Humans have a tendency to convince themselves that their way is the right way-especially sports fans where in the end the stakes aren’t really high so full on homeristic tribalism isn’t as much of a threat as it is in other aspects of our lives.

Hence, fans of programs where players like this were not an option fixated on Calipari’s consistent underachieving with a roster full of one and dones and convinced themselves the better way to collegiate success was through the consistency a program can enjoy by not recruiting one and dones.

My opinion is KY’s blueprint is to meld together the best of both worlds with stability, consistency and maturity provided by a core of LDS “BYU” type guys (represented on current team by players like Hall, Saunders, Knell and Dawson Baker). These guys are all in on BYU success as the highest team goal and priority. Most are married and significantly older than the one and dones. They can mentor, have them over for dinner and attempt to keep these kids grounded and also committed to team success-but have no doubt about why Catchings or Demin are coming to BYU. They are buying into KY’s pitch about them becoming NBA players sooner rather than later. Their priority is going to be them getting to the NBA. In between the one and dones and the LDS “BYU” guys are the developmental players, I think best represented by Kozlowski (who I realize is LDS and related to BYU royalty-I was at Jack Murphy when his uncle wrestled the floating duck from Bo’s DBs) and Crawford. KY is a pro coach-which is a good thing because he has a pros on his team. At present as fans we see all the god ways this can turn out but this is a high risk venture and there will be one and dones whose dreams are not fulfilled at BYU and they and their posses, who will get disproportionate attention and access to the media to shape narratives such as the Purdue/Kanon Catchings saga, will do what they gonna do.

To me the risk is obviously worth it (but my guess is my concern for BYU’s mission is not similar to many of the fan base and decision makers-I really only care very much about the sports teams) but it is going to be a very interesting period in BYU hoops history.