Transfer Watch - 2022

[billiken_roy]

26 minutes ago, CBFan said:

I am hoping Kellen Thames can come in and contribute more than Nesbitt did this season.  If I am wrong about this I am interested in what the knowledgeable posters think about Thames abilities playing his freshman year.

i will be surprised if Thames contributes more than Nesbitt.   all i expect from Thames is a serviceable replacement for jones imo.   hope i am wrong and is a ready combo guard.  but i believe he is not as athletic and not as good of an all around talent that Nesbitt is.   If anyone coming in at this point (remember a lot of spots to fill yet, who knows what the free agent portal brings in) is the Nesbitt replacement it's parker imo.  

[3star_recruit]

47 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I done know squat about Thames. Obviously he hasn’t got all the hype that JNez was getting. But some will likely bring up the star ratings. JNez was a 4 and Thames a 2(?). But these ratings don’t really tell the whole story. Look at St Peters. Supposedly with no ranked players they get to the elite 8. We have to trust that our staff gave him a scholy because they believe he is a D1  player. 

Falling into roster spots 10-13 just means there are better players ahead of you.  It doesn't preclude you from being a D1 player.  Linssen was low man on the totem ball at his original school but by the time he transferred here he was a solid  D1 player.  Phillip Russell could't get off the bench here but he has proved at SEMO that he is a solid D1 player.

[Taj79]

I too have not seen Thames play BUT if he is indeed a point guard then I would expect him to get the secondary minutes behind Collins as we begin the transition to a Collins-less roster.  This is what sustainability is all about.  Grooming the guys who are expected to carry the load as their sophomore/junior/senior seasons unfold.  Freshmen don't normally get the keys to drive the car.

I understand the hesitation of laying such responsibility on a freshman however they have to learn sometime.  And we are not talking about 10 or 20 minutes a game.  Not unless he performs and/or Collins is missing (injury, blowout bench time, etc.).  Dayton ran on Malachi Smith ONLY this year.  You saw what happened when he went down second half against Richmond.  Ditto us with no Yuri against Northern Iowa.  Jones proved he was not a viable option at the point and we were damn lucky to get through the year with depending on him for only one game.  Otherwise, that would have been the real disaster.  

Now, if Thames is not a true point, then by all means get a one-and-doner, portal rental all you want to back up Collins.  Yuri's graduation is no time to start looking for his replacement and looking for such a replacement should not reflect badly on Yuri nor the coaching staff.  Ideally, you get that replacement on the roster in the leader's junior year.  Year One to watch; Year Two to get some actual, teachable moments.  Year Three it's his team as the senior PG is now a graduate.  To me, if Thames does not project as this guy, then the scholarship is wasted because that guy heads into the glut of 2/3s in Parker, Kramer, Jimerson, Thatch, Hargrove and Nesbitt (should he return).  Plus, you've lost one year in a two-year learning process.

All that may be old school conventional thinking.  Maybe Zyree Collins is the supposed answer but he is a 2025 recruit.  Big brother should be gone by 2024 so there will be a gap and then you're back to the freshman question of starting.  Thames would be three years ahead so even then, while missing one year, the transition and sustainability is doable.  If you get Zyree.

[brianstl]

He will probably end up at Kentucky or something like that if he doesn't go pro, but Johni Broome has entered the transfer portal after previously declaring for the draft.

[SLURadioBoy]

 

[laker119]

10 minutes ago, SLURadioBoy said:

 

Sign me up for him as a #2 center

[Pistol]

4 hours ago, brianstl said:

He will probably end up at Kentucky or something like that if he doesn't go pro, but Johni Broome has entered the transfer portal after previously declaring for the draft.

 

[HoosierPal]

9 minutes ago, laker119 said:

Sign me up for him as a #2 center

Aim higher.  I want someone to push Okoro, or he can be the new guy's backup.  Recruit over what you got.

