[FarmBoy]

It's almost an impossible bar to think that Stanford could ever get to the level, consistently, where a recruit feels like they're going against NBA talent in practice. There's only a handful of programs that can make that case, so it's not a reasonable goal, in my opinion.

You hear variations of this view all the time -- that Stanford shouldn't have very high expectations, in essence, for MBB -- on fan forums and frankly I think it's very strange: 
1) Of course there's a of immense proportions gap between "perennial power" and "whatever it is Stanford is doing right now." For example the school could qualify for the tournament more often than not, which is hardly an outlandish ask. 

2) That said, foreclosing on excellence seems pretty strange to me also. Villanova is one of the most successful schools in the country. There are more. Meanwhile, archetypal NBA-talent-accumulator Kentucky hasn't made the Final Four since 2014-15. It's hardly a closed cartel at the top.

Don't take my statement as an indication that I think Stanford can't be excellent at basketball. What I meant is that IF Travis' decision was really based on going to a place where the 200 days of practice would be against NBA players, then there's nothing Stanford could have done about it. That's not a variable we can manage. We have to excel in other areas (i.e., the 40 year decision) in addition to a legacy of players going to the NBA to show that coming to Stanford is smart for basketball and life. If a player is going to decide on a school based only on whether they're going to be matched up against NBA talent in practice, then we should target other players. 

And we shouldn't feel bad about it. If Travis had said "I wanted to play someplace where I'd be able to have a modicum of possibility of playing the The Big Dance", then I would have felt it was a slap in the face. But what he said was something I can live with.

[FarmBoy]

It's almost an impossible bar to think that Stanford could ever get to the level, consistently, where a recruit feels like they're going against NBA talent in practice. There's only a handful of programs that can make that case, so it's not a reasonable goal, in my opinion.

You hear variations of this view all the time -- that Stanford shouldn't have very high expectations, in essence, for MBB -- on fan forums and frankly I think it's very strange: 
1) Of course there's a of immense proportions gap between "perennial power" and "whatever it is Stanford is doing right now." For example the school could qualify for the tournament more often than not, which is hardly an outlandish ask. 

2) That said, foreclosing on excellence seems pretty strange to me also. Villanova is one of the most successful schools in the country. There are more. Meanwhile, archetypal NBA-talent-accumulator Kentucky hasn't made the Final Four since 2014-15. It's hardly a closed cartel at the top.

Don't take my statement as an indication that I think Stanford can't be excellent at basketball. What I meant is that IF Travis' decision was really based on going to a place where the 200 days of practice would be against NBA players, then there's nothing Stanford could have done about it. That's not a variable we can manage. We have to excel in other areas (i.e., the 40 year decision) in addition to a legacy of players going to the NBA to show that coming to Stanford is smart for basketball and life. If a player is going to decide on a school based only on whether they're going to be matched up against NBA talent in practice, then we should target other players. 

And we shouldn't feel bad about it. If Travis had said "I wanted to play someplace where I'd be able to have a modicum of possibility of playing the The Big Dance", then I would have felt it was a slap in the face. But what he said was something I can live with.