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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 5356128, member: 405"] Well, not at first. The price of HS kids, aside from the Top 50 or so (4 stars and up), is going to go down. I read an article a few months ago that seems right on. It said that now that kids are getting representation, if they aren't one of those Top 50 kids, then you must go someplace where you will play. You need to play as soon as possible, establish your value, and then move up the food chain for more money. That's the path now. For the kids we have recruited in recent years, so many 3 star players - did we have to pay anything to get some of them? It must have been minimal. How much would we have had to pay for Peter Carey, Justin Taylor or Quadir Copeland? How much would you have to pay for transfers like Naheem McLeod, Munir Hima, Kyle Cuffe or Chance Westry? It takes most of those kids a couple years to become contributors. At that point, they may become more expensive, but you should get at least a couple years out of most HS kids, and less heralded transfers who have more than a year of eligibility left. If you can't afford to buy everyone on your roster every year (and I don't think you really want to be doing that - it's unsustainable ...), you build continuity on your team by having returning members and not having to flip the whole roster every year. Just look at Calipari at Kentucky all those years - one championship to show for having an NBA Lottery-studded roster every year. Talent alone isn't enough, even with good coaching. (I don't think anyone would suggest that Cal is a hack; despite all the unfair advantages he had, he always had good teams.) You need to have a certain continuity on your roster to help get ideas and strategies across to your team each year. Boeheim's best teams always had at least 3 returning guys to build around; a guard, a wing and a big. You need that, even in these new Portal / NIL times. [/QUOTE]

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