Imagine how many transfers will be headed to Baylor this year, where Drew has made an art of attracting seasoned talent to Waco.
How can power-conference coaches seriously consider recruiting just high school talent anymore? It seems to me those days are gone with a thousand veterans year after year available in the portal.
I suspect this is one reason Roy Williams stepped aside. Recruiting is completely upside-down.
It's not upside down. It's just expanded. You may not get a recruit now. But in a few years, that relationship you built with a kid might matter when the program he chose turns out not to be what he envisioned or was told.
Also, some kids just flat out develop a year or two later than other players their age. They take the best of the meager offers they had and then a year or two later they are way better athletes.
I love that players are having such freedom. If a few flakes give up and try something else before really giving a serious effort, that's fine. It's a small price to pay to have the ranks of the ncaa tourney-contending teams bolstered with better players.
Off-season roster building is a spectator sport in the NFL and the NBA. The ncaa is wise to allow more of this and would be wise to continue use to do so. It just adds months to the calendar in which the public is talking about your sport. More, more, more.
Plus, if the ncaa wanted to lessen the power of incoming recruits, it should work to increase the power of established players.
