Bashing Harper at this stage is premature or motivated by some other agenda. Dawn Staley signed one top 10 player in her first five seasons at South Carolina. One. And that one jumped ship after a year. It took Staley HALF a decade to get the wheels moving for real when they signed Wilson. Up until that point, South Carolina had not done anything particularly noteworthy. Had they improved? Yes. But Staley didn't just come in and out-recruit the SEC in a year. She had to work to get there. Five years, in fact. And just like Staley, Harper is also in the process of building relationships with players. Considering that Tennessee signed a decent class last year and then made moves for bigger names this time around, it appears they're trending in the right direction.
Now, other side of the coin. Signing A'ja Wilson was the move that propelled South Carolina to the top of the heap. Tennessee needs to keep taking shots at the elite talent even if they miss on most of them. I know a lot of folks handwave the whole star thing, but you don't see many teams take the last step until they bring in the elite players. As I've said elsewhere, almost every #1 recruit won a title before graduating. The elite players really are on a different level. You have to get them if you want to take home the grand prize. That's not negative, nor is it positive. It's just reality.
