Nobody is thrilled with the way things are going, but lost in all of this is the Wyking talent drain. Justice is currently starting and one of the leading scorers for a top 5-10 OSU team; Vanover is a key contributor on a borderline top 10 team at Arkansas; and McNeil is a key contributor on what seems to be a pretty good SMU team. The…
Nobody is thrilled with the way things are going, but lost in all of this is the Wyking talent drain. Justice is currently starting and one of the leading scorers for a top 5-10 OSU team; Vanover is a key contributor on a borderline top 10 team at Arkansas; and McNeil is a key contributor on what seems to be a pretty good SMU team. They would be 3 of our 4 best players right now, and the recruiting the last two years has been nowhere close to being at the level to replace any one of those guys, much less all 3 of them. Against that backdrop, I think that the injuries and other time missed by guys like Bradley and Grant means more to this team than it does other programs.
Looks like there is maybe/sorta a bit of an uptick this year in recruiting? But unless we start re-stocking with legitimate power 5 caliber players, this isn't going to get meaningfully better no matter what else Fox does, though I don't think the apparent lack of improvement by any of the players here is a vote of confidence that recruiting is going to get significantly better anytime soon. And if we are pinning our hopes on the transfer portal, yikes. Maybe the late-game ball will bounce our way and we'll win a few more close games some season than we did this year and inch closer to a .500 conference record, but that seems like the ceiling here, and that seemed like it was the ceiling even when he was hired. There is no reasonable opportunity to move on, but maybe our next coaching search will include something resembling a real process instead of the AD simply going with a consultant's recommendation.
You may be right. I was pretty much basing that off the signing of Obinna Anyanwu, who has the type of offer list (AZ, USC, TX, etc.) that suggests he can play at this level, and is our first Rivals 4-star recruit since Matt Bradley/Jacobi Gordon. But as those two guys show, development (and luck -- Gordon had unfortunate injuries) is every bit as important as their ranking.
Are we blaming Wyking for the talent drain on players he recruited here? Or on fox for losing those talented guys that would’ve pushed this team atleast one rung up based on talent alone? Just wanted to clarify
Nobody is thrilled with the way things are going, but lost in all of this is the Wyking talent drain. Justice is currently starting and one of the leading scorers for a top 5-10 OSU team; Vanover is a key contributor on a borderline top 10 team at Arkansas; and McNeil is a key contributor on what seems to be a pretty good SMU team. They would be 3 of our 4 best players right now, and the recruiting the last two years has been nowhere close to being at the level to replace any one of those guys, much less all 3 of them. Against that backdrop, I think that the injuries and other time missed by guys like Bradley and Grant means more to this team than it does other programs.
Looks like there is maybe/sorta a bit of an uptick this year in recruiting? But unless we start re-stocking with legitimate power 5 caliber players, this isn't going to get meaningfully better no matter what else Fox does, though I don't think the apparent lack of improvement by any of the players here is a vote of confidence that recruiting is going to get significantly better anytime soon. And if we are pinning our hopes on the transfer portal, yikes. Maybe the late-game ball will bounce our way and we'll win a few more close games some season than we did this year and inch closer to a .500 conference record, but that seems like the ceiling here, and that seemed like it was the ceiling even when he was hired. There is no reasonable opportunity to move on, but maybe our next coaching search will include something resembling a real process instead of the AD simply going with a consultant's recommendation.
"Looks like there is maybe/sorta a bit of an uptick this year in recruiting? "
I wish I could believe this, but I don't think it's true.
You may be right. I was pretty much basing that off the signing of Obinna Anyanwu, who has the type of offer list (AZ, USC, TX, etc.) that suggests he can play at this level, and is our first Rivals 4-star recruit since Matt Bradley/Jacobi Gordon. But as those two guys show, development (and luck -- Gordon had unfortunate injuries) is every bit as important as their ranking.
Are we blaming Wyking for the talent drain on players he recruited here? Or on fox for losing those talented guys that would’ve pushed this team atleast one rung up based on talent alone? Just wanted to clarify