Thursday Recrutin': Villanova, Hopkins loses, and what Marquette has to offer recruits.

So I'm sure you probably heard the huge news today that you probably wouldn't want to think about recruiting much.  But now that we know another brand name school is gonna field a D-I lax team we should think about why Marquette can - and should - recruit big names.  Now obviously this is going to take some time, and as far as lax goes every program is created equal - from scratch.  And of course in the world of lax, names like Syracuse, Virginia, Princeton, Hopkins, Maryland, even schools like Georgetown and ND and possibly even the likes of HOBART are probably more prestigious.  But as we've seen in recent years other teams, while not going all the way to the NC, have made deep runs (UMass in '06, Delaware in '07, Notre Dame last year) that it is very possible for programs to work their way up.

Marquette said in its press release that the Big East's sponsorship of lax was what made it consider, and for good reason.  Syracuse, one of the biggest names in the sport, is a Big East school, and thus Marquette will be stuck playing the Orange every year.  This is a chance for recruits, especially in Illinois and Wisconsin, to come and have a chance to immediately run with the big dogs, and not just Syracuse.  Notre Dame made a spectacular run last year which could probably trigger a LOT more growth in the sport, Georgetown has been a consistent power, and even Villanova is starting to make noise now.  A chance to play these schools is EXTREMELY important when you're in a place like Wisconsin.

Speaking of Wisconsin, there are plenty of good players in the Midwest that have gone east, and now this pool is Marquette's ripe for the picking.  Though not Baltimore or Long Island, or even NJ or Massachusetts, there are plenty of solid players around Chicago that could express interest in staying local, especially since spots in the other schools with branding are very limited.

And assuming most college lax fans follow sports other than lax in college, the name Marquette, while not Michigan, Virginia Tech, or Florida State, should be very recognizable.  They have a NC in basketball and made the Final Four recently with Dwayne Wade.  It should hopefully be simple enough to attract a strong lax tradition.

In other news, there's another Johnny Gallaway, who actually was recruited by Syracuse (who, of course, has its own Johnny Galloway), but is going to have an opportunity to shoot on Syracuse's Galloway when he plays for Villanova (he plays attack).  Also, in someting that makes me want to laugh an evil, sinister laugh, one of Hopkins' recruits, the #40 recruit in the nation, is going to Illinois to play football instead.