I believe the lower classes (especially D2 this year, which is just not good at all besides the top two it appears) are getting worse because kids who are strong from some of these small towns get recruited by towns around them that are having more success at the time. I want people to know I have been around the game closely the last 20 years in Central Nebraska, and love great basketball. People are scared to talk about recruiting in the rural areas, but it is just as bad, if not worse than the city. I also isn't just the Parochials, to me it is the Coaches involved with some of the schools. Schools are losing more kids and students are losing pride in their sports because the best players in schools are leaving as 8th graders and freshman to go towards schools that have "more success". Oneills best players this year, Thramer and Appelby, both have ties to Ewing originally before "leaving" for O'neill. St. Paul has had players in the past with ties to Elba, but then "left" for St. Paul. Dorchester has kids who "leave" for Friend or Crete. Riverside (D2) best player is Prososky, who was from St. Ed and was there until he started high school before "leaving" for Riverside. So 4 of the teams mentioned in the original post all have kids get picked away by other schools/coaches. It is easy to convince a kid with a struggling High School as an 8th grader that they would be better somewhere else, and I think some are taken advantage of. Some coaches are turning these lower classes into being a cutthroat recruiting mentality, but in the end 95% of the time in lower classes the best athletes are going to win a lot of things. In lower classes, think of how many teams you watch that if they lose their best player, their record would change substantially
With all of these kids, the parents and or coaches sometimes are deciding where the kid would fit best, rather than letting them find their own success. You can't make great athletes magically appear at some of these schools in D2 that are struggling. So when one kid leaves a town or school, it can set it back a long ways. So as much as people say the basketball is bad, I disagree. In Class A-C2 this year, there will be some great basketball down at state. D1 has some strong teams, and D2 there is no need to really pay attention until finals. I come from the Class D ranks when I went to high school, so it is hard to see how bad some of the product has become, but then I see now how a transfer can be so much more impactful in lower classes. Look at when Johnson from Aurora went to High Plains. I definitely understand why some kids transfer schools in these areas, and there are legitimate reasons (More exposure, Better Facilities, Class Size, Etc.) However, the NSAA needs to keep an eye on recruiting in all parts of the state, because the impact it can have on some communities and schools is far greater than a transfer in the Metro or Lincoln.