It’s all about establishing pipelines. It doesn’t matter where they are but you need them otherwise you end up with classes like 2019 where we were lucky to save the class in the spring. Local pipelines just happen to be easier to establish. At the height of Miami football they emphasized landing the best players from the “State of Miami” which spread across three counties in South Florida. They established those pipelines in SoFla then cast a wider net to the rest of Florida and finally nationally. That’s how you build a program. I don’t think a ton of Muss as a coach but he’s doing the same at Arkansas in the 2020 class. The top 4 players from the state are likely all staying home (Moses Moody is at Montverde in Florida but is from Little Rock), Muss will have local HS and AAU coaches on side then he can dip down into Texas and other surrounding states when needed.
While again I don’t think you need classes entirely filled with locals, l do think it’s important not to take an inferior out of state kid over a local as that’s how bridges get burned. Youth sports is very political. Sacar Anim would have loved to be a Gopher, taking him and Jarvis really establishes a strong relationship with a local powerhouse early and shows the rest of the state that recruiting Minnesota is a priority...Pitino took Ahmad Gilbert and never offered Anim. Leading up to the 2017 class, the staff had put a lot of work into recruiting the East Coast (New York and New Jersey in particular) but hadn’t had much success so in trying to break through in the Northeast, they prioritize a high profile tri-state prospect in Isaiah Washington, slowplaying Davison (who’s family had season tickets to Gophers basketball btw) and while I understand the McKinley Wright situation, he was by no means their #1 target. It ends up being too late on Davison, Gophers take a commitment from Washington and D1MN’s Wright (who was well liked and respected in local basketball circles and by future prospects) commits to Dayton before flipping to Colorado.
While there’s definitely work to be done on all top 100 prospects, I think Terry and Garcia were very gettable and previous mistakes came back to bite the staff. I think three Islanders in five years really leads to strong backing from coaching staff at Delasalle in Terry’s recruitment...Pitino also slowplayed Terry which didn’t help. Stanford had a relationship with Delasalle due to Reid Travis. I can’t fault Pitino too much for prioritizing Washington at the time but an argument can be made that playing the long game with Wright or Davison or both gives you stability and continues a trend in state while also strengthening your relationship with D1MN who were starting to surge again with the likes of Terry, Nnaji, Hurt, Carlson and Garcia on the way.
Hindsight is 20/20 but a local/regional foundation in recruiting is necessary. Bo Ryan spent his whole career recruiting regional and so does Izzo. Virginia and Villanova started regional and now recruit national. Gotta start local as they’re doing now in Year 7. Too little too late.
