[Goose]

Well not many coaches would recruit some who would not fit.

Actually Bob, I think a lot of coaches do that. They have a guy who is really, really good but that may have problems fitting in. Many coaches say " I can manage this situation" and take the guy anyway. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but for sure it happens. It is often too great a temptation to resist, especially in basketball where one guy make more difference.

As to duplicate just look at last years ILBers in Football
No I disagree Goose you recruit the best players who will fit, which includes team play, and will help win.  And winning now is best

I agree that you take the guy that will help you win. This gets back to the "take the best available player regardless of need" vs. "take the player that fills your greatest needs". I think neither strategy is always right. First of all, you don't have an infinite number of slots so you have to chose a subset of available recruits. I would argue that in basketball especially you do need to look at need. Having lots of great guards is fine, but you do need somebody to rebound the ball and defend other "bigs". It is reasonable to take a center who is perhaps not as "good" as another guard (and you have plenty of good guards) because you believe the center will make you a better team and help you win. The judgement call is obviously how much better does a potential guard recruit that may not play have to be to become more valuable than the center who certainly would play.

Now if you’re the new women’s coach at Washington with your top players all leaving do you go to the quick fix transfer portal or recruit HS heavily.  As your top priority ?

Both :). The good news is that everybody knows you are in a rebuild mode, so now is the time you can get away with not winning as much. The HS recruits are the ones that will save your job in three years, so you need them to be good. You need to rebuild this pipeline and you can't ignore it at the beginning of your tenure, hoping to "fix it later". There will be much higher expectations "later". However, to be a good team you need to learn how to win. If you can find transfers that are high character that you think can help you, even if they are "short timers", take them. Be careful the transfers are for solid reasons and don't take "problem children", but take good players that can help.

[Goose]

Well not many coaches would recruit some who would not fit.

Actually Bob, I think a lot of coaches do that. They have a guy who is really, really good but that may have problems fitting in. Many coaches say " I can manage this situation" and take the guy anyway. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but for sure it happens. It is often too great a temptation to resist, especially in basketball where one guy make more difference.

As to duplicate just look at last years ILBers in Football
No I disagree Goose you recruit the best players who will fit, which includes team play, and will help win.  And winning now is best

I agree that you take the guy that will help you win. This gets back to the "take the best available player regardless of need" vs. "take the player that fills your greatest needs". I think neither strategy is always right. First of all, you don't have an infinite number of slots so you have to chose a subset of available recruits. I would argue that in basketball especially you do need to look at need. Having lots of great guards is fine, but you do need somebody to rebound the ball and defend other "bigs". It is reasonable to take a center who is perhaps not as "good" as another guard (and you have plenty of good guards) because you believe the center will make you a better team and help you win. The judgement call is obviously how much better does a potential guard recruit that may not play have to be to become more valuable than the center who certainly would play.

Now if you’re the new women’s coach at Washington with your top players all leaving do you go to the quick fix transfer portal or recruit HS heavily.  As your top priority ?

Both :). The good news is that everybody knows you are in a rebuild mode, so now is the time you can get away with not winning as much. The HS recruits are the ones that will save your job in three years, so you need them to be good. You need to rebuild this pipeline and you can't ignore it at the beginning of your tenure, hoping to "fix it later". There will be much higher expectations "later". However, to be a good team you need to learn how to win. If you can find transfers that are high character that you think can help you, even if they are "short timers", take them. Be careful the transfers are for solid reasons and don't take "problem children", but take good players that can help.