BELIVE #GoUtes ❤️ pic.twitter.com/GL6kNC4on5

— Miro Little (@MiroLittle23) May 7, 2024

It feels like this loss is going to hurt in a year

IvanBear said:

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It feels like this loss is going to hurt in a year

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You sure are Mr. Glass Half Empty.

MashedPotatoes said:

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Does anyone know why he left? Strictly playing time? He seemed like a guy with a lot of potential and was a great representative of the university. Wish he had stayed.

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No one really knows, but with Roach taking over starting PG and 5-star Wright coming in as a freshman, he might have seen his self being squeezed out.

Yeah he has a ton of potential. Crazy it's glass half empty to lament our program losing a super talented kid who will only improve over the next couple years.

Also contrary to what some on this board keep saying Wright is a four star recruit not five, the major services have him as a 4 star.

There was speculation Little left to follow Jakus which I would not begrudge him doing so since Jakus is who primarily recruited him. The fact he went to Utah says he thinks he can get power five starting minutes next year I assume.

Wright was a 4 star just due to his lack of NBA measurables which will keep him from being one-and-done. Kid can ball.

Sochan I believe was only a 2 or 3 star but around November of his freshman year I knew he would be one-and-done.

Recruiting rankings should be taken with a grain of salt.

I just now noticed that Miro doesn't know how to spell believe.

Or else he's trying to write Be Live?

Sochan was a 4 star…. A pretty highly ranked one at that

IowaBear said:

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Sochan was a 4 star…. A pretty highly ranked one at that

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Not from what I saw at the time. Maybe I missed something. I just checked rivals and Sochan wasn't even in the top 150 as a 3 star. KB was ranked #12 and a 5 star. Love was #57 as a 4 star. I'm sure there were other rankings that I might have missed at the time.

https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals150/2021?position=ALL%20POSITIONS

Hmm if I knew how to attach links I would. But he was definitely a 4 star on several recruiting sites.
He's also listed as a 4 star on BUs recruiting page if you look at prior classes

Maybe so. I just remember him being ridiculously overlooked in the rankings, probably because he was a Euro player not on the AAU circuit. And it was immediately evident he was a one-and-done talent after a game or 2.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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IowaBear said:

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Sochan was a 4 star…. A pretty highly ranked one at that

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Not from what I saw at the time. Maybe I missed something. I just checked rivals and Sochan wasn't even in the top 150 as a 3 star. KB was ranked #12 and a 5 star. Love was #57 as a 4 star. I'm sure there were other rankings that I might have missed at the time.

https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals150/2021?position=ALL%20POSITIONS

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4-star and highly recruited.

Jeremy Sochan 2021 Power Forward Baylor (rivals.com)

I'm just saying 4 star little shouldn't be and I don't think was intimidated by 4 star Wright.

IvanBear said:

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I'm just saying 4 star little shouldn't be and I don't think was intimidated by 4 star Wright.

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First let me say I like Little, and rooting for him, and think he does have long-term potential. But he was a year away from being a year away and anyone could see that in the limited time he got last year. Wright on the other hand will have a chance to be an immediate impact player for us next year. I am not comparing the stars by their names, just what I see with my two eyes. Admittedly I have never seen Wright in person. But he probably would have leap-frogged Little based on what I saw from Little last season.

2Bears said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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IowaBear said:

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Sochan was a 4 star…. A pretty highly ranked one at that

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Not from what I saw at the time. Maybe I missed something. I just checked rivals and Sochan wasn't even in the top 150 as a 3 star. KB was ranked #12 and a 5 star. Love was #57 as a 4 star. I'm sure there were other rankings that I might have missed at the time.

https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals150/2021?position=ALL%20POSITIONS

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4-star and highly recruited.

Jeremy Sochan 2021 Power Forward Baylor (rivals.com)

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Weird his name wasn't on the exact list from the exact same recruiting service.

You also said the same of Little before he stepped foot on campus. You called him a potential 1 n done on multiple occasions. Wright looks the part zero doubt about it. But I'll hold any judgement until he plays a game at BU before crowning him some superstar

IowaBear said:

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You also said the same of Little before he stepped foot on campus. You called him a potential 1 n done on multiple occasions. Wright looks the part zero doubt about it. But I'll hold any judgement until he plays a game at BU before crowning him some superstar

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You are such a drama queen. Never once did I say Wright would be a superstar, please point out where I said that. But 15-20 productive minutes off the bench is not far-fetched. That's more than Little would have been able to contribute next year for us at this stage of his development.

