DHam's offers were still mostly the likes of Colorado State, USC and UTEP when he committed to us. Better ones would have obviously come, and he was ranked much higher than Diarra, but it shows that the list of who you beat is pretty meaningless. There's are a lot of great players we got early (Lamb, Napier, Oriakhi, DHam, Adrien) before it would have maybe become more difficult (Bynum too, but that proved meaningless). And another list of guys we got on the rebound late (CV, KEA, DD, Boat) when we maybe didn't go up against heavier hitters in the traditional recruiting period. Plus a few great players we only had to beat lightweights for (Gordon over Seton Hall, Okafor over Arkansas, Kemba over Cincy, Caron over UNLV). And Drummond showing up in August was just a weird scenario.
Obviously, you want to assemble a great roster, and it can take a number of possible means to to that point - sometimes it's winning a tough recruiting battle, but sometimes it's a keen eye early in the process, or opportunism when players open up late (or transfer).
Whether Diarra turns into an example of a keen eye remains to be seen. But we had a chance to get someone who seems to be a good, active big with some rebounding prowess before folks got a closer look at him on the summer circuit. I don't think you pass that up to wait and see what else comes down the pike when you have 10 or more roster spots to fill in two years.
