[BillBradley]

Thanks Joe. As illustrated by your recap, having elite recruits does not guarantee a deep postseason run (as evidenced by last season), it is almost a prerequisite to do so.

If someone had the time, I bet that every national title team (and even the vast majority of FF teams over the last decade) has had at least one, if not multiple top-5/10 recruits on their roster.

That's why losing out on all of these top HS players hurts even more as our pool is much smaller to begin with.

I think there's an implied conclusion in this thread that you can't win championships unless you have x number of top-y ranked recruits. I completely reject that. I find the data analysis to be too convenient. I absolutely accept that you have to have substantial talent to win. But what form does that come in? What are the pieces and how do they fit together? This notion of "we're missing out on these Top-10's so we're hosed because we'll have to settle for players in the Top-20/30/40" is pretty bogus. There are many players ranked well outside the Top-10 that are often better than the one ranked #8. I agree that the real cream-of-the-crop #1's and #2's are real difference makers (usually), but how deep do you go while still proclaiming someone is a world beater and expect them to dominate? I think I'd stop around #3. 

These recruiting rankings are highly suspect, with a lot of lingering bias from when the players were years younger, before injuries, etc. Much of the data is unreliable. Especially with the bigs, there are so many players who were unstoppable down low in high school, but just hit a wall in college. They aren't strong enough, agile enough, can't guard on the perimeter, injured, etc. It really comes down to the players themselves and how they all play together. Our last year's team of 2 #1's and a #3 (by far the best recruiting rankings we've ever had in 3 players on one team), yet they couldn't figure out how to play together. 

When we reach the Final-4 in 2026 led by #39 Chloe Clardy, I'll expect a postie:>

[BillBradley]

Thanks Joe. As illustrated by your recap, having elite recruits does not guarantee a deep postseason run (as evidenced by last season), it is almost a prerequisite to do so.

If someone had the time, I bet that every national title team (and even the vast majority of FF teams over the last decade) has had at least one, if not multiple top-5/10 recruits on their roster.

That's why losing out on all of these top HS players hurts even more as our pool is much smaller to begin with.

I think there's an implied conclusion in this thread that you can't win championships unless you have x number of top-y ranked recruits. I completely reject that. I find the data analysis to be too convenient. I absolutely accept that you have to have substantial talent to win. But what form does that come in? What are the pieces and how do they fit together? This notion of "we're missing out on these Top-10's so we're hosed because we'll have to settle for players in the Top-20/30/40" is pretty bogus. There are many players ranked well outside the Top-10 that are often better than the one ranked #8. I agree that the real cream-of-the-crop #1's and #2's are real difference makers (usually), but how deep do you go while still proclaiming someone is a world beater and expect them to dominate? I think I'd stop around #3. 

These recruiting rankings are highly suspect, with a lot of lingering bias from when the players were years younger, before injuries, etc. Much of the data is unreliable. Especially with the bigs, there are so many players who were unstoppable down low in high school, but just hit a wall in college. They aren't strong enough, agile enough, can't guard on the perimeter, injured, etc. It really comes down to the players themselves and how they all play together. Our last year's team of 2 #1's and a #3 (by far the best recruiting rankings we've ever had in 3 players on one team), yet they couldn't figure out how to play together. 

When we reach the Final-4 in 2026 led by #39 Chloe Clardy, I'll expect a postie:>