Drama Queen? Good lord, overreact much. You've said on multiple occasions if he was a few inches taller he would be 1 n done. You said the EXACT same thing of Little. You crown every highly ranked kid coming in as a 1 n done…don't forget you told everyone how great of a defender Walter was LOL. It's what you do. I simply pointed you were WAY off on Little. And that any predictions on Wright were just that… predictions. Quit being so damn sensitive

Miro Little is someone I think needs a lot more playing time to gain confidence. Here at Baylor he probably wasn't going to get any kind of significant playing time until his 3rd or 4th year so this move is probably good for him. I'm disappointed because I think he'll be a very good player in time and I hope he does have success.

IowaBear said:

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You also said the same of Little before he stepped foot on campus. You called him a potential 1 n done on multiple occasions. Wright looks the part zero doubt about it. But I'll hold any judgement until he plays a game at BU before crowning him some superstar

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We'll see what Wright is or is not in November and December. But one thing that can't be debated IMO is that, by bringing in both Wright and Roach, Drew saw Little as expendable.

The writing was on the wall for Miro at Baylor the second we brought in Roach. That made Little the odd man out in a six-guard group, all but guaranteeing a transfer.

Oh I'm not debating that. Simply pointing out Little was called a 1 n done potential before he even played a game at BU by Craw.
I put a lot of stock in the X'O's talk of tons of posters on here. I put zero stock in posters hyping incoming freshman before they play a game in a BU uniform for obvious reasons. The hype rarely ever matches the play

IowaBear said:

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Oh I'm not debating that. Simply pointing out Little was called a 1 n done potential before he even played a game at BU by Craw.
I put a lot of stalk in the X'O's talk of tons of posters on here. I put zero stalk in posters hyping incoming freshman before they play a game in a BU uniform for obvious reasons. The hype rarely ever matches the play

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The key word is "potential" which I saw (and still see) in Little. Little has good positional size and elite court vision. I hope the best for him. He was just not ready for heavy minutes for a team with final 4 aspirations. He should have more opportunity to contribute immediately in Utah.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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IvanBear said:

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I'm just saying 4 star little shouldn't be and I don't think was intimidated by 4 star Wright.

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First let me say I like Little, and rooting for him, and think he does have long-term potential. But he was a year away from being a year away and anyone could see that in the limited time he got last year. Wright on the other hand will have a chance to be an immediate impact player for us next year. I am not comparing the stars by their names, just what I see with my two eyes. Admittedly I have never seen Wright in person. But he probably would have leap-frogged Little based on what I saw from Little last season.

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I don't see any reason why Little couldn't have made a significant jump with more playing time. It would have just required committing a role to him, which obviously comes with some risk when you're trying to sustain a winning program.

But recruiting over every young developmental player will eventually keep us from getting or keeping any such players in our program.

To be fair, we don't know if Little was recruited over. They could have mutually agreed to part ways. Little might have been welcomed back but wanted a bigger role than our coaches were willing to commit to him. If I had to guess, I would suspect that going somewhere that he could get immediate playing time was probably a mutual decision viewed as a win-win for both parties. Not a unilateral decision by our staff to push him out.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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To be fair, we don't know if Little was recruited over. They could have mutually agreed to part ways. Little might have been welcomed back but wanted a bigger role than our coaches were willing to commit to him. If I had to guess, I would suspect that going somewhere that he could get immediate playing time was probably a mutual decision viewed as a win-win for both parties. Not a unilateral decision by our staff to push him out.

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He was definitely recruited over. We added two new players at his position who both came with the expectation of playing time.

I'm not even saying that was the wrong decision. But in adding both Roach and Wright, we all but invited Little to leave.

bear2be2 said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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IvanBear said:

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I'm just saying 4 star little shouldn't be and I don't think was intimidated by 4 star Wright.

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First let me say I like Little, and rooting for him, and think he does have long-term potential. But he was a year away from being a year away and anyone could see that in the limited time he got last year. Wright on the other hand will have a chance to be an immediate impact player for us next year. I am not comparing the stars by their names, just what I see with my two eyes. Admittedly I have never seen Wright in person. But he probably would have leap-frogged Little based on what I saw from Little last season.

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I don't see any reason why Little couldn't have made a significant jump with more playing time. It would have just required committing a role to him, which obviously comes with some risk when you're trying to sustain a winning program.

But recruiting over every young developmental player will eventually keep us from getting or keeping any such players in our program.

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This is how programs die. You can't just stop recruiting talent, awful idea. If you want to play, earn it.

Not to mention, kids with that type of mentality will eventually be the best players anyway.

