LOL.
First of all, every team you mentioned there gets really good recruits from time to time, and many of those teams have had a lot of NCAA tourney success (like Syracuse - two recent Final Fours, and Butler, back to back title game appearances).
Second, I wouldn’t say we recruited guys like Eric Davis and Trevon Blueitt (after his UCLA decommitment) “very hard.” Same goes for Jalen Coleman - he had his chance to commit, and we moved on from him, not the other way around.
I just want to know why you seem to feel like we’re entitled to win all of those recruiting battles?
On the whole, we are certainly recruiting as good - if not much better - than any of the schools you just mentioned. No one gets every single guy they want. I wouldn’t trade rosters, coaches, or records with any of the programs you mention above over the past five years.
You can’t worry about the guys you don’t get, you have to focus on the guys you land. Our incoming class is Mathews (beat out Xavier), Livers (beat out MSU), Poole (who knows, because he committed to us early and shut out everyone else afterward), and Brooks (beat out OSU, Nova). Those are nice recruiting wins and more importantly, they seem to be talented players.
Our 2018 class, so far, is DeJulius (who knows, but I’d assume plenty of schools would be recruiting him if he was on the market), Johns (beat out MSU, Purdue, Indiana), and Currie (again, who knows, because he loves UM but also looks like a nice talent). It seems like Bingham and especially Gabe Brown really wanted UM offers, but didn’t get them, so they picked MSU.
I mean, just take the four position - we now have Livers and Johns in back-to-back classes. At this point, why on earth would anyone care if Kyle Young picked Butler? It would only matter if, for example, he was a top 25 talent or something (which of course he’s not).