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2019-20 Transfer Portal (NCAA Basketball)

Consigliere said:
Where have you been? When was the last time we came close to using all of our scholarships? We need more talent and we don't use our scholarships. Seems like this selective stuff is utter bullchit.

I am not suggesting we take cancers but this stuff about being selective is bullchit when our track record in roster management is "sub-par".
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I understand what you mean. You and I agree that Miami needs to fill those last two scholarships.
When I say selective, I mean at this point since they have struck out on three transfers, the strategy should be to focus on prep players from the 2021 class who reclassify to the 2020 class. Of course, if a good transfer enters the portal then they should pursue.
I don't think they are interested in grad transfers and I don't think a sit one, play one player is much help.
Being selective has more to do with strategy toward the use of the scholarships instead of not using the scholarships at all.
 
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Da_Lucky_One said:
I understand what you mean. You and I agree that Miami needs to fill those last two scholarships.
When I say selective, I mean at this point since they have struck out on three transfers, the strategy should be to focus on prep players from the 2021 class who reclassify to the 2020 class.
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I don't care where they come from. I don't care if they're reclassifying or transfers etc. Just use our scholarships. We consistently fail to use our ships so perhaps instead of being "selective" we should be more "aggressive".

Da_Lucky_One said:
Being selective has more to do with strategy toward the use of the scholarships instead of not using the scholarships at all.
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Strategy? We consistently don't use all our scholarships. In fact, we struggle to use more than 11. We need to be more "aggressive". Much more "aggressive".
 




Out of all places, Lubbock, Texas has becomes a destination location for college basketball players.
It is all about the coaching staff and their desire to use every scholarship.
 
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Some fans want an immediate upgrade over Miller and Brooks. I am not sure Coach L will put player loyalty to the side to satisfy that request.
 
Da_Lucky_One said:


Some fans want an immediate upgrade over Miller and Brooks. I am not sure Coach L will put player loyalty to the side to satisfy that request.
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Dude your schtick is tired. These threads are literally pages and pages of you talking to yourself, posting meaningless tweets/complaining about players who choose one of the other ~350 division 1 basketball programs in America, and recycling the same conspiracy theory about Larranaga not playing underclassman.

First of all, Wong and Beverly, both freshman, averaged 20 minutes per game last season. If that doesn't prove that the staff is committed to playing freshman, I don't know what will. Heck, Shane Larkin started as a freshman on a team that made the Sweet 16. Miller and Waardenburg only played starters' minutes this past year because Gak is made of glass and Stone was out until December and missed most of training camp. We had 3 actual bigs last year and two of them (Sam and Stone) might as well be shooting guards. If you want to call Coach L out for crappy roster construction, that is completely warranted, but it's not like Anthony Walker (who didn't even start for his prep team) was some magic bullet.

The notion that anyone wants an upgrade over Brooks is lunacy. He hasn't played a minute of basketball in a Miami uniform! It's not like this guy is going to come in and average 20 and 10 coming off a redshirt year, but he's also someone who's an upgrade over every other big on the roster. Fact is, he was the starting center on a good Cincinnati team last year and I definitely think he'll be one of the better bigs in the conference this year.

Beyond that, I trust that Gak (assuming he's healthy) and Cross will play over Miller by the time conference play starts, and Walker will absolutely be in the rotation. If they don't, you can come back gloating and I'll be the first to tell you that you were right all along. But if you knew anything about basketball (I question this quite often), you would also realize that Sam playing next to Brooks and a wing like McGusty/Timberlake allows him to do what he does best - shoot. Do I think he's softer than baby sh*t, 100%, but you need three point shooting in your lineup and he provides it with DJ graduating.
 
