Duke & UConn are in their own class at the moment, and that likely will not change up until Hurley or Scheyer leave for the NBA. It's going to take another program working themselves in. Dusty would have been there had he stuck as he built a ton of equity fast and had a unique template that was receiving buy in.
Zona has an advantage as being the top West Coast program, so has a regional advantage. Burries & Peat & Wabbington apply. Once one of these top programs sends a OAD to the league, they then have a natural seed to keep the wheels in motion as new opening sprouts for the next OAD.
Hurley's template since that 24 team has been to grab one burger boy annually: Castle, McNeely, Mullins, Landrew represents that this year, Bowman. Don't sleep on Landrew, he was the second best player on the U18 team next to Coleman and built like a truck (looked a little unconditioned). He actually has two on his roster this year in Mullin's and Khamenia, both generally movement shooters. His system is one where not reliant on top freshmen and isn't one to feature/showcase with a lot of iso, so not sure if he'll ever subscribe to it. He is going after a SF to go with Bowman this year, so he may be beefing up on 5*. I don't see him as a guy that is going to stack them like Scheyer and Calipari, he seems to wisely diversify his portfolio with retention, frosh, transfers and euros.
Hurley pulled one of the more fascinating recruiting strategies this year. He has 5 of the top 5* shooting forwards coming in consecutive weekends, in order. They seem to be gunning hard for Henry, another son of a football dad along with Bowman.
Scheyer and Duke have such an aura of exclusivity, and NIL, so somehow are able to get a Cam William's while also getting a JBB. What other program could get two top 10 kids at the exact same position? I HAVE to think Cam William's is annoyed by it and wonder if at some point, these moves catch up with Scheyer. They're recruiting Beckham Black this year while they have 3 point guards on their roster.
I'm finding there to be some natural tension brewing between Duke/UConn, as they recognize themselves in their own class. Hurley is playing into it, has arrogantly stated multiple times that UConn/Duke are the top programs right now. Scheyer doesn't want to acknowledge it/them, almost purposely. He did a recent interview with Rothstein where he was asked how many times he watched the Mullins shot, and stoically answered once recently. We all know that is totally BS. Rather than say UConn made a great play, he's actually said they effed up, should have fouled. Also saw an convo between Battier and Scheyer around recovering from loss like that, and their 99 loss to UConn was brought up. Some good old bad blood going on there, which is fun in sports.
That Duke/UConn game is going to be must watch as not only is there a heated rivalry brewing, Hurley grabbed Khamenia
For us to get in the mix, we need to beat those two bozos and will have our chance this OOC. Up till then, will play little brother.