Heisman25g said:

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bear2be2 said:

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Crawfoso1973 said:

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IvanBear said:

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I'm just saying 4 star little shouldn't be and I don't think was intimidated by 4 star Wright.

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First let me say I like Little, and rooting for him, and think he does have long-term potential. But he was a year away from being a year away and anyone could see that in the limited time he got last year. Wright on the other hand will have a chance to be an immediate impact player for us next year. I am not comparing the stars by their names, just what I see with my two eyes. Admittedly I have never seen Wright in person. But he probably would have leap-frogged Little based on what I saw from Little last season.

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I don't see any reason why Little couldn't have made a significant jump with more playing time. It would have just required committing a role to him, which obviously comes with some risk when you're trying to sustain a winning program.

But recruiting over every young developmental player will eventually keep us from getting or keeping any such players in our program.

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This is how programs die. You can't just stop recruiting talent, awful idea. If you want to play, earn it.

Not to mention, kids with that type of mentality will eventually be the best players anyway.

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Tell that to Houston, which has built one Sweet Sixteen team after another by developing and committing to the talent in its program.

There are a lot of ways to build a winning program and we have chosen to turn our roster over every year searching for the right mix of one-and-done freshmen and short-term transfers.

Thus far, the results have left much to be desired.

Another way to look at it though is that players have to earn their time on the court. Every recruit is not entitled to playing time if they fail to develop. We've had guys like Loveday and Jordan Turner occupying roster spots for years without ever becoming viable rotation players. The transfer portal affords guys like that the opportunity to earn playing time if they know they weren't going to get meaningful minutes for us. Little himself probably understood he wouldn't get meaningful minutes for us until 2 or 3 years down the road. He probably wasn't willing to wait around for that when he could transfer somewhere else and get immediate playing time.

He went to a team that hasn't been relevant in a decade or so. Obviously, we weren't the only school who questioned his potential. I was real high on him coming in. I secretly questioned why it took a while for him to get real minutes. Then watching him play, I realized he was a project. Plenty of upside but no where near ready to take serious minutes from our guards. He may be a good player eventually, but I don't at all think we will regret him walking. He probably would not get the time here that he needs. Best for the kid to transfer.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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Another way to look at it though is that players have to earn their time on the court. Every recruit is not entitled to playing time if they fail to develop. We've had guys like Loveday and Jordan Turner occupying roster spots for years without ever becoming viable rotation players. The transfer portal affords guys like that the opportunity to earn playing time if they know they weren't going to get meaningful minutes for us. Little himself probably understood he wouldn't get meaningful minutes for us until 2 or 3 years down the road. He probably wasn't willing to wait around for that when he could transfer somewhere else and get immediate playing time.

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A lot of freshmen don't look ready to compete at a championship level as freshmen. That was true of all five of Houston's starters last year. If you're constantly recruiting over homegrown players, you'll never find out how good any of them are.

If you had watched Shead, Sharp, Roberts or Francis as freshmen, you would have likely come to the same conclusion you've reached on Little. But where we hit the portal or bring in a five-star freshman to upgrade every potential weakness, Houston relies on its player development and entrusts ever-increasing roles to the guys its recruited into its program.

Objectively speaking, I'd have to say Houston's strategy is working better. They've been one of the most consistently successful tournament teams in the country the past six years, while we've been among the nation's biggest tournament underachievers since our title run.

I trust CSD knew what was in Little's best interest while at the same time our program's best interest. CSD is not the kind of coach who would kick someone to the curb. LIttle probably knew it would take 2 or 3 years of development to get the playing time he was looking for, and wasn't willing to wait around for that. I can't blame him for going elsewhere to accelerate his development.

Crawfoso1973 said:

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I trust CSD knew what was in Little's best interest while at the same time our program's best interest. CSD is not the kind of coach who would kick someone to the curb. LIttle probably knew it would take 2 or 3 years of development to get the playing time he was looking for, and wasn't willing to wait around for that. I can't blame him for going elsewhere to accelerate his development.

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I think Drew wants to win a championship and is doing what he thinks gives him the best chance to do that. And I don't begrudge him the right.

But I get really tired of seeing posters here rationalize or justify conscious choices as unavoidable outcomes or circumstances thrust upon us.

We are building and managing our roster the way Scott Drew wants to, not the way he has to. And the way we've gone about doing both has objectively and undeniably changed since we won the title.

It is 100 percent Scott Drew's right to build his roster and program the way he wants. And on the whole, he has been wildly successful at Baylor. But can we please stop pretending that the way he has chosen to do those things is the only way to do them in 2024? There are a fair number of coaches building their rosters differently with equal or greater success.