This is just for college basketball:
Is it easier to land players from the portal than recruiting top 50 HS recruits? Are the top 50 HS recruits better players than players coming off the portal?
Do the top 50 HS players get better NIL/Revenue sharing deal than portal players?
Should Marquette spend the money on at least one Top 50 HS recruit or a portal player for each class to be competitive?
It would be easier for Marquette to add good players from the portal than it would be to get Top 50 recruits from highschool. Those guys still chase the brands.
Shaka has already admitted that they have had players and agents reach out during the portal window wanting to play for Marquette. They just don't want to get into bidding wars.
Historically I'm not sure that pans out for a great freshman team... using 247 here's our historical top 50 guys:
Vander
JJJ
Dawson Garcia
Joey Hauser
Henry Ellanson
Deonte Burton
Markus Howard
Would you take that team to battle? As freshmen not what they developed into
Shaka is rubbing two sticks together while everyone else is camping with zippo lighters and propane.
There is no magic bullet to a recruiting mix, but you find kids in HS, sell them your program and set a baseline level of 2 year, three year and then four year expectations for them given their wants/needs. If they don't work out, it is abundantly clear that we're running a high level program, not a charity and we will bring in more players to compete if you can't.
It doesn't matter if those players are high school or college transfers, but a coach needs to maintain a level of expectation with his players. If he's not holding them accountable for growth, he is no longer a responsible leader.