Interesting to look back at the transfer portal rankings from last year and see who the top guys were and compare them to who the top guys in the portal overall were. Plenty of names in the top 25 who were average, some that didn't do much at all, and a few stars (Lanier, Richmond, Mayo?). But look deeper--JT Toppin at 32. Koby Brea at 42. Sean Pedulla at 44. Ja'Kobi Gillespie at 60. Ryan Conwell at 65. Alijah Martin at 88. Mark Mitchell at 91. Andrej Stojakovic at 109. Keyshawn Hall at 136. Otega Oweh at 146. Danny Wolf at 188. Milos Uzan at 191.
There were some DUDES who were not at all highly ranked last year, and that will probably be true again this year. Point being--it is possible that the approach the staff is taking is simply find the right guys and don't worry so much about their rankings. We had 4, 12, 64 and 131 last year. We had 1, 32 and 55 the year before. It didn't work. People wanted them to change their approach and now that they may have done that, people are freaking out about not having a bunch of commitments in hand. It's gotta be one or the other here--either we want the change and what comes with it, or we want to keep trying to do it the way that we did in the past. I am not smart enough to know which way is better, but I am smart enough to look back and see that not relying solely on the top ranked guys isn't a terrible strategy if you can get the right lower ranked guys at a better price.
There were some DUDES who were not at all highly ranked last year, and that will probably be true again this year. Point being--it is possible that the approach the staff is taking is simply find the right guys and don't worry so much about their rankings. We had 4, 12, 64 and 131 last year. We had 1, 32 and 55 the year before. It didn't work. People wanted them to change their approach and now that they may have done that, people are freaking out about not having a bunch of commitments in hand. It's gotta be one or the other here--either we want the change and what comes with it, or we want to keep trying to do it the way that we did in the past. I am not smart enough to know which way is better, but I am smart enough to look back and see that not relying solely on the top ranked guys isn't a terrible strategy if you can get the right lower ranked guys at a better price.
