rumors on the internets: Verzbicas interested in UP?

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3827243&page=0

5th post down. While I remain skeptical of foot locker finalist types, this would be a major coup.

It would be a major coup, but I am also very skeptical about something on a lets.run forum. Trevor Dunbar was an unusual recruit in that his parents both had been runners at UP in the 80s.

UP's recruting profile has definitely increased over the past few years, not only because of Dunbar but because we have been pulling a lot more guys from beyond the Northwest.

It seems like in cross country, "fit" matters to a greater degree than in other sports, in the sense that a kid isn't just going to drop everything and go to a school like Oregon or Wisconsin or Oklahoma State or whatever in the same way that they would in basketball if Duke or North Carolina came calling or in football with Texas and Florida. It's not all about the program.

If a kid is looking for a smaller school or has a major that he's interested in or he wants to go to a religious school, etc etc... those things seem to carry more weight in XC.

So, who knows? Would be awesome to have another big-time national recruit wear Pilot purple!

Stonehouse wrote:

It seems like in cross country, "fit" matters to a greater degree than in other sports, in the sense that a kid isn't just going to drop everything and go to a school like Oregon or Wisconsin or Oklahoma State or whatever in the same way that they would in basketball if Duke or North Carolina came calling or in football with Texas and Florida. It's not all about the program.

Probably true to a degree, although I've never heard of a recruit saying Oregon was a bad fit. I mean, I could be a successful coach at Oregon- just tell the kid he's going to be the next Pre. Even after the mediocre Martin Smith years, they were able to turn out a national championship team in what, 2 years?
That said, I think UP has a lot of good recruiting tools for athletes. Because they're the same things that make any other kid want to go to UP.

ekrauss wrote:It would be a major coup, but I am also very skeptical about something on a lets.run forum. Trevor Dunbar was an unusual recruit in that his parents both had been runners at UP in the 80s.

As you should be! Just trying to get the hype started!

pilotram wrote:Probably true to a degree, although I've never heard of a recruit saying Oregon was a bad fit.

Ha ha... very true.

There was also this post on page 5:


Go to Espnrise.com and watch the newest dyecast.

Lukas's top five are: Portland, Stanford, Oregon, Oklahoma State and Colorado.

---------------------------

I went to ESPN rise, and I didn't see anything...

Nice!

Check out this article:

http://rise.espn.go.com/track-and-xc/articles/2010/01/Lukas-Verzbicas-Gatorade-Runner-of-Year.aspx

Here's what jumped out to me:

A native of Lithuania who came to the United States in 2002, Verzbicas turned 17 on Jan. 6 and has maintained a 3.32 GPA in the classroom. He is a devoted parishioner of the Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis Lithuanian Catholic Mission community and has volunteered locally mentoring youth triathletes and runners on behalf of the Multisport Madness Triathlon Team.

UP is the only Catholic school in the list... maybe his parents will really want him to go to a Catholic school. Hmm... any little edge helps!

Just saw this interview with him. While he mentions UP as an option, he clearly still has a lot of decisions to make in terms of whether or not he'll even be running XC in college. Would love to see him sporting the purple though!

http://paceofconrad.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/the-lukas-verzbicas-interview/

How do you find this stuff?? Nice grab. The whole tri thing is an issue. I really hope he puts that off until after college.
Glad this rumor has some legs!

Oh, I have my ways.

For work, I get a daily Google alert for the terms "University of Portland" and "Portland Pilots." A lot of times it's just junk stuff, but sometimes there are some good tidbits that pop up, like that article.

Gotcha.
I kind of doubt he will to the tri thing immediately. If he does, he may be the first runner of that caliber coming out of high school to forgo college running to pursue a different sport.

Thanks for the link. Great interview. Now, I'm going to have that Eminem song stuck in my head when I see him run... He sounds extremely driven to succeed...

Update from the Chicago Tribune:

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/the_inside_scoop/2011/01/sandburg-runner-lukas-verzbicas-will-skip-ihsa-track.html

UP is still in his top four, along with Oregon, Colorado, and Oklahoma State.

Says he won't decide until May or even later in the summer.

Stonehouse wrote:
Says he won't decide until May or even later in the summer.

Weird.