Seniors are dominating the sport.

[permdaddy]

This just confirms what we already knew but the gap is bigger than I thought. Sophomores, Juniors and Freshman together don't equal the impact of Seniors in the top 200 players. I would imagine the gap is pretty consistent outside the top 200 as well. We are using an outdated model trying to win in college basketball with freshman.

 

[ukjenning44]

And our brilliant coach goes young 😂😂

 

[WeWant9]

I was thinking about this earlier. With nil, open portal, extra Covid years- this is the oldest college bball has been in awhile. Much more incentive for guys to stick in college, before trying to go pro.

Our guys are going up against men who started playing college bball when our guys were entering the 7th or 8th grade. Kind of crazy to think about.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

And here's the best part.. I'm assuming that Senior must also include 5th and 6th year players as well, and not strictly 4th year players?

This is what many of us have said.. Freshman trying to be better than a senior back in 2010 is a lot different than a freshman trying to be better than a 5th or 6th year player. I'd also bet that the average team had has ticked up quite a bit. That makes a difference.

 

[fisherscatfan]

The whole COVID year is ridiculous especially for sports that played their season and maybe lost the tournament. All it did was screw up the college experience for the groups behind them.

 

[seccats04]

And our brilliant coach goes young 😂😂

Well, he couldn’t win with the older, less talented players either. So either way we’re screwed. Cal is not a good coach in modern day college basketball.

 

[Eight_Banners]

Posted this in another thread (Here). A similar conclusion to the OP here.

"
Cal's prerogative has always been to get the most talented athletes, with the highest ceiling, and hope that he can develop that talent in a year. It's really hard to take 18-year-olds and out-develop 22-24-year-olds. It's also not easy to take a fifth-year guy and mold him into a system that is different than what they were playing for the previous four years. Cal was a step ahead of the game with one-and-dones, but that system is not as valuable in the days of fifth- and sixth-year options for players.

Compare our roster and output with UCONN:

Tristen Newton - Leading scorer - fifth year senior, second year at UCONN - (15.6 ppg)
Cam Spencer - 2nd scorer - fifth year senior, first year at UCONN - (15.5 ppg)
Alex Karaban - 3rd - red-shirt soph., third year at UCONN - (14.2 ppg)
Donovan Clingan - 4th - sophomore, second year at UCONN - (12.6 ppg)
Stephon Castle - 5th - freshman (10.6 ppg).

UCONN's first freshman to show up in the stat sheet for ppg is fifth on their roster. The others have multiple years of college basketball.


Compare that with UK:

Antonio Reeves - 19.7 ppg
Rob Dillingham
Reed Sheppard
Tre Mitchell
DJ Wagner
Justin Edwards

This shows a couple things:
First, these are really good freshman. Even Justin Edwards, who was clearly overrated and should play a second year of college basketball, is the sixth leading scorer. However, if we were to play UCONN, we would probably lose 7/10 times, because the physicality and mentality that it takes to win at this level, against grown men, requires grown men.

Think about it, Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer have been developing their game at the college level since Tyrese Maxey was a freshman at UK. Maxey has been in the League for four years. To put it another way, Newton and Spencer have been playing college level basketball since Reed Sheppard was 15, DJ Wagner was 14, Dillingham was 14, and Justin Edwards was 15.

Obviously, those players have been developing their game over those 4+ years as well, but they haven't been playing high-level college basketball during that time.

My point is, Cal's system of one-and-dones works in a world where Kansas, Duke, UNC, etc., are all playing with the same hand. They were once all trying to get the best freshmen to come and play for them, and sprinkle in a couple of upperclassmen here and there. Now it is trying to sprinkle in one-and-dones with multi-year players, and not having freshmen as the face of the program.

The problem is, Cal won't change, and he cannot outcoach other top-tier coaches, and he can no longer out-talent teams as he has done in the past. If he could change one thing, he would be back to the top of the coaching game, and that would be to start recruiting players back for future seasons, instead of insisting on their exit for the NBA. I get it, if a player is a lottery lock, they should go, unless they have unfinished NCAA business. Otherwise, these fringe draft players should be recruited back for another year with urgency."

 

[Eight_Banners]

I'll add to that a reality concerning our bigs, Onyenso, Bradshaw, and Ivisic:

Collectively, these three have played 697 minutes of college basketball. Ivisic has played less than an hour, at 57 minutes. Bradshaw, 293, and Onyenso, 347.

