[BostonCard]

The only reason I might blame Haase for all those guys bolting is if they saw things in his coaching/scheme/use of personnel that they didn't like and thus left. That might have been part of their calculus. Otherwise, though, it feels too easy to criticize Haase for having recruited a diamond in the ruff like Terry. For all we know, Covid changed the calculus dramatically for TT. There are more pressing concerns for Haase as a coach, imo.

Terry was a four-star player; hard to call him a diamond in the rough.  He certainly exceeded expectations based on a limited sample, and you are correct that COVID may well have changed the calculus. That being said, COVID-19 was not an issue with Okpala, who also bolted early, evidently not convinced that he could improve his draft position as a late first round/early second round player (he was drafted with the second pick of the second round).  To a lesser extent, you have to wonder why Haase was not able to convince Reid Travis to stay for his fifth year, and what it said about Travis' assessment of the program's chance for success and his personal development.

To be fair, we are dealing with small sample sizes.  Maybe Harrison Ingram will come in next year and decide to stay till his junior year and be the bedrock of a resurgent Stanford basketball program and leave to be drafted in the top-10 after becoming Pac-12 player of the year and leading Stanford to the sweet sixteen, and with him as a base, we develop a self-sustaining nucleus of good college basketball players and get back to competitive basketball.  I wouldn't bet on it, but hope is eternal.

By the way, with regards to the one-and-done rule, see this article:

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-w...er-report/

Looks like talks between the league and the players are stalled, but you may see more players going to the G-league for a year and forgoing college.  I think if that becomes the standard for players not interested in college, that may benefit Stanford.

BC

[BostonCard]

The only reason I might blame Haase for all those guys bolting is if they saw things in his coaching/scheme/use of personnel that they didn't like and thus left. That might have been part of their calculus. Otherwise, though, it feels too easy to criticize Haase for having recruited a diamond in the ruff like Terry. For all we know, Covid changed the calculus dramatically for TT. There are more pressing concerns for Haase as a coach, imo.

Terry was a four-star player; hard to call him a diamond in the rough.  He certainly exceeded expectations based on a limited sample, and you are correct that COVID may well have changed the calculus. That being said, COVID-19 was not an issue with Okpala, who also bolted early, evidently not convinced that he could improve his draft position as a late first round/early second round player (he was drafted with the second pick of the second round).  To a lesser extent, you have to wonder why Haase was not able to convince Reid Travis to stay for his fifth year, and what it said about Travis' assessment of the program's chance for success and his personal development.

To be fair, we are dealing with small sample sizes.  Maybe Harrison Ingram will come in next year and decide to stay till his junior year and be the bedrock of a resurgent Stanford basketball program and leave to be drafted in the top-10 after becoming Pac-12 player of the year and leading Stanford to the sweet sixteen, and with him as a base, we develop a self-sustaining nucleus of good college basketball players and get back to competitive basketball.  I wouldn't bet on it, but hope is eternal.

By the way, with regards to the one-and-done rule, see this article:

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-w...er-report/

Looks like talks between the league and the players are stalled, but you may see more players going to the G-league for a year and forgoing college.  I think if that becomes the standard for players not interested in college, that may benefit Stanford.

BC