I've changed my tune as I've learned more – from folks who are close to the program, and folks I trust – about how thoroughly we ignored quality players like Brown, Harvey & Beatty for fear of "scaring off" Diallo.
I'm also not saying that Ollie "should have known." Kids are kids. But it's very much his job to make sure we don't get caught in situations where we're at a talent deficit because we spent two years tilting at a 5-star windmill. As optimistic as I was in January, the departures and losses on the recruiting trail have shown my rosier-than-most outlook to be misplaced.
The good news is that it does look like he's learned a lesson. He made a necessary change to the staff, for one. For two, our pursuit of Waters, and the fact that we went after & signed Anderson so early, suggests he's not going to be waiting on talents like Quickley (for example) anymore. No more white whales, just good players we can hopefully sign, keep and develop.
Learning to run a program takes time, btw, so even if we have another subpar year I don't think KO should be fired (unless it's an absolute catastrophe). I'll be very worried, though, if we have a bad year next year, and a bad time on the recruiting trail, and it's because of the same things we just experienced. If that's the case KO will be, and should be, in trouble.
