Most would agree that our last successful recruiting year was the class with Guy, Jerome, Hunter and Huff (I think Diakite was the year before and redshirted, but could be wrong and he could be part of that class). In the years since then I tried to come up with a list of the players that Bennett has brought in either via transfer or from high school (foreign players included in this group) to see how many hits and misses there were (and "hits" is pretty generous in that they weren't disappointments). I came up with 10 hits and 28 misses (list is at the end). Players from this year's class (Gertrude, Buchanon, Bliss and Robinson) were not categorized as they still have time to develop of course. I could be off on some of the years that players joined (tried to keep them with the class they came in with even if they redshirted). What was really shocking to me when looking at that list was that for HS recruiting is that we really only have had four (out of 17 brought in as first year players) true hits during that time (starting with the 17/18 season) with Clark, Beekman, McKneely and Dunn. Obviously not every recruit will be a hit, but to hit on less than 25% of the ones that accept the scholarship offer is really bad especially for a program at our level. To get us back to the level we have been Bennett needs to get better results in his HS/Foreign recruiting.
Of course it's just as important to hit at a high rate with the transfer recruiting, especially on those that have multiple years here. It's one thing to have a miss on a player like Minor that is only here for a year, but when you have Harris and Rohde be such misses (at this point) that have three years of eligibility left it's a bit issue (especially when transfers tend to get playing time priority).
We all know the issues with recruiting (style of play, Bennett's tendency not to play first years much, redshirting, NIL, etc.), but no matter what Bennett decides to change with his systems/tactics it won't make a difference unless he can fix things with recruiting.
Of course it's just as important to hit at a high rate with the transfer recruiting, especially on those that have multiple years here. It's one thing to have a miss on a player like Minor that is only here for a year, but when you have Harris and Rohde be such misses (at this point) that have three years of eligibility left it's a bit issue (especially when transfers tend to get playing time priority).
We all know the issues with recruiting (style of play, Bennett's tendency not to play first years much, redshirting, NIL, etc.), but no matter what Bennett decides to change with his systems/tactics it won't make a difference unless he can fix things with recruiting.
| 17/18 Season | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| Anthony | High School | 1 | Transferred after two years | |
| Badocchi | High School | 1 | Left team after two years | |
| Johnson | Transfer | 1 | Provided depth at PG as was expected | |
| Key | Transfer | 1 | Key piece of our championship run and had solid senior year | |
| 18/19 Season | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| Clark | High School | 1 | ||
| Caffaro | High School | 1 | Averaged just 2.6 points and 2.6 rebounds | |
| Stattman | High School | 1 | Averaged just 3 points in 14 minutes a game | |
| 19/20 | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| Shedrick | High School | 1 | Averaged just 6 pts per game and about 4 rebounds per game before transferring | |
| McKoy | High School | 1 | Transferred after two years | |
| Morsell | High School | 1 | Transferred after two years | |
| Woldentensae | Transfer | 1 | Averaged 5.5 pts per game and was a liability on defense | |
| Hauser | Transfer | 1 | Last transfer to have to sit out a year | |
| 20/21 | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| Abdur-Rahim | High School | 1 | Hardly played and transferred after one year | |
| McCorkle | High School | 1 | Hardly played and transferred after two years | |
| Beekman | High School | 1 | ||
| Murphy | Transfer | 1 | ||
| 21/22 | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| Milicic | High School | 1 | Hardly played and transferred after one year | |
| Murray | High School | 1 | Has hardly played, finally getting an opportunity | |
| Franklin | Transfer | 1 | Had consistency issues, but overall an OK transfer | |
| Gardner | Transfer | 1 | Extremely limited in many ways and overmatched against top competition, but did OK | |
| 22/23 | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| McKneely | High School | 1 | ||
| Bond | High School | 1 | Has hardly played after a redshirt year, can still become a hit | |
| Traudt | High School | 1 | Never played | |
| Dunn | High School | 1 | ||
| 23/24 | ||||
| Player | HS/Transfer | Hit | Miss | Notes |
| Gertrude | High School | Has hardly played, can still become a hit if he stays | ||
| Buchanon | High School | Played in every game as a 1st year post player, but average just 3.4 pts and 3 rebounds | ||
| Robinson | High School | Redshirted | ||
| Bliss | High School | Redshirted | ||
| Harris | Transfer | 1 | ||
| Groves | Transfer | 1 | ||
| Rohde | Transfer | 1 | ||
| Minor | Transfer | 1 | ||
| Totals | 10 | 18 |
