Unofficial chatter

[MrMemorial]

With most universities starting classes in the coming weeks, of all the athletes that have committed to a new program, 1 out of 12 players who transferred this year went up in the portal, the rest have either transferred lateral or down.

With most of the rosters finalized, 45% of players who entered the portal this year will not play NCAA basketball in the upcoming 2023-24 season.

There will need to be an expression similar to "undrafted free agent" for kids who go portal and roll snake eyes.

I know Odusipe went portal after seeing scant minutes at Kent. Haven't heard anything after that.

[VUaskew]

Verbalcommits.com indicates that Odusipe transferred to Tusculum, which I believe to be in East Tennessee...

[Jason94]

With most universities starting classes in the coming weeks, of all the athletes that have committed to a new program, 1 out of 12 players who transferred this year went up in the portal, the rest have either transferred lateral or down.

With most of the rosters finalized, 45% of players who entered the portal this year will not play NCAA basketball in the upcoming 2023-24 season.

There will need to be an expression similar to "undrafted free agent" for kids who go portal and roll snake eyes.

I know Odusipe went portal after seeing scant minutes at Kent. Haven't heard anything after that.

I would guess that a pretty large percentage of the players in the portal were "encouraged" by their old teams to search elsewhere based upon anticipated playing time for the upcoming season. That would have to explain why a player like Trey Thomas goes from starting minutes on a team that is on an upward trajectory to Bowling Green, which has been really bad for a couple of seasons in a row. I doubt he would have just thrown away playing at a high major team that will likely make the tournament that also has a great academic reputation based on the idea that he should be doing better.

[MemorialMagic]

I do think it will be interesting to see if the media starts to pay attention to this part of it. The players and all their advocates have pushed for this. They can transfer unrestricted. Yeah!!! Freedom!!! But there's a flip side to that coin. Coaches and schools will undoubtedly be much less loyal to their players. Yes, I know that scholarships have always been essentially 1-year contracts, but there was a pretty strong sense of loyalty. Yes, there were instances of coaches forcing players out, but they were pretty few and far between. I think it's happening all the time now. Now that kids don't have to sit a year, it makes it much easier to force them out. Don't think you'd have seen Trey and possibly QMB too transfer out when things were done the old way. Bryce Drew tried to force Joe Toye out, and he went to the AD, and the AD said no way. Kid's put in a ton of time and effort here, and he's going to get his degree.

You also have the extra COVID year that is also contributing to the chaos.

Hopefully, this will all shake out and kids and the grown-ups that counsel them will see the risks, and it will naturally calm itself down.

[buffy]

Bryce Drew tried to force Joe Toye out, and he went to the AD, and the AD said no way. Kid's put in a ton of time and effort here, and he's going to get his degree.

That's a weird one. Joe was talented. Who knows the circumstance, but that's an irksome situation you describe.

I'm a fan of watching players develop and mature on a team over 4 or 5 years. But like was mentioned, this path was demanded (understandably so), but there are consequences.

[MrMemorial]

Verbalcommits.com indicates that Odusipe transferred to Tusculum, which I believe to be in East Tennessee...

Small D-2 school IIRC.

Main thing is, he's going to finish school and get a degree.

[MrMemorial]

Bryce Drew tried to force Joe Toye out, and he went to the AD, and the AD said no way. Kid's put in a ton of time and effort here, and he's going to get his degree.

Have I ever mentioned on here how I feel about bryce drew?

[MemorialMagic]

That's a weird one. Joe was talented. Who knows the circumstance, but that's an irksome situation you describe.

Ticked off the entire team. One of many errors in building team culture by Mr. Drew.

[Dorewithaflare]

Trey Thomas is right were he needs to be,or less.

[buffy]

That's a weird one. Joe was talented. Who knows the circumstance, but that's an irksome situation you describe.

Ticked off the entire team. One of many errors in building team culture by Mr. Drew.

Sounds like Bryce was a clapping version of Deion before Deion.

[UltimateVUFan]

Trey Thomas is right were he needs to be,or less.

I mean. I suppose. I also don’t see any reason to bash the kid. He gave his all for VU for several seasons. Got recruited over, which is good for the program. Still. I would have loved to see him have the opportunity to earn his VU degree. Seemed like a good kid who never gave anything less than he was capable.

[volemtine]

Agreed…Unfortunately there is no loyalty to the players or team. Players and coaches have a year to year mindset. It is especially difficult to build any type of rapport when players are asked to leave and the team rebuilds through the portal.

[rEvUrB]

It hurts high school and juco players as well. Why recruit those guys when you can find players who have already been in a D1 program w the weight training and training table advantages?

[commadore]

It hurts high school and juco players as well. Why recruit those guys when you can find players who have already been in a D1 program w the weight training and training table advantages?

Well, eventually all those in the portal will run out of eligibility and you will HAVE to get freshmen.

[rEvUrB]

That’s true but high school seniors and JUCOs can increasingly be treated as last resorts.

[Jason94]

It hurts high school and juco players as well. Why recruit those guys when you can find players who have already been in a D1 program w the weight training and training table advantages?

It likely just means that HS and JUCO players will find homes initially at the lower ranks of D1 that have been raided by the high major programs, as they need to find bodies to fill the roster. By extension, this means that the low and mid-major programs will have access to a higher level of HS recruit than they have had previously if the high major programs turn to looking for players primarily through the portal.

The total amount of talent will remain approximately the same as it has always been, it will just be distributed a bit differently than before. A lot of previously highly recruited players will end up at mid and low-major programs (like Noah Shelby), and if they eventually fulfill their original promise will be likely to stay at their school having used up their 1 auto eligibility transfer up already.

Good players will end up at high major programs one way or another. A lot of good players will become available to all kinds of programs simply through playing time issues. One of the largest problems we used to have w.r.t. recruiting was that if we made a mistake and ended up with a player that was not a good fit, we typically just had a scholarship that for three or four years was given to a player who wasn't going to be a significant contributor (think George Drake or Darshawn McClellan). That would also leave a hole in our classes since we couldn't go into the JUCO market typically and grab an experienced player to fill in gaps. Now if a player isn't a fit, they will self-select themselves for the portal and we can grab someone of like experience who is a better fit immediately.

Ironically, the new landscape can be a significant improvement in our ability to field competitive rosters every season, in a way that could effectively reduce the number of rebuilding years if not eliminate them outright. I think CJS understands this and ADCSL also understands what is needed to support the student athletes w.r.t. NIL, which means this could be a potential period of ascendancy for VU men's basketball.