The season is over. In recent years many top high school recruits have moved their decisions into this time of year. To date, Kansas has only one new player recruited for next year while still having 3 scholarship available (and possibly more soon).
Many Kansas fans feel unsatisfied with our team's performance this last year, and also with several other recent years.
We all know how important it is to recruit the right players in. Talent is important, basketball intelligence, important. And recruiting balance; filling quality depth at every position. Players should be fit together with the idea that they could develop good chemistry.
I'm looking back a year ago. One year ago we were coming up to the NBA draft and all the talk was about 2 Kansas OADs bound for glory in the draft. Andrew and JoJo accomplished their glory by becoming the 1st and 3rd picks.
Most basketball fans would think that Kansas could then use such publicity in a popular fashion to help "keep the momentum going" and land another stellar recruiting class. We did land two blue chip prospects last year. One panned out well, the other not so well. Meanwhile, there remained a big hole in the interior, an area always given the brightest light in Jayhawkland because of our focus on hi/lo offense, and M2M defense using a superior big man to "make up the difference" when guarding assignments are blown. Our defense will always highlight the skills of a good shot blocker. There is a reason why Jeff Withey earned so many blocked shots as a Jayhawk. A big part of it was his skilled timing, but also he was aided by the plethora of opportunities he had to block shots.
It was recently exposed that Kansas spends more money in recruiting than any other D1 school in the nation. Are we getting our money's worth? We left a glaring hole in the post last year and no other school in the nation puts such an emphasis on the 5 position than Kansas. How can that be?
I am saying that now because it appears we could be in that same position again this year. Many will argue that there just aren't great 5s available out there. But I'm wondering why we should be a team that has to "fight for the scraps" in the post when supposedly our entire strategy plays through our big man. We've definitely put several bigs in the league, many who came to Kansas and were not 5-star recruits.
I look at last year and I see recruiting desperation at Kansas. We didn't even fill all our scholarships. That should say something. And we picked up a late signing at the 2... a position we ended up crowding 6 capable players in one slot! Yes... 6 players! Is it any wonder that a diehard Jayhawk like Conner left for bluer skies? HALF of our scholarship players were capable 2s! HALF! Wayne, Conner, Frank, Devonte, Brannen, and Svi! Okay... we have Frank and Devonte sharing the point, too, but Frank is a converted PG (from the 2) leaving Devonte as perhaps our only true PG. On top of all this, it is clear that Wayne receives special treatment for his PT. He has started every game as a Jayhawk. What amazes me is the contradiction stated in past years from Self. When we had problems with EJ in his senior year Self mentioned that much of the problem was he had no one else to play and compete at that position, so he couldn't just pull EJ. Last year, he had 6 guys that fit in the 2, but the majority of minutes were given to a guy that clearly underperformed.
If it makes you feel better, remove Frank from the equation since he was our full-time PG last year... then that leaves 5 guys we invested into at the 2 and we didn't even reach a decent level of output at that position! That fact is screaming off the page! First... we totally botched our recruiting to have that kind of imbalance at one position. Because of it, we were bound to have holes in other places. Second... even with all that talent funneled into one position, we end up underachieving at that position! And the result was a mid-season transfer.
All of this points to desperation in recruiting. All of this points to a lack of purpose in recruiting.... a lack of structure... a lack of performance... a lack of execution. Why do fans point at the players for a season that fell below the bar? Wasn't this a gigantic coaching failure? Wasn't a big part of this recruiting failure? And by the blue blood program that spends more money on recruiting than any other program in the country?
Why do we always have to count on last-second recruits coming in and saving us? Why do we only have one recruit signed so far? Why do we sit now nervously on the bubble, waiting to see if we can fill gigantic holes in our post? OUR POST! "BIG MAN U CAN'T LAND POST PLAYERS?!"
Maybe this problem is about to go away for next year..... after all, we get to play an extra season and represent our country soon. Surely that is a big enough carrot to entice a big man to select Kansas. Or is it?
Could the problem be our use of the hi/lo?
