2025 Transfer Portal Watch

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Bad Gopher said:
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Sounds like he would be a nice pickup from the scratch and dent section. He went from an 86% to a 56% free throw shooter, which tells me there was maybe some kind of mental block going on unless the ACC has way better free throw defense than MVC basketball.

At 6’7” 200 lbs he made 3.1 3PT per game at Belmont (.3 more than Durkin). He sounds kind of like a Bobby Durkin clone. They are pretty similar stats and measurables.
 

eker0016 said:
Sounds like he would be a nice pickup from the scratch and dent section. He went from an 86% to a 56% free throw shooter, which tells me there was maybe some kind of mental block going on unless the ACC has way better free throw defense than MVC basketball.

At 6’7” 200 lbs he made 3.1 3PT per game at Belmont (.3 more than Durkin). He sounds kind of like a Bobby Durkin clone. They are pretty similar stats and measurables.
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Worth noting that he only shot 16 FT’s all year. Small enough sample size that it could be a fluke. But the 3pt percentage and lack of playing time isn’t great
 


leib0039 said:
Tyson would be a nice addition!

At this point I'm not really looking at these lists. Seems like the guys we are getting come out of nowhere.
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Yeah when there are 2000 in the portal and we’re posting about maybe 40-50 kids… bound to be surprises. Still a fun exercise I suppose. Thankfully I think this goes to show that these coaches are continually grinding regardless of what we think.
 


howeda7 said:
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The portal closes on April 22, until somebody sues to keep it open.

In 2026, we'll have the new In-Season Portal. Change teams at anytime, provided they give a two week notice. By 2027, they will debut the In-Game Portal where fans can pony up spot cash to buy a player off the opposing team to switch sides. In 2027, they will also eliminate the two week notice requirement due to a lawsuit. 🤣 🤣
 

howeda7 said:
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What a chaotic game of musical chairs. These numbers will prove to be overstated if an additional year of eligibility is not announced, and we know players like Mike Mitchell entered the portal based only on that possibility. But if an extra year of eligibility is added? There are going to be hundreds of players without a place to play. Grim.
 

howeda7 said:
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Unreal....over 2000 players in the portal.

Can't even imagine what it must be like to try and scout all these players to figure out who might be a good fit in such a short period of time with tons of other schools all looking at the same players.
 

DarthGopher said:
The portal closes on April 22, until somebody sues to keep it open.

In 2026, we'll have the new In-Season Portal. Change teams at anytime, provided they give a two week notice. By 2027, they will debut the In-Game Portal where fans can pony up spot cash to buy a player off the opposing team to switch sides. In 2027, they will also eliminate the two week notice requirement due to a lawsuit. 🤣 🤣
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If South Carolina plays Ohio State, that one guy can change teams at each TV timeout. Both girlfriends in attendance.
 



MNVCGUY said:
Unreal....over 2000 players in the portal.

Can't even imagine what it must be like to try and scout all these players to figure out who might be a good fit in such a short period of time with tons of other schools all looking at the same players.
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Unless you’re a blue blood with agents coming to you, it’s going to be about relationships. Guys you recruited before and guys you know by playing against them. If I’m counting correctly, we have one guy Niko coached, one who was an opponent in conference, and one from a lower level in state school, all of whom Niko would have more knowledge of than the list he would need to toss darts at. I wonder if coalitions of schools and coaches will put together their own scouting collectives to help in the process.

This is one reason high school recruiting still matters. Even if you don’t sign them, you can come back a couple years later and have a much better idea of who you’re recruiting.
 

DarthGopher said:
The portal closes on April 22, until somebody sues to keep it open.
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Or, 30 days after a player has played his last game, whichever comes later. So, those players who played in the College Basketball Crown and those who played past March 22nd in the other tournaments would have longer.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Unreal....over 2000 players in the portal.

Can't even imagine what it must be like to try and scout all these players to figure out who might be a good fit in such a short period of time with tons of other schools all looking at the same players.
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In my opinion, this is too much to ask of college programs, even those with full-time GMs. That as much as anything is why chaos is no way to run an athletic association.
 

Holy Man said:
Unless you’re a blue blood with agents coming to you, it’s going to be about relationships. Guys you recruited before and guys you know by playing against them. If I’m counting correctly, we have one guy Niko coached, one who was an opponent in conference, and one from a lower level in state school, all of whom Niko would have more knowledge of than the list he would need to toss darts at. I wonder if coalitions of schools and coaches will put together their own scouting collectives to help in the process.

