Expectations and opportunities is perhaps the most underrated exchange when it comes to college and professional athletics. We hold players to a standard of where they were slotted at a previous level and conjure expectations that the player must match their performance to warrant their placement in the past.
It’s a skill assessment that deflates any real conversation about player development, skills and evaporates any possibility for a nuanced and contextual conversation. This was evident in the way that we talked about the seasons of two All-American guards who garnered five-star rankings throughout the recruitment process. And Omaha’s Hunter Sallis seemed to take the brunt of this discussion.