Part of this point is TBD because Houston/Duke/Florida/Auburn have not finalized their rosters for next year, but I think Pope grabbing multiple players with 2-3 years of eligibility remaining (Dioubate, Lowe, Williams) is such an advantage for next offseason. Assuming the portal continues to open up in the middle of the NCAAT, the teams left in the tournament are in a tough spot when it comes to recruiting. To my knowledge Auburn is the only Final 4 team that has landed a somewhat notable portal player. I am sure more high-level players will enter the portal and be scooped up by the F4/E8 teams, but we are already in a great spot knowing at a minimum Dioubate, Lowe, Williams, Chandler, BG, Lewis, Johnson, Moreno will have the opportunity to come back after 2025-26.
