Virginia and Texas Tech did not need Flashy recruits to get to the title game

Monday's Virginia NCA Men's Texas Tech final will bring together defense-like teams, each of whom makes their first appearance in a national championship game in the program's history. And at the time of the big programs looking for occasional recruits, neither the Red Raiders nor the Cavaliers are a recruiting engine: in the Final Four, the two most powerful recruiting teams – Michigan State and Auburn – fell in the hands of the two weakest. While some of this success was due to luck (watching you, Virginia), it also reflected the coaching work that Chris Beard and Tony Bennett have done to build these contenders for the championship.

From 2013 to 2018, Texas Tech and Virginia made only one appearance in the top 40 ESPN recruiting categories: Wahoos in 2016 (No. 8) and Red Raiders in 2018 (No. 33) . (In contrast, Michigan State has appeared five times and Auburn three times.) Over the same period, only five commits in Virginia ranked among the top 100 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI), which combines multiple sources to create a "Master" recruiting rankings – and Texas Tech had only one:

Virginia's only recruiting team under Bennett came with this 2016 promotion, when the Cavs brought together four top-100 players in high school: Kyle Guy (No. 32), Ty Jerome (No. 46), Jay Huff (No. 61) and De & Andre Hunter (No. 74). Huff played sparingly in the Final Four final, but Hunter, Jerome and Guy were key members of Bennett's team. Against Auburn, the trio scored 50 of the Cavs' 63 points, including the three crucial free throws that Guy made to sink calmly after committing a foul in a spectacular 3-point effort in the final second. Although Hunter became one of the most promising candidates for the NBA – he is sixth on ESPN's grand council for 2019 – neither he nor his classmates were considered high schoolers.

The Texas Tech team was built on an even more humble basis. Khavon Moore (tied for 45th place last year), who has been ranked in the RSCI standings over the last 10 years, played only two minutes this season while re-evaluating a broken leg in high school. It's hard to believe now that Jarrett Culver, the 6-foot-5 dynamic guard, who averages 19 points and 6 rebounds per game, was considered more than a three-star rookie coming out of Coronado High School in Lubbock. The local product now ranks fifth (even higher than Hunter) on the ESPN NBA scoreboard.

But the story of recruiting a program is not his destiny, as this season proves. Duke signed the most impressive class in recent history last summer, but failed to stand out completely from the Final Four. Even among teams that have made at least one appearance in the ESPN Top 40 over a four-year period dating back to 2013, the recent ranking of a team's recruiting class explains only about 10 % of its adjusted efficiency index from KenPom.com. Talent can only bring a team so far; the rest depends on the coaching and development of the player.

And these two competitors play a particular style that makes the most of their talent. According to Ken Pomeroy's estimates, Texas Tech has the best defense in the country, while Virginia ranks fifth. UVA has the best offensive (No. 3 in KenPom vs. No. 28 for the Red Raiders), but both teams match at a below average pace and keep their typical opponent between 15 and 20 points lower than the NCAA. average. Texas Tech's defense is based more on forcing the numbers; Virginia focuses on disciplined rotations that limit the odds by 3 points and rarely make mistakes. Each defense makes life hell for opposing goal scorers.

Needless to say, this might not lead to the most entertaining national title game. (Remember that the 2011 UConn-Butler final will have immunized against the potentially unbeatable basketball coming up.) It certainly will not be as full of talent as, for example, Duke-Kentucky or even Michigan State-Auburn. But these are the last two teams left standing for a reason. Virginia and Texas Tech managed to make their way hard at once.

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