Stop pretending a high recruiting class ranking guarantees anything for a program like ours. The national obsession with stars is a trap for teams outside the Power Four. Look at Colorado's 43-man portal class, the biggest ever, and they still haven't proven it translates to wins. For Austin Peay, a top-70 class means nothing if the average player rating is below 85.0, which ours usually is. Real development happens when you find the three-star with a 90th percentile athletic profile and coach him up for four years. The data shows team talent composite correlates with wins, but only at the very top of the distribution. For everybody else, culture and scheme fit matter way more than where some service ranks your incoming freshmen. We've seen teams with top-25 classes flame out because the pieces didn't fit, while teams with lower rankings but a clear identity win conference titles.