It’s taking some time getting used to the way all this works. We knew it was coming and we are in our second year of it … but wow, it really changed what a college coach is.
I can think back a couple dozen years …. Listening to a couple of assistants on the same staff talking about a kid they were watching live, discussing whether they should recruit him or not, how heavily, etc. He does this well, that well, can’t do this, won’t be able to do that …. He’s not that good now but he has a chance to be a starter in a couple years, he has the right mind and work ethic and has some tools ….
Evaluation isn’t something anymore. Diamonds in the rough have lessened with immediate info and tech.
The more I think about it, the more I wouldn’t recruit a high school kid. Or at least it should be a minority of recruiting, perhaps. Why waste your time on a decent high school kid (the best kids are going into an NLI we can’t afford) and work him a year or two, into your system, developing him … only to have Texas or Michigan lowball offer the kid 5x more than you can even afford?
I think many of the bigger schools will just flat out poach. Illegally, but it won’t matter, too hard to track communications, too many ways to communicate. The NCAA isn’t going to run sting operations to try and uncover these things, so they’ll happen. So if big schools focus on the top 100 HS guys with high NLI’s, that leaves mid tier guys for you … which they’ll end up pulling from you after you invest your time.
The new premium player is a freshman entering the portal, followed by a sophomore entering the portal. We need players with the penalty of having to sit out a full year if they choose transfer again. And there’s value in that, a year or two of D1 under the belts makes them game ready when you get them.
I keep playing over potential conversations and options and when you think about it, it’s mind boggling how these things can go. I know I don’t like it but that’s not going to change it.
The rich are going to get more rich. The middle class can get rich only through success. There won’t be many of those. SDSU is on the brink of that, imo, their options will open up. Those that don’t find success, I feel they are going to fall further behind and create a huge chasm between good teams and bad teams (I know there’s a lot of parity in college hoops but I think it’ll settle and separate).
With recruiting, I don’t recognize the game anymore. It’s so far from it was even 10 years ago.
I’ll maintain that regardless of who we sign, the number of stars, the previous season stats … they won’t be a good indicator of whether we will have a good team. That “on paper” will be flimsier than ever. It really is going to come down to how well the pieces fit together. I think the most successful teams in the game have a “same page”, single vision about them, they click on the court, little ball hogginess, smaller ego ….
And we won’t know that by looking at the stats or trying to size up the roster. We probably won’t know what we are dealing with until early December.
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