|
Post by motorcitysam on Jan 19, 2023 10:03:11 GMT -5
Curt Lewis, ranked the #3 player in the JUCO class of 2023, verbally committed to Missouri. Falls in line with what appears to be the recruitment philosophy of Coach Gates, which is similar to this former boss, Coach Ham at Florida State: Go after top high school players, develop the players you have, and always bring on some JUCO players. Looking at Lewis a little closer, you see that he took the long route to Mizzou. After high school he spent a year at Aspire Academy. He then committed to Eastern Kentucky and had two solid years there, averaging around ten points per game. He hit the portal this past Spring, but didn't land at another D1. He enrolled at John A. Logan JUCO and is averaging about 15 points per game, there. It used to be very rare to see a player with two years of D1 ball go to a Junior College, but these days it is getting more and more common. What's wrong with Eastern Kentucky? he also took a redshirt season for the Colonels. That's a fine program. What's the reason he left? Grade Issues? If he didn't get any other offers for D1 then he made the wrong decision. Should have stay put in my opinion. Maybe he wanted to cash in with NIL. Not sure the thinking of kids these days. It's not the old days where you had "home sweet home". Hopefully we stay away for players like that but, what do I know. Actually, to think about it more it's a good thing we have good GPA requirements to get accepted, because we wouldn't have to put up with players like this 23 yr old "Non" student athlete. How much patience do we have for a 23 yr old? I don't know what Lewis left EKU. Could be that he noticed the success that former EKU guard Wendell Green has had at Auburn. I understand your point, but I don't see the problem with signibg a guy like Lewis. It seems that the path he is taking is getting more common.
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Apr 14, 2023 15:20:01 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Aug 28, 2023 18:20:33 GMT -5
(I considered putting this in the "Mid Majors Dying" Thread.) Here's an interesting article on how the current recruiting landscape disadvantages mid major programs. Here's a quote: "What the NCAA has done is it has turned us into general managers, instead of basketball coaches," said North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton. "We've got to assemble a roster every single year. It's hard for us, being at this level, because now, with all that said, we haven't even spoken about NIL. The one thing I've learned is that you can't out-recruit money."www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38245839/the-challenges-men-college-basketball-recruiting-small-budget
|
|
|
Post by rbj on Aug 30, 2023 21:40:35 GMT -5
(I considered putting this in the "Mid Majors Dying" Thread.) Here's an interesting article on how the current recruiting landscape disadvantages mid major programs. Here's a quote: "What the NCAA has done is it has turned us into general managers, instead of basketball coaches," said North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton. "We've got to assemble a roster every single year. It's hard for us, being at this level, because now, with all that said, we haven't even spoken about NIL. The one thing I've learned is that you can't out-recruit money."www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38245839/the-challenges-men-college-basketball-recruiting-small-budgetGood article, thanks for posting it. My love for college basketball is dissipating by the day.
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Aug 31, 2023 12:25:32 GMT -5
(I considered putting this in the "Mid Majors Dying" Thread.) Here's an interesting article on how the current recruiting landscape disadvantages mid major programs. Here's a quote: "What the NCAA has done is it has turned us into general managers, instead of basketball coaches," said North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton. "We've got to assemble a roster every single year. It's hard for us, being at this level, because now, with all that said, we haven't even spoken about NIL. The one thing I've learned is that you can't out-recruit money."www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/38245839/the-challenges-men-college-basketball-recruiting-small-budgetGood article, thanks for posting it. My love for college basketball is dissipating by the day. I know what you mean. College basketball has been my favorite sport for decades (it was basically tied with the NBA until the 1990s) but I don't enjoy it like I used to. The off-seasons have just become brutal. What used to make the sport so enjoyable for me, watching teams and players grow and develop over the years, is a thing of the past. As I mentioned previously, at the end of the season I now know more about what the Pistons roster will look like the following year than I know about the Titans. That never used to be the case.
|
|
|
Post by titantarheel on Aug 31, 2023 13:47:52 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Aug 31, 2023 16:09:22 GMT -5
That was a depressing read. Remember how they said schools were not allowed to be involved with the NIL process? Looks like that turned into anything goes.
|
|
|
Post by Commissioner on Sept 1, 2023 8:09:30 GMT -5
The term "NIL" should be abolished, never used. Let's call it what it is: Salary. How much do you want to be paid to play basketball at a particular school? The players are not being paid for their name, their image, or their likeness, which may or may not be worth that kind of money. They are being paid because of their contribution on the floor to the overall success of the team.
