steel_hop wrote: ↑Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:21 am
So just to put it in perspective on recruiting and then look at results. Here is the IL ranks from 2009 to 2018
UVA has had all 10 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (2 titles and 3 FF over that time)
UNC has had all 10 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (1 title, 1 FF)
JHU has had all 10 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (no titles 1 FF)
ND has had all 10 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (no titles, 4 FFs)
MD has had 9 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (1 title, 7 FFs)
SU has had 8 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (no titles, 1 FF)
Duke has had 8 of their their classes ranked in the top 10 (3 titles, 7 FFs)
Denver has had 7 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (1 title, 5 FFs)
Harvard has had 6 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (0 titles, 0 FFs)
Princeton has had 4 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (0 titles, 0 FFs)
Cornell has had 3 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (2 FFs)
Penn State has had 3 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (0 titles, 1 FF)
Penn has had 3 of their classes ranked in the top ten (0 titles, 0 FF)
Yale has had 2 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (1 title, 1 FF) (note only top 10 recruiting classes where 2018 and 2015)
Brown has had 2 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (0 titles, 1 FF)
OSU has had 2 of their classes ranked in the top 10 (0 titles, 1 FF)
The following teams have had at least 1 top ten recruiting class in the last 10 years
Lehigh, NOVA, Georgetown
Here who has won titles over that time period
Duke - 2010, 2013, 2014 (3)
UVA - 2011, 2019 (2)
Denver - 2015 (1)
UMd - 2017 (1)
UNC - 2016 (1)
Yale - 2018 (1)
Loyola - 2012 (1)
Thus, outside of Yale and Loyola, there is a strong correlation to a schools recruiting rankings to titles won and final four appearances. I'm not sure anyone would disagree with this point. This doesn't mean if you have a strong recruiting class you are going to make a FF. If you want to look at it the teams with the highest recruiting ranks that have the worst results are easily Hopkins, Syracuse and Harvard (UNC would be in this group but for the 2016 year). While you can argue that Hopkins recruits have somewhat of a "push-up" the ranks bias, wouldn't that also be the same for recruits going to a team like UVA and Duke given their stature in the game. In other words, I find the argument that the Hopkins "bias" has some truth to it but a lot more of this issue has been once said recruits have gotten on campus. Some players not reaching their potential is outside of players or coaches control - like injuries but some of it is completely on the players and the coaches.