Although recruiting at this point may seem bleak aside from the outside shot at Thomas Bryant, the bigger picture here is finding what sorts of recruits we do or don't want to build this thing with under KA. The rise of mid majors has made it abundantly clear that what we want to do as a program can be done without the Kentucky level influx of 5 star kids. Yes, to reach the pinnacle of college hoops you need the latter, but to crawl out of the gutter as a first step its more about building with the right pieces and they DO NOT have to be glamour pieces.
Northern Iowa as an example: they are currently #11 in the country and headed to a high seed in the Big Dance.
Their leading scorer Seth Tuttle...was an unranked 3 star recruit by Rivals whose other offers were Colorado State and Northern Colorado. If he were currently one of Mizzou's signees for next year, he would unquestionably be one of the reasons people would point to in calling for KA's head and saying the sky is falling in recruiting.
Their second leading scorer Wes Washpun was an unranked 3 star recruit who originally committed to Tennessee.
Their third leading scorer Deon Mitchell was an unranked 2 star recruit with no other listed offers.
Their fourth leading scorer Nate Buss was apparently so obscure that he did not merit a Rivals recruiting listing of any kind coming out of high school that I can see.
You catch my drift. On paper if one were to go by recruiting rankings of individual players, Mizzou should right now be a light years better team than Northern Iowa (cue KA bashers). But then too, so should Auburn, so should Mississippi State, so should Vandy, so should Tennessee etc. And none of them are.
We already learned all this stuff from Pinkel's football program anyway. Just pick a philosophy, target certain types of guys who fit YOUR program and build with it. That's all I want to see for now.
This post was edited on 3/8 6:05 PM by mcmuffin
Northern Iowa as an example: they are currently #11 in the country and headed to a high seed in the Big Dance.
Their leading scorer Seth Tuttle...was an unranked 3 star recruit by Rivals whose other offers were Colorado State and Northern Colorado. If he were currently one of Mizzou's signees for next year, he would unquestionably be one of the reasons people would point to in calling for KA's head and saying the sky is falling in recruiting.
Their second leading scorer Wes Washpun was an unranked 3 star recruit who originally committed to Tennessee.
Their third leading scorer Deon Mitchell was an unranked 2 star recruit with no other listed offers.
Their fourth leading scorer Nate Buss was apparently so obscure that he did not merit a Rivals recruiting listing of any kind coming out of high school that I can see.
You catch my drift. On paper if one were to go by recruiting rankings of individual players, Mizzou should right now be a light years better team than Northern Iowa (cue KA bashers). But then too, so should Auburn, so should Mississippi State, so should Vandy, so should Tennessee etc. And none of them are.
We already learned all this stuff from Pinkel's football program anyway. Just pick a philosophy, target certain types of guys who fit YOUR program and build with it. That's all I want to see for now.
This post was edited on 3/8 6:05 PM by mcmuffin