NIL was sold--by Jay Bilas, the press, the plaintiffs, the NCAA when it caved--as a way for students to make a few bucks on the side where they had local ad value to businesses (a classic case here in Ohio was that of a couple OSU football players who got free tattoos and maybe a bit of walking around money when they hung out at a local tattoo parlor, boosting business there), and to be compensated when the NCAA used their images (mainly television clips of game action) for commercial purposes, i.e. to make money. Or maybe, for a few of the big stars, their name would have serious merchandising value, and why shouldn't they be allowed to cut a commercial and cash in. But that's not at all what we have. Instead, virtually everything opponents of the idea said has come to fruition.
One reason I became, over the years, much more of a college sports fan over pro sports is that (all the cheating and maneuvering aside), college sports news was not dominated by talk of salaries and salary caps and arbitration disputes and salary dumps at the trading deadline etc., and that, for a few years while they were in college anyway, athletes were not just playing out the string for a paycheck. Kill all that now. And the long-standing rivalries? All gone in "realignment." I'm perfectly OK with professional sports. But let's admit that that is what we have, and let's allow colleges to go back to sponsoring amateur sports for students, who actually have a life somewhat similar to other students, if they wish to.
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Sept 1, 2023 12:34:10 GMT -5
The NCAA didn't want NIL, but they really messed up by using player likenesses for video games. That was a dumb move, a short term money grab that really swayed public opinion towards players being paid. The NCAA could make the argument that full scholarships that provided tuition, housing, meals, stipend, academic support, etc., was fair compensation for student athletes, but even the most traditional of fans could see the unfairness of using an athlete's likeness for a private business venture without that athlete being compensated. I've said before that the NCAA gets too much criticism, given their mission and competing stakeholders, but this basically opened up Pandora's Box.
Still, the forces that are doing the damage now with the wild NIL landscape, realignment, and portal madness are league commissioners and school presidents. The NCAA isn't making teams leave conferences, and if the high major schools wanted it, there would be more sanity in the transfer portal process. In today's environment, it's not the NCAA that is making decision detrimental to the long term interests of the student athlete; it's the university presidents and the conference leadership.
No matter who is to blame, the end result is a sport that is a lot different from the one I fell in love with while watching the Titans under Vitale and Gaines.
|
|
|
Post by ptctitan on Sept 3, 2023 9:36:54 GMT -5
I see the problem as being an excess supply of available experienced players caused by the combination of the one-time transfer exception rule being implemented for the school year immediately following the free Covid season. Suddenly, players, who thought they had just 1 year left and likely would not have transferred, had two years of eligibility left making a transfer more desirable to the players and the new schools. IMO, the NCAA's big mistake was deciding not to count play during the 2020-21 school year towards a player's 4 years of eligibility. Therefore, every player who played in 2020-21 gained a do-over year.
But did you know that the NCAA has taken the position that any player injured pre-season who sat out 2020-21 on a medical redshirt does not get the extra year? But that a player who played 1 game and got hurt, does get the extra year. And a player who sat on the bench the entire season and DNP any minutes still gets the extra year.
IMO, also, NIL has become a convenient excuse. There exists a group of players out there who are mainly 5th year seniors who are one-time transfers in the first year of the new rule. Their schools did the bare minimum to keep them compliant towards their degree. Then, their coaches signal that they want them to leave the team before they graduate. They have no options because they cannot transfer without a waiver and they may encounter NCAA progress towards a degree issues at many schools that would admit them. All of these unforeseen issues have arisen from the free Covid season - not from the one-time transfer exception or from NIL. The free Covid season removed the incentive for a university to keep all their players on a 4-year graduation trajectory. Some State schools like Youngstown State are able to graduate a 5th year senior like Cohill with a general studies major. Other universities do not even offer that major. Some universities like ND and NW cap below the NCAA requirement how many credits can be accepted from a 5th year senior.
But sam is right, just like the PAC-12 presidents and trustees miscalculated their negotiating leverage on an ESPN TV contract, the same people created this byzantine schedule of rules and regulations that are often arbitrarily applied to each player. IMO, the best solution would have been for the NCAA to have flushed all the 5th year seniors from the system this year with blanket progress to a degree waivers so the available player pool was reduced by 40% for next year's portal. Then, no more waivers for 2nd time transfers beginning in 2024-25. It's an imperfect end to an NCAA-created problem, but it would begin 4 seasons after the free Covid season and everyone would have been clearly on notice one-year in advance.
|
|
|
Post by Commissioner on Sept 3, 2023 14:29:58 GMT -5
I agree and have said on these pages that the extra Covid year was a terrible, panicky decision. But it was, at least, done as an attempt to be nice to the athletes.
