re: Tide Hoops | Recruiting

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Until he says something negative about the staff, I’m going to assume he wasn’t forced out and this was a conclusion he came to on his own and our staff will be gracious and release him from his NLI.



I tend to agree. Lots of jumping to conclusions around here that we forced him out, but when we got Bediako and Gurley this week, his playing time likely went way down, so he very logically may want to look around. Having just Tchikou, Hilton and Rojas is quite a different picture from adding Bediako and Gurley in there.

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I think the wait and see approach would be best. There are a lot of conclusions being jumped to right now.

This might not be the "force out" scenario that everyone is assuming it is. There have been rumors about maneuvering the numbers where we didn't have to lose anyone due to the special super senior COVID rules.

Did we recruit over him? Certainly.

But that doesn't mean we made him look elsewhere because we did so.

It could easily be a case where he assumed (based on his own ability and conversation with the coaches) that he would be one of the Top 2 bigs next season along with Tchikou, and then we landed 2 more bigs better than him in Bediako and Gurley in the last week, and he is upset because either he thought, or the staff told him, that we were set on bigs once he committed.

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I hate it for Wilson, but it looks like his next stop won't necessarily be a downgrade. No one knows the details or the conversations that were had between him and the staff, except himself and the staff. We are seeing what happens when you recruit at a high level and have success. I guess we became numb to it in football because of the sheer numbers, but it is so much more visible in basketball. Best of luck to the young man.

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We need 4-7 football players to transfer out (by Aug.) to meet the 85 limit -- projected roster #s. Point being, you cannot precisely predict future attrition. You have to oversign to some degree.

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And just to be clear, I am in favor of kids being able to transfer.

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I agree with a ton of the points you've made Robot, but I'll say I'm not in favor of transfers without sitting out a year.

When a guy transfers, he takes another guy's spot. That guy either suffers lost playing time or transfers somewhere he takes someone else's spot. Coaches are incentivized to bench better upperclassmen because they don't want to instantly lose a freshman with potential to the portal. It also gives coaches the ability to easily force players out.

I think the transfer rules have hurt just as many if not more players than they have helped.

I think when a school signs a player, they ought to be committed to that player and the player ought to be committed to them. I would rather the players be compensated in a structured format than this current system of lining up a different team of random players every year.

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I'll say I'm not in favor of transfers without sitting out a year.

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I think you misinterpreted what I was saying because I'm not either under the current circumstances. Annual free agency for all players with neither employment contracts nor a player draft to offset it is an entirely unworkable system that will cause significantly more harm than good.

If there are protections put in place for kids who are on scholarship already or have signed a LOI then I would support wider access to immediate eligibility for transfers.

It’s actually worse than professional sports because at least they have contracts that have to expire. This is literally any player at any time can just decide to go to another team. It’s like fricking YMCA pickup ball.

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I think it depends on how much you want it to resemble the real world. In regular work society, people are free to leave (transfer) from one job to another, take other people's spot in the company's work force, etc. One major difference as has been mentioned is the financial aspect. The players don't make a salary necessarily but they do get compensation in terms of education, room board, etc.

If a player wanted to leave a smaller school with less to offer and come to an Alabama, should they be free to do so without penalty? It creates a lot of chaos but how different is it than the real world? A real world we want to prepare them for.

It's not always "fair" or pleasant and each situation is different.

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The real world isn't all like that, though. A lot of the real world works under contracts, non-compete clauses and options/warrants/pay structure that limits your ability to leave without consequence. Depending on your job, the decision to up and leave one random day can mean you have to wait or incurred penalty for going to a new job - especially one that competes directly with your old job.

As noted above, this season specifically with no limits is basically professional sports except without contracts.

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If there are protections put in place for kids who are on scholarship already or have signed a LOI then I would support wider access to immediate eligibility for transfers.

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Protections are already in the NCAA Bylaws. Schools can't terminate a scholarship early based on athletic ability or performance. And schools are bound by an NLI; the player must request a release.

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I understand what you're saying and some of the workplace is like that but a whole lot is not. Those that work in outside sales and management have non compete clauses but a lot of your regular work force does not. If I wanted to leave my current job that I've been at since 2008, I could walk out today without any kind of issue.

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Yea, and I don't disagree with you in general. I do think that as Sauron noted the cap on scholarships you can have means there has to be some sort of something to limit free transfers.

Hitting a continuously moving target to get to scholarship limits with no wiggle room to go over is basically impossible. I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be for some of these mid-majors that seem to be losing 4-5 guys every year.

"Yea, and I don't disagree with you in general. I do think that as Sauron noted the cap on scholarships you can have means there has to be some sort of something to limit free transfers.

Hitting a continuously moving target to get to scholarship limits with no wiggle room to go over is basically impossible."

I agree with that. Definitely makes it extremely difficult.
Maybe after this season things can get back to some sense of normal.