I agree with a lot of what you said above. It's one thing to recruit over guys already on the roster, but it's different to recruit over a guy who hasn't even practiced with the team yet (Morris).
The bolded part above is a bit much though. Hoiberg has had two guys that he actively recruited TO Iowa State as freshmen transfer out. Okoro and Sledge. Fran has had one... Ingram. Not a real big difference there. The other freshmen that transferred (Railey) was a McDermott recruit. McKnight was a McDermott recruit and Godfrey was a McDermott recruit that got booted by Hoiberg for smoking weed.
Fred had literally 4 scholarship players on his roster when he took over... Garrett, Christopherson, VanDerbeeken, and Ejim. Palo was a walk on. OF COURSE he re-recruited Railey, Godfrey, and McKnight, he had to. They were already signed and he needed bodies no matter who they were. That leaves him with exactly eight available players for the upcoming season.
He took over April 27th at Iowa State. What kind of freshmen do you think he could reel in at that time to come in the fall and produce? He chose to get some transfers. Recruited Jake Anderson (one year to play, eligible immediately), Chris Allen (sit out a year, one to play), Royce White (sit out a year, three to play), Chris Babb (sit out a year, two to play) and Anthony Booker (sit out a year, two to play). He basically scrubbed the first year to get a pretty talented "scout" team. He also managed to go 15 -15 with an eight man roster.
I guess the point is this. The guys that transferred like McKnight and Railey were McDermott recruits that didn't fit his system.