***Official 2024 Transfer Thread***

CyPunch

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There is really no point to taking more than 1-2 high school commitments in a class. Everything you need is in the portal. Let the MVC, A-10, WCC, and MWC develop most of them

Still take 2-3 high school guys per class but fans should view them to a degree as lottery tickets.

Tamin = Major Hit
Eli King = Miss
Demarion Watson = Hit (Rotational piece, still developing offensively)

Milan = Major Hit
Omaha = Miss
Jelani Hamilton = Miss
Kayden Fish = Injured, Developing, TBD

The patience and hit rate on high school prospects is going to be much lower - Both from their end and the staff's. Prioritizing top regional targets like Xzavion Mitchell, Macari Moore, Kai Rogers, and Jamarion Batemon and hope 1-2 work out will be how to make a living.
 

Clonefan32

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Still take 2-3 high school guys per class but fans should view them to a degree as lottery tickets.

Tamin = Major Hit
Eli King = Miss
Demarion Watson = Hit (Rotational piece, still developing offensively)

Milan = Major Hit
Omaha = Miss
Jelani Hamilton = Miss
Kayden Fish = Injured, Developing, TBD

The patience and hit rate on high school prospects is going to be much lower - Both from their end and the staff's. Prioritizing top regional targets like Xzavion Mitchell, Macari Moore, Kai Rogers, and Jamarion Batemon and hope 1-2 work out will be how to make a living.

I think it's hard to call anyone a year or two out a miss (other than maybe King who was average an UND this year). Hamilton and Fish could be really, really solid players. But they are just going to be boxed out at the high D1 level until they can prove themselves. That's just the reality of P5 basketball right now.
 

CyPunch

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I think it's hard to call anyone a year or two out a miss (other than maybe King who was average an UND this year). Hamilton and Fish could be really, really solid players. But they are just going to be boxed out at the high D1 level until they can prove themselves. That's just the reality of P5 basketball right now.

Pretty comfortable calling Hamilton a miss. He should transfer down. Don't believe he's found a spot yet.

 
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CascadeClone

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Spelling has very little to do with intelligence. It's more about memorization.
At the risk of derailing a thread on CF, disagree. Word roots and etymology help a ton in spelling, and that isn't just memorization, its understanding those concepts can help you understand why certain words are spelled/pronounced the way they are.

OK, to get back on track... Kansas is hiring the best money can buy. Can we start calling them "Hessians' instead of "Jayhawks"?
 
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Clonefan32

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Pretty comfortable calling Hamilton a miss. He should transfer down. Don't believe he's found a spot yet.



I just think he's in a tough spot. He wasn't able to put anything on tape last year. And that can be ok if you are Omaha and have a high recruiting pedigree. But he had a decent but not great recruting ranking and wasn't able to give them anything to evaulate as a freshman.

So I guess my point stands He may be a quality player, but he's going to have to go down a level to prove it.
 

Letterkenny

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Jay Bilas said something pretty similar about the NCAA's incompetence and being asleep at the wheel when NIL was legalized.
I guess I don't see what the NCAA should have done differently? Allow schools to pay athletes? That doesn't get rid of the NIL mess. Was the NCAA not handcuffed by Title IX implications? Like, schools weren't going to be able to pay football players X amount, but not pay the women's swim team, from what I understand. What does Jay Bilas think the NCAA should have done?
 

MJ271

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Still take 2-3 high school guys per class but fans should view them to a degree as lottery tickets.

Tamin = Major Hit
Eli King = Miss
Demarion Watson = Hit (Rotational piece, still developing offensively)

Milan = Major Hit
Omaha = Miss
Jelani Hamilton = Miss
Kayden Fish = Injured, Developing, TBD

The patience and hit rate on high school prospects is going to be much lower - Both from their end and the staff's. Prioritizing top regional targets like Xzavion Mitchell, Macari Moore, Kai Rogers, and Jamarion Batemon and hope 1-2 work out will be how to make a living.
I agree. I think the rotation will almost never have freshmen in it. But there will still be 2 to 4 players at the end of the bench who won't play much or at all, so there's still room for freshmen to come in and get a shot.

In that way, I almost wonder if high school recruits will become an undervalued asset. Teams might become so focused on keeping spots open for transfers to fill playing time that they forget that there is still value in having freshmen who might be easier to keep around for cheap and are good for team culture because they might not be expecting to play immediately.
 

Jer

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Still take 2-3 high school guys per class but fans should view them to a degree as lottery tickets.

Tamin = Major Hit
Eli King = Miss
Demarion Watson = Hit (Rotational piece, still developing offensively)

Milan = Major Hit
Omaha = Miss
Jelani Hamilton = Miss
Kayden Fish = Injured, Developing, TBD

The patience and hit rate on high school prospects is going to be much lower - Both from their end and the staff's. Prioritizing top regional targets like Xzavion Mitchell, Macari Moore, Kai Rogers, and Jamarion Batemon and hope 1-2 work out will be how to make a living.
Yes and No. The problem is that Iowa State has some big disadvantages when it comes to getting the top tier guys from the Portal - especially ones that create and score, as we've seen the past few years. Our best chance to get scorers will continue to be the HS route or a tier down in college. The key though is trying to find the kids that 1 - you really feel good about, and 2 - believe that they will buy into the culture, development, etc more than just chase NIL.

