Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="longtimefan, post: 5089971, member: 212"]
Here's a big problem. 19-year-olds vs 22 or 23-year-olds.

One of the charms of March Madness is when a mid-major (or occasionally a low-major) upsets a "blue blood". The Goliath has a half dozen 4 or 5-stars. The small program has several players who were unrated coming out of high school. How can they compete? Physical maturity and team experience.

Now move it to the present day, when top programs can go out and get guys who were highly-rated 2 or 3 years ago when they came out of high school and now want to move on because they feel they've been recruited over, or they don't get along with the coach, or they're looking for a bigger bag. So now you have 22 year-old blue chips going against kids just arriving from high school.

NC St got it to work last season when their 7 portal players (who got all the minutes) finally figured it out.
A couple of years earlier UNC got to the title game. Their best player was Manek, the portal guy from Okla.

There will be a test case next season--Duke. They have arguably the best recruiting class ever. Of course, they are hedging their bets with 3 veterans--Proctor, and 2 from the portal, Maliq and Gillis.

Bottom line--you can't compete at the highest level relying on recent high school recruits. And by the time these players are ready, there is a near even-money chance they are in the portal.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?