Hard to believe this is a discussion and also a potential reality. Did not see type of struggle coming post-Virginia upset.
+1
It’s a talent acquisition business. Less margin of error at the mid-major level when it comes to swings and misses on the recruiting trail. And you just can’t whiff in the portal and we whiffed multiple times with this year’s roster. And now it appears we will struggle to finish in the top 8 of the conference.
Agreed. Watching the Buffalo and Kent games, I couldn’t help but wonder how can we and why we didn’t we land a player like Isiah Adams or Miryne Thomas in the portal? Or how can we utilize the JUCO route for a Curtis Jones or Zid Powell (I know he didn’t play) type?
I have hard time blaming the portal for Sears and BVP leaving since Akron for example, lost Ali and is still competing. Good programs don’t rebuild, they reload or retool and to your point — we just didn’t do that.
Additionally, questions that I have are — did we just not land our first transfer choices and had to settle? Or are we just targeting the wrong the players altogether (e.g. Wiz’ prior relationship with Lee Martin)?
Onto to the next stretch of games like you said, but this isn’t where we should be given the momentum we’ve had recently between the tourney win and Preston getting drafted.
After the Kent game, I said "out coached, but more out recruited".
Here's how simple I see things: Boals and his staff have to change how they recruit because the recruiting landscape in college sports has changed. Ohio (I think) is somewhat accustomed to recruiting and retaining (at a decent rate) high school players and planning for them to be here 4 years. While that's a fine goal, and I personally take a lot of joy in watching a 17-18 year old kid come in and develop as a player and person over 4 years, it's just not reality to try to build a program on that basis anymore. As soon as a MAC school gets a kid like Mark Sears, the NIL hounds are going to come calling with checkbooks and car keys in hand. It's garbage that the NCAA has evolved (devolved) into this in my opinion BUT, it is reality right now in 2023. (there's a thread about the NIL stuff elsewhere)
I think UB, Kent, Akron, et al are ahead of Ohio recruiting wise at this point simply because they're already accustomed to building their teams with 2-3 new JUCO / transfer players on an annual basis. If winning is most important, Ohio needs to get to the point that 40-50% of recruits are transfers in my opinion. Times are changin', and we gotta change with them.