Yeah, initially I was skeptical of bringing in a bunch of high price tag seniors. But if Odom is planning on this approach as a one-off to help demonstrate his capabilities to recruits then I’m game. I shared this elsewhere, but that approach would look something like:
Year 1: Demonstration year. Be a top 15 senior-laden team. Some talented underclassmen sprinkled in. Show potential recruits you can hack it in the ACC.
Year 2: Underclassmen from Y1 step into greater roles + filling a few holes with one or two-year transfers. More of a ‘rebuilding’ type year, but success from Y1 let’s you recruit well in high school and portal.
Year 3: Back to a top 15 team with a continuity model, using recruiting momentum in Y1 and Y2.
Yeah that’s probably right. But I think Byington still accomplished the same goal of this three year vision with what he did in year 1 even without being top 15. He made a splash in the SEC and put Vandy’s name on the radar. That’s more important than necessarily achieving a particular ranking or march madness run.
