With the handful of highly rated recruits we did land in that period either gone (Morsell, JAR) or still raw (Shedrick). I also don’t think playing the transfer portal game is a winning formula for Bennet’s system — he needs guys who will buy in and develop, and we just don’t have guys like that who are anywhere near as talented as the ones on our 19 squad. At the end of the day, the coach can only do so much. You need the players, and, quite frankly, these players just aren’t the same caliber.

I do think some of the issues in recruiting have been addressed (Tony isn’t going all in on 5* kids who end up taking a bag of money and going to KU, AZ, etc.) and we have a nice infusion of talent coming in. If these young guys work out, we’ll be back. But it may be a few years before we’re back to where we were. That’s OK.