IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
While this is seemingly stating the obvious, that is not the only path to recruiting and/or on-court success. Wisconsin, Iowa, and Purdue have all been significantly more successful than us over the past 15 years without getting a ton of guys to the league. Of course, so have Michigan State, Ohio State, and Michigan and they have all had a lot of drafted players.
It all comes down to what Kofi wants. Travis Etienne was a top 5 RB and chose to return for his senior season at Clemson. I know that's a one-off, cherry-picked example but maybe Kofi is enjoying his time on a college campus and that combined with the possibility of improving his draft stock would keep him in Champaign for another season.
No matter what anyone on this board says or sees through their orange-colored glasses, Kofi is no where near a 1st round pick right now according to people who do this for a living. Can he get there? Sure, but the Michigan games shows he has a pretty long way to go and that's okay too.
I agree he isn't a first round pick, but by your same logic we can't really determine if being a first round pick is important to him. If he gets feedback he likes from scouts, he may go. I hope he doesn't because I think having him next year would be amazing, but I'm not going to lose my head if he goes. It's just part and parcel of college sports. I'd say the same of any player.
That being said, I'd much rather follow the OSU, MSU, UM model of getting guys drafted. Our coaching staff has done a great job finding diamonds in the rough, but my personal preference is to make a splash. But since I'm not employed by the DIA, my opinion doesn't hold much water, does it?