I agree with many on this forum that the transfer portal action by the new regime appears to have brought in some talent to try to form a first team and hopefully showcase a level and style of play that might prove attractive to young basketball players.

Perhaps that is this year's focus.

But it would be nice if there was some evidence or talk of the coaches also taking the time to make some connections on the high school or at least the local AAU circuit with some indication that 16- and 17-year-old kids might at least consider Texas A&M. Maybe it is happening "under the radar" and we will get a surprise commit or two from the high school ranks in the next year.

Of course, on the other hand, it is clear the NIL $$$ flowed strongly to Elko and his efforts to take the next step - with basketball's share likely used up in the aforementioned portal action.

As it is, I think Elko has recruited more high school basketball talent this year than Bucky has.

BTHO recruiting!!!

I dont care if we never recruit a high school player again. It doesnt matter where the talent comes from IMO.

We are recruiting them, BTW, but I guess its early. A team with one three star recruit would be in the top 20 right now and as far as i can tell only like 40 teams have commitments from anyone.

I think there's value in recruiting hs players but the staff had no chance to recruit to A& M in this cycle and maybe the guys they were recruiting at say … Samford… weren't a good fit. I expect a mix of hs and portal is going to be the model going forward.

Unless its a 1 and done tyoe talent, there is no reason to bring in a h.s. kid.

I would think there there are still a number of kids who might be future NBA players that are not 5 stars out of high school... and it would be nice to bring some raw talent in to learn Bucky Ball in a redshirt and fish year and develop them here.

Only Buzz redshirts.

If you can get a high school kid to come in and stay, that would be one thing. I don't want to waste roster spots for kids that we pour into when they're young and inexperienced, only to watch them fly away at the first opportunity.

It's a tough game and a tough decision for coaches these days. If you can pull better talent from the portal, I think you take the experience and more "proven" commodity, considering most will probably only be here a year or 2.

You have to have confidence that you can get them here, develop them, win with them, and that they might actually like it here. I think Bucky has that kind of confidence. Will some fly the coup and bolt in this crazy $ first environment. Sure they will but if you can get a core to stay you can have sustainable success with a mix of hs recruits and transfers imo.

Bucky said today he wants HS recruits. He said he had 2 weeks to recruit and no way you could,have done that this,year with HS kids

The data is becoming pretty clear that even in this era, and maybe even especially in this era, you need roster continuity, so however you can get guys with multiple years to play works.

I imagine second tier high school players are probably a decent value right now for building depth, especially if you've got a decent enough NIL game to keep them in your program if they pan out.