3star_recruit

I have. A handful of mid-majors have struck gold. Everybody else has been struggling in vain. Now we've finally reached the point where the big boys officially kick us out of the club.

Memphis has a football team. I agree that all the football teams are in the nil race. I don't agree that everybody else should be.

I'd estimate that less than 10% of D1 programs are defined by the greatness of their sports teams. So that 10% should define how the other 90% operate?

I stated elsewhere that hiring Corey Tate was the best decision Coach Ford made during his tenure. Tate has good relationships with the top local high school players and top juco players in the region. I'm pleased that Coach Schertz recognized his value and retained him.

It could certainly work out like that. Yuri's passing ability was so elite, it was kind of hard to overlook. With Zyree it's his scoring ability that's elite and college coaches are afraid it may not translate given his size and good, but not great, athletic ability. If most of that scoring does translate, Zyree would definitely be the more well-rounded point guard. His passing isn't Yuri-level but it's a cut above anybody else in the local 2025 class.

Zyree is an example of a high school player who will not get as much attention as he would have prior to the portal era. He's a 6 foot combo guard who can score in a variety of ways. He has good athleticism but since he plays at his own pace it's hard to assess it. That's the kind of player that will be prioritized by some MVC team while higher level programs take a wait and see approach. If he becomes a star they can always grab him in the portal. If he doesn't then, they've lost nothing. Luke Walsh is in the same boat. He's a little bigger, a little better shooter but not as polished a ball handler or passer as Zyree.

Our leading scorer this year, a Coach Tate recruit, is in the portal and is receiving high major interest. C'mon now. I know some people need to burn the Coach Ford era to the ground for closure but hiring Coach Tate was probably the best decision of his tenure. In any case, Coach Schertz has already had success recruiting the Midwest. I have no doubt that he will bring in local players from time to time as he develops relationships in the area.

Three of those four players played immediately. And Tate got more than high school players, he got high scoring jucos as well. Tate did the best job of anybody on the staff at recruiting. But Coach Schertz has his own guys. Which is absolutely understandable.

Try 20K. From what I've read, NIL doesn't operate on a continuum. The stars and 4 star recruits make $100K and up. The bench players, especially at the mid-major level, get peanuts.

I think it's intentional. The P5 boosters are trying to price everybody else out of the market.

If you have a player that makes everybody else better, you should build the team offense around that player. Schertz has been doing that ever since he was in Division 2. Most coaches are not flexible enough to pull that off. So I agree, a player like Avila looks like a superstar in one kind of offense and a role player in another.

The young fans who will experience all the winning over the next 3-5 years won't even know what we're talking about.

If Chris May sticks around, new SLU fans will know him as the AD in Golden age of SLU sports, where all the major sports teams were winning. Meanwhile in MBM land we will still be talking about his social media failures and overpaying Travis Ford. We will become the grumpy old men. It is our destiny.

McCottry is 6-5, a good passer, can create his own shot, is an above average rebounder and an active defender. At worst, he's an asset on the scout team.

Coach Schertz's team just finished runner-up in the NIT. They were the number one seed. If four starters end up in Billiken uniforms, that's something like 80% of the scoring returning. Add Jimerson or a significant portal player and that roster is even more talented than the one Coach Schertz had at ISU. We will have more "knowns" than just about any mid-major in the country. You've seen enough previews to know that translates into a preseason top 25 ranking. This is the toughest position there is in coaching. To win when everybody expects you to.

"You can be demanding without being demeaning." I understand Schertz has great respect for Majerus's basketball mind but he has a very different outlook on how to get the most out of players. It more closely aligns with my own point of view.

nm

I've been saying that for years. We've got about 30 years of evidence that demonstrates the old boy network runs the show regardless of who the AD is.

The situation where the P6 has everybody beat is the post-grad market. If a player has already graduated from a mid-major school I don't think it's fair to expect him to come back when he has much better options.

You would expect more lateral transfers than anything else. There are lot more teams outside of the P6 than there are inside of it. However, don't you think it's strange that folks hyper-focus on the starters who transfer up but ignore the guys who transfer down and put up numbers right away? If the lowly Billikens had such a player, then I can think you can safely assume every team in the conference has at least one. I pointed out the all-conference players because those are the ones that most people are interested in.

Ezewiro, a guy who couldn't get off the bench for a bad P6 team, averaged 12 and 6 for an equally bad Billikens team. This isn't a sexy example, but it's fairly typical. The co-player of the year in the A10 is Richmond's Jordan King, an all-conference player who transferred from another mid-major. Same with second-teamer Keyshawn Hall from George Mason. That's also fairly typical. Matt Cross was a role player at his previous P6 stops. He was a first-teamer at UMass. Nate Santos couldn't get off the bench at Pitt. He was a second-teamer at Dayton. And so on.

The first players to enter the portal are usually the ones who are transferring up. That only makes sense. They want the bidding war to start as soon as possible. Some guys who are getting booted to make room for the new guys haven't been booted yet. And some of those unwanted players will go on to be starters or even all-conference players at their new destination. Happens in the A-10 every year. Once the high majors decided to drop good mid-majors from their non-conference schedules, they effectively locked mid-majors out of the at-large discussion.

So he's a lifelong criminal for basically doing what blue blood college basketball programs have done for decades but at a much smaller scale. And he's a criminal to this day at 75 years old but he has a sweetheart deal with the Feds to keep him out jail. Got it.

They certainly live a modest lifestyle considering they are crime kingpins. I don't think the average De Smet graduate would trade places with them.

Charleston is very fortunate to be a 1 hr flight away from Mack's new base of operations in Florida. He's at the point of his career where he never has to move again. He can just take the highest paying nearby job.