This has been the biggest disappointment for me regarding the BB era. I never would have guessed that recruiting would take such a back seat. From the outside, it always felt like we were just missing out on top players due to bad luck, but learning now that our head coach was so disengaged from recruiting is pretty disheartening.
Don’t get me wrong—BB seems like a great guy: friendly, approachable, and well-liked. But this whole recruiting situation has really left a bad taste in my mouth. Like you, I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been with a little more effort.
One thing that’s especially hard to wrap my head around is Jax. He was around during the Hakstol years and continued through the BB era. If he saw the issues with recruiting, did he ever raise those concerns with BB? And if he did, why didn’t anything change? It’s tough to believe he’d stick around if no one was listening. Just a lot of questions—and probably not many answers.