Erica Morrow listened to the spectacular list of schools interested in recruiting her. The programs included Tennessee, Rutgers, Georgia Tech and – uh, Syracuse.

That last one didn’t make sense.

‘Syracuse?’ She thought. ‘Are they good?’

It seemed like the right question to ask. The SU women’s basketball team has finished with a winning record only once since 1990. Morrow was the McDonald’s All-American, being targeted by perennial powers. It didn’t seem like a struggling basketball program had much of a chance of landing the star guard out of Brooklyn.

But she soon started to notice him everywhere.

Morrow played a tournament in Washington for her AAU team, the New York Exodus. Quentin Hillsman was there.

She competed in Atlanta. The future SU head coach watched her there.

New Orleans, New York City, wherever she played – Hillsman showed up. Morrow remembered he was the only coach in the gym during one game she played at 7:30 in the morning.

For three years, Hillsman was present at every single one of Morrow’s AAU basketball tournaments that coaches were permitted to attend. Numerous teams played at these tournaments, but Morrow always recognized the charismatic Hillsman, even though rules prevented the two from conversing.

Morrow would be the Orange’s highest-rated recruit in recent SU history. She would headline the best class in Syracuse women’s basketball history.

Through his mix of sheer tenacity and a charming way with words, Hillsman assembled a class ranked as high as 11th in the nation by analysts.

But what Hillsman says about how he recruits is not the point of this story.

Hillsman, called ‘Q’ by most, will gladly talk all day about his strategy for recruiting: his pitch, how he’ll go ‘super ultra-aggressive’ when he spots a player he likes, how he uses the Carrier Dome to impress the recruits.

None of that explains the most puzzling question. Why are top recruits so impressed by a proposal made by a second-year coach at a program that has floundered in mediocrity for more than a decade?

Why? – That’s a question only the recruits can answer. Their response shows a coach who could be one of the strongest recruiters in the country.

The newcomers consist of freshmen Morrow, Chanieka Williams, Tasha Harris and Marisa Gobuty, Virginia Tech transfer Vionca Murray and junior college transfer Chandrea Jones. Plus Jones’ teammate Juanita Ward, who currently is academically ineligible and will play next season.

‘I think we’re going to surprise people this year,’ Morrow said. ‘We have a lot of good pieces of the puzzle. Once we put them together, we’re going to be pretty good.’

The first way to woo recruits remains a willingness to go anywhere, any time.

For this year’s class alone, Hillsman traveled across the United States, enlisting recruits in Seattle, Virginia and Odessa, Texas. He even found a player in the Middle East.

Gobuty would first meet Hillsman at a basketball camp in Atlanta. Later, she would see him on the sidelines watching her play for her club team in Israel.

‘No other coach would do something like that,’ Gobuty said.

Hillsman convinced Seattle-native Williams to move to the East Coast and join a program in the midst of nothing more than a rebuilding effort. Same goes for the two junior college transfers from Texas.

Still, racking up the frequent flier miles does not guarantee top recruits. He’s got personality, too. In Israel, Hillsman even learned some Hebrew – well, the basics at least for a coach on a recruiting trip. He recalls saying ‘Shalom’ (translation: Hello) and ‘Mazel Tov’ (Congratulations).

Hillsman’s players describe him as persuasive, funny and a coach who knows exactly what he wants. He strives to see eye-to-eye with them, and each player notes it’s like he knows her personally.

That outlook can be attributed to what brought Murray to Syracuse.

At the end of her freshman year at Virginia Tech, Murray didn’t feel safe anymore. A number of events in Blacksburg, Va., left her feeling insecure, the forward said. And these sentiments peaked in mid-April when a Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 people, in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Murray wanted out. Hillsman came in, emphasizing to her not only about her strong basketball skills, but also he discussed a protected Syracuse community.

‘It was a very difficult situation. Very difficult,’ Murray said. ‘After everything happened, I’m just so glad to be here right now.’

Harris was astounded by the specifics Hillsman used when describing her game.

The guard was worried about competing for playing time with her best friend, Morrow, since the two played the same position on their New York Exodus AAU team.

Those are the particulars a coach learns when he follows his players obsessively.

It made Jones’ decision easier. The Baltimore native said when she entered junior college after high school, Hillsman was the only coach that stuck with her.

It’s almost as though he has to follow these players for all these years, studying every detail and figuring out exactly what they want to hear.

‘He told me that when I came to Syracuse, there’s going to be days when I was going to want to go home,’ Morrow said. ‘Days when I was going to be tired, maybe want to quit basketball as far as all the running and all the weightlifting stuff I’ve never done before. No other school told me that. They only told me the good things.’

New assistant coach Rick Moody, a women’s basketball head coach at Alabama for 16 years and Hillsman’s mentor when the SU head coach was an assistant with the Crimson Tide, also was persuaded by Hillsman to join the team. Moody, who coached Alabama to one Final Four, uses a favorite saying when describing Hillsman on the recruiting trail.

‘He’s one of the few people I’ve ever seen who can talk to the wall,’ said Moody, before pausing for effect. ‘And the wall will talk back.’

That superhuman ability alone was not enough to convince Moody to join the SU women’s basketball staff after Moody retired from coaching the Crimson Tide. He didn’t have time to fool around.

Moody said he was not going to assist at Syracuse unless he felt the team could win right away. One year later, Moody and his wife relocated to upstate New York.

The team looks like it notices the new energy, the fresh attitude.

Nicole Michael, the freshman star from last year’s Orange team, beamed at Syracuse media day when discussing the depth Syracuse now showcases. Over and over again she uttered ‘I can’t wait’ when talking about playing with her new teammates.

The Orange still has much to overcome. Even with a strong recruiting class last year, the team failed to qualify for the Big East Tournament. In 2002, Syracuse had the 15th ranked recruiting class, but the squad did little to prove worthy of the ranking.

Still, everyone appears to feel it. This is a team on the verge of – well, finally qualifying for the Big East Tournament, but also so much more.

That’s where Hillsman’s words matter most.

‘I don’t know when it’s going to be,’ Hillsman said. ‘I’m not going to sit here and give you a timetable, but for what we’re putting together, we have enough talent to win.’

Published on November 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm