Also, O'Malley on the podcast made some good points

by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Thursday, March 19, 2026, 10:55 (71 days ago) @ Jeremy (WeIsND)

about the very, very, very limited upside of materially increasing MBB spending. So, maybe we sneak into a Final Four once every couple of decades?

As things currently stand, the "get old, stay old" and play heady team basketball with a bunch of good four-year players who probably have pro potential in Europe is dead. It's all about the dominant programs with a combination of the One and Dones and then harvesting the late bloomers/diamonds in the rough that second and third-tier programs actually managed to find/develop but can't afford to keep.

We used to be able to point to programs like Butler under Brad Stevens or VCU under Shaka Smart and say "why can't we do that?" Barring major changes, "that" is dead.