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Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 2590192, member: 488"] 2011 is really when recruiting took off for Louisville. That year they signed Behanan (#22), Blackshear (#27), Zach Price (#58), and Ware (#71). Interestingly, none of those guys really panned out. Price transferred to Winthrop after two years on the bench, Behanan was booted from the program in the middle of his junior year (though he was quite productive on those two teams), Ware transferred to Georgia State nine games into his junior season, and Blackshear stuck around all four years but was never really that good. But the two final four teams - especially the one in 2012 - were heavily reliant on kids like Stephan Van Treese (#268), Russ Smith (#295), and Kyle Kuric (#280 or so). Jared Swopshire, Chris Smith, Mike Marra, and eventually Luke Hancock were pretty far off the grid as well. Add Dieng and Siva, who were well regarded top 50 prospects, but far from can't miss, and that's pretty much your foundation for those teams. Louisville won all the games they did by recruiting for their system and then working their balls off. If you want to make some moral declaration, have at it, but from a basketball perspective it'd be pretty ridiculous to downplay their accomplishments. I don't take any pleasure in the skewering of Louisville and Pitino for the reasons that they're such easy targets. The calculus here was the same as it was when they banned UConn - we're not going to disrupt established royalty and prestige so instead we'll bring the hammer down on really good program that's more expendable. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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