It's a question of maximizing the expected value of each scholarship.
It's a game of Deal or No Deal, essentially. There is a mathematically correct way to play.
No offense intended, but glad you're not heading up our recruiting.
Beyond the elite recruits, the ability to evaluate and PROJECT is critical. At this age, it ain't moneyball. Character, effort, development, and fit are all very important at a future skill level that's TBD. And the further out you recruit, the more of a crap shoot you're taking. I'm personally not a fan of year round recruiting, nor do I think we're strong at it, but I'm actually happy with the rebuild so far. I'm giving Underwood a complete pass on the first year where the roster transition was untenable. That's a big ask, so I don't blame fans who won't overlook it. But if you do, we held onto a lot of talent this year from a young team. We came out of the gate against a brutal schedule that stopped us from making the tourney, but we have a great ceiling IMO. I see a lot of improvement coming, and were it not for that rough transition, I think we'd all be pretty excited.
Really hoping we see better closing rates with recruits, but wins on the court will count a lot more.