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[QUOTE="RF2044, post: 2875828, member: 40"]
That's not unreasonable -- at all.  But you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and with rare exception we don't seem to actively pursue true blue chip, elite recruits anymore.

When we do, it's generally a case of us being in a kid long before they explode into prominence [a la Anthony Davis], and then we bow out when the elite teams start to circle.

There have been a few instances where we've gone the distance -- i.e., Quade Green, Stewart, Noel -- but more often than not it seems like we avoid getting into that competition with the elite programs.  Maybe JB isn't confident that we'll win a few of these battles, so he focuses elsewhere?  I speculated in my previous post that maybe it had to do with all of the $$$ chicanery that so many schools seem to have engaged in?

But there was a time when we WERE actively pursuing and landing top 10 caliber talent -- in the 80s and early 90s.  We just don't seem to focus on those types of players anymore.  JB seems to prefer picking his battles with athletes with high upside over blue chip guys [not that he wouldn't take blue chippers if he could land them -- he just doesn't seem to want to battle for them].

Who was the last elite ranked recruit we landed?  Carmelo in 2002?  And that was after he committed during his junior year as a player ranked in the high 20s / low 30s, only to have his ranking shoot up afterwards.
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