2022 college basketball coaching carousel of progress

[Cosmo]

Yep. Isaiah Wilkins started at Wake and Virginia Tech and then transferred to Longwood to lead the Lancers to their first ever NCAA bid.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Yep, there is no point to getting attached to any particular player. It's truly cheering for the laundry. You might get lucky and a guy will stay a year or two. But the days of a guy lingering on the bench for two years, waiting for his shot? Those are done. Instead of developing within a program, that guy is transferring for immediate playing time.

This is one instance in which a "good old days" reference is apropos.

I recall Lefty Driesell's Maryland teams of the late '70s and early '80s. They stuck together for 3-4 years, and those guys were household names in the DC/MD/VA area -- Elmore, McMillen, Manning, Bias, Buck Williams. The consistency made people want to follow them, and they could have made money with NIL were it around then.

Today? I just can't picture most of these guys being recognizable enough to be selling anything. In fact, top student-athletes at mid-majors might have a BETTER chance at making some coin, because they become more of a part of some of these remote locales.

 

[LanceyHoward]

A lot of that depends on the coach and the program. Andy Kennedy is building his third team with parts from the portal, and he's 49-15 after two seasons. He's a master of Portal Kombat.

He also develops players that fit his scheme, although he's pretty open with the guys who are not meeting the standard. If they're not getting it done, he lets them know that playing time will be sparse. Generally they get the message and hit the portal themselves.

Does Kennedy have any expectation that the players will graduate if he is rnnning kids off like that?

 

[LanceyHoward]

Since no one really knows the players, and they aren't there long enough to develop a brand, it's the school that fans identify with. The only thing shie companies buy with college kids is a futures contract if they make it.

I understand that to a degree. But the brand of the school is directly related to the success of the team.

Let's use Indiana as an example. Indiana is an Adidas school. Maybe the Hoosiers get five million a year from Adidas. Adidas could instead go the the McDonald's All-American game and sign up as many promising players as they could on longer term contracts with the five million dollars. Most of the contracts would be overpays but you would hit on some future NBA stars on the cheap. Then Adidas steers the kids to select schools. Is Mike Woodson going to walk away from a five-star because the kid already has a shoe contract, knowing that other schools in the conference would take him? I doubt it. Because the teams with the most talented players generally win.

By playing the palyers directly the company cuts out the middleman.

 

[heyabbott]

Does Kennedy have any expectation that the players will graduate if he is rnnning kids off like that?

Is that even a consideration anymore? NBA is the toughest league to break into but it's also got the most players with unrealistic expectations. That means the college players are most susceptible to being used.

 

[sgreenwell]

Does Kennedy have any expectation that the players will graduate if he is rnnning kids off like that?

Even at the mid-major level about 20 years ago, the amount of academic support available to athletes was... a lot, from my observation. I have to imagine it has only increased. This is an in-house number from the NCAA, but 90 percent of D-I athletes graduated in 2021, vs. 74 percent in 2002. Over the past 20 years, it's been an 18-point jump in D-1A football and a 28-point jump in men's basketball. (And I know this will SHOCK everyone, but it's probably just a coincidence that in that time span, there were also punishments tied to not graduating players, with the APR.)

 

[LanceyHoward]

Even at the mid-major level about 20 years ago, the amount of academic support available to athletes was... a lot, from my observation. I have to imagine it has only increased. This is an in-house number from the NCAA, but 90 percent of D-I athletes graduated in 2021, vs. 74 percent in 2002. Over the past 20 years, it's been an 18-point jump in D-1A football and a 28-point jump in men's basketball. (And I know this will SHOCK everyone, but it's probably just a coincidence that in that time span, there were also punishments tied to not graduating players, with the APR.)

But my question is this. Will the amount of athletes graduating decrease because of the additional movement of athletes, both voluntarily and involuntarily?

 

[sgreenwell]

But my question is this. Will the amount of athletes graduating decrease because of the additional movement of athletes, both voluntarily and involuntarily?

Maybe? I kind of doubt it, though. I imagine regular students who transfer are probably more likely to graduate than students who don't to begin with, though. Plus, plenty of players are allowed to "freely" transfer because they've gotten their degree already.

 

[justgladtobehere]

I talked to a D3 hoops coach yesterday, who told me the transfer portal has turned things upside down. In February, every team member was returning for 2022-23, including "seniors" who were granted an extra year by the NCAA because of COVID. As of yesterday, he said he hasn't scheduled any off-season interviews with players because he doesn't know who's coming back. And that's without the serious NIL money they're dealing with in D1.

What D3 player is forking around with the portal? The point of playing D3 is getting into a better school than you could ever hope for and connections after graduation.

 

[Webster]

NIL for the most part is just a payout from wealthy boosters who want to support their program and/or now don't need to go under the table. Good for the kids, but it's likely is rarely an objective economically reasonable deal for the entity paying

 

[rtse11]

What D3 player is forking around with the portal? The point of playing D3 is getting into a better school than you could ever hope for and connections after graduation.

Certainly there isn't the same number of D3 players in the portal but I've seen guys who knew they were riding the pine go elsewhere. I've seen 1 guy who was a 1,000 point scorer in two D3 seasons go to a Horizon League school.

 

[Della9250]

Duncan Robinson is probably the most recent success story of a DIII guy making a huge leap and turning it into something amazing