I realize that FB & Bball recruiting represent very different challenges, but overall, both have failed (underperformed) in the recruiting for the selfsame reason: they focus on too small a pool to begin with--& therefore hardly ever deliver us high quality role or bench players that'd make the difference in a conf championship or an NCAA run.

Instead of high quality athletes, we're stuck w grade-C RMs with good skillz, or a decent athlete like our Guinns & Shaws. I'm sorry, we don't get better than that cuz we generally don't aim high enough to expect better than that. As I've said many times, I'm frustrated w the Beo loss, cuz he represented the type of skill player we rarely get as a rotation guy. Some confided that though Beo is LDS, he wasn't necessarily a BYU kid, but had to be strongly courted & groomed by our coaches (namely Nashif). If TJ played a hand in that loss, I certainly hope the coaches reined him in good. That was a loss we really couldn't afford.

As for Frank Bartley--he represented another quality loss a couple years ago that very likely cost us a conference championship between last year & this. We SORELY needed a high-end athlete on our side both years. Chase Fischer was a guy that shoulda been a rotation player & a shooting specialist, not a playmaker (I know he felt differently), & Nick Emery has had some major (& expected) growing pains between his health challenges & the mission break.

The details in the Bartley recruiting showed that we got lucky, though. He landed in our lap while we recruited (but failed to land) his teammate, who was a big. While those make good recruiting stories, they don't give me confidence that our recruiting end is really covering the bases it needs to. Far more evidence suggests that they are not covering the ground they need to, though I'll admit the Bryant & Bergerson signings are definitely encouraging.

mutu.