I agree with pretty much everything you said, but since this is an internet message board I'm going to nitpick on the little things. We actually did get a pretty serious recruiting boost from the championship. We already had Boatright in the fold, but we added Daniels late (in May, I believe) and of course added Drummond at the last minute.
That's a top-30 recruit in Daniels (despite his disappointing season last year) and basically the #1 recruit in Drummond (despite his somewhat lackluster season) that we added between winning the championship and the start of the season.
The utter lack of interest from top 2012 and 2013 recruits (Omar notwithstanding, since he committed a while ago) is troubling and I'm concerned that it could be the start of a trend and not a mere aberration.
I completely forgot about AD, but I wouldn't attribute getting him because of the 2011 NC. We landed him predominantly because UConn is his home state school. Now I don't mean to discount the fact that his state school has an elite program. There are always great players that end up deciding to play outside their state. AD certainly had options and he chose to be a Husky. If anything the 2011 NC might have salvaged his recruitment. If they had gone down with a thud, he just might have chosen a program like UNC or UK, both who I believe where knocking heavily at his door.
So we landed RB before we won the NC that April? Hum...didn't think that was the case, but if so, Daniels would be the only one that you could build a strong case that UConn's 2011 NC left a strong impression.
Historically, you'll find teams that win an NC will often get a nice recruiting class 1 to 2 years afterwards. By the time they win their NC, most of that year's class (ex. 2011 HS Class in our case) have made their choice, though it seems a lot more elite recruits are waiting till the spring signing period which does take place after the season is over. But you have to realize that
much of the recruiting heavy lifting takes place while these recruits are sophomores and juniors, particularly the spring of their junior year through the summer leading up to their senior year. You could argue that the NC boost often takes place when recruits are even younger and more impressionable. Kids that say, is my dream school likely fell in love with that program as early as middle school. That's why teams that sustain a high level of achievement have a better shot at closing the deal. A youngster who liked us in 2011 might still like us a lot in 2014 if we have a good 2013 post season...um...I guess that's not going to happen since we won't have one.
Let's change that to 2015 after we have a solid 2014 post season showing.
Instead a lot of recruits are hearing and reading about UConn losing ships and the 2013 postseason because of bad APR scores, accusations of being cheaters due to the Miles investigation, excessive phone calls, etc, and subsequent reductions in scholarships and JC's impending retirement. I'm quite concerned that our NC Sand Castle has been all but washed away from these waves of badness.
Let me take a slightly more positive spin. If not for that 2011 NC, our program would likely be in even worse shape. Maybe we don't land Daniels, AD or even Omar and the other 2012 recruits (& transfer). Things could be a lot worse. Other than the NCAA deciding to use the 2011/12 APR scores, thus resulting in UConn eligible for post season play, maybe playing the spoiler and either winning the BE regular season or at least battling down the wire where we make National News will provide some positive attention. There's little doubt that our plight will get a lot of attention if we end up as one of the top teams in the BE and ranked in the top 25, but are still not eligible for BET and NCAAs. I'm sure some at ESPN would be mentioning how not a single player on the 2012/13 team was responsible for the poor ARP scores but are being penalized due to past transgressions. Add that to the fact that they'll know by then that the 2010/11 and 2011/12 combined APR score which most of current players are responsible for add up to a qualifying score, but are not being used. I can't see how the NCAA is going to look good in this.
Now if UConn has a bad year and looks like a team that wouldn't have a shot at the NCAAs, little to no attention might be garnered. Now of course fans of the program can point to losing some key players (Roscoe & Alex) plus the impact all this had on our recruiting as a reason why the team was not an NCAA tournament quality team. Note that I'm really not sure how good or bad the 2012/13 team will be. If the bigs can somehow hold their own and the team can steal some minutes playing a lot of small ball, maybe we'll be a lot better than most imagine. As always I'll go into the season with a half-glass full perspective until too much water is dumped from my cup.
