TSU88

How far is this from S.F.?

What is the NBL1? I’m no expert, but this guy was a marginal D1 player, regardless of what he’s doing now. The real problem here lies with whoever on our staff vetted this guy, and Skerry then stamping his seal of approval on signing him

Things could be worse…below is this season’s record for the UMES baseball team

CAA football has pretty much lost all its cachet, with Delaware, JMU, Richmond all gone, and Nova perhaps soon to follow. Who are the flagship programs now? UNH & W&M? And who are they going to bring in to replace the Spiders and maybe soon Nova? Let’s face it, CAA basketball is a C of C departure away from being relegated to near obscurity. Still puzzled why they haven’t bolted yet, other than relishing being a big fish in a small pond. From the outside looking in, I don’t sense we’re being proactive, but instead are just sitting on the park bench watching the world pass us by. Maybe there’s a master plan, but I’m highly skeptical.

I’ll take my chances with this guy, over our current fearless leader. Oh yeah!!!

DWill, Lowery and Tejada all played significant minutes last season. While I have no idea if Ndefo will follow suit this season, the expectation is for Embeya to be a plug and play, from day 1.

Exactly

I think it’s important to keep in perspective what the expectations are of this kid. Realistically, his role is going to be to backup Embaya. If the incoming freshman is as advertised, Samb is maybe going to play around 15mpg. Anyone expecting him to come in an avg double digits is probably in for a disappointment. Time for a reality check…the days of us bringing in a double digit D1 scorer through the portal (like Cam Holden) are over, absent an infusion of NIL money. The new formula is going to have to be hit on the freshman recruits and dumpster diving in the portal. Of course, if we do hit on a freshman, it’s highly debatable he’ll stay with us for more than 2 seasons, maximum. Sorry, but welcome to the post-NIL landscape for schools who are cash strapped as far as NIL funding goes

I don’t care how many games the team won. I care whether he can be a serviceable rotation guy, backing up our highly touted incoming freshman big. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less

I’ll take this guy over the other guy every day of the week, and twice on Sunday. This guy isn’t Kareem or Wilt, nor, as a backup, does he have to be. By my way of thinking, just replacing the other guy is addition by subtraction

If Embeya is as good as advertised, Samb isn’t a bad pickup, as Embeya’s backup. On paper he appears to be an upgrade over the player who’s roster spot he’s taking

I can’t disclose specifics other than to say that is the strong impression I got

I wish him the best in his future endeavors, but it was time for him to move on. He’s been in college, between here and GW, like 5 years. As interesting as it is that he’s departing is that he apparently intends to play yet another season, somewhere, as opposed to closing this chapter of his life and getting on with finding a job in the real world. Cant say I necessarily blame him. I would have been a career student, if it paid. Now the question becomes who will we bring in to fill his position. With the only big at the moment being the incoming freshman, it’s imperative we bring in another big. Also, will there be any other portal departures? I kind of doubt it, but we’ll see

I think many of us will follow his season at Coastal with great interest. If for instance he has a good season (by which I generally mean averaging in double digits) this coaching staff should be (but won’t be) held accountable for why they jettisoned him and kept certain other players on the roster.

If you require any more proof that NIL has basically killed mid major basketball, of the 15 top CAA players last season, based on 1st, 2nd and 3rd team all conference selections, 10 of them were eligible to return & play this upcoming season. 9 of the 10 entered the portal. And the one who did return, entered the portal then withdrew. While concededly not a math major, that’s 90% who bolted. So, what we have here is a perpetual hampster on the spinning wheel, where mid majors who have successful years will have to rebuild every year. That includes mid majors who bring in successful portal players, as they either only have 1 year of eligibility, or, if they have more than one year, they’ll kick their existing school to the curb, in the never ending money chase. Frankly, I wonder how these guys who go to a different school each year ever actually graduate. The other big scam is the “graduate transfer.” I’d love to see how many of those guys actually get a masters degree. I suspect the answer is very few.

