re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

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Do we not have mega rich boosters that care about basketball?

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What's the point of bring in so many out of state students, if they don't bring any rich basketball boosters with them?

/s

Thats cool and everything but whats it have to do with wal mart?

I am aware. Their Arena is named after Bud Walton, it's hard to miss.

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I wish our little local Taco Casa made enough to build us a Taco Casa Arena and fill it with stud hoopers. But ….

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Hell Yeah.

It was always going to be hard for us to compete in the NIL game outside of football.
We just don’t have the deep pocket alumni that some schools are loaded with.
It might be hard to retain someone like Oats if things don’t improve regarding NIL.
Even in football we may face problems once Saban leaves.
Hope is Congress will provide some sanity to this free for all play for pay,with legislation or NCAA comes up with a magic formula that’ll pass legal scrutiny.

I don’t think the NIL is as big an issue as some of y’all are making. Brandon Miller didn’t come here for free. Neither did Jaden Bradley. Or Estrada. Can we write as big a check as Arkansas? No. And if Nelson wants the biggest check, he’ll be a Hog.

But it’s not like we aren’t getting anybody.
Who this offseason would you consider a miss? Mack is probably the only one we went after hard that we didn’t get. Stevenson would also be a miss depending on how that turns out.

The reality is we landed two good guards in the portal. The Bediako decision fricked us and we had to start way late recruiting big guys hard. I still feel we will end of up with one of Nelson, Caluma, or Stevenson. Will we be as good as last year? No. But we should still be top 3-4 or in the league and a solid NCAA team.

If I were Oats, I'd be showing off his track record of pretty much everybody (not you, JD) improving their draft stock since he arrived. Kira Lewis went from a fringe first rounder to a lottery pick. Herb Jones was a small blip on the NBA draft radar, and he was close to a 1st round pick. Primo was viewed as an eventual NBA draft pick and turned into a lottery pick. Miller went from a player projected in the mid-first to the first collegiate player taken. Clowney was nowhere close to anyone's draft radar and potentially could be a first round pick.

Compare that to Musselman's loaded class this year where Black was the only one that even maintained his draft stock.

I just don't see how we don't end up signing Nelson if he is truly focused on improving the stuff the NBA scouts told him needed improving. Everything about his situation and game says that we are the perfect fit for him. We desperately need a big who can pick and pop and shoot corner 3s......He desperately needs to show the NBA that he can be a pick and pop guy who makes enough 3s to keep defenses honest. We run an offense and teach bigs to play in that offense in a way that NBA guys love and respect.........he needs to show the NBA he can play against elite players in a modern offense where he both plays at the rim and shoots outside shots. And, he will show up and be a 30 minute a night guy from day 1.

If we lose out on this guy to a program that already has a full roster and whose coach talks shite about shooting 3s then we have some bigtime issues in the recruiting wars.

Oh yeah, if it comes down purely to which program will let him showcase the stuff NBA execs need to see from him before committing draft capital then it's us in a landslide. But, paraphrasing the old Mike Tyson quote "everyone has a plan until Eric Musselman texts you about a $500,000 check from Walmart."

Somewhat changing the subject, but I really hate that this is what college basketball has turned into. NIL and not having to sit out after a transfer were always going to impact basketball the most because movement between teams has been baked into the culture of the sport for the last ~15 years thanks to the NBA and the rapid proliferation of fake high-schools masquerading as "prep academies". I love college basketball and will keep up with it no matter what, but massive roster turnover every single offseason is not great for converting casual viewers into consistent ones.

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Somewhat changing the subject, but I really hate that this is what college basketball has turned into. NIL and not having to sit out after a transfer were always going to impact basketball the most because movement between teams has been baked into the culture of the sport for the last ~15 years thanks to the NBA and the rapid proliferation of fake high-schools masquerading as "prep academies". I love college basketball and will keep up with it no matter what, but massive roster turnover every single offseason is not great for converting casual viewers into consistent ones.

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It really does suck. Every program is now what Kentucky was at the start of the Cal era. A brand new team every season. And that doesn't even mention that fact that's ruined one of the best parts of college basketball - the mid-major that has 5 juniors/seniors, runs their stuff to perfection and terrifies big teams. Those don't exist anymore because 3 of those 5 guys leave after their sophomore year for Top 30 programs.

I will say that it puts even more emphasis on having a coach who runs a very specific system/program, knows how to identify guys who can flourish in it and how to get them in the door. We're lucky we have one of those guys. This era of roster turnover with our previous 3 coaches would have been an utter disaster.