Exactly. College sports is 90% recruiting. You either recruit the highest rated players (Kentucky), or the players who fit perfectly within your system (Wisconsin). Pitino has done an okay job on recruiting "rankings", but it's unclear how his players fit within his system. For example, on paper most people were pleased with Michael Hurt's commitment, however it is impossible to see how his game was a good fit within the makeup of this team. Hurt is okay on defense, and nonexistent on offense. If you're a defensive identity team then great, work with Hurt. But are they? This is the debate that has raged on within this form for years. Does Pitino recruit defensive minded players or offensive minded players? In my observation he simply recruits the highest ranked players he can get, and/or the best athletes. This lends itself to a style of basketball that can best be described as "making it up as you go". That's why we sometimes capture lightning in a bottle and play great against better teams. But, the biggest reason we lack consistency is because they really are making it up as they go. Some of this is justifiable, but as Ewert mentioned, why don't we recruit more players who have proven they are versatile scorers in high school? It seems that most successful teams have at least one guy who physically looks out of place but simply knows how to put the ball in the basket. We have Stull who looks out of place physically, but he can't score, why is he on this team? Looks to me like he was a random grab in the hopes that he outplayed his ability.. desperation perhaps? There are a number of players that seem blatantly out of place on the floor within Pitino's "system". IW, Hurt, Stull, Omersa, just for this year. If we want to take a walk through the six year history of his teams there are many more that are simply out of place systematically.
I think that Coffey perfectly encapsulates what I'm talking about. He is a very good basketball player and athlete who every so often takes over a game. Yet, there are many times during a season where he has no outlets on the offensive end and turns it over in spades. These phenomena would level off for Coffey in a system where offensively other players provided more versatility. The obvious example is at PG where we arguably have played without one all season (as most of you have pointed out). But the one-dimensional abilities of the other players hurt this team as well. We're lucky that Murphy is as amazing as he is under the basket, but that's all he does, he can't stretch the defense with dribbling, passing, or shooting. McBrayer is good in transition, that's it. Oturu was able to stretch out Purdue in the first half, but he's basically just under the basket all season. Kalscheur has shown some driving ability and shows the most upside in terms of versatility, but he's mostly just an outside shooter (thankfully a pretty good one). I think that this one-dimensionality would be more or less okay if they were outstanding on defense, but they're basically just an above average defensive team. Programs like ours need to be GREAT at something. We're not. We're not great at limiting TO's. We're not great on defense. We're not great shooting 3's. We're not great at pace of play. We're average at everything because Pitino doesn't recruit for specificity. Again, this is okay if you want to be pleasantly surprised two or three times a season and extremely let own two or three times a season. Current and future recruiting doesn't appear to change this trend, and I believe it would be in the best interest of the program to find someone who is committed to recruiting a very specific style of player. Perhaps a strategic approach to recruiting would give us the opportunity to break from this extended streak of mediocrity.
I give Pitino a break on the bizarre injury/behavioral history of this team, and I do believe that the Springs/Curry injuries were pivotal in their demise during that stretch. I give him credit for putting a highly competitive team on the floor in that time bubble. However, that bubble has burst and we're primed for future stretches of mediocre play. I think Coyle needs to try something new. I like how he hired Fleck and that PJ is severely intentional in building his style of program. We're never going to get the best in or out of state players, so we need to recruit with specificity. There are a number of basketball coaches out there who are willing and able to do just that. Find one, pay him, and give him six/seven years just like we did for Pitino.