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Recruiting Talent vs. Conference Standings
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<blockquote data-quote="Second and Chalmers" data-source="post: 1410029" data-attributes="member: 527609"><p>1-0-9 is an understatement, really. It's eight consecutive years in which we've finished AT LEAST four spots lower than the raw talent level on the roster would indicate.</p><p></p><p>We've recruited well enough, won battles for sufficiently highly ranked players, to make the tournament in every single one of those years, and be a genuine conference title contender in a bunch of them. That was the objectively reasonable expectation of our rosters over the past decade.</p><p></p><p>There have been glaring personnel gaps at certain positions in certain years (sadly that will be the case this year as well), there has also been the occasional injury crisis, and there's been, y'know, Jereme Richmond. But of course that's true of every other team in the conference to some extent, no one is immune from that stuff.</p><p></p><p>But it has been a constant refrain on this board over the years that "we have to recruit better to compete, we won't have the talent to win unless we can break through to a higher recruiting level". What I hope that narrative's advocates will do is sit with this data for a second and wrestle with how uniformly, categorically incorrect that has <em>always</em> been. It would be great to recruit better, but when you can take the single most talented team in the B1G and one of the four most talented in the entire conference over the last 11 years and end up a bubble team who lost to a 12-20 Indiana and a 7-24 UIC, that suggests that you ought to look at other issues.</p><p></p><p>Here are those four most talented teams btw:</p><p></p><p>2008-09 Michigan State: Big Ten Champions, NCAA Runner-Up</p><p>2009-10 Michigan State: Big Ten Champions, Final Four</p><p>2010-11 Illinois: 9-9 in Big Ten, Second Round</p><p>2011-12 Ohio State: Big Ten Champions, Final Four</p><p></p><p>When your car is burning a quart of oil a day, your first thought should not be "I just don't have enough oil, I'd better save up my money so I can buy as much oil as possible."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Second and Chalmers, post: 1410029, member: 527609"] 1-0-9 is an understatement, really. It's eight consecutive years in which we've finished AT LEAST four spots lower than the raw talent level on the roster would indicate. We've recruited well enough, won battles for sufficiently highly ranked players, to make the tournament in every single one of those years, and be a genuine conference title contender in a bunch of them. That was the objectively reasonable expectation of our rosters over the past decade. There have been glaring personnel gaps at certain positions in certain years (sadly that will be the case this year as well), there has also been the occasional injury crisis, and there's been, y'know, Jereme Richmond. But of course that's true of every other team in the conference to some extent, no one is immune from that stuff. But it has been a constant refrain on this board over the years that "we have to recruit better to compete, we won't have the talent to win unless we can break through to a higher recruiting level". What I hope that narrative's advocates will do is sit with this data for a second and wrestle with how uniformly, categorically incorrect that has [I]always[/I] been. It would be great to recruit better, but when you can take the single most talented team in the B1G and one of the four most talented in the entire conference over the last 11 years and end up a bubble team who lost to a 12-20 Indiana and a 7-24 UIC, that suggests that you ought to look at other issues. Here are those four most talented teams btw: 2008-09 Michigan State: Big Ten Champions, NCAA Runner-Up 2009-10 Michigan State: Big Ten Champions, Final Four 2010-11 Illinois: 9-9 in Big Ten, Second Round 2011-12 Ohio State: Big Ten Champions, Final Four When your car is burning a quart of oil a day, your first thought should not be "I just don't have enough oil, I'd better save up my money so I can buy as much oil as possible." [/QUOTE]
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