All I can tell you is their is a disconnect down here overall. But you are right, many schools who were "feeder" schools locally are no longer that.
Listen, Mario overall is a good dude, with good intentions. However, he is his own worst enemy.
He has a rep as a bad HC, who is not a good developer, does less with more, very, very tough and has bumped heads with a ton of his former assistants. All of that is easy to use against him. Only way out of this mess for him is to win BIG. Getting to the ACCCG is not enough in this conference and developing kids into day 1 picks.
And no, Damari was not anywhere near a top 5 player down here that year.