TJ has been incredibly adapt as using the portal but I do agree having to regularly rely on it can lead to some down years. Similar to freshman you never know how the new transfers will fit in and if you do have guys who have been their awhile transfers can really rub people the wrong way and potently push recruits out the door.
Nojus Indrusaitis Enters the Transfer Portal
- Thread starter LLCoolCY
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Eh. Disagree on that one.
5 National Titles since the New Big East was created in 2013.
It's sad to think that players like Garrett, or Thomas or Long likely wouldn't have lasted at ISU long enough to develop into the players that we loved if they arrived on campus in today's NIL era. I think most of us want to be able to develop players, but I agree with this post as the main reason we don't see it:
TJ has to decide if he sees enough out of the young players to think they will develop, or if he's better off using those scholarships on portal options. And even if he wants to retain someone, that player could already have a foot out the door looking for more playing time or more money.
I don't need to know, but I am always curious to know the real factors when players transfer in or out and how much of a "push" they get from their coach.
I've decided I'm better off as a fan
95% of fans don't hate this (the portal). Yes NIL is the wild West but that's changing somewhat soon I believe.
I think college hoops is better than it's ever been right now. There's parity like never before, and while the blue bloods are still good, the talent gap between them and everyone else is much smaller or even equal in some instances. A coach who excels in evaluating talent and roster management can now compete on the same level as a blueblood, even without blueblood money.
In the old days a Freshman who didn't perform as expected would be buried on the bench for 4 years and never play. Now that kid can go somewhere else without being stigmatized as a trouble maker and get minutes and not waste his/her eligibility.
Sure three from the aforementioned UConn and the other two from a nova program that lost their legendary coach and hasn’t even been to the tournament in the last 3 seasons. I’m not exactly worried about nova making a comeback more than I am any other non UConn team.
Yeah most fans don’t hate the portal, I mean ISU rebuilt from the ashes thanks almost solely to the portal so I’ve never really understood that vibe.
I agree it’s likely very difficult to retain players for multiple years if they aren’t playing regular minutes. But we need to do a better job of it. Watson is a success story for me. He was never necessarily a rotation player, but he was a suitable depth piece and we got 3 good years out of him.
IMO we need to employ better strategies to retain players. Beating a dead horse, but a good start would have been giving Nojus Kekderman’s minutes in the postseason tourneys. We weren’t losing to Lipscomb or beating Ole Miss regardless who was playing Nojus or Kelderman. But those minutes could have helped entice Nojus to stick around one more year.
I don’t agree with people giving up or saying we have to give up on players so quickly. TJ likes to play an 8-man rotation. There’s up to 15 schollies for basketball. There are roster spots to stash guys for development, if we can hang onto them. There’s no reason we need to cut bait quickly (if it’s us that are making the decision to move on).
Based on what? The talent gap has gotten alot further now. Mid majors can't build a program based around 3 or 4 year guys anymore because their best players leave now for NIL.
This tournament is a shining example of this. The upsets just aren't there anymore and many games were non-competitive.
I'll continue to beat my drum that there is 3 levels of college basketball.
High majors: Multiple bid leagues that can produce final four contenders/ top 3 seeds. (Football power Power 5 + Big east, there is a chance the new Pac 12 could be here but it really depends if someone besides Gonzaga takes a step up)
Mid majors: Produce 1 good team or a few middle tournament teams (conferences like A10, AAC, and MWC)
Low majors: single bid leagues that produce the 16, 15, and 14 seeds.
High majors: Multiple bid leagues that can produce final four contenders/ top 3 seeds. (Football power Power 5 + Big east, there is a chance the new Pac 12 could be here but it really depends if someone besides Gonzaga takes a step up)
Mid majors: Produce 1 good team or a few middle tournament teams (conferences like A10, AAC, and MWC)
Low majors: single bid leagues that produce the 16, 15, and 14 seeds.
I wonder what NIL Nojus got as a highly recruited freshman. I was hopeful when he didn't declare right away. Was there a NIL offer from TJ that Nojus (and his family and agent) considered, but decided wasn't enough? Did TJ want him back, but not at the price?
I believe Nojus will have a very good career and I wish he could've been kept.
With how player selection has evolved-using older experienced players, young talent isn’t always getting developed at a power level. The mid majors are becoming a minor league- player development for them.
The days of getting to follow players like Tamin and Milan are passing by. As a fan I like watching a player through their college years-not just for one or two years.
I think if a similar trend follows next year you could be on to something. Gonzaga being down this year and Houston/BYU being in the Big12 certainly puts a dent in the mid majors but the simple fact is the mid majors just have never really been that competitive.
Sure you get a couple random huge upsets but that says more about the team playing against them than the skill of the mid major. Which is why after the upset they almost always get rocked in the next round or two.
Ideally, I agree with that concept.
But 5 of Purdue's top 8 players are from the state of Indiana. And one of players (Harris) who isn't from Indiana is Glen Robinson's kid. So while it would be great for Iowa State to build it's team from HS players, IMO it's tougher based on the number of P5 basketball players the state of Iowa produces annually.
IMO Iowa State is a program where each year our realistic roster would be comprised: 5-6 Returning Players, 3-4 HS Recruits, 4 Portal Transfers. I can understand post players taking longer, but I am somewhat surprised by our lack of success in recruiting HS guards. I would have thought their HS/AAU/Prep School production would be a better indicator of their readiness to play Big12 basketball as freshman.
I think it will help that Batemon is a top 40ish guy and even with the extremely limited exposure, Toure is ending up being ranked pretty well, too. I have high hopes for those two.
Nojus is a miss for sure, but guys like Pierce, Hamilton, etc. are just long shots anyway and especially so with the extra year of eligibility guys were playing with at the time.
What is this, 2010?
Use of the portal is an every year thing because it smoothes out the ebbs and flows that used to occur when dependent of classes of crapshoots like freshmen
Most programs will rely on it every year to plug holes that arise, and to improve positions when opportune
Not doing so would lead to even more “down years” than otherwise, like Michigan St has had until this collection of high school guys finally aligned
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It's also what kind of transfers are you getting. 1 year guys or guys with multiple years. We get a lot of guys with 2 years left that are able to compete right away and also give continuity to the program by being here more than 1 year. sprinkle in some 4 year guys and that's pretty steady. Very similar to waiting for freshman to contribute but more of a guaranteed thing to take a guy with a couple years left who has proven he can play vs hoping a kid can develop. It sucks that we won't get the Naz Longs of the world but we can still have the Niang, Monte and Tamins. While also having the Curtis Jones, Rob Jones, Tre Kings, Keshon Gilberts, Josh Jeffersons etc. So many transfers have also been some of my favorite guys in the program
I think you might be reading too much into the “rely” word and getting that mixed up with “use”. Which is on me for not being clearer I guess. I expect every team to use the portal, it would be coaching negligence to not to unless you just have had an incredible recruiting run with minimal exits.
What I was saying though is when you are losing a very high rate of recruits or as some suggested avoid high school recruiting at all then you are being forced to “rely” on the portal which can cause some major issues and down years.
