Another MBB player in portal

[talktomewillis]

Recruiting decent big men is a real issue for the entire league. Most good big men in this league are no bigger than 6-7 or 6-8. There are some players you recruit and sign knowing they are projects. And, sometimes it's not until they get on campus that you find out how much better you can make them. Lafayette's shortcomings have been discussed here. One thing that hasn't been is that he really had bad hands. They were also hoping to put some weight on him, but he must have had that Austin Robichaux metabolism.

As far as player retention is concerned, you see this all over college basketball today. There wouldn't be over 600 players in the portal if that was a false statement. The good news for us is, the coaching staff is big on academics so the transfers don't hurt from an APR standpoint.

Graduate transfers are a tough call. You're only going to have them for one year. More often than not, they are coming from a bigger school and expect to play a lot from the get go. It is my opinion that the percentage of those players being a chemistry problem is higher than an underclassman transfer. And, I think it's why we haven't signed any in several years.

[Hatch]

This is an article that explains the transfer portal issues around all of college basketball. If you think player retention is an issue here look at what is going on at Wichita State.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/transfe...89--ncaab.html

[Rainman66]

Like politics, all transfers are a local issue.

With 600+ in the transfer portal, is that roughly 2-3 players per D1 basketball university?

[Cajunsmike]

That goes to my point Mike. We've often commented and criticized this staff for its lack of recruiting specifically as it relates to big men and when we do get some we seem to be a rotating door of talent in and out of our program.

At this point we have no choice but to bring in another big in spring (well now summer as the NCAA has said the dead period is going through May 31) recruiting. We will bring in someone but who knows where he falls on our list of targets. As I said earlier there is a huge effort being made on this stage and it continues every day. When coaches spend hours on the phone, they are speaking to actual players a lower percentage of that time than you may think. They speak to circle of influence people which can be a rather large group. They don't spend all that time trying to sell what we have to offer. They do a lot of investigating as to how a guy may fit during that time. They also are always looking for people beyond the next class and the one after that.

[cajuns80]

Recruiting decent big men is a real issue for the entire league. Most good big men in this league are no bigger than 6-7 or 6-8. There are some players you recruit and sign knowing they are projects. And, sometimes it's not until they get on campus that you find out how much better you can make them. Lafayette's shortcomings have been discussed here. One thing that hasn't been is that he really had bad hands. They were also hoping to put some weight on him, but he must have had that Austin Robichaux metabolism.

As far as player retention is concerned, you see this all over college basketball today. There wouldn't be over 600 players in the portal if that was a false statement. The good news for us is, the coaching staff is big on academics so the transfers don't hurt from an APR standpoint.

Graduate transfers are a tough call. You're only going to have them for one year. More often than not, they are coming from a bigger school and expect to play a lot from the get go. It is my opinion that the percentage of those players being a chemistry problem is higher than an underclassman transfer. And, I think it's why we haven't signed any in several years.

It is the only way Marlin can put a winning team on the floor though. He has shown he cannot recruit enough decent high school players. He has no choice but to go to the transfer market to keep his job. He's hit on quite a few in recent years, he will have to hit on at least 2 this cycle as well.

[zephyr]

Recruiting decent big men is a real issue for the entire league. Most good big men in this league are no bigger than 6-7 or 6-8. There are some players you recruit and sign knowing they are projects. And, sometimes it's not until they get on campus that you find out how much better you can make them. Lafayette's shortcomings have been discussed here. One thing that hasn't been is that he really had bad hands. They were also hoping to put some weight on him, but he must have had that Austin Robichaux metabolism.

As far as player retention is concerned, you see this all over college basketball today. There wouldn't be over 600 players in the portal if that was a false statement. The good news for us is, the coaching staff is big on academics so the transfers don't hurt from an APR standpoint.

Graduate transfers are a tough call. You're only going to have them for one year. More often than not, they are coming from a bigger school and expect to play a lot from the get go. It is my opinion that the percentage of those players being a chemistry problem is higher than an underclassman transfer. And, I think it's why we haven't signed any in several years.

Jay, how many guys have come in and left after 1 year? Some even come in and play but still want to leave or we want them to leave. To me this is an issue and its not necessarily applicable to the entire league.

Big men don't need to be 6'10 these days. It's more about athleticism and energy they bring to the table. In today's college basketball game, you can have difference makers at 6'7 who can defend the rim and rebound. This can be said for all of college basketball. Virginia won with a small lineup. Villanova won with smaller lineups. I'm not talking about needing the 7 footer. We just need to be able to get guys with similar skill sets of Tirus Smith.

[zephyr]

This is an article that explains the transfer portal issues around all of college basketball. If you think player retention is an issue here look at what is going on at Wichita State.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/transfe...89--ncaab.html

I think its been a consistent issue here for some time and not necessarily a case of a player wanting to prove themselves somewhere else. It seems that for many of our transfers out, its because we recruited them here and then made the decision they were not good enough and wanted them gone.

[Hatch]

Besides the situation with the guys last year who had an off court issue I can't think of any transfer out in a number of years that I would have considered not in bottom 25% of the roster talent wise. Taking a chance on a guy with the potential to bloom is fine. If you have him in the program for a year or so and see how he develops and responds to coaching gives the staff a much better evaluation of potential. Those same guys see their competition for playing time in practice everyday and sometimes the writing is on the wall. This is clearly the norm around the country now with the portal. Look at the situation with ULM and Georgia Southern (who albeit is going through a coaching change) losing multiple starters some which are all conference level guys. I hope we don't see someone who i think can be a key contributor next year in the portal but as of now I'm not concerned about what I have seen.

[Rainman66]

I think its been a consistent issue here for some time and not necessarily a case of a player wanting to prove themselves somewhere else. It seems that for many of our transfers out, its because we recruited them here and then made the decision they were not good enough and wanted them gone.

I don't see how this is different from other schools, honestly. In the article, Wichita State was arguably a top 30 team, and they are going to have 7 players end up in the portal.

The quote I think sums it up best is that coaches are forced to build good teams, not programs.

Do I think Marlin should still be our coach? no I do not. However, the argument that his players transfer out at a higher rate or for different reasons than other programs is not valid, in my opinion.

The two biggest reasons for me of him not being retained would be lack of results per dollar spent on him and the staff, and lack of fan enthusiasm/support for the program.

The biggest reasons to keep him, once again in my opinion, is he seems to be a very good human, kids are going to classes and players don't seem to get in any trouble (publicly).

My expectation, is we can find someone that can do the majority of these things for roughly the same amount of money, but that person would still lose players yearly to the transfer portal at a rate of 2 per year.

[talktomewillis]

It is the only way Marlin can put a winning team on the floor though. He has shown he cannot recruit enough decent high school players. He has no choice but to go to the transfer market to keep his job. He's hit on quite a few in recent years, he will have to hit on at least 2 this cycle as well.

Please re-read my post. I was referring to graduate transfers. We haven't had one of those in quite some time.