TSU88

As a follow up to my previous post, the MBB portal closes on 4/22. So, absent an affirmative declaration prior to 4/22, one way or the other, we may have to sweat it out for as long as 1 month

With very limited exceptions (grad students and where the school is changing coaches) the portal does not open until 3/24, which is this coming Monday

My guess is money can be banked. Assuming he’s not getting an extension (I have no inside information, but my guess is he will-it’s just a question of how long of one) the pressure will be enormous on Skerry to spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave, if TT & DWill both fly the coop. I mean, can you imagine next season, without those 2 guys, and without a major influx of talent via the portal? We would without any shadow of a doubt be the worst team in the conference

Floodgates are opening. Here’s the bottom line-college basketball is now a year-to-year exercise. For the well heeled schools, it doesn’t matter so much, as they can go out and buy a whole new batch of Hessians every off-season. But for the TU’s of the world, it’s a much more bleak outlook. Recruit guys out of HS who excel and you’re going to lose them after 1 season, 2 at the most. And good luck backfilling those players in the portal, as having champagne tastes on a beer budget ain’t going to cut it. It must be emotionally exhausting for coaches to have to deal with this every off-season. I bet there are coaches at our level who grovel to these kids coming out of HS by begging them to come to their school and use the school as a springboard to a lucrative payday when they transfer

Oh I’m sure they can dip their toes in, but decide to stay. Do you realistically think that will happen though? I guess maybe if we can make DWill a competitive offer

The above post was meant as a reply to 2012’s post about a source saying TT & DWill will be entering the portal. I clicked the wrong post to quote

This ain’t the Hotel California, where you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. If they check out (enter the portal) they’re all but gone, if it boils down to who can pay them the most. Of course, it might not strictly be a question of who’s the highest bidder, as intangibles do sometimes play a role. That actually got me to thinking…other coaches will probably tell them that if they come to their school that they might actually, you know, have a real chance of making the NCAA tournament

Right, so if it’s not announced, I guess I’m wondering how would disaffected donors even know?

As we turn our focus to next season, I agree with your premise that Tejada is gone. If so, the pressure to keep DWill will be enormous. If he also leaves, that means our leading returning scorer will be May, and I needn’t elaborate on how problematic that would be. If DWill returns, I still think we have to get a scorer from the portal to compliment him. Question is, will we have enough money left to do so, after paying DWill. The nightmare scenario is that both Tejada and DWill leave. In that case, Skerry will have to hit 2 HR’s in the portal in order to replace the departure of 32 ppg

This assumes that any such extension is announced to the media, rather than trying to keep it on the down low

My guess…of the 15 CAA players comprising 1st, 2nd and 3rd team all-conference no more than 5, at the most (maybe as few as 2-3) will be back in the conference this fall, due to either having exhausted their eligibility or because of going the free agency route

You’re right, but at least we might have a puncher’s chance in another conference. As it stands now, we have as much chance in the CAA of getting to the dance as a moose does of squeezing into a phone booth

Here, here. I have little appetite for being the perennial punching bag for C of C and UNCW, as it relates to NIL. While this has nothing to do with last night’s fiasco, in the long term what are our chances of beating them in the conference tournament, if we can’t even beat a 12 seed?

I find myself in agreement with you about perhaps getting out of the CAA. I just responded in another thread that if our fate is to perpetually be the Kansas City A’s, to the NYY and L.A. Dodgers (aka C of C and UNCW) let’s get out and go to a conference where we can be on a more level playing field when it comes to NIL. Besides, any other D1 league we would go to would have the pathway (1 bid) to the big dance as the CAA, so it’s not like we’d be jeopardizing our chances to go dancing, but instead might be increasing our chances

Hate to say it, but I agree. If we’re doomed to forever being the Kansas City A’s (old school reference, but I think everyone gets it) to the NYY and L.A. Dodgers (C of C and UNCW) let’s get out and move to another conference where we can be competitive in NIL. I mean, why not? The conference we would move to would have the same number of bids (1) to the tournament as the CAA. And I also agree that even with the NIL discrepancy, that was a complete non-factor last night. And what about all the pre-NIL seasons where we failed to even make it to the conference championship game? The “he pulled us from the abyss” mentality cannot exist in perpetuity. No, it’s time for new direction, plain and simple