You’re right about it being a small state, but another factor is that it is a basketball crazy state. My high school coach hated it when his players played football in the fall. Most kids here grow up playing basketball and dedicate themselves to it more than football, at least that is how it was when I grew up. I never dreamed of playing football and didn’t even attempt it in high school, but give me the chance to sit the bench for one game for my high school team and I would have walked over burning coals to do it. I wasn’t good at hte game and may have actually been better at football, but I never gave it a thought because basketball was my sport. Combine that with being right in the middle of the Big Ten where Michigan and Ohio State can easily pluck the best players makes it very difficult to win by recruiting exclusively within the state.