Omaha enters the transfer portal (confirmed)

[cyatheart]

It's pretty simple, to really compete for a national championship we need an upgrade at the 4/5 from this year. That's just reality. Omaha couldn't beat out any of those guys this year. To assume he is the upgrade next year just isn't realistic. Nor is it realistic to expect him to sit another year. So into the portal he goes. It's good for everyone.

 

[PGCyclone]

Can I ask you a few questions?

1.) So, your opinion is that because you can't answer my very reasonable questions (no one really can except TJ) then I just shouldn't care?

2.) If Omaha was so bad, then why was he getting decent mins (playing pretty decently) when Watson had a concussion?

3.) Do you feel it's worth running off local kids who have long term potential so you can raise your NET rating by winning by 50 against a **** non-con?

This is such a bad take. Omaha was not good enough to play period. Playing a few more minutes in non con was not going to change things. I don’t understand the big deal. He didn’t work out and so we move on.

 

[rosshm16]

2 were expected, 2 were disappointing but somewhat expected. If the 5th occurs I'll be very disappointed.

I really hope we hold on to Demarion now. I think many of us (I'm throwing myself in here) are off-base on projecting Omaha's potential role. If I'm remembering right, he was not projected at this level and beyond as a low-post banger, he was projected as a wing/slasher (think more KJ Adams vs. Rob Jones/Hason Ward/Tre King). If I'm Omaha I'm looking at Demarion and thinking I don't know if I beat this guy out for minutes next year. If I'm Demarion I'm now thinking, I'm the #1 guy in this key role for this team and the five-star competition for it is out now.

 

[Dirt Boy 2]

C.J. Bruton

I was thinking Jerome Harper but that might be the correct name.

 

[Yellow Snow]

Can I ask you a few questions?

1.) So, your opinion is that because you can't answer my very reasonable questions (no one really can except TJ) then I just shouldn't care?

2.) If Omaha was so bad, then why was he getting decent mins (playing pretty decently) when Watson had a concussion?

3.) Do you feel it's worth running off local kids who have long term potential so you can raise your NET rating by winning by 50 against a **** non-con?

I understand your opinion.

!. I don't discount your feelings for him. It is fine to care,

2, Ask TJ. I don't know.

3. I just feel that in this time we (ISU) are in a period where it is what it is. The thing that bothers me is when you say "running off". Define that. Does a coach sit down and tell you what you are looking like next year an you decide what you want to play somewhere else? That is not running anybody off.

 

[NoCreativity]

we can’t afford to gamble on a project that may or may not turn out.

This is the main problem. We were absolutely duped then by all these experts and recruiting rankings. Since when are 5-star, Top 10-15 players "projects"? Riley Mulvey is a "project", that Ogundele guy Fran kept around forever was a "projext".

If you go back and look last summer majority of us had him penciled into the starting lineup from Day 1.

My Lindy's College Basketball magazine has him 3rd team all Big 12 and directly states "Omaha Biliew should be in the mix for Big 12 freshman of the year" and " Heralded recruit likely to start right away at the 4". So it wasn't just some local hype either.

I think it's pretty obvious TJ had to recruit him since he was interested in Iowa State. Can you imagine the outrage if we never offered him? Then he tried to force feed him minutes early so it didn't look like they made a colossal mistake. Then when it was obvious he wouldn't be a rotation player he refused to play him against Florida A&M.

However it went down its just really a raw deal. We were scammed and it's pointless to ever get excited about any high school recruit again is the lesson learned.

 

[CYEATHAWK]

I've posted this for a couple days on the Premium side and want to use it to set a few records straight in here.

The evaluation of him wasn't wrong, and Omaha certainly isn't lacking effort... but sometimes a player that looks primed to make huge strides in reality may be closer to their ceiling than expected. Xavier Foster is a prime example - over 3 full seasons of playing time, he scored a combined 32 pts in his career.

Omaha is a great kid, Iowa State gave him every opportunity and support possible, he maximized his effort... but unfortunately he just didn't continue to see progress towards what you'd like to see in a contributor. He was a unique 5-star because of his athleticism and defense (at the HS level) and hope that he could develop some sort of offensive game at a high-level caliber - or at least net positive. Unfortunately that hasn't happened. This is best for both sides.

