location absolutely matters in recruiting, and manhattan, kansas is not a great location for college basketball.
however, talking about location with respect to kstate and dca is missing the point. when malone liked kstate, kstate signed 6 dca players over a two year span, when malone didn't like kstate, kstate signed zero dca players. over that same period, the two nationally prominent power schools in the dmv area signed zero dca players. malone didn't like them. rutgers, located within the region, went from signing zero dca players over the previous five years to signing everyone they had available when they hired a coach that malone wanted them to hire.
like location, connections always matter in recruiting, however; in the specific case of players influenced by curtis malone, there is abundant evidence that connections are far more important than location.
those bringing up transfers & martin's demeanor also miss the point, although it is more understandable. we may not have seen it at the time, or at least, for a time, we tried to convince ourselves that we weren't seeing what we thought we were, but malone turned off the dca player spigot long before judge left, before sutton left, perhaps even before anderson left (can't recall, don't want to check, but i'm pretty sure). when malone stopped bringing players out for kstate elite camps, it was over. when malone stopped sending dca to mokan's tournament, it was over.