I look at Milan and Tamin as great examples of this. They could get over a million to transfer but are sticking around because 1 - they've bought into the coaching staff, 2- they feel they can develop the best for an NBA career, 3 - they're culture/glue guys, and 4 - they can focus on earning the money in the NBA rather than just chasing it short-term in college at the risk of not developing.

Now, there are always going to be misses like we saw with Omaha and Hamilton, or those that decide to transfer anyways (i.e. Hunter)... but those are guys you absolutely take when the opportunity exists. The problem was everybody in the country thought the first 2 could develop into scorers to compliment other skills and neither has shown the ability to do that even in practice.

I truly believe (and know that the staff also feels) that we need to find our key pillars through HS and then supplement from a year-to-year basis via the portal (probably 3 guys, sometimes 4 depending on HS hits/misses). That's also why you see our NIL focusing heavily on retaining vs enticing. This is different than just refusing to accept the Portal - it's using a balance of the two in harmony.
 
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1UNI2ISU

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Jan 30, 2013
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Just waiting on the official announcement but UNI has landed Virginia transfer Leon Bond III.

Top 75 kid out of high school in Wisconsin that redshirted at Virginia and fell out of the rotation towards the end of the year as he's a defense first kid and UVA was, obviously, desperate for offense.

He'll have 3 years to play and I think he'll be a really nice player in The Valley.
 

bawbie

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I had missed the Chucky Hepburn to Louisville news. That seemed to come out of nowhere - Wisconsin has lost a ton in the portal and not gotten anything back yet. Is it time for Gard to go?

I was also surprised at Pop Isaacs from TTU going to Creighton. He doesn't seem like a GMac player to me.
 
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Cyclonepride

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Yes and No. The problem is that Iowa State has some big disadvantages when it comes to getting the top tier guys from the Portal - especially ones that create and score, as we've seen the past few years. Our best chance to get scorers will continue to be the HS route or a tier down in college. They key though is trying to find the kids that 1 - you really feel good about, and 2 - believe that they will buy into the culture, development, etc more than just chase NIL.

I look at Milan and Tamin as great examples of this. They could get over a million to transfer but are sticking around because 1 - they've bought into the coaching staff, 2- they feel they can develop the best for an NBA career, 3 - they're culture/glue guys, and 4 - they can focus on earning the money in the NBA rather than just chasing it short-term in college at the risk of not developing.

Now, there are always going to be misses like we saw with Omaha and Hamilton, or those that decide to transfer anyways (i.e. Hunter)... but those are guys you absolutely take when the opportunity exists. The problem was everybody in the country thought the first 2 could develop into scorers to compliment other skills and neither has shown the ability to do that even in practice.

I truly believe (and know that the staff also feels) that we need to find our key pillars through HS and then supplement from a year-to-year basis via the portal (probably 3 guys, sometimes 4 depending on HS hits/misses). That's also why you see our NIL focusing heavily on retaining vs enticing. This is different than just refusing to accept the Portal - it's using a balance of the two in harmony.
Definitely. Multi-year players help maintain the culture and provide continuity. We see that in this staff's portal recruiting too. I'm pretty sure they'd take a talent level 8 player with multiple years over a talent level 9 with one year.
 
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Cyclonepride

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I had missed the Chucky Hepburn to Louisville news. That seemed to come out of nowhere - Wisconsin has lost a ton in the portal and not gotten anything back yet. Is it time for Gard to go?

I was also surprised at Pop Isaacs from TTU going to Creighton. He doesn't seem like a GMac player to me.
Pop is a high volume highly inefficient scorer. He has really good passing ability when he wants to, but he just forces too many things.
 
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NENick

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I agree. I think the rotation will almost never have freshmen in it. But there will still be 2 to 4 players at the end of the bench who won't play much or at all, so there's still room for freshmen to come in and get a shot.

In that way, I almost wonder if high school recruits will become an undervalued asset. Teams might become so focused on keeping spots open for transfers to fill playing time that they forget that there is still value in having freshmen who might be easier to keep around for cheap and are good for team culture because they might not be expecting to play immediately.
I understand what you're saying, but it seems the best teams still have one or more outstanding freshmen contributing. UCONN and Iowa State as 2 good examples this past season.

I also think TJ has a nice high school recruiting piece by pointing out the major contributions of Hunter, Tamin, and Milan as true freshmen the last 3 years.
 

MJ271

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I understand what you're saying, but it seems the best teams still have one or more outstanding freshmen contributing. UCONN and Iowa State as 2 good examples this past season.

I also think TJ has a nice high school recruiting piece by pointing out the major contributions of Hunter, Tamin, and Milan as true freshmen the last 3 years.
Yeah, I guess I wasn't really thinking when I said that. Probably more accurately, it will rarely have more than one freshman in it as a significant piece. But in most cases, they won't be the centerpiece; they'll be more complementary because of the benefit of age and experience that you get from transfers. So it will be important to get freshmen who are able to be complementary and fit into roles to start out.
 

Messi

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I know we’re full but ISU recruited 3 years ago and Fletcher is HS teammates with Keshon.
 

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