Collectively, they have played in 52 games. Ivisic, 6, Bradshaw 16, and Onyenso, 30.

They have played collective minutes of college basketball only 14 minutes longer than the extended cut versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (683 min.)

In other words, our three bigs have as much on-court college basketball experience as the time it would take you to sit and watch three long movies.

 

[Dontworryboutit23]

And our brilliant coach goes young 😂😂

He can’t coach old guys either. He has to have elite of elite talent, he doesn’t have elite of elite talent this year. But he should still be winning with this roster

 

[WeWant9]

The whole COVID year is ridiculous especially for sports that played their season and maybe lost the tournament. All it did was screw up the college experience for the groups behind them.

It was a bleeding heart type of thing. No one close to their mid 20s should be playing college sports.

 

[Kattopper]

Cal is just going to take the best HS players that are “draftable” based on preseason/highest ranking recruits. He doesn’t build a roster. He builds for the green room and that’s it.

There is no reason at KY with NIL and the portal to ever have a hole in our roster in today’s game. Zero.

 

[YardCat]

And our brilliant coach goes young 😂😂

He always has to go against the process

 

[TNCatfanforever]

Covid and open transfer totally changed it. Players got 1-2 extra years. So we have 24-25 year old men playing 18 year old boys

 

[ukjenning44]

Posted this in another thread (Here). A similar conclusion to the OP here.

"
Cal's prerogative has always been to get the most talented athletes, with the highest ceiling, and hope that he can develop that talent in a year. It's really hard to take 18-year-olds and out-develop 22-24-year-olds. It's also not easy to take a fifth-year guy and mold him into a system that is different than what they were playing for the previous four years. Cal was a step ahead of the game with one-and-dones, but that system is not as valuable in the days of fifth- and sixth-year options for players.

Compare our roster and output with UCONN:

Tristen Newton - Leading scorer - fifth year senior, second year at UCONN - (15.6 ppg)
Cam Spencer - 2nd scorer - fifth year senior, first year at UCONN - (15.5 ppg)
Alex Karaban - 3rd - red-shirt soph., third year at UCONN - (14.2 ppg)
Donovan Clingan - 4th - sophomore, second year at UCONN - (12.6 ppg)
Stephon Castle - 5th - freshman (10.6 ppg).

UCONN's first freshman to show up in the stat sheet for ppg is fifth on their roster. The others have multiple years of college basketball.


Compare that with UK:

Antonio Reeves - 19.7 ppg
Rob Dillingham
Reed Sheppard
Tre Mitchell
DJ Wagner
Justin Edwards

This shows a couple things:
First, these are really good freshman. Even Justin Edwards, who was clearly overrated and should play a second year of college basketball, is the sixth leading scorer. However, if we were to play UCONN, we would probably lose 7/10 times, because the physicality and mentality that it takes to win at this level, against grown men, requires grown men.

Think about it, Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer have been developing their game at the college level since Tyrese Maxey was a freshman at UK. Maxey has been in the League for four years. To put it another way, Newton and Spencer have been playing college level basketball since Reed Sheppard was 15, DJ Wagner was 14, Dillingham was 14, and Justin Edwards was 15.

Obviously, those players have been developing their game over those 4+ years as well, but they haven't been playing high-level college basketball during that time.

My point is, Cal's system of one-and-dones works in a world where Kansas, Duke, UNC, etc., are all playing with the same hand. They were once all trying to get the best freshmen to come and play for them, and sprinkle in a couple of upperclassmen here and there. Now it is trying to sprinkle in one-and-dones with multi-year players, and not having freshmen as the face of the program.

The problem is, Cal won't change, and he cannot outcoach other top-tier coaches, and he can no longer out-talent teams as he has done in the past. If he could change one thing, he would be back to the top of the coaching game, and that would be to start recruiting players back for future seasons, instead of insisting on their exit for the NBA. I get it, if a player is a lottery lock, they should go, unless they have unfinished NCAA business. Otherwise, these fringe draft players should be recruited back for another year with urgency."

How many future NBA ALL STARS does UCONN have though? That’s what matters to Cal.

 

[ukcatz12]

He can’t coach old guys either. He has to have elite of elite talent, he doesn’t have elite of elite talent this year. But he should still be winning with this roster

We didn't have elite talent in '22 and that team got a 2 seed and was rolling right along until injuries took their toll. Obviously the end of that season was a disaster, but mid-February that might have been the best team in the country. TyTy never really got healthy and Grady could barely walk come tournament time. But at full strength that was a pretty damn good team.

