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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4279216, member: 9844"] I sometimes wonder if Maryland's sizable discrepancy between their offensive and defensive ratings isn't somewhat by design. What I mean by that is different schools acquire a certain identity that affects their recruiting. SC might be considered a favorite for bigs because of previous success of Wilson and Boston, Uconn has more of a reputation with guards, some teams play mostly zone, some grind it out, others run and gun etc. By clearly favoring offense over defense and a fast tempo offense at that, Maryland has a recruiting niche for a certain type of player. I mean if you don't care much about defense, don't want to be constrained by an offensive system, and want to go where you can put up big numbers, then that type of player might naturally put Maryland near the top of their list. It is a marketing pitch that will gather a number of talented athletes pretty consistently, and be among the offensive leaders every year, and on occasion be a national title threat, but also be teams where the final product comes up short of the sum of the parts. It may not be the best strategy to pursue a national championship, but they have distinguished themselves as being different in that way and for some potential recruits those differences are an advantage. [/QUOTE]