You're not puffing your chest with Pike's recruiting to date are you? Baker, Harper, Mathis, Mulcahy...throw in Yeboah...you have the makings of a tourney team...if you're playing for an autobid in the AEC. They're not bad. But it's not going to get you a bid playing 19-20 games in the B1G. You can only take recruiting rankings with a grain of salt, but consistent 10th rankings in-conference just isn't going to do it. Pikiell is good enough a coach to maybe coax a few more victories out of this team next year and break the 15-win barrier. But if you think they're playing in March...well, I'm sure you do think they will. I'm done holding my breath.
There's a time and place for fact checks, but there's a hard core reality check too.
There are Top 150 kids on every B1G roster recruited since 2017....some schools have more, some have less....there are some that transfer out to other schools.
I believe the count I checked last week had the following breakdown.
Michigan State 10
Maryland 9
Ohio State 9
Michigan 8
And RU was in the pack of the rest with 4, some schools had more, some less (Purdue, Wisconsin less, Northwestern and Iowa around the same or more.
I know it's hard to believe but I counted Harper Jr, Mathis, Mulcahy and Jacob Young as 4 Top 150 kids on the roster.
That doesn't mean all Top 150 kids pan out, because 33 to 40% of them actually dont....but there's a pattern of postings that truly don't support the notion that RU isn't at least keeping up with the proverbial Joneses.
I'm not at home, but have the full list of names...
Ironically a kid staying in the NBA draft as a freshman Brazdekis, was not a Top 150 kid, but beat out 4 other Top 150 recruits on Michigan's roster.
Which is why recruiting or following it helps, but player development and finding the right kids also matters as well. I could argue Caleb McConnell is as valuable as Mathis, Young, Mulcahy or Harper. And I'm sure every other B1G roster has 2 or 3 gems they've developed.