Louisville was not a tournament team. My point is that if Dylan Andrews was transferring to Kansas, duke, North Carolina, Arizona, or UConn, they wouldn’t be touting him as a magical player that was going to take them to a national championship. They’d probably be disappointed that they got the leading scorer coming out of a ucla team that had an awful season, very poor offensive game play, and couldn’t make the big dance. Why should ucla be any different?
Hunter Dickinson was the best player on a Michigan team that didn't make the NCAA Tournament and vastly missed their preseason expectations, and Kansas spent all year touting him as the frontrunner for Player of the Year. They did the same thing with Remy Martin, leader of some bad Arizona State teams, the year prior.
I think teams are capable of understanding when good players end up on bad teams that it is not indicative of that player also being bad.
Hunter Dickinson was definitely a good get and I can see your points here. I think it’s possible these players get better at ucla. I do think it’s unfortunate that cronin has put himself into a spot where everyone of these transfers is going to have to be a home run. The difference at Kansas is that they were adding one to two new pieces to the puzzle each year. Adding to a foundation that had already been built. Cronin on the other hand is hoping that he can build a new foundation entirely out of transfer players. I’m not sure this has ever been accomplished by a college basketball team before. The nil made this possible, but no one’s successfully done it which is why I can’t get on the hype train.
Remy Martin was also a super senior who had demonstrated several years of successfully running an Arizona st team. Albeit it was bad most of the time he was there, but he was a bright spot at that program for 3-4 years before transferring to Kansas where he came off the bench! Cronin is trying to get 4 players that will START! That’s a big difference between what ucla is doing and what self is doing at kansas
I mean, the portal as it currently exists has only been around for a few years, so it's hard to look historically at teams trying to build their roster with primarily transfers when, you know, that wasn't really possible even five years ago. I think we are seeing more top teams utilize the portal in various ways to find their top guy while using high school recruiting and development to create a supporting cast. UConn has essentially done that the past few years, with last year in particular being driven by two transfer guards supplemented by good recruiting.
I definitely don't think this is a sustainable model yet in college basketball, but I think last year represented such a miss as far as roster construction that it required the complete reset that we are seeing. Instead of the young and raw prospects from last year, you now have a team with a ton of high-level basketball experience (important to note that Dominick Harris, while he played sparingly, did start his career at Gonzaga) while also seeing a huge upgrade in athleticism. Also, for all the departures, four of last year's newcomers are still here, and may actually get to do the things they were supposed to do last year, which was develop more slowly while adjusting to the game (Sebastian Mack in particular seems like someone who will benefit from not feeling like he has to carry so much of the load on offense). I still think Mack and Stefanovic will play significant minutes, and we will probably still see Brandon Williams play a bit this year, but I'm pretty sure the idea last year was not to have those three start and play heavy minutes all season.
Ps, I do like your thoughts and replies. I like the banter. It helps me to understand a little bit about why everyone is so excited … I can still disagree, but I understand where your coming from… thanks for the banter 😀
Ok, and he put up good numbers as a freshman on an NCAA tournament team. What's your point here?
Louisville was not a tournament team. My point is that if Dylan Andrews was transferring to Kansas, duke, North Carolina, Arizona, or UConn, they wouldn’t be touting him as a magical player that was going to take them to a national championship. They’d probably be disappointed that they got the leading scorer coming out of a ucla team that had an awful season, very poor offensive game play, and couldn’t make the big dance. Why should ucla be any different?
Hunter Dickinson was the best player on a Michigan team that didn't make the NCAA Tournament and vastly missed their preseason expectations, and Kansas spent all year touting him as the frontrunner for Player of the Year. They did the same thing with Remy Martin, leader of some bad Arizona State teams, the year prior.
I think teams are capable of understanding when good players end up on bad teams that it is not indicative of that player also being bad.
Hunter Dickinson was definitely a good get and I can see your points here. I think it’s possible these players get better at ucla. I do think it’s unfortunate that cronin has put himself into a spot where everyone of these transfers is going to have to be a home run. The difference at Kansas is that they were adding one to two new pieces to the puzzle each year. Adding to a foundation that had already been built. Cronin on the other hand is hoping that he can build a new foundation entirely out of transfer players. I’m not sure this has ever been accomplished by a college basketball team before. The nil made this possible, but no one’s successfully done it which is why I can’t get on the hype train.
Remy Martin was also a super senior who had demonstrated several years of successfully running an Arizona st team. Albeit it was bad most of the time he was there, but he was a bright spot at that program for 3-4 years before transferring to Kansas where he came off the bench! Cronin is trying to get 4 players that will START! That’s a big difference between what ucla is doing and what self is doing at kansas
I mean, the portal as it currently exists has only been around for a few years, so it's hard to look historically at teams trying to build their roster with primarily transfers when, you know, that wasn't really possible even five years ago. I think we are seeing more top teams utilize the portal in various ways to find their top guy while using high school recruiting and development to create a supporting cast. UConn has essentially done that the past few years, with last year in particular being driven by two transfer guards supplemented by good recruiting.
I definitely don't think this is a sustainable model yet in college basketball, but I think last year represented such a miss as far as roster construction that it required the complete reset that we are seeing. Instead of the young and raw prospects from last year, you now have a team with a ton of high-level basketball experience (important to note that Dominick Harris, while he played sparingly, did start his career at Gonzaga) while also seeing a huge upgrade in athleticism. Also, for all the departures, four of last year's newcomers are still here, and may actually get to do the things they were supposed to do last year, which was develop more slowly while adjusting to the game (Sebastian Mack in particular seems like someone who will benefit from not feeling like he has to carry so much of the load on offense). I still think Mack and Stefanovic will play significant minutes, and we will probably still see Brandon Williams play a bit this year, but I'm pretty sure the idea last year was not to have those three start and play heavy minutes all season.
All good thoughts, thanks for the discussion!
Ps, I do like your thoughts and replies. I like the banter. It helps me to understand a little bit about why everyone is so excited … I can still disagree, but I understand where your coming from… thanks for the banter 😀
We have one of the best classes in the country coming in. Why would we not be excited?
well he didn't play for Louisville when he was a freshman.