This is one reason high school recruiting still matters. Even if you don’t sign them, you can come back a couple years later and have a much better idea of who you’re recruiting.
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Yep, teams will no doubt gravitate towards players they have some form of existing relationship with because you have to narrow the pool somehow.

Still, you have to do your due diligence as well and try not to miss on a guy that could help your team and is attainable.

To me the toughest part is the compressed window of time. So many players to vet and new ones popping up all the time. You have to make sure you are getting good fits for your team but you also have to move really quickly as there are tons of teams all going after the same players. Whole process has to be exhausting.

And of course while doing all this you have to keep your current roster happy so that they don't choose to leave. Thankfully for Niko he doesn't really have to devote a ton of effort to that part this year since the inherited roster was really small. :)
 



Scottsdale Gopher said:
What a chaotic game of musical chairs. These numbers will prove to be overstated if an additional year of eligibility is not announced, and we know players like Mike Mitchell entered the portal based only on that possibility. But if an extra year of eligibility is added? There are going to be hundreds of players without a place to play. Grim.
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That is the dark side of all of this - players leave a program only to find themselves without a home when the dust settles. I have to imagine some level of self-correcting will happen as this becomes more and more commonplace.
 

DarthGopher said:
That is the dark side of all of this - players leave a program only to find themselves without a home when the dust settles. I have to imagine some level of self-correcting will happen as this becomes more and more commonplace.
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You would think but the portal has been around a few years now and the numbers aren't declining. Especially now with the money piece, lots of players out there shopping around for a better deal because they have no sense of loyalty to their current school.

Heck for some of them, changing schools on a yearly basis is the new normal.
 

DarthGopher said:
That is the dark side of all of this - players leave a program only to find themselves without a home when the dust settles. I have to imagine some level of self-correcting will happen as this becomes more and more commonplace.
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You should be right, but I can share from years of working with the 18-25 year old cohort, they often understand the big picture reality but struggle applying it to themselves and see themselves as the exception to the big picture. In some ways that’s great and they achieve things few thought they could. But in many others they lose out on opportunities they passed on that were there.

This should self correct based on experience but I’m not so sure.
 

MNVCGUY said:
You would think but the portal has been around a few years now and the numbers aren't declining. Especially now with the money piece, lots of players out there shopping around for a better deal because they have no sense of loyalty to their current school.

Heck for some of them, changing schools on a yearly basis is the new normal.
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This is where negotiating multi-year contracts will come in. It's bound to happen now that the facade of amatuerism is gone.
I am not upset by what the players are doing. They are selling their time to the companies willing to hire them. Some will not get hired. Others will make a great salary. It's business. The Universities will show no loyalty to them and they in return, reciprocate. Welcome to capitalism.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yep, teams will no doubt gravitate towards players they have some form of existing relationship with because you have to narrow the pool somehow.

Still, you have to do your due diligence as well and try not to miss on a guy that could help your team and is attainable.

To me the toughest part is the compressed window of time. So many players to vet and new ones popping up all the time. You have to make sure you are getting good fits for your team but you also have to move really quickly as there are tons of teams all going after the same players. Whole process has to be exhausting.

And of course while doing all this you have to keep your current roster happy so that they don't choose to leave. Thankfully for Niko he doesn't really have to devote a ton of effort to that part this year since the inherited roster was really small. :)
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That being said. Thorson has been around a few players that im curious on and if Gophers would want back. Including

Tyler Cochoran - defense first guard with good numbers pre injury. Thorson would know his injury progress, attitude etc
 

dingo said:
That being said. Thorson has been around a few players that im curious on and if Gophers would want back. Including

Tyler Cochoran - defense first guard with good numbers pre injury. Thorson would know his injury progress, attitude etc
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What became of Cochoran ?
 


dingo said:
That being said. Thorson has been around a few players that im curious on and if Gophers would want back. Including

Tyler Cochoran - defense first guard with good numbers pre injury. Thorson would know his injury progress, attitude etc
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Parker Jefferson?
What is his connection with Thorson?
Recruit him again or hire Ben to do it again on commission.
 

Holy Man said:
You should be right, but I can share from years of working with the 18-25 year old cohort, they often understand the big picture reality but struggle applying it to themselves and see themselves as the exception to the big picture. In some ways that’s great and they achieve things few thought they could. But in many others they lose out on opportunities they passed on that were there.

This should self correct based on experience but I’m not so sure.
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Same situation. You see many rise to the occasion and become more than they imagined. It's fun to watch and be part of that. But so many of them are also shocked that life was way more difficult and more of a grind than they anticipated. Many of those in the second group manage to dig deep, adjust and keep moving toward the goal. But it's sad to see that many others end up not having the make-up needed to make the long climb required for some measure of success.