 

[gharding07]

After this year the stupid extra covid year goes away. That's a big part of the "problem" this season playing against guys that are 23, 24, 25 years old is crazy. It will even out next year.

 

[CrimsonCats]

The whole COVID year is ridiculous especially for sports that played their season and maybe lost the tournament. All it did was screw up the college experience for the groups behind them.

I don’t think it was such a bad thing in a lot of the non-revenue sports where competing for championships as a senior was definitely going to be the end of a sports career for those affected, and in some cases something they had just about literally worked their whole lives to achieve. I think there’s value in letting them come back so they can have that milestone in their life.

Unfortunately, too much money at the higher levels of the revenue sports corrupted things like it tends to do. The COVID year plus transfer portal plus NIL has resulted in mid-20s semi-pros bouncing around from team to team chasing money and rings in D1 basketball, which is objectively absurd for purportedly collegiate athletics. I’ll be glad when the COVID year players filter out of the system soon.

 

[AGEE11]

"Seniors" includes three classes.

Super Seniors thanks to the Woohan Virus, Red Shirt Seniors, and "real" seniors

Hypothetically half college basketball are "seniors" so it makes sense

 

[catben]

Heck, Cal's best player for the last 3 seasons has been a Jr(Oscar), Sr(Oscar) and Sr( Reeves) yet he STILL wants to proclaim that he wants talented Freshmen over experienced Jr's and Sr's!!!!!

The problem is there aren't enough game changing players in each class anymore. John Wall, Bledsoe and Boogie; Brandon Knight, Doron Lamb and Terrance Jones; Anthony Davis, MKG and Teague; The Twins, Randle and Young; Monk, Fox and Bam were the last of the Super Frosh classes.

Has there been ANY class since 2019 that comes CLOSE to those I listed above from Cal's first 8 seasons????

Freshman NO LONGER have enough talent to overcome the maturity of current players. And Cal WON'T adjust!!!

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Posted this in another thread (Here). A similar conclusion to the OP here.

"
Cal's prerogative has always been to get the most talented athletes, with the highest ceiling, and hope that he can develop that talent in a year. It's really hard to take 18-year-olds and out-develop 22-24-year-olds. It's also not easy to take a fifth-year guy and mold him into a system that is different than what they were playing for the previous four years. Cal was a step ahead of the game with one-and-dones, but that system is not as valuable in the days of fifth- and sixth-year options for players.

Compare our roster and output with UCONN:

Tristen Newton - Leading scorer - fifth year senior, second year at UCONN - (15.6 ppg)
Cam Spencer - 2nd scorer - fifth year senior, first year at UCONN - (15.5 ppg)
Alex Karaban - 3rd - red-shirt soph., third year at UCONN - (14.2 ppg)
Donovan Clingan - 4th - sophomore, second year at UCONN - (12.6 ppg)
Stephon Castle - 5th - freshman (10.6 ppg).

UCONN's first freshman to show up in the stat sheet for ppg is fifth on their roster. The others have multiple years of college basketball.


Compare that with UK:

Antonio Reeves - 19.7 ppg
Rob Dillingham
Reed Sheppard
Tre Mitchell
DJ Wagner
Justin Edwards

This shows a couple things:
First, these are really good freshman. Even Justin Edwards, who was clearly overrated and should play a second year of college basketball, is the sixth leading scorer. However, if we were to play UCONN, we would probably lose 7/10 times, because the physicality and mentality that it takes to win at this level, against grown men, requires grown men.

Think about it, Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer have been developing their game at the college level since Tyrese Maxey was a freshman at UK. Maxey has been in the League for four years. To put it another way, Newton and Spencer have been playing college level basketball since Reed Sheppard was 15, DJ Wagner was 14, Dillingham was 14, and Justin Edwards was 15.

Obviously, those players have been developing their game over those 4+ years as well, but they haven't been playing high-level college basketball during that time.

My point is, Cal's system of one-and-dones works in a world where Kansas, Duke, UNC, etc., are all playing with the same hand. They were once all trying to get the best freshmen to come and play for them, and sprinkle in a couple of upperclassmen here and there. Now it is trying to sprinkle in one-and-dones with multi-year players, and not having freshmen as the face of the program.

