Zink

Seems very similar to Nitu. Wonder if Schertz wants both or if Nitu will be going elsewhere.

Yeah, agree. Just saying that the inverse (NCAA respecting Federal laws) has decidedly not always been the case.

Yeah, just saying that it seems like NCAA and the US Govt are aligned on this. I could have seen the NCAA trying to call NIL a form of work-study or stipend or something if they wanted to try to get away with it, like they did with “amateurism” for decades. Instead, it looks like everyone is ok with not paying student visa holders (for now).

Quick note/thought on the NIL/recruiting situation. At present, I believe international players here on student visas are unable to be paid using NIL. At least in an above board manner. Wonder if that will become a common way to round out rosters, and keep a supply of “free” labor available… several of these latest rumors involve international students, so wondering if that will be a way to funnel higher amounts to a smaller portion of the roster. Also feel like this will be the hot new NCAA violation, but unlike with some of the older ones the courts will probably be on the side of the NCAA.

Random Note - the recruits listed above (Nitu, Alderink, Birmingham, and Williford) are all lefties... unless every piece of film on each of them is mirrored or something...

Yeah, this roughly aligns to Box Plus/Minus on cbref.com; basically, how far above or below average were you on offense and defense in your minutes. Pretty solid advanced metric to use to evaluate players. Definitely seems like advance stats show Swope as the lowest rated Sycamore starter, with Avila>Conwell>Kent>Larry. Swope is rated similarly to Hargrove.

Gotta disagree. Not having the ability to distinguish between rec vs competitive sports is immature. No need to be an @ss when you could just play hard. Plenty of the world’s greatest athletes were also noted for their sportsmanship. We like to highlight the “edge” that guys like MJ and Kobe had, but for everyone like that there is a Messi or Russell. You don’t have to be mean or condescending to be a great athlete. And I say this only because you threw some unnecessary ad hominem shade, but a) we beat the faculty team (including her, Tony Young, and some tall prof who played D1 with a name I can’t remember) pretty handily that year and b) I was a starter for our club soccer team at SLU and played soccer and baseball at a pretty high level in HS (idk what you consider competitive sports, so laying it on the table).

Played against Shimmy in a Students vs Faculty charity game, and she was… not nice. Bizarrely chewed out a men’s player (Dwayne Evans, I think) while he was reffing. And was trying to talk trash all game, it was really weird.

Thames, Ezewiro, and Parker are the only players this year that played >200min with a positive BPM that are eligible to return. Jimerson has exceeded this threshold every year in the past and barely missed this year, so he gets a pass. Curcic managed 0.4 while playing 178min, and Hargrove won’t be coming back. That’s our core and who I hope any new coach tries to retain. Agree that some others on the roster can develop and contribute down the road, but that’s where we are right now. Four above average returning players based on past performance.

I don’t know if this even qualifies as news anymore, but a former member of the program (won’t say in what capacity) shared with a friend that Ford has been told he won’t be returning.

This was his combined; -1.0 on offense, +2.3 on defense

Hasahn was at 2.3 his frosh year. Check stats here: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/hasahn-french-1.html

He had a 2.2 defensive box +/- (DBPM), which is quite good... his DRating was less impressive, but that is a bit more of a team stat. For context, Goodwin's freshman year DBPM was 3.2 - Fred's this year was 3.1. Goodwin's worst (Junior) season had him at 2.4...

I mean, we’re a better team with Yuri than without. Open arms on my end.

Appreciate these explanations, definitely a bit less worried than I was