I'm not sure if I feel bad for them for not having the fortitude needed to make it or for growing up in an environment that instilled an overwhelming belief or sense of entitlement.
 

I have a 25 year old daughter who is a school teacher but she has told us many times that she doesn’t want to work as hard as my wife and I have. We keep telling her that life in general is no cake walk. She is coming around but it’s hard to induce more drive in someone.
 

I am concerned about the lack of bigs on the Gopher roster. The good news is that there are a lot of players to choose from, hopefully better than Edmunds. There are some 7’ or bigger players in the Big Ten that our 6’8” players will have difficulty with.
 

Bobek said:
I am concerned about the lack of bigs on the Gopher roster. The good news is that there are a lot of players to choose from, hopefully better than Edmunds. There are some 7’ or bigger players in the Big Ten that our 6’8” players will have difficulty with.
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I am sure we will see a few more big bodies added to the roster before it is all said and done.

The good news is that the number of dominant 7'0"ers is a pretty small number so as long as you have athletic size you can get away with being a little on the shorter end.
 

MNVCGUY said:
You would think but the portal has been around a few years now and the numbers aren't declining. Especially now with the money piece, lots of players out there shopping around for a better deal because they have no sense of loyalty to their current school.

Heck for some of them, changing schools on a yearly basis is the new normal.
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Do the coaches have a sense of loyalty to their schools?
 

DarthGopher said:
That is the dark side of all of this - players leave a program only to find themselves without a home when the dust settles. I have to imagine some level of self-correcting will happen as this becomes more and more commonplace.
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Logically sure, in reality no way. I blame most of this on "agents". Some moron sees a quick way to make a buck off a kid, feeds them lies and false hope, blames everyone else if it doesn't work and takes no responsibility. If that kid makes it boom they make money, if they don't the kid gets dropped like a rock and that "agent" who is a scum of the earth person never helps that kid again.

It's a worldwide issue that is highlighted by the wildness of the ncaa and NIL. Be something if people just weren't gigantic a-holes in life.
 

The ranking of portal addns to rosters, having MN #10 is not a "thing". leib0039 is correct as it is a numbers game based more on volume of transfers than roster quality moving forward.

A far better/fun purely analytic evaluation of the current rosters is available on Torvik. Go to Funalytics/Rostercast/Minnesota and the Gopher roster currently has a numerical "power rating" of .7551. That places MN roughly at a TRank of 75th in NCAA. Using "Add Anybody" feature, you can place anyone from the portal onto MN roster and see the analytic-based change of the team. I added a rim protector like fmr MN recruit Christian Reeves (7-0, Clemson) and it raised MN up a few spots nationally. You can see the influence certain players have on the AdjOff/AdjDef by the change in the team value. MN currently has AdjO 107.6, AdjD 97.6 which projects as reasonably balanced.

As a reality check, I looked at North Carolina current roster ranked .9500 projecting them about 8th in the country. AdjO 118.5, AdjD 91.8 highly skilled on both ends.

It makes me wonder what analytics and player ratings the coaching staffs are using in the "War Room" to evaluate who they should/shouldn't contact.

As an aside, despite the transfer portal closing in a week, anybody already in the portal at that time can sign with any team in the next 3 months. There is no urgency in signing players by 4/22, the urgency is on the players to get into the portal before that date. Grad. students or special exemptions extend the 4/22 date further.

And I said I wasn't going to do this again. :)
 

Gopherjackrabbits said:
Do the coaches have a sense of loyalty to their schools?
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Do coaches change schools after every season by choice? Because there are tons college basketball players going to their 3rd - 4th - 5th school in a span of 5 years or so. You might find a couple coaches that have risen rapidly from lower levels but most coaches are at their school for multiple years before they are either fired or find a better job.

Coaches have contracts with buyouts. Can't stand when people try to act like the situation with the players is exactly the same as the one with coaches.

And too be clear.....I fully understand why players are chasing the money....doesn't mean I have to like it or think it is a good thing for the sport as a whole.
 

DarthGopher said:
That is the dark side of all of this - players leave a program only to find themselves without a home when the dust settles. I have to imagine some level of self-correcting will happen as this becomes more and more commonplace.
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Why is this the "dark side?"
Players enter the portal voluntarily.
There are X number of scholarship spots available across all levels of college basketball.
Those same number of scholarship spots are still there. It's not like some fewer number of players get a chance.

Why is it bad if some number of players voluntarily give up their spot, and somebody else gets it?
 

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