The problem is, Cal won't change, and he cannot outcoach other top-tier coaches, and he can no longer out-talent teams as he has done in the past. If he could change one thing, he would be back to the top of the coaching game, and that would be to start recruiting players back for future seasons, instead of insisting on their exit for the NBA. I get it, if a player is a lottery lock, they should go, unless they have unfinished NCAA business. Otherwise, these fringe draft players should be recruited back for another year with urgency."

This is my one small question when it comes to Hurley. They are looking like a shoe-in for the Final4 and possibly beyond, back to back.. BUT, that's a lot due to the fact that Hurley landed the right guys, and transfers, and was able to have them be good enough to play well, but not TOO good where the NBA wants them immediately, so he was therefor able to keep most of the same team from last year. Uconn returned I think 4 of its top7 from last year. He's going to lose 3 important seniors this year, Clingan can get drafted, Castle and Karaban aren't far behind. He's heading for quite a bit of an exodus.

Yes, he's still a fantastic coach, and yes, you still have to do a good job even if the returning guys went to the title last year. But he's going to have a drop off in talent soon, and just because his recruiting will take off, doesn't mean guys like Edwards or Bradshaw will help him, especially if those recruits bolt after just one medicore year.

One of the things I like to see is coaches who can win with mostly different teams. The best coaches in the history of the sport have done this.. Pitino, Coach K, Self (somewhat), Izzo, Jay Wright (somewhat), even Cal. Hurley might win 2, but they will be back to back.. and as impressive as this is, and as much as I still want him as our next coach, there's still a part of me that is curious to see if he can do this again in a year or two..

 

[katwest]

Cal has always said he would take talent over experience, why is that, experience wins most of the time. Just like the 78 team, when they were freshmen everybody knew the cats were going to be really good, but they didn't win it all until they were seniors. Although I think they could have won it all in 77, if there would have been a shot clock, but cheater McDicknose used the 4 corners to play keep away instead of basketball. I think Cal has always preferred athletes over basketball players the majority of his time at Kentucky.

 

[RunninRichie]

All this tells me is the covid years were BS. 25 year olds and 26 year olds are dominating 18,19,20,21,22 year olds? You don’t say!

 

[LineSkiCat14]

All this tells me is the covid years were BS. 25 year olds and 26 year olds are dominating 18,19,20,21,22 year olds? You don’t say!

It's kind of shitty. College athletics are designed for COLLEGE athletes, who come in for 4 years and move on, either to the real world, or the small percentage who make it to play professionally. It is NOT meant for 24 25 and 26 year olds to keep playing in league, taking up roster spots for 18 and 19 year olds, just because these 5th and 6th year seniors find it beneficial for them. You had your time, now it's time for someone else.

Thankfully the COVID thing is almost done. But that still doesn't stop the transfer problem, and we're still going to see 5th year players .

 

[permdaddy]

 

[RunninRichie]

It's kind of shitty. College athletics are designed for COLLEGE athletes, who come in for 4 years and move on, either to the real world, or the small percentage who make it to play professionally. It is NOT meant for 24 25 and 26 year olds to keep playing in league, taking up roster spots for 18 and 19 year olds, just because these 5th and 6th year seniors find it beneficial for them. You had your time, now it's time for someone else.

Thankfully the COVID thing is almost done. But that still doesn't stop the transfer problem, and we're still going to see 5th year players .

It’s basically like putting 38 year old Kobe in the WNBA.

 

[ukwazoo]

View embedded media

Van Wilder in the flesh

 

[LineSkiCat14]

It’s basically like putting 38 year old Kobe in the WNBA.

It's kind of another thing that works against someone like Cal, who often has younger teams. I think the 5th and 6th year seniors really negate the benefits of 1AD recruiting. Here's a perfect example: If COVID hit during Tyler Hansbrough's tenure.. he might have been a super senior for the Wall and Cousins year. And seeing how good he was in college, and the fact that we only won that game by 2 points, I'm inclined to think UNC wins that game.

 

[RunninRichie]

It's kind of another thing that works against someone like Cal, who often has younger teams. I think the 5th and 6th year seniors really negate the benefits of 1AD recruiting. Here's a perfect example: If COVID hit during Tyler Hansbrough's tenure.. he might have been a super senior for the Wall and Cousins year. And seeing how good he was in college, and the fact that we only won that game by 2 points, I'm inclined to think UNC wins that game.

It’s been a perfect storm for Cal and UK. A mix of outside factors and inside factors.

