Andrea Adelson has a nice Q&A with ESPN's reigning Recruiter of the Year, U of L's Clint Hurtt.
The whole thing is worthy of your time, but here's a portion:
What was a bigger sell on the recruiting trail -- Coach Strong getting a contract extension or saying you were co-Big East champs?
CH: It was a combination of both. Obviously everyone wants to know security, are Coach Strong and our staff going to stay in place? We have great people on our staff. Coach Strong did an unbelievable job putting together the right group of people. Kids want to make sure we're in place. That's a lot of the negative recruiting part. Everybody expects Coach Strong to follow suit with what past coaches have done here, but we have to help them understand this is a place we enjoy. This is not a quick stopping place for us as a coaching staff. Obviously it's a lot easier to go into homes and say we have a part of the Big East championship, but we have nowhere to go but up. We want to represent the conference in a BCS game. We feel like the cup is half full. The Belk Bowl is great but we have a bigger plan....
Which of these players is the best of the group?
CH: We are excited about them all. It’s hard to put a finger on who we say we like the best. We're excited and fired up about all of them. The kids who have a head start -- Keith Brown, James Burgess, Gerod Holliman – they’re showing early signs of being heavy contributors and special players in the program.