No she's not. Look at who visits and gets offers. She quit recruiting mid level players after she got a class full of them a few years ago. You know, the ones we gripe about as slow and unathletic all the time. Went to elite only recruiting out of hs and we see the result, or lack of. That's the current dilemia. Take what you can get to at least fill roster spots, hold out for the elusive elite, or depend on the portal and pray like hell another Rickea wanders in. Puny NIL narrows those choices.
Consistency is precisely what we lack (at least consistency on the good stuff) and precisely what we need. But I'm not as optimistic that this team is capable of it anymore, nor that the staff is capable of getting it out of them. We just can't string several good games together. Which is scary since our season depends on doing exactly that.
Allow me to place my broken record on the turntable. Ah, sweet, sweet repetition.
The portal is recruiting. Rickea, Jewell, Hollingshead, and Cooper are definitely not Missouri Valley Conference caliber players. So, an early claim that is the middling level at which Kellie is recruiting does not hold up that well.
I don't think Boyd or Brooks, her most recent HS recruits, fit the MVC bill either.
Where Kellie has been falling short is at the class level--that is bringing in three to four quality recruits each year.
Recruiting a relative business. Are you gaining or losing on your peers when you bring in a class?
Her fist two years were losing ground. Keeping Jordan Horston was a huge plus but it was not supported by an influx of high caliber talent.
The Striplin, Puckett, Darby class would have been just fine if she been able land one to two elite players to round it out and hence it would have become the {star player names} class.
As the feature recruits, however, Strip, Puckett, Darby are losing ground to peer schools who had much stronger classes.
That is the hole that Kellie is digging out of.
She struck gold with the Jackson and Hollingshead (though Jillian is struggling). This years group of Spear and Wells looked to be great solutions but Wells is down. The book is still out on Strickland.
But it is hard to replace a Jordan Horston so the relative gain versus loss may not as favorable as we all hoped.
Next, year we should have Cooper and Boyd, plus Wells and Strickland. Kellie will need to find a good post in the portal and if she does, that class could look pretty good. But with RJ leaving, I am not sure that the LVs are going to gain ground on their SEC rivals and beyond.
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