 

[Padsfs07]

If he could change one thing, he would be back to the top of the coaching game, and that would be to start recruiting players back for future seasons, instead of insisting on their exit for the NBA. I get it, if a player is a lottery lock, they should go, unless they have unfinished NCAA business. Otherwise, these fringe draft players should be recruited back for another year with urgency."

It's interesting if you start looking specifically at the players you are describing: Livingston, Toppin, and Tshiebwe.

Then the choices are Livingston over Edwards, Toppin over Mitchell, and Tshiebwe over Onyenso/Ivisic/Bradshaw? I think we would all want that, especially the last one. Perhaps he gets Reeves to return and still lands some combo of Wagner/Sheppard/Dillingham. It's a team that looks a lot like the UConn 'model' at that point, but also a lot like last years' 12 loss team.

 

[kennyskywalker34]

And our brilliant coach goes young 😂😂

Problem is. When UK gets Freshmen instead keeping them 4 years like places like Kansas does.
Cal pushes them out the door to the NBA ready or not. The ones that don't go to the NBA transfer due to another class of 5 stars coming. They know even if they are the better player they won't get playing time due to promises made to the 5 stars.

 

[jwphelps]

Problem is. When UK gets Freshmen instead keeping them 4 years like places like Kansas does.
Cal pushes them out the door to the NBA ready or not. The ones that don't go to the NBA transfer due to another class of 5 stars coming. They know even if they are the better player they won't get playing time due to promises made to the 5 stars.

With an occasional exception which is rare, I think over the past 5 or 6 years you can pretty much surmise that a 4 star senior trumps a 5 star freshmen.

 

[kennyskywalker34]

With an occasional exception which is rare, I think over the past 5 or 6 years you can pretty much surmise that a 4 star senior trumps a 5 star freshmen.

Give me a lineup of 4 star Seniors even 3 stars. Over a lineup of 5 star Freshmen all day.
In a lot of cases we are talking about 5 and 6 year players these days. Men against boys.

 

[ukjenning44]

Problem is. When UK gets Freshmen instead keeping them 4 years like places like Kansas does.
Cal pushes them out the door to the NBA ready or not. The ones that don't go to the NBA transfer due to another class of 5 stars coming. They know even if they are the better player they won't get playing time due to promises made to the 5 stars.

Oh I know! Ready or not he tells them to hit the road. If you’re not one and done you are a failure to CCC.
And people say what a good person he is 🙄

 

[Cats192]

And here's the best part.. I'm assuming that Senior must also include 5th and 6th year players as well, and not strictly 4th year players?

This is what many of us have said.. Freshman trying to be better than a senior back in 2010 is a lot different than a freshman trying to be better than a 5th or 6th year player. I'd also bet that the average team had has ticked up quite a bit. That makes a difference.

Exactly right.

I've said this in a lot of other threads. You COULD win with a freshmen heavy team in the 2010's. You CANNOT since covid.

Pro-options exploded. A lot of the most elite 18 year olds are going to the G-League ignite, OTC, overseas, whatever. You're not going to get Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe or Davis/MKG, Teague.

And then college basketball went from struggling to keep guys for 4 years to keeping guys 5-6 years. Covid-19 gave guys an extra year. The transfer portal and NIL meant all those older guys are moving more and more to power 5 schools. The bad schools in a P5 Conference are better than they've ever been.

Mitchell has had a few rough games, but he has been one of our best players. Reeves has been our most consistent, and one of our best players. The freshmen are playing like freshmen. And you could get away with a lot more in 2018 against a younger, less physical college basketball landscape. In today's game full of 23 and 24 year olds--you get punished for playing like a freshman.

 

[Eight_Banners]

It's interesting if you start looking specifically at the players you are describing: Livingston, Toppin, and Tshiebwe.

Then the choices are Livingston over Edwards, Toppin over Mitchell, and Tshiebwe over Onyenso/Ivisic/Bradshaw? I think we would all want that, especially the last one. Perhaps he gets Reeves to return and still lands some combo of Wagner/Sheppard/Dillingham. It's a team that looks a lot like the UConn 'model' at that point, but also a lot like last years' 12 loss team.

So, Wallace goes to the draft, and we return Tshiebwe, Toppin, Livingston, and Reeves. Our roster looks like this:

Wagner = Wagner

Sheppard = Sheppard

Dillingham = Dillingham

Reeves (5th Sr.)> Reeves (4th Sr.)

Thiero (So.) > Thiero (Fr.)

