Former players

[KozmasAgain]

HVL with TCU, Peyton Verhulst with Oklahoma and Zyanna Walker with Kansas State are all former players at Louisville. They are all starters for their respective schools and all 3 are still in the tournament. I remember when Louisville was a regular in the top 25 recruiting cycle but not lately.

Right now there are 4 schools in the ACC that have incoming recruiting classes ranked in the top 25. I know several of us have raised the question why has our recruiting dropped so far off? Did we lose our best recruiters when some of the coaches left for other schools. Could it be not enough NIL money? I really wish someone in the program would address this and let the fan base know.

I don’t think it is because of CJW because I think he is one of the best Head Coaches in the country. However something has drastically changed and hopefully we can make up ground in the portal if not we are going to struggle worse next year.

 

[rh62531]

Loss of coach to Mississippi State as well as others. Not impressed with assistants now. Reminds me of Denny's demise, also Pitino assistants in last years.

 

[2330859]

Great questions Koz, unfortunately the answers are hard to obtain.

Here is my response, regrettably UL has clearly been left behind in terms of talent. Look at what other schools like Oklahoma, TCU, UK, NCST are doing, not to mention LSU, USC Jr., and ND!

ND is the best example; they were able to retain Citron, Westbeld and King from their Freshman time to Senior season, while adding super freshman Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo.

If UL had been able to retain HVL, Verhulst and Walker, along with Curry; I believe that Roberts, Randolph, Arenas and others could have contributed to a much higher level of success. Cochran, Russell and Harris failed to meet earlier expectations, some of which was a result of missing a supporting cast.

 

[Bardman]

Loss of coach to Mississippi State as well as others. Not impressed with assistants now. Reminds me of Denny's demise, also Pitino assistants in last years.

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[CardAlum2008]

Loss of coach to Mississippi State as well as others. Not impressed with assistants now. Reminds me of Denny's demise, also Pitino assistants in last years.

I see a lot of people say this, and I love Sam. He was a great recruiter no doubt. But if it’s solely because we lost him how come he hasn’t replicated that same success at Mississippi State?

To me, it’s not a coincidence that when NIL came into play, the amount of success that we are used to having here kinda tailed off. I think that is the major issue. We don’t have enough money in order to get the elite players here anymore. Walz is doing the best with what he has, but our program is clearly behind others in that aspect.

 

[KozmasAgain]

The question is if money is the problem how come they are silent about it. One would think that if it was the reason we would hear about it.

 

[CardAlum2008]

The question is if money is the problem how come they are silent about it. One would think that if it was the reason we would hear about it.

I don’t think they have been silent about it. I remember last year there being a push from 502Circle to raise 250K for the women’s team and there would be a donor to match it, similar to the push they did for the men but on a much smaller scale. But it wasn’t promoted as much as the men’s. I remember seeing it mentioned by 502Circle maybe once or twice but that was it, and I’m not even sure much came of it.

I think it has been communicated but the visibility or reach I guess of the communication is not there. I know during one of Walz’ radio shows during a break it was mentioned that a coach we compete against had 3x the NIL money to work with than we do. I also know UK had at least twice more than we did this season.

It’s something that needs to be addressed or we will continue to fall further and further behind.

 

[KozmasAgain]

Where’s Josh Heird on this?

 

[KozmasAgain]

Some of the Indiana players are transferring out might need to check on them.

 

[nccardfan]

I see a lot of people say this, and I love Sam. He was a great recruiter no doubt. But if it’s solely because we lost him how come he hasn’t replicated that same success at Mississippi State?

To me, it’s not a coincidence that when NIL came into play, the amount of success that we are used to having here kinda tailed off. I think that is the major issue. We don’t have enough money in order to get the elite players here anymore. Walz is doing the best with what he has, but our program is clearly behind others in that aspect.

Why wasn't Wade Houston a great HC?