2024 Offseason

[PantherAlum09]

You mean like a starting center that he brought in from the transfer portal this last offseason?

I get the sentiment here, but Hutty was a kid we already had a very solid relationship with from recruiting hard out of high school. It was between Loyola and us and he chose the ramblers. He’s from Edina so it’s not like he’s coming from a big time metropolis.

['70 Grad]

Trying not to be too snarky but check out a map of the Twin Cities - it includes Edina. The rest of your post is more spot on.

[clenz]

Edina is cake eater central.

[PantherAlum09]

Lol. I just meant he's not coming from the inner city. Poor choice of words on my part.

[Panther'73]

What is the website for the portals?

[PantherAlum09]

This is probably the best site to keep up with it.

https://verbalcommits.com/transfers

[Panther'73]

Thank you so much…

[krusej23]

I get the sentiment here, but Hutty was a kid we already had a very solid relationship with from recruiting hard out of high school. It was between Loyola and us and he chose the ramblers. He’s from Edina so it’s not like he’s coming from a big time metropolis.

So now there are stipulations on how Coach Jake has to use the transfer portal also.
1. Can't talk to anyone we've talked to before.
2. Has to come from the inner city

This makes complete sense.

[Wxcpanther]

So now there are stipulations on how Coach Jake has to use the transfer portal also.
1. Can't talk to anyone we've talked to before.
2. Has to come from the inner city

This makes complete sense.

That's literally how we got Wes and Pauly, no doubt the most impactful D1 transfers UNI has ever had. We also got Trae because of this. It works. That said, we need to get moving. Haven't seen anything yet about us contacting players, that needs to change.

[clenz]

Jake needs to use the portal more. It's going to mean misses, and his "hit rate" is going to go lower. Right now I'd be Jake has the highest hit rate for success out of the portal out of any coach. He simply doesn't take them unless he knows 100% they are going to be a starter/star. Wes, Paul, Trae, Ali, Hutson, etc. There is only one transfer that I'd call "meh" and that was Rodenberg. Then there is Croft that didn't work out and those situations seem to essentially end Jake's willingness to go back to the portal even more until someone like Hutson pops up.

The general sentiment that going after some random Iowa kid who was a good Iowa kid and hoping by year 3 is contributing and turning into AJ Green, Seth Tuttle, Johnny Moran, one of the Kochs, etc over going after transfers is starting to become the losing sentiment. Obviously, at our level, we can't just give up on HS kids completely like the larger schools can/do. We also can't sit here and pretend that it's pre-Covid anymore, for a dozen reasons, and act like it's going to get us over the hump.

The best teams we have had have been led by transfers playing a massive part in it. What that balance is I don't know, but it's heavier than it is on our roster as it sits. Jake isn't the kind of guy that likes to play that game. He's going to have to start to at least tolerate it and let guys like Seth and G cook a bit in recruiting rather than turning the gas to the stove off because he doesn't like it.


Also, Edina isn't an "inner city" but it is 10000% "large metropolis". Edina itself is 60k people, and it is directly in the MSP metro which is the 16th largest metro in America at about 4 million people. Edina HS is something like 10-15 minutes WNW of MOA and 15 minutes from the heart of downtown Minneapolis. It's closer to downtown Minneapolis than it is Mystic Lake Casino - which is essentially the SW corner of the MSP "city metro". If that isn't qualifying as "from a big-time metro" then there simply isn't anything that Jake can do to recruit from a big-time metro.

[krusej23]

That's literally how we got Wes and Pauly, no doubt the most impactful D1 transfers UNI has ever had. We also got Trae because of this. It works. That said, we need to get moving. Haven't seen anything yet about us contacting players, that needs to change.

Are you saying we never talked to Wes, Paul, or Trae before they left high school? None of those are from inner city either.

The transfer portal is there to pick and choose what we need to build on our team we have from high school recruiting. Imagine if professional teams ran free agency the same way where you only signed people that you hadn't talked to before and came from a certain part of the county.

[krusej23]

He's going to have to start to at least tolerate it and let guys like Seth and G cook a bit in recruiting rather than turning the gas to the stove off because he doesn't like it.

