Most definelty the promised benefits are followed through with mainly because the bulk is paid before the kid gets to school anyway. And this cbb trial has shown us that blueprint for the most part. Not too mention most of these kids are one and done or ineligible . LOL but of course U of l got throwed under the bus by the parents and kids we just didn't get the same street code as everybody else.
The trial showed how one agent and a few coaches were morons. If you noticed, Rick early on was involved in a lot of big time recruits. But I think he found a good mix of underrated guys to go with solid recruits. The recruiting game changed and he wasn’t into the AAU culture. He probably knew guys would get benefits, but this modern system of kids demanding 200k and shoe companies running the show was foreign.
We won a title with Siva a Senior McDonald’s All American, Chane was a McDonalds All American, Wayne Blackshear a McDonalds All American, and Gourgi was a top 40-50 4-star recruit. Mixed it with guys like Russ and Luke.
But after that group, I think Rick was getting tired of the of the Matt Stockman and Mahmoud type projects, so he embraced going for the bigger fish. And his ignorance on how modern recruiting works did him in in 2017.
What’s sad is that if Bowen never gets the money, we have Ray Spaulding, Q Snider, Anas, Deng Adel, VJ King, and McMahon ready to mix in with the new crop of Sutton, Nwora, Darius, & Malik. And all the 5 star talent waiting for the next year. If we never go for Bowen, we win a 2019 title and have a 2018 Final Four caliber team.