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This would be an intriguing player to go after. He was, IMO, the best player on a 30 win ETSU team last season (voted 1st team all-SoCon by the coaches), averaging just under 13 points and 6 rebounds a game on a pretty well balanced team. I did watch a handful of ETSU games this year since I had them in a season-long wins pool, so I've seen him play a fair bit. He's listed as a guard, but he played more SF-PF for ETSU, and I think he would be more of a SF than a guard here. He sort of reminds me of Chris Clarke from Virginia Tech a couple years ago (played at Texas Tech last year). He's athletic and physical for his size, and a pretty good defender. And he wasn't just putting up his stats against weaker competition - he put up 22 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals against Kansas. His biggest negative is he is not a good shooter - he shot 25% from 3 and was a 64% FT shooter last season (though it should be noted that he did shoot close to 35% from three as a sophomore). Part of his issue was his shooting stats did decline going through the season, so I wonder if playing 30-35 minutes a game most nights affected him a little bit, and I don't think he'd play quite those kind of minutes here.

The other thing (that I think will turn some people off on him here) is that he is not a grad transfer - he is a sit one to play one, much like Brooks will be for us. Given that we do have so many seniors on the roster next year, I don't have an issue with it personally, and it could help a little bit in creating a little more balance in the classes.

I haven't seen any teams attached to him yet - I would think Wake Forest would be a logical contender for him given the Forbes hire, and maybe Vanderbilt since they seem to be going after a lot of players and Hodges is from Nashville.
 
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HubSpotCane said:
Dude your schtick is tired. These threads are literally pages and pages of you talking to yourself, posting meaningless tweets/complaining about players who choose one of the other ~350 division 1 basketball programs in America, and recycling the same conspiracy theory about Larranaga not playing underclassman.

First of all, Wong and Beverly, both freshman, averaged 20 minutes per game last season. If that doesn't prove that the staff is committed to playing freshman, I don't know what will. Heck, Shane Larkin started as a freshman on a team that made the Sweet 16. Miller and Waardenburg only played starters' minutes this past year because Gak is made of glass and Stone was out until December and missed most of training camp. We had 3 actual bigs last year and two of them (Sam and Stone) might as well be shooting guards. If you want to call Coach L out for crappy roster construction, that is completely warranted, but it's not like Anthony Walker (who didn't even start for his prep team) was some magic bullet.

The notion that anyone wants an upgrade over Brooks is lunacy. He hasn't played a minute of basketball in a Miami uniform! It's not like this guy is going to come in and average 20 and 10 coming off a redshirt year, but he's also someone who's an upgrade over every other big on the roster. Fact is, he was the starting center on a good Cincinnati team last year and I definitely think he'll be one of the better bigs in the conference this year.

Beyond that, I trust that Gak (assuming he's healthy) and Cross will play over Miller by the time conference play starts, and Walker will absolutely be in the rotation. If they don't, you can come back gloating and I'll be the first to tell you that you were right all along. But if you knew anything about basketball (I question this quite often), you would also realize that Sam playing next to Brooks and a wing like McGusty/Timberlake allows him to do what he does best - shoot. Do I think he's softer than baby sh*t, 100%, but you need three point shooting in your lineup and he provides it with DJ graduating.
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Take a look at Sam's 3 pt shooting stats and tell me again we need to count on him for that!
 
Perhaps due to overall soft spots or team weakness, shooters like Sam and DJ possibly saw their accuracy suffer from too many minutes, being asked to do too much, confidence, and general malaise.

It's clear DJ at times was a 3PT machine. FWIW I saw Sam in practice several times and he popped in more smooth 3pointers than anyone. Yes, he never seemed to repeat that much in games. But I think he might be OK if he is fed an outside clear shot and is told to haul away and not worry too much about other matters. At least I'm hoping so.
 
jkdood said:
Perhaps due to overall soft spots or team weakness, shooters like Sam and DJ possibly saw their accuracy suffer from too many minutes, being asked to do too much, confidence, and general malaise.

It's clear DJ at times was a 3PT machine. FWIW I saw Sam in practice several times and he popped in more smooth 3pointers than anyone. Yes, he never seemed to repeat that much in games. But I think he might be OK if he is fed an outside clear shot and is told to haul away and not worry too much about other matters. At least I'm hoping so.
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I agree with the thought of them playing too many minutes. I think Analytics and the player efficiency numbers will support that.
I think Sam will be a better player if he players 25 minutes or less while Walker plays 15 minutes or more, both on average.
 
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