I think that's why we've noticed we are talking to some higher level recruits in the past couple years. I think that's partially because we can maybe pick one of those off to come here after AJ came here but also because if one of those guys goes to a power 5 conference team and doesn't get the minutes they were expecting, they start talking to programs like us that talked to him and can offer a larger role pretty quickly. These coaches are thinking the long game and more into recruiting than you guys give them credit for. Just because you don't know the inner workings every day, doesn't mean they aren't trying to get some bigger transfers.

[Wxcpanther]

Are you saying we never talked to Wes, Paul, or Trae before they left high school? None of those are from inner city either.

The transfer portal is there to pick and choose what we need to build on our team we have from high school recruiting. Imagine if professional teams ran free agency the same way where you only signed people that you hadn't talked to before and came from a certain part of the county.

No, I'm agreeing with you.

[clenz]

I think that's why we've noticed we are talking to some higher level recruits in the past couple years. I think that's partially because we can maybe pick one of those off to come here after AJ came here but also because if one of those guys goes to a power 5 conference team and doesn't get the minutes they were expecting, they start talking to programs like us that talked to him and can offer a larger role pretty quickly. These coaches are thinking the long game and more into recruiting than you guys give them credit for. Just because you don't know the inner workings every day, doesn't mean they aren't trying to get some bigger transfers.

That's certainly been a big part of Jake's "transfer strategy" in recruiting. He lands the transfers he does because he had that relationship with them out of HS so when they want to transfer he can go "You were wanted here X years ago, you are wanted here now. You know us. We know you. It's an easy fit". Wes, Paul, Trey, Hutson, etc. were all HS targets of Jake. He does play that long game.

The "issue", if we want to call it that, is that the game has changed in the last few years. Playing the long game doesn't work quite as well anymore because of how fast everything moves. Waiting on Wes to realize going to Tennessee out of Cedar Rapids, Paul to Virginia from Wisconsin, or Trey to Pepperdine from Minneapolis, etc. wasn't the best move for them and then come back doesn't work like it did before. There needs to be more flexibility and adaptability for recruiting and targeting recruits from HS and colleges.

I'm not suggesting load up on 7 transfers like ISUr does yearly. I don't think that works either. There isn't a system or bond in place at that point. Using the traditional Jake targeting kids out of HS is great, but we need to be able to find 2 or 3 transfers on any given roster cycle that are game/match up breaking to round the roster out.

This past year had a bunch of really nice roster pieces, but no game-changer. We need to be able to adapt and target those game-changers in the portal. Which is going to feel uncomfortable for how Jake generally recruits/runs his program

[krusej23]

The "issue", if we want to call it that, is that the game has changed in the last few years. Playing the long game doesn't work quite as well anymore because of how fast everything moves. Waiting on Wes to realize going to Tennessee out of Cedar Rapids, Paul to Virginia from Wisconsin, or Trey to Pepperdine from Minneapolis, etc. wasn't the best move for them and then come back doesn't work like it did before. There needs to be more flexibility and adaptability for recruiting and targeting recruits from HS and colleges.

This past year had a bunch of really nice roster pieces, but no game-changer. We need to be able to adapt and target those game-changers in the portal. Which is going to feel uncomfortable for how Jake generally recruits/runs his program

I can see that "issue" but I would argue that playing the long game is going to work better now that you can transfer freely. Wes and all of those other guys had to sit out a year unless they had a good reason according to the NCAA which meant they were less likely to transfer down to us. Now they can transfer whenever they want which makes it easier for guys like Hutson, Wes, Paul to come back sooner instead of contemplating sitting out a year.

I would also argue that Paul and Wes were not game changes when we got them. In fact, Wes averaged 8.3, 7.6 and then 14.2ppg each season he was with us. Paul averaged 5.9 and then 10.8ppg. They were good pieces to add to the team we currently had and then developed a great fit with Jeremy Morgan, Bohannon, and Koch by their senior years when they needed to step up.

I think our high school recruiting is where it needs to be and if we can develop them and then add in a piece or two like Hutson every other year then I think we are good to compete for the top of the MVC and compete to get into the tournament.