2024 Offseason Portal Rumors

[BCPanther]

Schwieger was a Porter left over and Valentine made a drastic turn in roster construction. I think he'll be really good here

[Wxcpanther]

Jake was on Cole Bair's show today, whole lot of good stuff. Didn't give names, but said 2 of the guys who transferred out were in the offices today talking (safe to guess 1 is Cole) and that another called him after he made a decision the other day (clearly Bowen). Also spoke glowingly of all the pickups, Bond and Schwieger in particular. Also said he believes that Bond can develop into a good catch and shoot 3 point shooter? If he can add that to his game, holy ****.

[Purrrrrfect]

Im going to bet now that if Rubin and Pock don't get more than 15 min a game they will be portaling at season's end. Don't ask me where the minutes are coming from but that'd be my guess and bet.

[orangetennis]

Unless Max is capable of running point, we're asking for an enormous jump from RJ in year 2. This roster desperately needs a quick pg.

[Username]

Unless Max is capable of running point, we're asking for an enormous jump from RJ in year 2. This roster desperately needs a quick pg.

I do believe he will make a big jump, but I don't think we're only asking for that, we're hoping that Weisbrod can run at least a few minutes at the point as well as Trey.

Agree mostly with BC's breakdown of minutes. Not sure we can get away with not having 2 of the 3 of Taylor/Weisbrod/Campbell out there at a time.

Rubin will get most of Hutson's backup minutes and maybe some of Anderson's. Pock truly feels like he's going to have volatile minutes. Not sure if what lineups we'll run and with Schweigger's length will he get some run in 4 guard lineups. If Rubin and Pock transfer after the season, so be it as we've mentioned. Our incentives should not be aligned to what's most likely to make them stay. That being said, one of them has a lot more upside and with Hutson and Ty guaranteed gone next year could hopefully be convinced of the opportunity especially since he has more eligibilty to work with.

[Wxcpanther]

Unless Max is capable of running point, we're asking for an enormous jump from RJ in year 2. This roster desperately needs a quick pg.

Jake said on Cole's show last night that Max played a lot of PG at the D2 level, I'd expect between him and Trey they'll handle the backup PG duties

[achrist70]

Unless Max is capable of running point, we're asking for an enormous jump from RJ in year 2. This roster desperately needs a quick pg.

I'm not exactly what you mean by this. Is RJ going to be a 15 ppg point guard, no, absolutely not. However, I think that RJ may be the most pure point guard that we have had in a while. He is a good ball handler, passer and defender. Now, I will agree that he needs to knock down open looks at a higher rate but overall I don't see anything wrong with him running the 1.

[Khan4Cats]

I think people are looking at our offense wrong in looking for a 'true' PG. So much of the flow is movement and screens, we don't really need a PG to have to break down a defense one on one too often. We have that in Taylor, we have that in Bond and to some extent Campbell. What we need and have gotten is the flexibility for rotations. Hutson showing he can make threes if teams collapse off of him with the high screens was a bonus at the end of the season. Rubin can hit from the outside as well, it'd be nice if Tytan and Bond can show more consistency from outside. This might be the first time in several years where we have had every regular looking to at least be able to shoot from outside. No more playing off of Cole since he was no threat at all off the block.

Where we do have concern for ballhandlers in general is against a press, but we seem to be adding quickness and length to go over the top of some of that pressure.

[BCPanther]

Im going to bet now that if Rubin and Pock don't get more than 15 min a game they will be portaling at season's end. Don't ask me where the minutes are coming from but that'd be my guess and bet.

Ok. Welcome to college basketball in 2024.

If they move on because their feelings get hurt, there will be 1500 players in the portal to go after.

There isn't any such thing as planning for the future anymore.

[Mudrafan]

I hope Weisbrod is the real deal. That might be the key to success next season. You've seen a lot of great D2 players come in and make an immediate impact in the Valley. He was the POY in his league. Schmitt was on the radar for national D3 POY, but that is such a jump from D3 to the Valley the odds of success are much lower.

Schweiger is a wildcard too. You almost want to be good enough where he ISN'T a major contributor (like Loyola this year compared to last). But he also might simply be a different player with more opportunity.

Crazy how similar all their handwriting is based on their signatures.

