BigErnMcCracken said:
Three deep was a pretty obvious (I thought) exaggeration, given that teams don't even have enough guys to go three deep. The point, which I think is pretty hard to ignore, is that we keep trumpeting this notion that kids who look elsewhere are scared off by the competition here, but the fact is that there are rosters far more talented than UConn's (yes, it's true) and yet they continue to attract a steady stream of top flight recruits. So if kids are too scared to come here why don't they feel the same reluctance to compete against arguably more talented kids elsewhere? If I know anything about the boneyard, we'll certainly be able to manufacture an explanation.
And my point (which perhaps wasn't as obvious) was that forget 3 deep, many years they don't even go 2 deep at key positions. They were deep up front last year, but had nothing backing up the perimeter guys (Harrison, Harrison, Young) in the title game except 7 invisible minutes of Hawkins, and nobody backing up Knight in 2011, who played all 40. They weren't deep two years ago when they lost Noel to injury and plummeted into the NIT and out vs Robert Morris. Kentucky has been bringing in five studs a class to pretty much replenish their whole starting lineup every year. The recruits they are signing aren't expecting to compete with the guys in front of them, because they are not supposed to be there (this year, their model broke when several guys came back unexpectedly, and it may work out for them if their egos can be massaged). You can recruit behind Wiggins, Embiid, Randle, Young and Parker, just as easily as you can recruit behind a senior. If we get Stone, and have freshman Stone and senior Nolan next year, I'd fully expect to recruit a big man a year behind them, as if Stone wouldn't be there and playing time was plentiful.
Hamilton, though, is not a sure one and done, and is (probably) a better player than Jones/Mack/Clarke. Exhibition season probably didn't help if those guys weren't sure, seeing Hamilton look every bit the part of a guy who is going to demand 30+ minutes a night. So as a freshman, if they look at it closely, they'd have to figure they would have to beat out a senior Omar Calhoun for the right to back up Hamilton at the 3, and then maybe start as a sophomore if Hamilton leaves after 2 years (but even that's tough to speculate on at this point). That's not necessarily the path to immediate playing time that many are looking for if they are top 50 recruits.
Three deep is usually an over the top exaggeration, but that's exactly what we were trying to do for next year - go three deep with top 50 talent at the 3. Shouldn't be all that surprising to all of us that it was a tough sell, even if we have a shiny new practice facility. If Hamilton was a top 10 guy on the fast track to the NBA, we could have recruited behind him much easier, but he's not. He could turn out to be a one and done, in which case we'll have a hole next year - but Omar then just has to step up as a senior, or we play a lot of 3 guards. Then we can recruit wings in 2016 who will have nobody in front of them at all, and if we lose those recruiting battles to the VCUs and UNLVs of the world, then I'll join the angst crowd.