Using NIL is a dangerous excuse as nobody really knows what is going on elsewhere. If you look at other teams message boards, many in the NCAA tournament, they are convinced NIL cost them prospect X or Y too.
So many questions surrounding Henley/Evans. Did we take Henley, who had no other power 5 offers, to get an "in" with the Evans camp? It was certainly suggested on another site, prior to the season, that no more transfer guards were brought in because they needed to play/develop Henley...so did were there promises in regards to playing time made? That would make sense with regards to comments made by Evans people to the Pioneer Press. Now you have the fact that Evans was rated a top 30 recruit by both 247 and Rivals yet was deciding between Minnesota and TCU. You should have been asking questions then...either about his ranking or his situation. Top kids go to schools that are not great all the time...but they have to beat out a blue blood for them. Even when Evans came back on the board this Winter, the schools involved with him were TCU (again), Louisville, and Missouri. Again, where is UCLA? where is USC? How about even a Gonzaga or Oregon? I think the likely scenario here is either A. Dennis Evans is not that good or B. The schools on the West Coast are aware of who is handling Dennis Evans and were not interested from the jump (whether that means $$$ or taking other players from their program).
On NIL in particular, Evans is the ONE kid who has asked out of his NLI without a coaching change. If Louisville is just throwing around money, don't you think they would have tried to get other guys? Iowa State, Colorado, Stanford, and Rutgers all have players ranked ahead of Evans on the 247 composite...Louisville couldn't outbid them?
Iowa State lost their best returning player to NIL when Hunter transferred inside their own conference to Texas. I am sure people there whined about NIL...but they got the work done and put a better team on the floor than they had the prior season including a win over Hunter's new Texas team. So even if it is solely an NIL issue (which I doubt), then it is still not a situation that can't be overcome.