I didn’t see this one coming. I assumed UNCW, being a basketball only school, with what I assumed is a passionate fan base, had deep enough NIL pockets to bribe White into staying, at say $50,000 or so. Assuming he leaves, I suppose it stands for the proposition that even a well funded CAA program can’t compete with the dollars offered by a motivated P5 school. As for us adding 1 or 2 players, I’m skeptical. Even if we do, are they going to move the needle? I doubt we can persuade any D1 player who averaged in double digits to come here. It may very well be that Holden, who we got right before NIL exploded, will be the last D1 portal guy to come here (maybe not forever, but then again who knows) who averaged in double digits at his previous school. So, that leaves us fighting for scraps from the D2/NAIA bargain bin. If that means more Sylla and Suliaman types, what difference does it make. I don’t include JUCO, as I can’t remember the last time we brought a JUCO in. What I find interesting is that if you glance at the players our assistant coaches are following in their respective twitter accounts, there’s a lot of foreign big men, which I assume is because foreign players are not allowed, under U.S. immigration law, to partake in NIL.

So, not all 1,700 + are leaving D1 schools, as there are probably hundreds from d2 & NAIA. But let’s say 1,100 or so are D1, which would be basically 25% of all D1 players being in the portal. Really more, if you factor in that some of those 4,563 have exhausted their eligibility and can’t come back next season

There simply aren’t enough D1 teams to soak up 1,700+ transfers, at least I don’t think. I mean that would come out to an average of what, each D1 team picking up 5 transfers. I guess some will go D2; some will scramble back to their original school. We all hear about the players who transfer to other D1 teams, but I wonder what happens to the ones who are left looking for a dance partner when the music stops?

Without naming names (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve already mentioned) we have, in my estimation, 5 players who either aren’t D1 caliber, or are barely (low level) D1. So, don’t include me in the camp that is satisfied that we’re “running it back “ with the same crew as last season. Change may be unpleasant in many cases, but is often necessary. If we remain stagnant, the risk of falling behind may increase, perhaps significantly.

Well, reading between the lines suggests that the only other possible departures would be J. Cole and/or C. Paar. If neither departs, the roster is set. If 1 or both depart, we’ll be dipping our toes in the portal pool

Marcus, we hardly knew ya, but we’ll always have Montreal. Vaya con dios

So interestingly enough, I read that the ban on NIL for foreign players isn’t actually an NCAA thing, but rather such payments are banned under U.S. law

Let’s face it, the college basketball & football most of us grew up watching, no longer exists, having been replaced by a system fueled by $, feeding the mercenaries who jump from school-to-school in search of the biggest paycheck. Programs like ours have been reduced to a hand-to-mouth existence, where maybe, just maybe, we can catch lightning in a bottle and bring in a freshman or two, who can make us competitive, that is until they kick us aside in the never ending hunt for bigger bucks. Absent some well heeled donors (I guess anything’s possible, but good luck with that) we’ll be scouring the bargain bin when it comes to the transfer portal. It up to each of you to decide what you think of this brave new world. As for me, it’s an abomination

Unless/until C of C leaves the conference, we will forever be stuck on a treadmill chasing & not catching them. And for those wishing that Kelsey’s departure would help even things out, that’s a fantasy. Doesn’t matter who their coach is, they’ll just dip into the deep reservoir of their NIL coffers and get pulls like this. Reload not rebuild. And this has nothing to do with Skerry. Even if he’s gone in the next 50 years or so, we will perpetually be shopping at KMart (if we’re shopping at all) while C of C will be browsing the shelves at Saks and Neiman Marcus. But at least we’re running it back with the same roster 🥹

If Embeya struggles, as freshman sometimes do, or if he gets in foul trouble, that leaves Paar having to possibly play significant minutes. Let’s see a show of hands of everyone who’s good with that. There can be no question that there are plenty of bigs in the portal better than Paar. And I’m not talking D1 pie in the sky guys we have no shot at. I’m taking run of the mill D1 guys, D2 guys, NAIA and/or JUCOS. You cannot tell me that out of those categories that we are unable to upgrade over what we currently have