They get credit by helping him improve every year, thereby making him ready to be a starter on a Final Four team out of the SEC. I don't know what the split was like between Grant Nelson and NDSU, but assuming it was with NDSU's blessing, the decent thing would be to credit where he came from.
Yes, and the way to get a player to give you that credit is to ask him to give you that credit. And the most likely way to get what you want in this scenario is to maintain a good relationship with the player that left.
Throwing around that we were where Mark Sears became SEC-level good in recruiting circles looks a little silly to me if Mark Sears never mentions our name again.
I think it looks way, way less silly than recruiting materials with Ohio State players on them. You think D'Angelo Russel is talking about OU at all?
I'm sure we have a great relationship with Ben Vander Plas. He's always been ebullient about his time at Ohio and pretty much maxed out what he could do academically here. I'm not saying every player who transfers up from Ohio should earn a degree first, but the player (and in this case, the player's parent) have a hand in that relationship.
We (mid majors) absolutely need to form a strategy to adapt to this culture and if that means we embrace helping players meet their goals, whatever they are, so be it. Coach Thornton has been retweeting stuff about Mark starting at Ohio, including Mark's retweet of something acknowledging how much he improved between his freshman and sophomore year, so I guess the relationship isn't so bad. Or maybe Thornton just sees things like you and wants to flip this whole thing into a recruiting angle, no matter the relationship. Meanwhile only us Bobcat diehards know the truth.
The D'Angelo Russel comparison is completely different. Russel's success is cachet for Coach Boals, not Ohio University. Russel has no relationship with OU. Mark Sears does.