Yuri Collins to.....Grad Transfer

[Bay Area Billiken]

38 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

my statement doesnt proclaim draymond green was the end all.   in fact i started my reply with "even draymond green......"    ie. unspoken the worst teammate and shooter of your example was better than collins.  

Green’s training camp incident with Poole destroyed GSW chemistry, per both Green and Coach Steve Kerr. We’ll see if Green is a Warrior next season. 
 

So no, an easy no, Draymond Green was not a better teammate than the National Assists Leader, who averaged 10.1 assists per game, at SLU. 
 

 

[dlarry]

12 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

even draymond is a better shooter and teamate than collins was.  

Come on man. Your irrational hatred of Collins is really showing. 
I had many complaints about Collins during the season but we have no reason to believe he was a bad teammate.

I can’t blame a 20 year old for looking into getting a 6 figure payday for doing the exact same thing he was doing for free before hand.

The guy set the all time assist record, was a model citizen, and graduated. 

These were traits you use to hold in high regard. 

And Draymond is an a-hole. Something Collins is not.

[TheA_Bomb]

You guys are going to have to get used to top players (even not top players) hinting at leaving every year to get paid.  NCAA  basketball/NIL has no rules and 18-23 year olds ,who maybe influenced by hangers-on that are mostly interested in making money off someone else's talent.  It is a cocktail for messiness.  Just accept it.  Don't hate the player, hate the game.

I blame the coach for the results and the team not Yuri.  Without cheering for Yuri to move up the all time assists list and the hype he got we wouldn't have had much to cheer for last season.

[davidnark]

It is possible that Yuri is a supremely gifted point guard and last year's team struggled with him running the show. I am ready to move on from Yuri. I wish him the best. I would like to see an offense with good movement on and off the ball. I was so tired of watching Yuri go possession after possession forcing pick and rolls to get his own shot while two of the best shooters in the conference sat open on the wings watching. It was insanity.  

[dlarry]

1 hour ago, davidnark said:

It is possible that Yuri is a supremely gifted point guard and last year's team struggled with him running the show. I am ready to move on from Yuri. I wish him the best. I would like to see an offense with good movement on and off the ball. I was so tired of watching Yuri go possession after possession forcing pick and rolls to get his own shot while two of the best shooters in the conference sat open on the wings watching. It was insanity.  

I can get behind this.

What I don’t like is baseless claims that he was a bad teammate.

 

[billikenfan05]

2 hours ago, dlarry said:

I can get behind this.

What I don’t like is baseless claims that he was a bad teammate.

 

Yeah, for as much as I am not happy with the Yuri saga. The only thing I can say in the way of being a bad teammate is his entering the portal the first time. Everyone on that team knows the offense is going to revolve around you, you’re putting your team in an insane spot by leaving. 

[dlarry]

14 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Yeah, for as much as I am not happy with the Yuri saga. The only thing I can say in the way of being a bad teammate is his entering the portal the first time. Everyone on that team knows the offense is going to revolve around you, you’re putting your team in an insane spot by leaving. 

I can see that but it was also a common sense decision at the time.

Play for the Billikens for free 

Play for Tennessee for a reported 6 figures.

I put more blame on the Athletic department than Yuri. They should have had a plan to keep him before the offers came in. 
 

When things became closer to equal he remained loyal. 

[Lord Elrond]

Another way to look at this is that a college athlete who accepts a NIL deal, or who wants to get a NIL deal is a professional athlete.  Professional athletes leave teams all the time to get paid more, or to negotiate a better deal where they are at. That’s all Yuri did last year, and that’s what he’s doing now, trying to get the best deal for himself that he can. It may turn out that the best deal for him is a NIL deal with another college team rather than be undrafted by the NBA and trying to go through the G league, or playing overseas. When he is no longer eligible to play at the college level, he will have other choices to make next year. Or if he can’t get a big NIL deal, he might see what happens in the NBA draft, or what offers he gets to play overseas.  It’s just business.  Welcome to the new college world.

[Taj79]

Never once have I entertained the thought that Yuri was a bad teammate.  I wasn't in the locker room, in practices, on team trips, in dorm rooms.  I did think Yuri used last season to advance his lagging professional career.  Y'know .... prove that he could shoot (which he can't - not at an NBA level).  I thought the OOC season he used that pretty well to plus those assist stats up.  And I admit I liked it.  But I thought he also wanted to advance his game-deciding rep, which he did not.  Other point guards saw him coming and used him as motivation --- Noah Fernandes, Ace Baldwin, Malachi Smith, the kid at Iona, just to name a few.  This decisively proves to me that Ford needed another point guard but could secure none because even if he did, the guy wasn't playing while Yuri did ---- at 39+ mpg.  

And I believe that was more on game plan design and execution mapped out by Travis Ford.  Ford had to go through Yuri to get the desired results.  Or so he thought (not that I'd argue that).  And Yuri had to use Ford's long leash to again advance the professional career aspirations.  In both cases, I think even the Wiz would give an F grade.  

If Yuri came back for another year, I would enjoy watching him chase Bobby Hurley's all-time assist record.  I would not enter into the season with any greater expectations of the overall team.  Dalger, EkieBeekie, Zhang and van Brusselsprout are not Okoro, Perkins, Pickett and Thatch.  

[thatskablamo]

3 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Dalger, EkieBeekie, Zhang and van Brusselsprout are not Okoro, Perkins, Pickett and Thatch.  