From Premium Posts:

I would be fairly shocked if Omaha is back. He hasn’t developed in practice as much as he needed to (actually very little) and he knows even with a ton of effort he’s still only going to get to what you like to see in a true freshman with 8 mins a game max. His hands aren’t getting any softer, he’s still too slow on defense in practice and his offensive game, which was almost non existent for a Big 12 level player coming in and the thing everybody knew he needed to pray got better, has not developed much at all. He gives a ton of effort, but between his handlers and reality, I don’t see him staying.

Some guys show massive 5 star potential, but unfortunately sometimes reality ends up being a much different outcome.

No need to set any records straight. He was at ISU for only 1 year whether he developed or not.

 

[Trice]

2 were expected, 2 were disappointing but somewhat expected. If the 5th occurs I'll be very disappointed.

Who is the 5th you're referring to?

 

[Cyhig]

Before anyone melts down too badly, here are the players that some other Big 12 programs have lost to the portal this year already (pts/reb/ast/stl/blk, FG/3P/FT%):

Arizona State: G Frankie Collins, 32 min, 32 starts, 13.8/4.4/3.2/2.6/0.2, 43/31/58%
Colorado: G J'Vonne Hadley, 34 min, 36 starts, 11.6/6.0/2.4/1.4/0.3, 54/42/84%
Kansas State: G Cam Carter, 35 min, 34 starts, 15.6/5.0/2.6/1.4/0.5, 39/31/84%
Oklahoma: G Otega Oweh, 25 min, 28 starts, 11.4/3.4/1.0/1.5/0.4, 49/38/64%
Oklahoma State: G Javon Small, 33 min, 31 starts, 15.1/4.7/4.1/1.0/0.3, 44/37/87%
Oklahoma State: F Eric Daily, 22 min, 16 starts, 9.3/4.8/1.5/0.8/0.1, 50/33/60%
TCU: G Micah Peavy, 29 min, 34 starts, 10.9/4.9/2.6/1.3/0.2, 46/31/61%
TCU: F JaKobe Coles, 21 min, 11 starts, 10.0/3.8/1.3/0.6/0.4, 49/42/77%
Texas Tech: G Pop Isaacs, 33 min, 34 starts, 15.8/3.2/3.5/1.0/0.1, 35/29/84%

Meanwhile, we've lost four players who barely/never played and outside of some spot-minutes for Pav had little if any impact on how our season went.

It sucks to lose Omaha's potential for sure, but that's all we're losing, maybe he'd be good or great here, but he objectively was not an impactful/important player on the floor for us this year. Some of our Big 12 mates are losing starters, leading scorers, best returning players, etc. We're in pretty good shape.

It’s just a different era of college basketball. Gone are the days of recruiting talent based on potential, with the hopes they develop into a start in 2-3 years. It’s more about finding the players who bursted onto the scene a year ago and filling your roster with 22-23 year olds instead of a bunch of 18-19 year olds. Teams will still target some high school players. But I think young guards will be much more successful in TJ’s system immediately than young centers/forwards. Those players need time to bulk up and develop. It’s far easier to find those established players in the portal

 

[NorthCyd]

And if that's the final word on him, then so be it.

But then, why did we recruit him?

Because a lot of people think he has a lot of potential. Unfortunately it went unrealized at ISU. Happens all the time in all sports at all levels.

Now you answer this. Why are you so hung up on this? You think our coaches can't evaluate talent? Can't develop players? You think this means TJ won't have long term success at ISU? What exactly has you so worked up over this?

 

[NENick]

Run off? That is what you said that incited me to dumb your post.

You are implying that if we recruit a player better than one already on our roster we are "running him off". Do you want us to win basketball games or not? That's kind of the point.

Would i be disappointed if he transfers, yes. BUT this isn't a situation where anybody was run off. He's just not good enough to play. End of story.

A player is recruited, which I would assume means the staff sees ability to contribute at some point. One year later a new player is recruited because the staff feels the new player will contribute better or quicker than the first player. There are no open scholarships, so someone has to go.

Hasn't that first player been "run off?"

