next three, four months and look for someone that comes up that fits in with what we are looking for. It might be a combo guard a guy that can play some point and some two, somebody who can shoot and somebody yet that fits in with the chemistry and camaraderie with this team, since again I feel this year that it is very important. I think that Zach and Marcus are good friends even adds to that.
Are you a great recruiter or is it the university? I definitely think it?s the university. I really do. I think it?s the university and the players that are in the program. I said this four years ago. I shouldn?t get the credit. Number one, I have a great staff that?s done an excellent job of going out and finding guys. I?ve always said that the program will become a good program when the people within it are your best recruiters. I think our players do a phenomenal job. I think the institution?s backing of not only our program, but the facilities we have, I think our academics and the city we?re in, even though it gets the negatives when something goes wrong, the student involvement when kids come up to a game.
To have a great program, which we don?t have yet, but we?re hopefully working towards having one, all those variables have to start falling in line. We?re just getting to where we are having more success. But if I had to credit two or three parties, without the facilities and university backing, you couldn?t have what you have. And without your own players selling other players. If players weren?t happy, coaches can be used car salesmen, players aren?t. When you bring a kid on campus and they talk to another player, they are going to get the way it really is. I credit a lot of that to our assistants who spend so much time with our players and that group has really helped turn the corner.
How long have you been recruiting Marcus? How old is he? I think I had somebody at his crib when he was born. It just seems that long. When I first saw him he was in fifth grade. In all honesty, I started thinking he could be a player then, I just didn?t think I would be here at that point to reap those benefits. But I really believed, I told his coach Phil Odlum, that day in camp that the kid had a chance to be a very good player. I guess it probably started then. I saw some seventh and eighth grade games back then when I could go. I saw him get 50 in a game once in eighth grade and didn?t hog the ball. I was convinced then and just said that I have to last long enough to coach this kid. That was my biggest concern, whether I?d be here because I knew he was going to be a player way back then.
Is that the hardest you?ve had to work at anything here? The great thing was that I didn?t have to work extremely hard. I just had to do my job. He comes from a great family and they handled the recruiting process well, when you hear about all the nightmares in recruiting. I was always up front. People always said we were leading. I never took that for granted. That was probably the job I handled. I always had people that were honest with me in the process.
I think the way he handled it, he deserves some credit for that. I hope he?s a role model for kids in the future. He handled the recruiting process with class. I think anybody that recruited him said he was up front and honest with them. He tried to make his decision early when he knew where he wanted to go so that it didn?t drag on. I give a lot of credit to him and his family.
Is it undue pressure on a kid that age to recruit him that early? Yeah it is. When I say we recruited him, we invited him to a game. It made it a little easier in state. We didn?t hammer on him either. If you asked his family, I think they would tell you that. Even last year, I didn?t say are you ready to commit. We just did our job.
Jud was very big on that. Let?s not make a senior in high school a freshman in college. Let?s not make a fifth-grader a freshman in college. I don?t think we did it that way. You?ll have to ask the family that.
I do have a problem with recruiting a kid hard that way. I don?t have a problem with getting in early and learning how to understand the kid and the family and what his needs are. If you do it that way, I think it?s a plus for all parties. If you do it where you?re really on the kid, I think it?s a negative.
Under NCAA rules we weren?t allowed to write him until his junior year. I met with him then and asked if he wanted to be a kid that wanted to be one of those kids that get 5,000 letters a week because I could do that. ?No, a letter now and then.? When it got to be the phone calls, it was once a week. I think they helped the process. But if you ask me for every kid is that good. I don?t think so, because I think it hurts the kids if they don?t handle it right.
What?s it going to be like for Zach coming in here as one of the top recruits in the country, but not the one in the spotlight? I think that?s what?s great about those two. They became good friends at a camp in the sophomore year. The truth of the matter is that it was Marcus? dad that first told me about Zach, actually in his freshman year I think it was. That?s when we first started getting involved with Zach. I think the friendship they developed, and if you know Zach, there?s no real jealousy with him. That?s where Mateen Cleaves is going to make a statement for this program and where Morris Peterson and Antonio Smith are going to set something that kids that come here those are the standards that are set. Antonio never cared if he scored a point as long as we won. Morris Peterson didn?t care that everybody thought I was nuts for not starting him if it worked out. Mateen Cleaves is the best player that I?ve ever seen that could care less about individual things. Those guys coming in, when they came here for visits, came here for games, those are the guys they talked to. That?s what I was alluding to. I don?t think your program ever gets to the next level until some of those guys go through four years and leave and stay the same which Mateen and Antonio and Morris I think are doing.
You say MSU is not a great basketball program. A lot of the pundits would disagree. What else is there? I mean that. I don?t mean that so that someone can say he doesn?t want them to think they are better than they are. I?m talking about what we want to accomplish. What we want to accomplish is something is where, we don?t have a national name yet. We have a few people who think we are, but just as many people think it?s doubtful. We have to go out and recruit. We don?t get to select yet. We haven?t done it over a five or ten year period like the Dukes, North Carolina, Kansas and Kentuckys and all those teams or Indiana and Purdue.
That?s what I mean. That?s where I would like to get. I?d like people to respect our program because we?re graduating a huge number of kids and the kids that have gone on to play pro ball talk about Michigan State like you see Arizona kids do or Kansas kids or North Carolina kids. That?s why I say we have a long, long way to go. I think we are building a great foundation. I think this will be a critical year. And then how do we handle when Mateen leaves because Mateen has been so valuable to this program in what he brings to the lockerroom as well as what he brings on the court. Only time will tell.
