NC State and Texas put on a highly entertaining game Tuesday before the Longhorns prevailed, 68-66. This came after Kenny Blakeney’s Howard nipped UMBC, 86-83.
As noted previously, both Wolfpack coach Will Wade and Texas coach Sean Miller have expressed bewilderment at their teams and the inability to get everyone on the same page and heading in the same direction. This, unfortunately, is part of a trend of the new realities in college sports.
For a couple of other data points this week, former Kansas center Hunter Dickinson complained that last year wasn’t much fun and that it “seemed like a job.” News flash, Hunter: you were paid a lot of money last season. That sort of makes it a job, ipso facto.
We know now that Kentucky paid $22 million for a roster that never meshed, and that wasn’t the worst failure: Indiana spent $32 million and finished 18-14. Auburn spent $20.5 million and barely finished over .500.
In the ACC, Louisville spent $19.8 million, and no one is very happy about how the season went there. UNC spent $14 million and finished sixth in the ACC. Yet Florida State spent a fraction of that, around $1.2 million, and got far more bang for the buck.
Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg claims that Michigan offered him $7-9 million dollars, but he took less to play at Michigan. Well, maybe that’s true, and maybe not.
What is unequivocally true is that Michigan did a better job of roster building than Kentucky.
What’s also become clear is that you can’t simply buy a team. You have to build intelligently, and not everyone is going to do that as well as Travis Steele has done at Miami.
Among the other schools that have done it correctly are Michigan, Purdue, Houston, and Duke. And while their approaches are not identical, one thing is very similar at each of these schools: standards are taken very seriously.
Recently, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson complained that his program was “poor,” but after that, he later said that standards are non-negotiable. You either live up to them or you sit (and probably transfer).
We’re not huge Purdue fans, but there’s no question that Matt Painter also maintains high standards for his team. Like everyone, he has had some transfers, like Mason Gillis leaving for Duke, but he finds players who fit his style and who grow in his program.
That’s true for Michigan and Duke as well. We didn’t add Michigan State to this group, but the same idea applies. Tom Izzo isn’t going to tolerate much foolishness.
There are some notable divergences. Michigan’s Dusty May has worked the portal very well. Painter and Duke’s Jon Scheyer have mostly recruited high school players, though Painter’s tend to stay longer, while Scheyer’s leave early for the NBA.
Still, those programs win because the standards remain high.
It hasn’t worked everywhere. At Marquette, Shaka Smart stubbornly stuck with his basic core this season, and finished 12-20 for his trouble.
He has said that he plans to complement his core with portal additions this year, but he also said that the values of the program would not be compromised.
He probably has the right idea, but we’ll see how things go there.
We’re in a new environment, and as we said several years ago, some guys will master it and some won’t. But some basic truths are emerging, or maybe re-emerging: 1) money is important, but it doesn’t buy everything; 2) a group that gets along will generally do better than one that doesn’t, even if it has less talent, and 3) a coach with good people skills is more important than ever.
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