All Things 2026 Transfer Portal Thread

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howeda7 said:
Disappointing.

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Skeptical this is a huge loss. For the brief period he was healthy, the team was, for the most part, terrible. I can’t see a lumbering big like him fitting in Niko’s offense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Niko in some way encouraged him to do this. Had we begun next year with him starting, I’d be pessimistic a year 2 upgrade was coming. Best of luck to the kid though.
 

FritoPendejo said:
Skeptical this is a huge loss. For the brief period he was healthy, the team was, for the most part, terrible. I can’t see a lumbering big like him fitting in Niko’s offense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Niko in some way encouraged him to do this. Had we begun next year with him starting, I’d be pessimistic a year 2 upgrade was coming. Best of luck to the kid though.
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Agree with this. In theory it looks like a loss, but with Grove's improvement and a bigger NIL find i think he will be relatively easy to replace with a healthier body.

With the calls and interest we have shown id expect the same news from Willis too.
 





leib0039 said:
Agree with this. In theory it looks like a loss, but with Grove's improvement and a bigger NIL find i think he will be relatively easy to replace with a healthier body.

With the calls and interest we have shown id expect the same news from Willis too.
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Agree. He was the one injured guy I could justify wanting back. He has a wide frame, laid some good screens, and was a good rebounder.

I remember watching an interview with him before last season, where he mentioned he had a knee issue that surprised me at the time. He had only recently been cleared to play.

That would be two knee injuries in two years... If Niko is going after bigs with more than one year of eligibility, this is probably a good move for both parties. Rob would have been a nice depth piece, though if healthy.
 



FritoPendejo said:
Skeptical this is a huge loss. For the brief period he was healthy, the team was, for the most part, terrible. I can’t see a lumbering big like him fitting in Niko’s offense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Niko in some way encouraged him to do this. Had we begun next year with him starting, I’d be pessimistic a year 2 upgrade was coming. Best of luck to the kid though.
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I agree that he might not have started. We were best with the small line-up and JCJ playing the 5. But he would have been nice to have as a bench player.
 

FritoPendejo said:
Skeptical this is a huge loss. For the brief period he was healthy, the team was, for the most part, terrible. I can’t see a lumbering big like him fitting in Niko’s offense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Niko in some way encouraged him to do this. Had we begun next year with him starting, I’d be pessimistic a year 2 upgrade was coming. Best of luck to the kid though.
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My guess would be our staff was probably lowballing him a bit considering he was coming off a long term season ending injury and is unproven at this level, his representation likely was fine rolling the dice in the portal where bigs are going to be really valuable. Vaihola would have been a real asset as a rebounder which cost us a fair few games last year and generally being a bigger body to throw at some of these skilled centers the top tier in the conference have. Also showed some potential as a passer which is obviously valuable in this system and probably a big reason he was brought over in the first place.

Grove is an intriguing piece that grew into the season but would prefer for him to not have the weight of being an anchor on the back end for extended periods of time at this point in his career. I think he's perfect as an energy big off the bench right now. I'm sure they'll find another center that can hopefully start, going to cost a pretty penny tho.
 

leib0039 said:
Agree with this. In theory it looks like a loss, but with Grove's improvement and a bigger NIL find i think he will be relatively easy to replace with a healthier body.

With the calls and interest we have shown id expect the same news from Willis too.
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I am thinking the same thing on both accounts.

Viahola can be replaced and Niko may have wanted someone who can shoot. Can't imagine we could have played Grove and Viahola at the same time. On so many portal lists for guards I think we look to upgrade from Willis.

I am still hoping Shinholster sticks around. Think he could be really good by the time his Junior and Senior year roll around.
 





FritoPendejo said:
Skeptical this is a huge loss. For the brief period he was healthy, the team was, for the most part, terrible. I can’t see a lumbering big like him fitting in Niko’s offense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Niko in some way encouraged him to do this. Had we begun next year with him starting, I’d be pessimistic a year 2 upgrade was coming. Best of luck to the kid though.
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Couldn't agree more
 



Funny what a short memory people have. Willis was player of year before he came here, scorer, great defensive player, etc. In his short time on the floor he was extremely active defensively, was the obvious lead guard and floor leader. It was evident he was really focused on getting people involved, leading the offense. People get way too focused on stats for 5-6 games before he was hurt.
 

Tucker32 said:
Funny what a short memory people have. Willis was player of year before he came here, scorer, great defensive player, etc. In his short time on the floor he was extremely active defensively, was the obvious lead guard and floor leader. It was evident he was really focused on getting people involved, leading the offense. People get way too focused on stats for 5-6 games before he was hurt.
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And Voihola was just the rebounding big we need ... until portal day. Then, presto! no big loss.
 




Not much of a contributor on not a great team
 



FritoPendejo said:
Skeptical this is a huge loss. For the brief period he was healthy, the team was, for the most part, terrible. I can’t see a lumbering big like him fitting in Niko’s offense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Niko in some way encouraged him to do this. Had we begun next year with him starting, I’d be pessimistic a year 2 upgrade was coming. Best of luck to the kid though.
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I sort of agree with you (about this not being a huge loss). He was a good rebounder but not much of a scorer. He had a high rate of going to the line but only hit 50% of them. I was hoping that we could get a center/forward to start ahead of him but maybe we can get a cheaper backup.

I also agree that the team didn't play that well with him and Willis starting.
 

Tucker32 said:
Funny what a short memory people have. Willis was player of year before he came here, scorer, great defensive player, etc. In his short time on the floor he was extremely active defensively, was the obvious lead guard and floor leader. It was evident he was really focused on getting people involved, leading the offense. People get way too focused on stats for 5-6 games before he was hurt.
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I realize that he didn't get a lot of games to show what he could do and probably was ailing much of that time but he didn't play particularly well here during those games. Effective Field Goal %: .436; Free throw %: .455.

He wasn't POY before coming here. He was 2nd team All MAC.
 
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TwistingMyMelon said:
I realize that he didn't get a lot of games to show what he could do and probably was ailing much of that time but he didn't play particularly well here during those games. Effective Field Goal %: .436; Free throw %: .455.

He wasn't POY before coming here. He was 2nd team All MAC.
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If you go simply by a small sample size for shooting, yeah. And that’s dumb. Watching him play was totally different - and anyone who watched all those games and knows basketball could see it. Have talked with numerous coaches who thought he was very impressive - and his focus wasn’t scoring. And, based on the first few games, Durkin was a terrible shooter. Glad he wasn’t judged by the first 10 games or so of the year.
 

Tucker32 said:
If you go simply by a small sample size for shooting, yeah. And that’s dumb. Watching him play was totally different - and anyone who watched all those games and knows basketball could see it. Have talked with numerous coaches who thought he was very impressive - and his focus wasn’t scoring. And, based on the first few games, Durkin was a terrible shooter. Glad he wasn’t judged by the first 10 games or so of the year.
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Why should I trust you? You don't even know the difference between POY and 2nd Team All Conference and you didn't even bother to look it up before claiming that. That smacks of being a bullshitter!
 

Tucker32 said:
Funny what a short memory people have. Willis was player of year before he came here, scorer, great defensive player, etc. In his short time on the floor he was extremely active defensively, was the obvious lead guard and floor leader. It was evident he was really focused on getting people involved, leading the offense. People get way too focused on stats for 5-6 games before he was hurt.
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I wasn’t impressed… my hope a year sitting there watching the offense and getting an understanding of the offense.. when to deliver the ball etc.. I thought Willis would be better next year
 

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