(Disclaimer: Based on the many hated responses, I am adding this disclaimer. The following has absolutely NO intention of criticizing the Purdue coaching staff for their hard work on recruiting. I'm pleased with the 2012 and 2013 recruits we have. It is not meant to suggest overhauling the existing recruiting strategy but a mere additional thought on how we might perhaps improve our recruiting to discover potential gem by spending a small amount of time to look at potentially undervalued assets. The reference to Lin is only meant to illustrate as an example of an undervalued asset and how to find him, and the reference to his dad is meant more as a "fun fact.")

After the Plumlees, Gary Harris, Gordon Heyward and G-Rob III, I just read that the Linsanity Jeremy Lin's dad studied at Purdue (computer engineering) and was a huge basketball fan. If we had Lin back then (2006-10) with JJ and Smooge, can we say N.C.?

Which gets to my other point of recruiting - finding undervalued assets. Because of basketball Asian profil-Lin, Lin didn't even get a D1 scholarship despite being a first-team All-State, yet he managed to drop 30 points on UConn and 38 points on the Lakers. Had we offered him a scholarship, I'm sure he'd die to come.

Now obviously hindsight is 20/20. Anyone who claimed to have foreseen Lin's greatness is lying. But as I've been saying all along, if we can't compete with the big boys (Duke, O$U, UK and etc.) on "brand names", we need to get good players a different way. Call it the Moneyball way or the Buffett way (i.e. find undervalued assets). Back in the old days, black players were discriminated. Imagine a white-only team, how many potential talent you are leaving out there? Imagine an NBA team never bother to look at any foreign-born players, and they will just be handicapping themselves from the Nowitzki or Gasol or Yao or Ginobili.

So while obviously focusing on in-state recruiting, I'd think it may be worthwhile to look into areas of untapped potential. Some schools are already trying to get African kids or Latin American kids who are athletic but haven't played much basketball to play (think Thabeet or Perea), so why not go further? Think outside the box! You don't even need a lot of resources. Just look at first-team all-state for the 50-states and look for those who has a funny last name or has no major scholarships. I expect less than 10 players. Do some research and background check, and maybe you'll find a potential gem.