Pitino at the Half

[superjohn]

I'd agree with that, though I think that's offset by the players being able to move to teams better suited to their level. Guys like Rahsool Diggins or Brendan Adams would have hung around for 4 years previously and would have been able to contribute on good teams their senior year as role players, but got to move down and become main options at mid majors more suited to their talent level

I agree with that. Early entry to the NBA and the other semi pro leagues were really cutting into the college basketball talent. Now that kids are getting paid some will stay instead of trying to latch onto an NBA team on a 2 way or bouncing around the G league, players can move around now, and the NBA not liking traditional bigs has made the talent and top teams better than it was.

I just look at some of those teams that didn't even win it all when I was younger like the UNC team that beat the Rip UConn team the year before we won the championship with junior year Antawn Jamison, junior Vince Carter, senior Shammond Williams, sophomore Ed Cota, freshman Brendan Haywood and I think they would wreck the top teams today. Houston 40+ years ago had junior Drexler, sophomore Akeem, senior Larry Micheaux, senior Michael Young and they didn't even win the whole thing. They would murder the current Houston team and any other team in college basketball today IMO.

Even with Kobe, Garnett, McGrady, Amare Stoudemire etc. skipping college in the late 90's you still had big time studs leading really good teams in college. Just look at the year Kobe was drafted you had Ray Allen, Camby, Kittles, Iverson leading the local teams. Tim Duncan at Wake, that stacked Pitino Kentucky team that won it all with Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson, Delk etc., Abdur-Rahim, Marbury, Nash and Van Horn out west. The 90's all-America teams were stacked and there were some great college teams then, same into the early 2000's. From 2010 until last year college basketball was weak IMO. There's finally some star power again and teams are better than they were more recently because of the things we talked about but the marketing just isn't there.

 

[RuffRuff]

Purdue and Marquette win at as high of a level as anybody and they aren’t even pulling in top recruiting classes to do it.

You are making it seem like one or the other when that’s not the case. As we saw with Mahaney, pulling from the portal doesn’t even guarantee success.

When we were led by RJ Cole and Tyrese Martin we weren’t that successful either. I don’t want to go back to that.

Are there any teams like Marquette and Purdue who are actually doing bad? Because if the floor for this strategy is consistent top 15 seasons that doesn’t sound like a bad strategy.

I've sited those two programs as ones I expect to start hitting walls if they don't adapt. Marquette may start as early as next year, Purdue has another year of their Big3. Then let's see how those two programs replenish.

Marquette has zero chance to make an NC run this year - they have fizzled exactly as expected and always fizzle. It's the same script year over year. How do you roll that core back with Ben Gold as your center? They lose Jones/Mitchell/Joplin this year. They look really mid next year rolling back Ross as their only meaningful returner. They have a couple freshman on the bench, I do like Parham. If you look at their last couple classes and incoming, have a top 100 kid in each class, average of around 80. Not a lot of heat coming in.

Purdue classes are even weaker, they barely get top 100 kids. Good luck turning over those rocks and developing. The one thing Painter does do that Shaka doesn't is find and develop bigs, which does give him an advantage.

These guys do have stickiness, and that may be in part to them investing in these lower ranked recruits. They pay it back by hanging around.

I've noticed that Marquette fan not showing up here after the GE do their annual fizzle out.

 

[uconnfan68]

Fully agree with this. We were vastly overrated coming into the season based on our roster.

Said in hindsight. ;^)

 

[businesslawyer]

Said in hindsight. ;^)

I said at the beginning of the year we should be focused on competing for the conference championship and making the Sweet 16. But thanks anyway.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I've sited those two programs as ones I expect to start hitting walls if they don't adapt. Marquette may start as early as next year, Purdue has another year of their Big3. Then let's see how those two programs replenish.

Marquette has zero chance to make an NC run this year - they have fizzled exactly as expected and always fizzle. It's the same script year over year. How do you roll that core back with Ben Gold as your center? They lose Jones/Mitchell/Joplin this year. They look really mid next year rolling back Ross as their only meaningful returner. They have a couple freshman on the bench, I do like Parham. If you look at their last couple classes and incoming, have a top 100 kid in each class, average of around 80. Not a lot of heat coming in.

Purdue classes are even weaker, they barely get top 100 kids. Good luck turning over those rocks and developing. The one thing Painter does do that Shaka doesn't is find and develop bigs, which does give him an advantage.

These guys do have stickiness, and that may be in part to them investing in these lower ranked recruits. They pay it back by hanging around.

I've noticed that Marquette fan not showing up here after the GE do their annual fizzle out.

Weren’t both of those teams suppose to fall off when Edey, Kolek, and Oso left? That’s what happens when you have continuity. Players develop and it’s next person up.

Meanwhile a blue blood who has been probably the biggest adapter to NIL Kansas is down 30 right now.

 

[RuffRuff]

Weren’t both of those teams suppose to fall off when Edey, Kolek, and Oso left? That’s what happens when you have continuity. Players develop and it’s next person up.

Meanwhile a blue blood who has been probably the biggest adapter to NIL Kansas is down 30 right now.

You don’t want to go toe to toe on this one because I’ll fact you into a wedgie.

Let’s see how Marquette does in the tourney and how their season looks next year. Shaka was on the BE preview show pre UConn game today bragging how all his players have cried at points during practice. Well Shaka, maybe that’s why you always walk into the tourney with your players are on crutches and ready for summer break.

Self is awful in his portal selection and then he doesn’t know how to assimilate. Tough skills to lack today. He’s not long for the new ways of doing. Now let’s talk about the most of the top ten teams.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

You don’t want to go toe to toe on this one because I’ll fact you into a wedgie.

Let’s see how Marquette does in the tourney and how their season looks next year. Shaka was on the BE preview show pre UConn game today bragging how all his players have cried at points during practice. Well Shaka, maybe that’s why you always walk into the tourney with your players are on crutches and ready for summer break.

Self is awful in his portal selection and then he doesn’t know how to assimilate. Tough skills to lack today. He’s not long for the new ways of doing. Now let’s talk about the most of the top ten teams.

I’m not saying either Marquette or Pudue will be champions, just that the old school way of developing your own players being “obsolete” when those two have consistently been top 15 teams without getting highly rated recruiting classes is a farce.

If they can do that with the talent they have, what’s stopping programs with much better recruiting classes from doing even more?

If it wasn’t for us, Purdue would’ve been the only other non-UConn champion in this portal era. Before we won Kansas was the last winner with a home grown team. And again, they’ve fallen off a cliff since succumbing to this new environment.

Last response on this subject.

 

[RuffRuff]

I’m not saying either Marquette or Pudue will be champions, just that the old school way of developing your own players being “obsolete” when those two have consistently been top 15 teams without getting highly rated recruiting classes is a farce.

If they can do that with the talent they have, what’s stopping programs with much better recruiting classes from doing even more?

If it wasn’t for us, Purdue would’ve been the only other non-UConn champion in this portal era. Before we won Kansas was the last winner with a home grown team. And again, they’ve fallen off a cliff since succumbing to this new environment.

Last response on this subject.

Because the schools with much better classes send their players to the NBA, and it’s why they keep getting good players. Cycle of life. Or you go get old dudes with hairy chests that can beat up pimply freshman.

Purdue had a 7’4” outlier freak show they found in some Pizza Hut in Toronto that was on no one’s radar. Go show me you can do that again.