Psyched about the future of Marquette hoops

[DoctorV]

I don't think highly ranked recruits are what Shaka is aiming for. I think his sweet spot is in the 50 -150 range. Probably feels they'll buy into the culture more readily. Not to say that if he found one within the top tier that he wouldn't recruit him.

Several reasons for this, but I'm not quite sure buying into the culture is as high as you think

I suspect that originally Shaka came to Marquette with the plan of recruiting 50-150 range kids in order to get old and stay old, in other words in order to keep kids around for 4 years and build a culture of sorts. As an immediate necessity he did that with talented kids like TyKo and OMax thru transfer, and then developed them all and established his culture.

Now, a big part is $ and the pay structure Marquette seems to have- where first year guys are in a set range and 4th year guys are in their set range with the upperclassman stars getting the biggest piece of the pie- not being very conducive to top 50 guys looking for top dollar.

I'm sure there is still some truth to the idea that Shaka wants a majority of guys in the 50-150 range who are willing to buy in (long term, that's the key) and willing to do that because given their talents and abilities they are ok with being at Marquette long term and developing.

I've always thought that at some point he would turn up the gears and shoot higher into the top 50 talent pool- he did with Kon, this year with JJ, and is in on future top 50s.
I think money and structure are more at play with him not getting one so far, but I do think he will very soon.

I've said before that I think MU will have to structure "outlier" type payments for top 40 freshmen recruits like Kon or JJ Andrews- and I have no idea if they have or will but I think they should.
However, if Shaka doesn't think so then it won't happen, and that's all that matters.

This year's senior class is a great example of guys that shouldn't quite earn what Kam or Tyler earned imo- it is now a business after all. I think that extra should be pooled towards a high end recruit or transfer as needed.
What I mean by that is that even though Chase should be compensated nicely for his abilities and dedication to MU, he shouldn't get what Kam or Kolek got. Ditto with Ben in comparison to Stevie or Jop.
The same can be said for the Jr class given their past contributions.

Just my two cents, and I'd be curious to find out if Shaka and the program agree and adjust the distributions. Don't think we will ever know.