BREAKING: Elijah Hawkins to transfer

If we land Evans this isn't that big of a deal. Big if though.
 

I'm no Ben Johnson apologist but what is he supposed to do when DTA (a cute little mom and pop shop) musters together $50k offers for these players and another program comes in an wants to pay $200-$500k to scoop them up off our roster?

College basketball is grimey as sh** these days and there are no tampering rules and so if Minnesota and its NIL collectives can't completely transform their system and triple/quadruple the money we can pay to these semi-pro athletes, the program doesn't stand a damn chance. With Ben at the helm or with someone else.
He got offered from DTA a lot more than that.
 

Maybe we can get PJ to spend some of his spare time recruiting the for the basketball program.
 

Not surprised at all. I've totally lost interest in college basketball over the past few years to the point I barely watched any games this year. I used to be a Gopher season ticket holder, but couldn't really give two shits nowadays. Part of the joy of college sports for me is watching a team grow, but that's gone. I'm probably an exception and a general decline in interest is not a trend, but it feels like it could be a trend. With the smaller teams, basketball will be the canary in the coal mine for D1 revenue sports demise. Football will take longer.
 
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He wasn't even the portal, isn't that tampering?
Yes....and it is going on everywhere.....that is the least surprising thing about this collective era. You know these collectives are actively trying to poach players off of rosters....why wouldn't they....there isn't any enforcement to worry about.
 





How is it legal for other schools to talk to kids not in the portal? This sounds fishy as hell and instances like this need to be looked into deeper.
In today’s environment, some players have runners who make deals behind closed doors.
 




Not surprised at all. I've totally lost interest in college basketball over the past few years to the point I barely watched any games this year. I used to be a Gopher season ticket holder, but could really give two shits nowadays. Part of the joy of college sports for me is watching a team grow, but that's gone. I'm probably an exception and a general decline in interest is not a trend, but it feels like it could be a trend. With the smaller teams, basketball will be the canary in the coal mine for D1 revenue sports demise. Football will take longer.
"Part of the joy of college sports for me is watching a team grow, but that's gone. " - Exactly!
 


In today’s environment, some players have runners who make deals behind closed doors.
Yep....I am sure the collectives and the players are being somewhat careful to give themselves cover if the NCAA ever attempts to stop what we all know is going on.
 




Investigate the nil agents.
For everyone asking, it's illegal for the school (coach) to contact a kid yes, but there are 0 rules about an NIL collective or individual contacting the kid or his agent. It is without a doubt as slimy as it gets but again technically not illegal. And as much as this is on the kids, it's also the scumbags who leach off these kids. Hey yah I'll be your agent, and they get 10-20% for doing nothing except shady deals.
 



Well, who is ready to fire CBJ now.
I am ready to dump college sports rather than any coach.

What is happening is an absolute joke. If no one has loyalty, then why should I care.

Let college sports burn to the ground at this point. Just start up Euro league levels of pro teams and universities can rent out their facilities.
 



Not surprised at all. I've totally lost interest in college basketball over the past few years to the point I barely watched any games this year. I used to be a Gopher season ticket holder, but could really give two shits nowadays. Part of the joy of college sports for me is watching a team grow, but that's gone. I'm probably an exception and a general decline in interest is not a trend, but it feels like it could be a trend. With the smaller teams, basketball will be the canary in the coal mine for D1 revenue sports demise. Football will take longer.
Yep....this whole free agency, pay for play, portal era has really eaten away a huge chunk of what used to make college football and basketball great. Tough to get invested at all in the players when you have no clue if they will even stick around for more than a year.

Heck, at least in the Pros they have contracts so you can kind of assume a player will be around for at least that long unless they get traded.
 



This is how it's going to be going forward. It might slow down some after next season with the COVID year no longer applying, but most teams are going to lose 2-3 significant players to the portal. Hell look at Duke, they lost 7 guys, and 2 starters to transfer.
 

For everyone asking, it's illegal for the school (coach) to contact a kid yes, but there are 0 rules about an NIL collective or individual contacting the kid or his agent. It is without a doubt as slimy as it gets but again technically not illegal. And as much as this is on the kids, it's also the scumbags who leach off these kids. Hey yah I'll be your agent, and they get 10-20% for doing nothing except shady deals.
Once upon a time there were rules as it related to boosters and the contact they could have with prospective athletes. But who knows what collectives are seen as. At some point the NCAA has to find a way to enforce some degree of sanity in this mess but hard to have any faith that will actually happen.
 


Better make sure Asuma is still on board.
Heck, as of right now he is a starting point guard for a Big Ten team....that used to count for something but maybe not anymore.
 


He got a better offer.Not good

A. He got a better offer
B. He is hearing what our guys and others on other teams are getting and he wants to find out what he is worth in the marketplace.

I hate to say it GHolers but Easy Pilgrim may be right. It's not gonna matter who is the coach if you don't have adequate NIL support. Those who are sticking their heads in the sand and saying- "these reports are BS...they aren't getting that kind of money"- are wrong.

Big money is out there for the better players (top 100-150 transfers) and it is pretty darn hard to tell a kid who hasn't had much money that they should just stick where they are and not market themselves when they hear their friends making bank.

There are a lot of things that have something to do with Ben. This isn't one of them.
 

Well, I’ve been looking at C, and SF/PF in the portal, I haven’t done a deep dive on PG’s yet.

Guess I will
The only saving grace in all this is that there are lots of guards in the portal....but this just sucks.
 





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