@HighEliteMajor
Since John Calipari failed to win a national championship with 10 projected future draft choices (OADs and 2 ADs), I would add him to the list of coaches that likely would not be a contender with a rotation that included Jamari Traylor, Hunter Mickelson, Landen Lucas, Frank Mason, and Devonte Graham. I doubt that John Calipari would have recruited most, if any, of these players to Kentucky. If Cal didn't even know enough to recruit and sign them, I fail to see the logic that he would have been able to be a contender with them had he taken over KU and coached them. I doubt Coach K would have recruited most, if any, of these players to Duke. I doubt that Stumpy Miller would have recruited most, if any, of these players to Arizona. I also doubt that Billy Donovan would have at Florida, either.
And here is the real clincher. Among the KU guys that these other coaches did recruit, more than likely: a.) they wouldn't have bumped one of their guys to get one of these KU players; or b.) if they had been willing to sign the KU guy it would have been pre-emptive recruiting, something we have seen these stack teams try from time to time.
It at least appears that the recruiting asymmetry between KU and other elite majors contracted with Nike is rather acute the last few years.
Of all the players you mention as highly ranked KU players, probably only Perry Ellis would have been a player that Calipari, Coach K, Stumpy, and Donovan would have signed instead of the players they did in fact sign.
Look at UK and Duke and Arizona for the last three recruiting years prior to this past year. The reputed rank of their high profile players has been pretty staggeringly high.
I just don't see how these coaches mentioned above could likely compete nearly as well as Self has with this current KU roster, given what they have had to compete with and what they have accomplished the last several years.
Remember, Bill Self took a team to the National Finals that didn't even have a Mickey D on it and even made a game of it against Kentucky down the stretch, when UK started and rotated 6 OADs.
Self is such an incredibly resourceful coach that he had a team with Naadir Tharpe playing point guard on track to make a deep run in the NCAA, had Embiid stayed healthy. Naadir Tharpe!!!!! Cal, Coach K, and Stumpy, have never had to start a point guard for a season remotely as weak as Tharpe.
My point in all of this is NOT to say that Self has NO talent to work with. He obviously has some good players, usually 2-3 that other elite teams would want on their rosters.
But my point IS to say that he has operated with substantially less talent than Cal, Coach K and Stumpy the last few seasons, and that most of his highly ranked players are not as highly ranked as Cal's, Coach K's, and Stumpy's highly ranked players.
Further, every time Cal, Coach K, and say, Tom Izzo, run into some lean talent seasons in their careers at their elite programs, they fall much farther in winning percentage than Self.
It appears Self just is significantly better at operating at a high winning percentage with less talent and less highly ranked talent than these other coaches.
These other coaches don't have to sign all of the OADs they sign. They could sign the same amount of OADs as Self. They could also have signed several of the guys that Self has in fact signed in lieu of being unable to sign OAD PGs and 5s most of the time. But they don't. They know they need the big edge in talent to compete and win, just like Self knows you need that talent. But the difference is that Self appears way more successful with lean talent than these other guys on their infrequent years of lean talent.
