5PointsBank3 wrote:Chicagojayfan wrote:I think so. That 2021 class was great, though. Kaluma 49th, Nembhard 69th, Miller 76th, Trey 89th in 247, and God knows how high Benoit would have been ranked today (if we cross eras a bit !)
How the heck did Creighton land Benoit? He’s before my time, but I think he was a McDonalds All American from Louisiana. Why did he choose Creighton?
fyi, Willis Reed was an alltime great in the NBA with the Knicks. He was a splash hire, especially with the East Coast media, so he got his foot in a lot of doors for recruiting.
He played college ball at Grambling, and Ben was from Louisiana. I believe Willis knew his mom from college, and there are stories about those two having a relationship. I don't know anyone who knew that for a fact, they just had heard it.
Just my opinion, but his shortcomings were that he had no experience as a bench coach and he never filled out his roster. Ben and Vernon Moore were all-time greats at CU, but they were joined in the starting lineup by guys like Landreth Baugh and Karlas Gripado. The bench dropped off even more. Also had some discipline problems, but those were blown out of proportion by the World-Herald.