[drew003]

Originally Posted by hawkfan33

The same goes for basketball. We see it every year in the NCAA tournament.

Recruiting is a huge, huge part of a team's success. But coaching makes a huge difference. Look at guys like Rick Barnes, for all the talent he's brought through Austin they have one final four appearance to show for it and each year there are only a handful of games at most where they are not the most talented team.

March Madness is a crap shoot. The best team doesn't all advance very far. Texas is consistently a top 25 team, based upon talent. Also, in March Madness generally the more talented team wins. I will add experience has shown to be important too. A disciplined, experienced team, with a fair amount of talent can and does beat with some regularity an uber-talented, youthful team (think Butler with Mack, Hayward, Howard).

Ultimately, you need Top 100 kids to consistently make the tournament and you need a few top 50 kids sprinkled in to consistently challenge for conference titles. Until you get that level of talent (5-6 Top 100 kids; 1-3 top 50 kids on your roster) all the game day coaching, scouting, preparation is not going to get you into the top half of a BCS conference. Once you have that talent, coaching makes a difference I believe.

I think we currently have two top 150 kids (Gatens and Oglesby) ... and we are not very good.

[frank]

Originally Posted by drew003

March Madness is a crap shoot. The best team doesn't all advance very far. Texas is consistently a top 25 team, based upon talent. Also, in March Madness generally the more talented team wins. I will add experience has shown to be important too. A disciplined, experienced team, with a fair amount of talent can and does beat with some regularity an uber-talented, youthful team (think Butler with Mack, Hayward, Howard).

Ultimately, you need Top 100 kids to consistently make the tournament and you need a few top 50 kids sprinkled in to consistently challenge for conference titles. Until you get that level of talent (5-6 Top 100 kids; 1-3 top 50 kids on your roster) all the game day coaching, scouting, preparation is not going to get you into the top half of a BCS conference. Once you have that talent, coaching makes a difference I believe.

I think we currently have two top 150 kids (Gatens and Oglesby) ... and we are not very good.

butler?

[ChosenChildren]

Sure, you can quibble with the allocation, but my whole point is that to win in the Big Ten and even make the tournament we have to dramatically improve the overall talent level.

[hawkfan33]

Originally Posted by ChosenChildren

Sure, you can quibble with the allocation, but my whole point is that to win in the Big Ten and even make the tournament we have to dramatically improve the overall talent level.

And I don't think you would find anyone who would argue with that.

[frank]

Originally Posted by ChosenChildren

Sure, you can quibble with the allocation, but my whole point is that to win in the Big Ten and even make the tournament we have to dramatically improve the overall talent level.

Your thread title is certainly misleading then.