[washingtonismoney]

2. Maybe it's just me, but I find it a disconnect to say that we can objectively judge a recruiting class by how many stars the recruits have, but it's OK for the coaches to ignore how many stars a kid has when they decide whether or not to recruit them.

A disconnect, but I think it's a reasonable position. Think of it as being similar to a ratings agency for a financial security. Basically, experienced hands are supposed to go through the particulars of any given entity and come up with a rating for the rubes. The rating is never going to replace an objective, detailed look at the qualities of a given security (or player), but is good enough if you're a yahoo to get an idea of what's going on.

But I think you can go too far in the just-trust-the-coaches direction. Sometimes coaches get a bit too enamored with their own ability. Sometimes coaches are missing the trends of the game. Sometimes there are other cognitive biases involved. Ratings can therefore be a nice external check into what you're doing.

I hope our coaches aren't looking too closely at ratings (though they might be helpful as an initial screen), but I think they're worth taking a peek at.

[washingtonismoney]

2. Maybe it's just me, but I find it a disconnect to say that we can objectively judge a recruiting class by how many stars the recruits have, but it's OK for the coaches to ignore how many stars a kid has when they decide whether or not to recruit them.

A disconnect, but I think it's a reasonable position. Think of it as being similar to a ratings agency for a financial security. Basically, experienced hands are supposed to go through the particulars of any given entity and come up with a rating for the rubes. The rating is never going to replace an objective, detailed look at the qualities of a given security (or player), but is good enough if you're a yahoo to get an idea of what's going on.

But I think you can go too far in the just-trust-the-coaches direction. Sometimes coaches get a bit too enamored with their own ability. Sometimes coaches are missing the trends of the game. Sometimes there are other cognitive biases involved. Ratings can therefore be a nice external check into what you're doing.

I hope our coaches aren't looking too closely at ratings (though they might be helpful as an initial screen), but I think they're worth taking a peek at.