Livingston > Edwards --- Second year Livingston could turn into a defensive presence like A. Poythress. Could have an uptick offensively, but probably not overly noteworthy with the players surrounding him. His numbers from his freshman year are nearly identical with Justin Edwards.

Livingston: 2pt 49%, 3pt 31%; Reb. 4.2; Ast. .7; Stl. .4; Blk. .4; TO .9; Pts. 6.3
Edwards: 2pt 53%, 3pt 29%; Reb. 3.6; Ast. .9; Stl. .9; Blk. .3; TO .9; Pts. 8.1

Toppin (5yr Sr.) > Toppin (4yr. Sr.)

Tshiebwe > Bradshaw
Tshiebwe > Mitchell ---- You don't need Mitchell's 3pt. abilities more than Tshiebwe's rebounding abilities

Ivisic = Ivisic ---- I still think we land him

Onyenso (So.) > Onyenso (Fr.) ----This would have been an interesting scenario. We may have lost Onyenso to transfer with the return of Tshiebwe.


Even without Onyenso, the team has decent balance. It does lack the inside presence on defense without Onyenso, but with Tshiebwe rebounding at the clip he did, we would probably have a more dynamic offense than we do right now.

 

[JwUKFan11]

I'll add to that a reality concerning our bigs, Onyenso, Bradshaw, and Ivisic:

Collectively, these three have played 697 minutes of college basketball. Ivisic has played less than an hour, at 57 minutes. Bradshaw, 293, and Onyenso, 347.

Collectively, they have played in 52 games. Ivisic, 6, Bradshaw 16, and Onyenso, 30.

They have played collective minutes of college basketball only 14 minutes longer than the extended cut versions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (683 min.)

In other words, our three bigs have as much on-court college basketball experience as the time it would take you to sit and watch three long movies.

Part of the problem is Cal not using Ugo basically at all last year. He should have been playing when Oscar had to come out and also just to get him experience. Not all these guys are going to come in and pick the game up quickly, some need a few years like Nick Richards and if you don't give them some time to prove they can stay on the court and learn then they will transfer and do it somewhere else.

 

[RunninRichie]

Exactly right.

I've said this in a lot of other threads. You COULD win with a freshmen heavy team in the 2010's. You CANNOT since covid.

Pro-options exploded. A lot of the most elite 18 year olds are going to the G-League ignite, OTC, overseas, whatever. You're not going to get Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe or Davis/MKG, Teague.

And then college basketball went from struggling to keep guys for 4 years to keeping guys 5-6 years. Covid-19 gave guys an extra year. The transfer portal and NIL meant all those older guys are moving more and more to power 5 schools. The bad schools in a P5 Conference are better than they've ever been.

Mitchell has had a few rough games, but he has been one of our best players. Reeves has been our most consistent, and one of our best players. The freshmen are playing like freshmen. And you could get away with a lot more in 2018 against a younger, less physical college basketball landscape. In today's game full of 23 and 24 year olds--you get punished for playing like a freshman.

That’s why we need a new coach. College Basketball has shifted a lot since 2009. We need a coach who understands this new era.

 

[Cats192]

That’s why we need a new coach. College Basketball has shifted a lot since 2009. We need a coach who understands this new era.

bUt CaL iS a hAlL oF fAmeR!

 

[Dirt Court King]

This just confirms what we already knew but the gap is bigger than I thought. Sophomores, Juniors and Freshman together don't equal the impact of Seniors in the top 200 players. I would imagine the gap is pretty consistent outside the top 200 as well. We are using an outdated model trying to win in college basketball with freshman.

View embedded media

Exactly. I made this example early with my high school basketball team and guys who graduated the year before the team could not compete against those older senior guys.🤗🏀

 

[fisherscatfan]

I don’t think it was such a bad thing in a lot of the non-revenue sports where competing for championships as a senior was definitely going to be the end of a sports career for those affected, and in some cases something they had just about literally worked their whole lives to achieve. I think there’s value in letting them come back so they can have that milestone in their life.

Unfortunately, too much money at the higher levels of the revenue sports corrupted things like it tends to do. The COVID year plus transfer portal plus NIL has resulted in mid-20s semi-pros bouncing around from team to team chasing money and rings in D1 basketball, which is objectively absurd for purportedly collegiate athletics. I’ll be glad when the COVID year players filter out of the system soon.

In those non revenue sports were HS kids who busted their ass and lost a year of their HS career and then due tobudget limitations coaches kept 5-6 year players and passing on HS kids. They lost multiple years.