[billiken_roy]

i'd be shocked if bradford is going anywhere where he isnt assuming the man in the middle.   so if he comes here, he's been told at worst he has a good shot to be the center if not promised he will be the center.   i.e. i doubt he is going to be a billiken.

[Bilzz]

2 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i'd be shocked if bradford is going anywhere where he isnt assuming the man in the middle.   so if he comes here, he's been told at worst he has a good shot to be the center if not promised he will be the center.   i.e. i doubt he is going to be a billiken.

If Ford can lure him to SLU, I'd love to see them incorporate some two big rotations. Both Bradford and Okoro are capable bigs who could feed off each other.

[3star_recruit]

3 minutes ago, Bilzz said:

If Ford can lure him to SLU, I'd love to see them incorporate some two big rotations. Both Bradford and Okoro are capable bigs who could feed off each other.

If you are going to have success playing two bigs, at least one of them has to be a good passer.  Bradford is an even worse passer than Okoro is.

[HoosierPal]

9 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

If you are going to have success playing two bigs, at least one of them has to be a good passer.  Bradford is an even worse passer than Okoro is.

If you have two bigs on the floor, one of them better have range 15 feet out to the arc.  Bradford 0-0 and Okoro 0-0 last season from the arc.

[brianstl]

26 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Aim higher.  I want someone to push Okoro, or he can be the new guy's backup.  Recruit over what you got.

It is next to impossible to recruit over Okoro with a transfer.  I don't know what people expect from Okoro, but he was the best big man in the conference last season.  He led the conference in offensive rebounding, was second in the conference in total rebounds, was second in the conference in FG%, was third in the conference in player efficiency rating, was second in rebound percentage, first in offensive rebound percentage, was second in offensive rating and led the conference in win share per 40 minutes.  

[thetorch]

I can't see Bradford and Okoro playing together.  Seems like a mismatch.  Much rather have Williams.

[ACE]

The sales pitch to Bradford is simple - Okoro played 24 mpg last year, so Bradford could get about 16 mpg (he got 14 mpg last year), playing in his hometown, for a team that has a better chance to Dance than the team he played for this past season - and get to play with the guy who led the country in assists (opportunity for easy scoring opportunities).

Then after Okoro graduates, an opportunity for him to step in for a couple of seasons and get 24 mpg. If that doesn't appeal to him, then you move on, but I definitely see a scenario where there could be some mutual interest.

 

[CBFan]

4 minutes ago, ACE said:

The sales pitch to Bradford is simple - Okoro played 24 mpg last year, so Bradford could get about 16 mpg (he got 14 mpg last year), playing in his hometown, for a team that has a better chance to Dance than the team he played for this past season - and get to play with the guy who led the country in assists (opportunity for easy scoring opportunities).

Then after Okoro graduates, an opportunity for him to step in for a couple of seasons and get 24 mpg. If that doesn't appeal to him, then you move on, but I definitely see a scenario where there could be some mutual interest.

 

I agree, that is exactly the way I feel.

With Okoro being a Senior and the only big there will be a lot of playing time in front of his family unless a better big is signed.

[wgstl]

55 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i'd be shocked if bradford is going anywhere where he isnt assuming the man in the middle.   so if he comes here, he's been told at worst he has a good shot to be the center if not promised he will be the center.   i.e. i doubt he is going to be a billiken.

Bradford would have to transfer to an average mid major or worse to expect starter min. 

[HoosierPal]

15 hours ago, brianstl said:

It is next to impossible to recruit over Okoro with a transfer.  I don't know what people expect from Okoro, but he was the best big man in the conference last season.  He led the conference in offensive rebounding, was second in the conference in total rebounds, was second in the conference in FG%, was third in the conference in player efficiency rating, was second in rebound percentage, first in offensive rebound percentage, was second in offensive rating and led the conference in win share per 40 minutes.  