 

[Cyforce]

I've posted this for a couple days on the Premium side and want to use it to set a few records straight in here.

The evaluation of him wasn't wrong, and Omaha certainly isn't lacking effort... but sometimes a player that looks primed to make huge strides in reality may be closer to their ceiling than expected. Xavier Foster is a prime example - over 3 full seasons of playing time, he scored a combined 32 pts in his career.

Omaha is a great kid, Iowa State gave him every opportunity and support possible, he maximized his effort... but unfortunately he just didn't continue to see progress towards what you'd like to see in a contributor. He was a unique 5-star because of his athleticism and defense (at the HS level) and hope that he could develop some sort of offensive game at a high-level caliber - or at least net positive. Unfortunately that hasn't happened. This is best for both sides.

From Premium Posts:

I would be fairly shocked if Omaha is back. He hasn’t developed in practice as much as he needed to (actually very little) and he knows even with a ton of effort he’s still only going to get to what you like to see in a true freshman with 8 mins a game max. His hands aren’t getting any softer, he’s still too slow on defense in practice and his offensive game, which was almost non existent for a Big 12 level player coming in and the thing everybody knew he needed to pray got better, has not developed much at all. He gives a ton of effort, but between his handlers and reality, I don’t see him staying.

Some guys show massive 5 star potential, but unfortunately sometimes reality ends up being a much different outcome.

It's unfortunate he didn't come with all the hype. If given time he had a good shot of fulfilling his potential in Ames.

 

[WastedTalent]

We were absolutely duped. We were scammed

I really hope when you say "We" you're talking about yourself or a small fraction of fans who thought they were getting some superstar one and done Durant type player.

Because I highly doubt the staff feels "duped" or "scammed". I know I don't.

 

[CascadeClone]

I was hoping/expecting either Omaha or Fish would be taking over the Tre King "garbage man athletic defender" role. Obv that will NOT be the case now.

They need 3 bigs that can really play next year, fill 40 minutes. So far, they have Rock and D Jackson coming in. Thats the list. And both unproven at this level. Better get 2 more real good bigs, and hope like hell 3 of the 4 contribute right away.

 

[cymac2408]

Sam Mack had the biggest bust I can remember

I’m waiting for one of the younger generation ask about this.

 

[xboxfever]

I wish him the best of luck, but he never looked like a 5 star talent. He looked like an athletic 3 star with high potential, with a very raw game. Unless he made a giant leap in ability over the summer, his playing time was going to be similar to this year. This is probably in his best interest to transfer. Can’t blame him. Hope he succeeds at his new school.

 

[Yellow Snow]

A player is recruited, which I would assume means the staff sees ability to contribute at some point. One year later a new player is recruited because the staff feels the new player will contribute better or quicker than the first player. There are no open scholarships, so someone has to go.

Hasn't that first player been "run off?"

If you are equating "running off" a player to recruiting a better player, then yes. Isn't that the point? getting better players?

 

[NorthCyd]

Can I ask you a few questions?

1.) So, your opinion is that because you can't answer my very reasonable questions (no one really can except TJ) then I just shouldn't care?

2.) If Omaha was so bad, then why was he getting decent mins (playing pretty decently) when Watson had a concussion?

3.) Do you feel it's worth running off local kids who have long term potential so you can raise your NET rating by winning by 50 against a **** non-con?

From the people who actually know things it sounds like Omaha was not run off. The staff wanted him to stay but were honest with him about what his role was likely to be next year based on his development and players they will likely have incoming. His camp wants him to get minutes and some of them have been in his ear about wanting him to leave for a long time now.

Let me ask you and everyone else who is all upset about this, do you think the staff should have played him more minutes than he deserved based on his development to placate his people and keep him at ISU? Or should the staff make promises they don't intend to keep? Is that the kind of program you want TJ to run? From my observation that doesn't tend to work out well.

 

[Die4Cy]

Players and coaches have already begun adjusting to the new realities of college basketball.

Fans should do that too.

 

[CyGuy5]

I’m sure this is just confirmation bias but it feels like every “big” recruit Iowa State ever gets doesn’t pan out. Foster and Omaha on the basketball side. Joe Scates, Greg Gaines, Dekkers (lol) on the football side.