This is it right here. TJ can't confidently tell any of these three players "You're going to play a lot next year". It's a good problem, we have too many good players (or too many good guards, at least).
Jelani Hamilton enters portal
- Thread starter 19210
- Start date
-
We Will Collective May Donor Drive - Last Day, Help Needed!
We're in the final hours of a critical push to signup donors for the May Donor Drive. Let your Cyclone friends know!
Please consider giving at We Will Collective.
- Mar 27, 2006
- 41,324
- 29,822
- 113
So spend half of his eligibility on the bench, with limited minutes in the hopes that he doesn't get recruited over, and in 2026 he'll get a starting role.
OR
Go to another school, get lots of playing time, and if he's successful, will still have the opportunity to be a starter at the Power conference level in 2026.
Not saying every kid would make the same decision, but it's not hard to see why some would want to transfer. They can have their cake and eat it too.
End result was awesome, so I’m not going to push this narrative further we agree to disagree on original point.
The reality will be that very few high school players will be recruited to this level in a few more years. Redshirting is about to become a thing of the past. Except for the can't miss prospects, most players will have to at least have a prove-it year somewhere else and then go portaling for the best fit.
Hamilton redshirted this year. Next year is year one, then Gilbert and CJones are gone. Wish Jelani could have stayed, played some spot mintes next year, then alot in what would've been his RS sophomore year.
Best of luck to him and Fish, but it sucks.
Welcome to everyone’s problem. We aren’t unique. This happens every year at every school now. If the kid isn’t getting playing time, they are gone. And many will end up being great players.
And no kid is going to wait that long to play with the free transfer and NIL. Players want to play, and thinking any player is going to just sit on the bench for a couple of years to finally play is just not with the times. I don’t enjoy it, but it’s where we are and all programs are dealing with it.
Welcome to 2024 in college athletics.
TJ has to win games…. that’s it. So if you have to tell a kid that you don’t think there will be hardly any minutes for them next year…. so be it. It’s total cut throat now.
Omaha is the one that interests me the most. I don’t see him getting a lot of minutes either next year, so will he stick around? I hope so, but nothing would shock me.
This… and TJ is one of the best in the business at recruiting the transfer portal. It’s the way of college sports now. And TJ will and has adapted to it.
To state the obvious, it's a pretty broken system when a highly recruited kid comes in, redshirts - meaning that just 4-5 months ago everyone agreed the kid wasn't ready but had potential so they wanted to preserve as much eligibility as possible - and still ends up transferring. I don't know how a coach can look kids and parents in the eye anymore knowing that they're going to turn around and ask two-thirds of them to vacate their roster spot in a year.
There is literally no point in getting excited about a recruiting class anymore. None.
There is literally no point in getting excited about a recruiting class anymore. None.
Ya gotta hope a couple of the guys stick and do well for a couple of years, OR that if players do leave, they're getting recruited over with someone better in the portal.
Otherwise yeah it's not the same sort of prospects. Watching high school highlights won't have the same hype but personally I never found much value in that either; there were a couple of CSP recruits that seemed great and ended up not even really panning out at small schools.
It’s difficult. In some ways, a team like Iowa State needs to find the HS recruits that show big potential but also mindsets and attitudes that the staff truly thinks will keep him here if he develops. That’s still our best route to get highly skilled offensive guys because we can’t afford them in the Portal (outside the exceptions I talk about where they’ll take 5 digits, culture, playing time, and development here over a short term big payday). You obviously never knows if the kid will stay, but a guy like Milan is a perfect example. He’s going to be a star and could get huge portal money as a shot maker but so far shows every sign of loving what he’s got.
Honestly given that, other than doing best by the athlete, there's little benefit to a program to redshirt a young player at all if they won't be ready to immediately contribute after that. Chances are a program won't benefit from that last year on the back end. Most will be gone long before then.
Maybe should just get rid of redshirts entirely and just move to 5 to play 5
Disagree. We need to lower the number of 5th year players on rosters. Too many "decent" old guys taking money and roster spots from college-aged kids. With NIL, nobody but the very best will leave.
Interesting take and it might be right. The better P6 programs may take one high level HS kid and get the rest from the portal. NC State is in the elite 8 and every guy in their rotation started their career at a different school. Their star, Horne, played at 2 previous schools.
I think Omaha stays. King is gone (as are Rob jones and Ward). Watson and Omaha can split time at the 4. I don't see a reason where Omaha has to go anywhere. His physical tools are nba level. It is clearly worth it for him to develop at ISU.
If Omaha stays he needs to get on the Matt Thomas feet agility training post haste. Matt didn't start out great on defense. He made himself into a very good defensive player mainly due to his development of his feet.
