NCAA Tournament Elite 8 Starters

24 - Seniors
4 - Juniors
10 - Sophomores
2 - Freshmen

18 - Transfers
16 - 5th Year Players

12 of the top 13 scorers in Elite 8 are Seniors

— Matt Schnider (@MattSchnider) March 30, 2024

Yeah.

It really is survive and advance.

4 missed front end of 1/1s is borderline historic, spanning both halves.

Sure would have loved to have seen BU vs Bama run and gun to get to the Final Four.

Big12Bear said:

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Yeah.

It really is survive and advance.

4 missed front end of 1/1s is borderline historic, spanning both halves.

Sure would have loved to have seen BU vs Bama run and gun to get to the Final Four.

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A 30 for 30 should be done about it

This is not rocket science. Don't ever want Drew to leave but this is the second time he has gone after elite players and the results are the same. He needs one potential great freshman and load up on vererans.

100%

Mitch Henessey said:

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Bakersdozen said:

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This is not rocket science. Don't ever want Drew to leave but this is the second time he has gone after elite players and the results are the same. He needs one potential great freshman and load up on vererans.

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That's literally been his strategy.

People getting upset about recruiting don't seem to get this. The thing you want him to do is the thing he is already doing.

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Agree with that. Recruiting whiffs (which happen) put us here. We would have two to three more experienced contributors had our high school and transfer misses not happened.

We missed on 4-5 guys in the last few years in addition to major injuries. That's a ton of guys that will create big holes.

That was a BS technical call

Quinton said:

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Mitch Henessey said:

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Bakersdozen said:

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This is not rocket science. Don't ever want Drew to leave but this is the second time he has gone after elite players and the results are the same. He needs one potential great freshman and load up on vererans.

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That's literally been his strategy.

People getting upset about recruiting don't seem to get this. The thing you want him to do is the thing he is already doing.

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Agree with that. Recruiting whiffs (which happen) put us here. We would have two to three more experienced contributors had our high school and transfer misses not happened.

We missed on 4-5 guys in the last few years in addition to major injuries. That's a ton of guys that will create big holes.

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That, plus two players developing earlier than expected. Speaks highly of this staff's skills in getting guys ready for the next level, but it doesn't help our squad in the present.

Imagine last year's team with Jeremy Sochan, or next year's roster with Yves Missi. Both those guys were projected to be multi-year players.

Mitch Henessey said:

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That, plus two players developing earlier than expected. Speaks highly of this staff's skills in getting guys ready for the next level, but it doesn't help our squad in the present.

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This is the quid pro quo challenge for Drew. When you don't have the largest NIL to start with the main way you are going to get talented recruits from high school or transfer portal is by showing that your staff can get guys to the next level since every kid has that dream. He's done a great job at it. But ironically your own success as a coach then can leave you with a future hole that you are continuous filling.

The alternative is to take your lumps for a couple of years and try to build a long term experienced roster organically but I'm not quite sure that is as easy today as it was previously because it's so easy to lose players along the way to the transfer portal because they're not happy with playing time or others offer more money because the player performed at a higher than expected level.

Think of someone like Langston. He should be a big piece of Drew's plans next year and fits the mold of the experienced player. But at the same time he's been injury prone his entire time here and knows he should make as much money as he can now because it may not be there later. He has the offensive skills for a college player that large NILs associated with several schools could easily decide would be worth it if the coach winks and points them his direction if he decided to enter the portal. Heck there are already rumors of Louisville and Houston being interested if that happens.

I know Drew's job was tough before but I can't imagine being a college coach today and trying to build a roster unless you had the luxury of having a large NIL base tagged to your school.

Mitch Henessey said:

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Quinton said:

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Mitch Henessey said:

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Bakersdozen said:

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This is not rocket science. Don't ever want Drew to leave but this is the second time he has gone after elite players and the results are the same. He needs one potential great freshman and load up on vererans.

---

That's literally been his strategy.

People getting upset about recruiting don't seem to get this. The thing you want him to do is the thing he is already doing.

---

Agree with that. Recruiting whiffs (which happen) put us here. We would have two to three more experienced contributors had our high school and transfer misses not happened.

We missed on 4-5 guys in the last few years in addition to major injuries. That's a ton of guys that will create big holes.

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That, plus two players developing earlier than expected. Speaks highly of this staff's skills in getting guys ready for the next level, but it doesn't help our squad in the present.

Imagine last year's team with Jeremy Sochan, or next year's roster with Yves Missi. Both those guys were projected to be multi-year players.

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It's a good point. Confluence of events.