The scholarship reduction hurt this year's senior class. We were down to 10, so we couldn't fill the last three with role players who developed into productive seniors.
The ban hurt this year's junior class. Tough to convince recruits to come play for a team that can't play in the postseason. We were lucky Omar kept his commitment.
The sudden coaching change and Ollie's contract uncertainty hurt this year's sophomore class. Facey and Samuel were a pretty good pull under the circumstances.
This year's freshman class was more back to normal. Just Ollie was still a bit unproven and conference realignment was punching us in the gut about then. But we got Hamilton and we thought was a good JuCo pickup in Cassell.
The class we are recruiting now is pretty much past any excuses or handicaps, other than the unavoidable AAC problem. Just a case of missing a lot of our targets beyond Adams and Enoch for any number of reasons.
Gurleyman, here is the one other noticeable way that this year's class was affected: we were late to the game with a number of recruits because of the restrictions on the number of coaches we could have out recruiting (as part of our NCAA sanctions). It definitely hurt us with Tevin Mack at the end. Let us see what happens now that we are in with kids from the time they are freshman and sophomores.
People on this board keep downplaying this aspect of our sanctions, while the actual proof shows a different story. Part of the reason that we got a commitment from Steve Enoch is that he was such a late bloomer. If some a few more of the bigger programs had been on him earlier, we again would have been at a disadvantage in his recruitment, as well.
Now... let us see what happens with the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes. If we continue to struggle getting commitments from our main targets, then everyone can question Kevin Ollie and this coaching staff's recruiting.
Yes, the ban contributed to our downturn in recruiting. Unfortunately, the timing was such that it also coincided with our legendary coach retiring and our move into the AAC, which has contributed to our recruiting issues, as well.