Jamie Franks won’t call 2020 a transition period between two eras of his time coaching the DU Pioneers men’s soccer team, but the feeling he had recruiting the 2021 class was certainly different. After reaching the Final Four of the College Cup in 2016, Franks said he thought players came into the program wanting to “take” what was left behind rather than to build their own legacy. A sharp decline followed as the Pios finished 6-12-3 in the fall of 2019, after which he turned over his entire coaching staff — forcing Franks to look inward and rededicate himself to recruiting. Then he meticulously recruited a class of freshmen that would include some of the program’s best players in its history. Four years later, he just keeps on hitting. “I think (2021) was the first class that came in with a real desire to make their own mark and to win the national championship for the community and to have a banner, and that was said even before they got on campus,” said Franks, whose Pioneers host Gardner-Webb at 1 p.m. Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. “Their actions must meet their ambition, and that’s what I’ve seen every single year. The standards are now expectations and it just keeps getting higher and higher.” Often, Franks alludes to taking the focus off of “outcome-based things” like goals, wins and championships. In other words, if a team hones in on an almost obsessive drive to improve, the outcomes will take care of themselves. The 2024 Pios have that on lockdown. Even after a win in the Summit League title game eluded them, they were granted the No. 3 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament — the program’s highest ever — because of everything that came before it. This year, all 35 Pioneers are DU originals, built from day one on campus to fit and thrive in Franks’ system. In the age of instant transfer portal gratification, on Franks’ team, fortune favors the patient. Setting a new standard Part of that 2021 recruiting class was Pioneers star and future MLS midfielder Sam Bassett. By way of his brother, Rapids midfielder Cole Bassett, Franks knew who Sam was at just 14 years old. Cole, not much older at the time, was already good enough to sign with the Rapids’ first team, so he went straight to the pros. Sam, whose game Cole admires and whose shot he admits is more powerful than his, committed to Denver after numerous conversations with Franks. Ultimately, DU is where Sam thought he could grow the most. And boy, has he. Sam, who’s always been a cut above his peers, played just 233 minutes over 14 games his freshman year, more than many get in their first year as a Pioneer. By the end of Year 2, he started all 22 of his matches and tallied seven goals and six assists. Fast forward to now, and he’s got career totals of 23 goals, 23 assists, two Summit League Midfielder of the Year honors and an All-American nod. It turns out Sam wasn’t just the brother of an MLS Homegrown star. According to Franks, he modeled every personality and tactical trait he looks for in a recruit. In addition to Bassett, Franks helped recruit perennial starters Trevor Wright, Oje Ofunrein, Ian Smith and Jake Smith from that 2021 class — a few of whom may end up on an MLS roster next year. During Bassett’s first year, he spent most of his time training with the second team. As with everyone else, playing time was earned through performance in training. That mode of operation has not fostered a culture of cutthroat competition. Instead, it’s healthy and constructive to the point where the second team often pushes the starters more than most opponents. In the end, everyone gets better. “I got some minutes my freshman year, but definitely not what I wanted. We have always been pretty honest with each other and it’s just kept growing our relationship,” Bassett said of he and Franks. “It was really hard, ultimately, at the start, not playing as much as I wanted, but I had to learn what I wasn’t doing right and add to my ability defensively and attacking-wise.” The allure Pioneers forward Bryce Willoughby will never forget his time as a redshirt freshman. When Ofunrein made a mistake in training, Franks would sprint down the touchline looking for someone to chew out. The head coach didn’t run to confront Ofunrein, though. Instead, he looked for Willoughby to ask him, “What is your boy doing?” “That’s probably the core memory for me,” Willoughby told The Post. “That was so funny.” Like many players recruited by Franks, Willoughby was a diamond in the rough at an MLS academy back in 2021. Franks has a strict set of qualities he looks for in prospective players. At the top of the list are accountability, discipline and patience. He’s transparent with incoming freshmen in telling them they likely won’t play much, if at all, to start their careers at DU. Willoughby, who ended up redshirting his first year, didn’t mind. Actually, he was intrigued. “At my visit, I immediately knew this is where I wanted to be,” Willoughby told The Post. “Everyone’s together, it was like a real family and that’s something I wanted to be a part of. Coming from an academy, it’s not the same, especially in MLS. So coming here and seeing the energy that comes out in training and seeing people joking in the locker room, I knew it from the first time I stepped on this campus.” Once Franks found out Willoughby was a grinder, and vice versa, no convincing was needed. In Year 1, nothing varied from what Willoughby observed as a recruit. And his work paid off to the tune of 11 starts in 38 games (mostly coming off the bench for Ofunrein) with 11 goals and 10 assists over the last two seasons. “Just looking at the guys who were before me, a lot of those guys didn’t play, but they worked hard day in and day out and I saw the work they were putting in,” Willoughby said. “So that fed my hunger going into winter and spring (freshman year).” The payoff One of Franks’ mottos is, “Leave this place better than you found it.” If he walked away today, that would no doubt be the case for DU soccer. The same goes for almost every player on the roster. But Franks doesn’t limit the saying to what happens on a soccer field. “They’re trying to leave their business schools, their respective classes better,” Franks said. “Ultimately, we hope they have so much ownership of that that it goes on for the rest of their life. The hope is they come back in 30, 40 years and really support this community because at 18 to 23 years old, for these guys to be in such a safe space to learn, fail and be challenged … I think that’s the extra bit that makes us different.” Related Articles College Sports | DU Pioneers men’s soccer gets No. 3 overall seed in NCAA Tournament College Sports | Late red card, set piece defense doom DU Pioneers men’s soccer in Summit League final College Sports | Sam Bassett knew DU soccer had more in the tank. Now, he’s the best player on the country’s No. 1 team. College Sports | Grading The Week: What’s wrong with Nuggets’ new Nike alternate jerseys? We’ll give you 5,280 things Unprompted, both Bassett and Willoughby mentioned similar sentiments. As the Pioneers enter their seventh-straight NCAA Tournament under Franks, a deep run isn’t required to call the season or program a success. Conversely, a second-round upset at the hands of Gardner-Webb at the DU Soccer Stadium wouldn’t make the season an instant failure, either. That said, a sour taste is left in the Pioneers’ mouths after failing to capture a conference title despite dominating most of the match against UMKC last week. That has fueled the team during training this week. With a first-round bye in the NCAA tourney, the Pios head into the match with clear heads and fresh legs for a date with Gardner-Webb, which beat Oregon State in the first round Thursday, 1-0. “No matter what happens on Sunday, I’m super proud of the group. They’ll forever cement their legacy for what they’ve done, but for our guys, we just want to win,” Franks said. “We left something to be desired (against UMKC). We went into a boxing match and we didn’t throw big punches. But watching the way they’ve trained Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week we’re not going to let that happen again.” Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.