You don’t realize Schweiger was Loyola’s 3rd leading scorer as a freshman and shot 40% from 3. On top of that, he’s 6-7. Between him and the Virginia transfer, our roster is getting a talent upgrade.

[Mudrafan]

I think people are looking at our offense wrong in looking for a 'true' PG. So much of the flow is movement and screens, we don't really need a PG to have to break down a defense one on one too often. We have that in Taylor, we have that in Bond and to some extent Campbell. What we need and have gotten is the flexibility for rotations. Hutson showing he can make threes if teams collapse off of him with the high screens was a bonus at the end of the season. Rubin can hit from the outside as well, it'd be nice if Tytan and Bond can show more consistency from outside. This might be the first time in several years where we have had every regular looking to at least be able to shoot from outside. No more playing off of Cole since he was no threat at all off the block.

Where we do have concern for ballhandlers in general is against a press, but we seem to be adding quickness and length to go over the top of some of that pressure.

Wrong on several fronts. We don’t need the 6-11 hutson to shoot 3’s. Taylor isn’t a D1 pg. At best, he’s a #3 pg. I like Campbell but an upgrade would be welcomed. Born struggled physically himself on numerous occasions

[ronfitch]

Ok. Welcome to college basketball in 2024.

If they move on because their feelings get hurt, there will be 1500 players in the portal to go after.

There isn't any such thing as planning for the future anymore.

I *suspect* that things will settle down a bit, once the extra year of eligibility for Covid is finally through the system and as students (and their parents) have some years of this to look at and use in making decisions:

- There are students who entered the portal only to find no takers and return to their school;
- There are students who entered the portal only to find no takers and their scholarship is already gone at their school;
- There are students who were all-conference on a squad with tournament potential who entered the portal only to find themselves on squads that go winless in conference play in their final season of college basketball;
- There are students who entered the portal, played a season, entered again, played a season and are entering again;

It comes down to goals. UNI graduates athletes, the current coaches and staff have built a culture of students earning their degrees. Now there is NIL money in the mix. Some students might get to play pro for a few years (G league, Europe).

With the options comes risk. I have no issue with the portal - I think students should have the same options as coaches, to find a better situation if it exists. I also have no issue with NIL, though I think if a student accepts NIL they should have to pay their own tuition (some sort of sliding scale, perhaps ... if a student is making more in NIL than an academic advisor in the AD, they pay full tuition, for example). I do think NIL is a huge challenge for schools like UNI, but - again - UNI graduates students and that is something to market to students and families.

But I do think this will start to settle down. Sure, there will be students who are only in it to play and move up - they would have been gone after a couple of years anyway. But there will also be those who were under-recruited out of high school or grew in year one and two and are looking to move up to a mid-major and earn their degree.

And, we need corporate money.

Just random thoughts on a Thursday morning.

[CyCarp]

IMO, I don't care how great of a ball handler or passer RJ is, he needs to show that he can shoot it even just a little bit. The last thing we need is another Juwan McCloud, who was a solid ball handler/passer, but teams knew he couldn't shoot and would play 5 feet off him when he was at the 3 point line and it just disrupted everything else. I think that was before we integrated the flow offense, but still...

[BCPanther]

Wrong on several fronts. We don’t need the 6-11 hutson to shoot 3’s. Taylor isn’t a D1 pg. At best, he’s a #3 pg. I like Campbell but an upgrade would be welcomed. Born struggled physically himself on numerous occasions

A big with the ability to shoot the ball makes offense so much easier on everyone on the floor. The days of a back to the basket true big are over and we've been positionless for years now. Offense hasn't been the problem. I'm ignoring the Taylor comment because it's just flat laughable.

I'm with you on Schwieger. Loyola totally changed recruiting philosophies and he got left behind because he was one of Porter's guys. He's going to be what we all hoped Duax and Wolf were except he's 6-7 and can really rebound from the wing.

[Wxcpanther]

I'm with you on Schwieger. Loyola totally changed recruiting philosophies and he got left behind because he was one of Porter's guys. He's going to be what we all hoped Duax and Wolf were except he's 6-7 and can really rebound from the wing.

I'll continue to reiterate, Hutty wasn't "good enough" to even find minutes on that bad Loyola 1st year A10 team. This kid was arguably their best player on that team. Would not shock me to see him starting at the 4 spot once Tytan moves on after the season.