Finally saw Tim winkler play. He just committed to yale
He reminds me of a slightly bigger( broader) Jordan brunet after his 3rd knee surgery.
Jordan was more explosive in high school but also much leaner.
I like this kid and am surprised we got him. He is big and has range.
Have already seen oware out of Cali in aau. This coupled with groves ex teammate is quite a front line in this era if we keep them
This is an age-old nature v nurture question, but would you attribute Yale’s success under Jones more to superior recruiting or to great coaching? I had thought the latter, especially compared to Harvard which seemed to get fancier recruits but less performance, but the more recent years have made me wonder. Mbeng, Poulakidas, Wolf, Townsend have been great (and diverse) talents (putting Simmons to the side as a transfer), with Aletan, Celiscar, Fox and the frosh coming along. Hard to separate the two, of course. Yale seems to be in a virtuous cycle currently.
It is a good question.
I think it is a combination of the two imo.
Rating services are less effective now for all but the top 200. They devote their resources to the portal as opposed to the 2/3 star developmental players
There is a lot of talent in the age of aau/personal trainers/you tube video instruction.
We mine this pool well and have for some time.
this being said we seldom take a kid who doesn’t have a lot of options.
Everyone in tx wanted samson. He was a late bloomer with a limited offensive skill set but he got all the offers.
Conversely Arlington also had a lot of offers in the mid tier.
Jones and staff do a nice job of matching recruits to the system and not the star ranking even when the rating services paid more attention to the middle tier
Lastly keep in mind the inefficiency is in the developmental kids. The power 4 coaches I know don’t have a lot of time to develop. It is a win now or else situation more than ever given kids move freely year to year
So this inefficiency means the trick is to keep.them after we get them. That starts on commitment day.
This all being said I am surprised we got winkler so we carry this risk also
Given the unlikelihood of Power Four coaches spending time developing the two- or three-star players, doesn’t that make what James/Yale has to offer more attractive to those recruits compared to the Power Four teams? Does Yale get the Aletans and Celiscars and Ogunyemis more often than formerly, with the risk that they then get picked off by a Power Four team, but the chance that they like the experience they have and stick around. Net, Yale seems better off.
2 years ago I would’ve said no way; We are screwed in this new world.
But the datapoints are stacking up so far such that your above perspective looks more probable When evaluating grassroots prospects.
We get younger on balance though relative to the competition so that is a big negative to offset and that’s before I assume retention collapses which is a whole different debate
Aletan was viewed as a 3 star prospect with 5 star size and athleticism.
I do think those guys are always once in a blue moon for us. I don’t view winkler or oware like him but I view the combination as a great class of bigs
Celiscar and ogunyemi both had an elite skill but tweener size so more traditional types we can attack in recruiting (like a Townsend) so good examples of your point/hope.
Like you hope Isaac figures out the 3 ball and gets more consistent and Daniel becomes better in his outside game to offset size limitations (as Townsend did) in the paint (where he was a beast in high school/travel ball)
Even when Amaker recruits as well as Jones, Jones is a far superior coach, both in development and in-game coaching. This is based on my observations as a Princeton follower.
Let’s be candid here. There are 2 Amakers. One before the Duke affront and one after. He is a different coach. Notwithstanding, James is superior and has better and more consistent assistants. Simon, though was a loss and he is doing great at CMU.