|
|
|
Post by motorcitysam on Sept 4, 2023 13:43:07 GMT -5
I see the problem as being an excess supply of available experienced players caused by the combination of the one-time transfer exception rule being implemented for the school year immediately following the free Covid season. Suddenly, players, who thought they had just 1 year left and likely would not have transferred, had two years of eligibility left making a transfer more desirable to the players and the new schools. IMO, the NCAA's big mistake was deciding not to count play during the 2020-21 school year towards a player's 4 years of eligibility. Therefore, every player who played in 2020-21 gained a do-over year. But did you know that the NCAA has taken the position that any player injured pre-season who sat out 2020-21 on a medical redshirt does not get the extra year? But that a player who played 1 game and got hurt, does get the extra year. And a player who sat on the bench the entire season and DNP any minutes still gets the extra year. IMO, also, NIL has become a convenient excuse. There exists a group of players out there who are mainly 5th year seniors who are one-time transfers in the first year of the new rule. Their schools did the bare minimum to keep them compliant towards their degree. Then, their coaches signal that they want them to leave the team before they graduate. They have no options because they cannot transfer without a waiver and they may encounter NCAA progress towards a degree issues at many schools that would admit them. All of these unforeseen issues have arisen from the free Covid season - not from the one-time transfer exception or from NIL. The free Covid season removed the incentive for a university to keep all their players on a 4-year graduation trajectory. Some State schools like Youngstown State are able to graduate a 5th year senior like Cohill with a general studies major. Other universities do not even offer that major. Some universities like ND and NW cap below the NCAA requirement how many credits can be accepted from a 5th year senior. But sam is right, just like the PAC-12 presidents and trustees miscalculated their negotiating leverage on an ESPN TV contract, the same people created this byzantine schedule of rules and regulations that are often arbitrarily applied to each player. IMO, the best solution would have been for the NCAA to have flushed all the 5th year seniors from the system this year with blanket progress to a degree waivers so the available player pool was reduced by 40% for next year's portal. Then, no more waivers for 2nd time transfers beginning in 2024-25. It's an imperfect end to an NCAA-created problem, but it would begin 4 seasons after the free Covid season and everyone would have been clearly on notice one-year in advance. My hope is that you are correct and things settle down with transfers after the extra Covid year players exhaust eligibility. Still, the transfer portal was getting out of hand before Covid, so, who knows? I think the genie is out of the bottle and we'll still see a lot of first time transfers going forward, but maybe if the NCAA begins to take a hard line on waivers, we won't see those second transfers as often. My hope that the transfer situation gains some sanity is not just due to my enjoyment of the game as a fan. It also comes out of concern for the players. Lots of players are jamming themselves up with bad transfer decisions. Keeping with Detroit kids, everyone wants to be Wendell Green and transfer to Auburn after a year at EKU, playing two seasons at a high major, scoring in double figures and enjoying the NCAA tournament. His situation draws a lot of attention, but people forget about kids like Rashad Williams, who played a solid freshmen year at Cleveland State, transferred back to Michigan to play at Oakland for two seasons, transferred to St. Louis for a season of sitting on the bench and averaging two points per game, then transferred to Arkansas Pine Bluff, where he never saw action in what should have been his final year of college ball. That's kind of a mess, and I don't even know if he had enough credits to graduate after all of that. I know these players are usually adults who can make their own decisions, but I still feel for them when they make bad choices.
|
|
|
Post by fan on Sept 4, 2023 15:25:05 GMT -5
This mess really goulls back years ago with shoe money chasing middle school kids, then street agents actually placing kids at schools. The NBA crazness at the top, and the street agents at the bottom have closed the circle and are in fl attack in the college game.
|
|
|
Post by Commissioner on Sept 10, 2023 9:43:04 GMT -5
Believe it or not, there are still three more years of working through this panicked and ill-considered "Covid exemption" year. After that, the portal will still remain important, but hopefully things will get back a bit more to normal, and wondering about high school signings will become interesting again.
|
|
|
Post by rbj on Mar 25, 2024 16:57:11 GMT -5
Mike Davis and Deion Sanders have something in common...neither of them enjoys recruiting. Coach Prime hasnt been on a single recruiting home visit or off campus contact with a recruit since he became the head coach at Colorado in December 2022. In contrast Jim Harbaugh had a 145 off campus contacts/ home visits in the same time period. mikefarrellsports.com/mind-of-mike/mind-of-mike-prime-doesnt-actually-recruit
|
|