I'm sorry but you are not correct on this, as it pertains to Fox's first class, and since I live and breath recruiting I'll explain why. As AppGrad78 correctly pointed out Coach Fox was hired the first week of April, 2014. The early signing period for basketball is usually the second week of November, with the regular signing period starting the second week of April, a few days after he was hired. What usually happens before that is a year of recruiting, which he didn't have, not to App, and many players signing NLI's in the early November period. And most other players were already committed to other programs before he was even hired. Other schools can and do find both academically solid and athletic players (and so do we as one can see looking at his first two real classes) but they also have a full year to recruit them. We did not with the first class. Coach Fox had to go looking for players that weren't already signed to other schools (and with the regular signing period starting 4 days from his hire date you have to wonder why they weren't already committed somewhere), find uncommitted and committed players to try and flip to a school and program that he was just learning about himself, do so in just a few days, and had to find players willing to come to a program under academic suspension. Not an easy task. We also had to try and replace the Capel recruits that left the program. So he went and found the best available recruits that were, for the most part, good students first and players second. Had to fix that one problem before being able to take on the rest. Take a look at the roster and see how many of that first class are still on there. I'll make it easy. Two, and only one starter. And where are most of the PWO's from the next class, when we had over 20 players on the roster? Same place as the rest of his first class. But APR isn't an issue anymore, at this time.wncapp78 wrote:I don't aim to complain or be inaccurate. I guess I counted differently. He coached the 14-15 season, 15-16 season, and we are half way thru the 16-17 season so I counted that as 3.5 since we are half way thru his third season (my math professors may not be very proud of me). And I asked what I think is a reasonable question for this forum--"Are we seeing consistent improvement?" And folks are responding. That's why we have this space (thanks moderators).
As far as time and patience? I've been a faithful supporter of the program for 42 years. In that span I've seen 2 NCAA appearances, only one in the last 25 years. I'm glad some folks think the new recruits are showing great potential. That again, was part of my question. I hope that is right. I think using a rationale that his first recruits were signed to fix academic problems doesn't hold much weight with me, and somehow implies that we couldn't find academically and athletic players, when many schools do just that every year. The jury is still out for me.
Is the jury still out? Of course it is and will be for a while. Consistency and winning is the only thing that will change that. And that holds true for most coaches in most sports, especially at our level. But I am only referring to the bolded part of your post and sometimes you have to step back and look at the entire picture instead of just one corner of it.
