College coaches are going to learn very quickly in the next 1-3 years as ER recruits flow in that it was a mistake to flatter kids who played down to get noticed. It counts for a lot less as kids age into their later teens, but 13-23 months older than kids in the same grade is a huge advantage to kids through their mid teens. When I see a bigger, stronger, faster, more mature and more technically developed 16 year old versus a 14 1/2 year old all I really think is that kid SHOULD be better by a large margin against the younger competition. The spread collapses as they age up. Look at some DMV area prep teams. Gonzaga, PVI, Prep, Landon, yeah they get all the lights out 8th graders to assemble. Then as juniors and seniors a lot of those kids aren't even the 3rd best middie or attackman on their own team. Of course the accolades keep coming if they were early commits, but that just beards the reality that these kids lost their alpha which was to just be older than the herd during the growth phase years for boys. Look at the UVA commits in the 2016 and 2017 classes playing at WCAC and IAC schools. Zero examples of being elite versus high school competition. Yes, those are good prep leagues but high school ball is light years below college ball.