I don’t know how many times this needs to be said, or why you can’t understand it, but HE COULDN’T land enough ACC quality transfers to fill the void left by the recruiting disaster precipitated by a criminal investigation of a program that was beginning to make a real move out of “bottom tier” status.
If we aren’t a top-20 team next year, then take all the shots you want. But you’re plain wrong to take shots at L for this year (with one exception... Cam and Lykes should have been sat for Duke to be available for a winnable game at UNC). But if you don’t make any mistakes, you’re not human.
You just explain the meaning of insanity. Repeating the same thing expecting a different result. You are correct, you are not going to get an Angel Rodriguez and Sheldon Mac every year. It has only happened at Miami once. Wilson, Gilmore, Muhammad were epic failures if you want to go by the transfer track record. With that being said, when does the coaching staff figure out another way of adding talent to the roster. It really makes no sense not to use the scholarships because you cannot hit a home run on the transfer market. As long as Coach L has been at Miami, sit out transfers should be his last option and not his first option when it comes to improving the talent level on the team.
As you mentioned, Coach L is great at developing talent. How come he does not take a player and redshirt him in his first year on campus to allow him to develop his skills so he can become an ACC caliber player. It is funny to me, people talk about player development until Anthony Mack gets a scholarship then those same fans want Anthony Mack kicked off the team and complain about him being a waste of a scholarship as he is not "ACC caliber". Truthfully, they were right but Coach L did not have enough time to develop him. But, the fact remains, Coach L did give him the scholarship. You cannot blame Frank Haith on that one. How come the coaches could not develop Anthony Mack? I already know the answer.
I respect the preference that Coach L wants to have a scholarship available for a potential impact sit out transfer. That is a huge gamble as you never know who the kid will be or if it will be at a position of need. My biggest issue with that preference is when does Coach L say we could not get our impact regular transfer so let's get a grad transfer so we have enough deep on the roster for the upcoming season. You are aware that scholarships are not 4 year binding agreements, they are one year, renewable agreements so coaches are not tied to a player long term.
Player recruiting is not that hard. The coaching staff has approximately 15 to 20 Division 1 basketball players in the state of Florida every year. IMG and Montverde has on average 10 "ACC" caliber players. Unfortunately, waiting until their senior year is normally too late. Coach L has contacts with some travel teams in the Northeast, Coach Fisher recruits the state of Pennsylvania and Coach Caputo recruits the DMV primarily but he has expanded. I have no idea what Coach Courtney does as far as recruiting. Normally, they watch a kid for 2 or 3 years so they are very familiar with the kid by the time the kid becomes a senior. Normally, the coaches hand out 40 offers and 5 to 10 kids take official visits.
Once all high school senior option have been used and if there are any scholarships left, At that point, if Coach L wants to explore the regular transfer market, that is fine but you should make sure you have 11 scholarship guys first to ensure you have enough guys to scrimmage in practice. If you get two good transfers then great, now you have 13 scholarship player. Even though they have to sit out, the transfers can still practice and make themselves along with the team better.
If you get to July and you do not find two impact regular transfers, at this point, you cannot say "I tried" and not fill out the rest of your roster. Turn to grad transfers and give them the scholarship for one year. You can use the scholarship again at the end of the season. My issue with this year's team is that you have two unused scholarships, two guys (Stone and Gak) returning from season ending injuries and one sit out transfer (Brooks). So technically, Miami started the season with 8 healthy scholarship players and 2 walk-ons. That is fine until someone get hurt then you cannot scrimmage 5 on 5 and that prevents proper player development as competition is always the best teacher.
As I said it before and I will say it again, I don't have a problem with Coach L as a coach, my issue is with Jim Larannaga, the roster management coordinator. To me, it sounds like he does not have a strategy nor plan once Coach L cannot get an impact regular transfer. In my opinion, coaches should go after as many grad transfer needed to fill the available scholarships for that year.
You seem to be a pretty smart guy, do you see my point now.
