Originally Posted by
UrinalCake
That shouldn't be a surprise - this year's class isn't in the same ballpark as the classes of 2016, 2017 or 2018. Those years we had multiple top-10 players plus additional top-20's. Last year we had just Carey as a surefire OAD and maybe Hurt was close but we were fortunate that Stanley overperformed and getting Tre back was like landing a top-5 freshman.
This year our freshmen class is ranked by the RSCI:
(11) Johnson
(20) Roach
(24) Steward
(25) Williams
(33) Brakefield
(49) Coleman
I don't know what everyone else was expecting, but I didn't consider anyone except Johnson to be a "one year wonder." I think there's a huge dropoff outside of the top 6 or 8 guys, though I did think that Johnson belonged in that elite group. Players ranked in the 20's don't typically contribute right off the bat, and when you start two or three of them together it compounds the issue. I was hoping that having Hurt and Moore back as experienced sophomores would offset having less talented freshmen, but that hasn't panned out because Moore has struggled big time and neither has emerged as a leader.
For those who have long been clamoring to recruit a single OAD along with multiple lower-ranked players, the past two years haven't proven this to be a winning strategy. Perhaps you could say that it takes time to refill the pipeline, but Baker's lack of development would be evidence to the contrary. I do think we're setting ourselves up quite nicely to have a balanced team next season that could be elite, followed by a major rebuilding team the following season. But I'll wait to see how that plays out.