Some comments seem to be acting like after this season the team has a mid level talent in the following classes. A bit strange. I really blame a lot of this on the cottage industry of recruiting sites, rankings an evaluation process. Now of course you can say I'm coping, I guess deep down even I can admit I might be. But like any sport the game is still played by humans, not robots, and coaching really matters in lax. Even if Cuse doesn't get a couple more 5 stars in the '27 class, there's still a ton of talent that is more than capable of maintaining the competitive standard. You can hoard all the highly ranked offensive players you want, you still have to win face offs, defend and face the other teams with 5 star goalies.
Past performance does not necessarily yield future results, but I'll say it again, all these teams have done squat come tournament time. UNC, Virgina, Duke...just go to IL and look at their classes from the past 3 years. You would think there is no way they wouldn't win a tournament game, let alone not even make it in the first place.
Yes, getting the highly ranked players raises your floor considerably, there is no denying that. But there is a reason why these teams have underperformed. Nobody blames the kids for going to these programs given location, academics, campus atmosphere etc. But ask yourself, are they going there for the lacrosse more than the ancillaries? I suspect a big reason for underperformance aside from coaching is that some of these players are perfectly fine just having the experience. It's kind of sad since talent is getting wasted and the game is deprived of their maximum potential, but will always leave the door open for other programs who don't have the same recruiting success.