That is the best nickname ever. My imaginary cap is being doffed in your direction, sir. How do we make that a thing moving forward? 

[Taj79]

Credit to billiken_roy

[Soderball]

On 5/20/2023 at 5:31 PM, Bay Area Billiken said:

However, in conference season, there was too much of the annual reversion into playing the East Coast Bus League’s half court chess matches. 
 

Run, play up tempo, don’t just engage in the annual talk, rather, let’s see action, do it. Dictate terms to the opponents, not the other way around. Overall in the A10 SLU usually has the better players. Let them play ball.

You seriously think Perkins and Jimerson, our best offensive players, excelled in an up-tempo run game? What team were you watching? Jimerson is a Princeton special and Perkins needed a set of crutches.

 

I'll elaborate: last year's team strengths were our shooting and rebounding. We had a couple of tall, elite-level percentage shooters and could often outsize inferior low tier opponents under the basket. We got exposed every time we ran into teams that could match us in size and best us in speed.

[billikenfan05]

12 hours ago, dlarry said:

I can see that but it was also a common sense decision at the time.

Play for the Billikens for free 

Play for Tennessee for a reported 6 figures.

I put more blame on the Athletic department than Yuri. They should have had a plan to keep him before the offers came in. 
 

When things became closer to equal he remained loyal. 

Preface: I hate the idea that Yuri was playing for nothing, considering most kids would kill to have their college paid for. But here's the thing, if he entered the portal after being "offered 6 figs". That's tampering and it feels like something you should bring to your coach. By all accounts Ford was blindsided by his entry. From there, Travis would have had two choices IMO: find someone to match it, or call Tennessee on their bullsh*t and report the tampering...

[HoosierPal]

All individual records are 'nice'.  This counts a lot more.

[wgstl]

31 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

All individual records are 'nice'.  This counts a lot more.

Ast records>

[RUBillsFan]

Dropping my post from 3/31 here because nothing has changed:

https://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?/topic/31201-gibson-jimerson-returning/&do=findComment&comment=754861

[dlarry]

9 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Preface: I hate the idea that Yuri was playing for nothing, considering most kids would kill to have their college paid for. But here's the thing, if he entered the portal after being "offered 6 figs". That's tampering and it feels like something you should bring to your coach. By all accounts Ford was blindsided by his entry. From there, Travis would have had two choices IMO: find someone to match it, or call Tennessee on their bullsh*t and report the tampering...

I don’t disagree with any of that.

It was just a wild time in NIL that wasn’t handled very well by anybody. It was new and people weren’t exactly sure about the rules.

That said I am positive Tennessee was tampering and I’m pretty sure they knew and didn’t care.

[Lord Elrond]

10 minutes ago, dlarry said:

I don’t disagree with any of that.

It was just a wild time in NIL that wasn’t handled very well by anybody. It was new and people weren’t exactly sure about the rules.

That said I am positive Tennessee was tampering and I’m pretty sure the knew and didn’t care.

Something killed the Tennessee deal, Yuri did play here last year instead of Knoxville

[The Valley Sucks]

On 5/20/2023 at 8:04 PM, Bay Area Billiken said:

Please. Yuri was First Team All-Conference and the National Assists Leader. 

He also lead the conference in turnovers the past 2 seasons. 

[ACE]

9 minutes ago, The Valley Sucks said:

He also lead the conference in turnovers the past 2 seasons. 

A/TO rate is a good measure. Yuri was 18th in the country. 

And in fairness, he didn't exactly have a lot of help with other ballhandlers on the team. Opposing defenses could swarm him. A lot of it was a problem of roster construction, and that was not Yuri's fault.

Kwamain, for example, who I'm a huge fan of - always had the benefit of playing alongside at least one or two other good ballhandler/distrubutors - Jett, McCall, even Cassity.

Looking ahead to this year, I sure hope Ford adds another reliable experienced ballhandler to help out young Mr. Medley or it could get ugly.

[dlarry]

3 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

Something killed the Tennessee deal, Yuri did play here last year instead of Knoxville

I don’t have any inside info but I always believed the Bills matched the Tennessee offer or at least got close and that’s why he stayed.  

[Lord Elrond]

42 minutes ago, dlarry said:

I don’t have any inside info but I always believed the Bills matched the Tennessee offer or at least got close and that’s why he stayed.  

That’s what I assume too, one professional team matched the deal of another for a one year deal on an athletes services.

[Gremio14]

Come on….Ramey stating he was a lock to play for SLU if he was guaranteed a starting PG position is what put a stop to all the UT nonsense.  Eliminated all the leverage.  

[Coach314]

4 minutes ago, Gremio14 said:

Come on….Ramey stating he was a lock to play for SLU if he was guaranteed a starting PG position is what put a stop to all the UT nonsense.  Eliminated all the leverage.  

Huh?

[thetorch]

None of this happened.

Do you think Yuri really was offered the reported 250k?

Then we matched it?

Then we decide to let him go this season instead of just paying him again.  

We threw around a quarter of a million dollars last year and this year Ford says we don't have even 6 figures to give a recruit?

the Tenn offer was real, but a fraction of the reported dollars were guaranteed.  Yuri entered the portal to get more offers.  He rightfully got raked over the coals locally for it.  His family didn't like it.  Decided to come back for a few guaranteed dollars.  He barely made more than his scholarship was worth.