Aim higher.  We had a 5th place roster.  I'm not satisfied with that.  Were you? 

Recruit over everyone we have.  I'm not content with an NIT roster, one that got bounced out of the NIT in round 1 on it's home court. Were you?

No excuses.

And I guess you missed it but Davidson's big Luka Brajkovic was A10 Player of the Year.

[ACE]

30 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Aim higher.  We had a 5th place roster.  I'm not satisfied with that.  Were you? 

Recruit over everyone we have.  I'm not content with an NIT roster, one that got bounced out of the NIT in round 1 on it's home court. Were you?

No excuses.

I agree you should always be looking to upgrade your roster even if that means recruiting over players, but I believe we didn't enter the season with a 5th place roster, it was a Tournament caliber roster. It became a 5th place roster when the strong conference POY candidate went down for the season in the first exhibition game. I'm not sure what people expected out of the team after that. I think expecting a trip to the Dance would have been an unrealistic expectation.

[Taj79]

IMHO we were a Dance team with Perkins.  Without Perkins, we dropped to an NIT-hopeful  level and that would only be achieved if people stepped up and overachieved.  And we got that ===== Jimerson overachieved.  Collins overachieved.  Okoro overachieved.  And Thatch overachieved.  Nesbitt did less than promised/expected.  And I personally thought Hargrove was vastly inefficient and regressed.  So with four overachievers, we got past our level of expectation sans Perkins and did very well.  A 23-win season,  Guys developing.  All in all, I say it was a successful year.

Am I satified?  Hell no.  But right now, with the five coming back plus Perkins, we are still an NIT-level team.  That can only go up if the recruits are positives and the transfer portal is positive.  Positive hits there push up back up to Dance level.  

[slu72]

We are really pretty thin at this point. 6 core players and 3 question marks. An injury to any of the 6 means a disaster. Plus, how soon Perkins comes back in form is a big ? mark. We need to complete the roster with some experienced D1 players. We need to fill those spots with 4 Linssen/ Jones types. Four guys who could us a solid 10 minutes a game when called upon. Parker sounds like he’ll contribute but how soon is a big ? mark. Point being Travis has his work cut out for him. 

[AnkielBreakers]

4 minutes ago, slu72 said:

We are really pretty thin at this point. 6 core players and 3 question marks. An injury to any of the 6 means a disaster. Plus, how soon Perkins comes back in form is a big ? mark. We need to complete the roster with some experienced D1 players. We need to fill those spots with 4 Linssen/ Jones types. Four guys who could us a solid 10 minutes a game when called upon. Parker sounds like he’ll contribute but how soon is a big ? mark. Point being Travis has his work cut out for him. 

You make a great point, but I think we need 2 players. The rest can be practice players or freshman. We only really play 8 players, hard to change that tendency.

[3star_recruit]

49 minutes ago, AnkielBreakers said:

You make a great point, but I think we need 2 players. The rest can be practice players or freshman. We only really play 8 players, hard to change that tendency.

Knowing who your top 6 guys are and having a top 10 juco player already signed takes some pressure off the coaching staff, IMO.  Finding guys in the portal to play 10-15 min a game isn't hard to do.  There are lots of solid players on bad to mediocre teams that are looking to move up.  It's landing the portal guys with high major options that is hard.

[A10Ref]

If we get Davion Bradford and Eric Williams, our team would be absurd. All that’s left is a backup PG and we’re top 10-15. If we get just one of those guys, a serviceable backup 3-5, and a PG, we’re top 25.

It’s going to be a wild few weeks post final four. Buckle up. 

[wgstl]

13 minutes ago, A10Ref said:

If we get Davion Bradford and Eric Williams, our team would be absurd. All that’s left is a backup PG and we’re top 10-15. If we get just one of those guys, a serviceable backup 3-5, and a PG, we’re top 25.

It’s going to be a wild few weeks post final four. Buckle up. 

We’re prob top 15 with just Williams