All Things 2026 Transfer Portal Thread

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Apparently Indiana was sick of being a football school. They have added some serious talent
 


It is apparent that Niko has to let the big boys start burning through some cash before we are able to get the players we need. It is a three tiered system, with a top 20, then about 30 more schools who compete at the next level and then mid majors who have to take the leavings and develop young players from scratch.
 


GophersInIowa said:
I don't think it automatically means that. Evans chased the money last year and it didn't pan out. It could just mean the offers are in the same neighborhood so he wants to pick the more known & comfortable option (assuming the report is even accurate).
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Well ya, Niko should have a convoy sized advantage over anybody. He coached him successfully, and he knows him. No other head coach has that.
The fact we haven't signed anybody else tells me that what was reported was true...Kyan is priority #1. We aren't going to spend any money until we know for sure what it will take to get him.
Over 150 guys have signed at this point and we are sitting on zero.
 


60's Guy said:
Well ya, Niko should have a convoy sized advantage over anybody. He coached him successfully, and he knows him. No other head coach has that.
The fact we haven't signed anybody else tells me that what was reported was true...Kyan is priority #1. We aren't going to spend any money until we know for sure what it will take to get him.
Over 150 guys have signed at this point and we are sitting on zero.
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Last year:
April 1: JCJ
April 2: BJ Omot
April 7: Bobby Durkin
April 10: Rob Vaihola
April 13: Langston Reynolds
April 14: Chansey Willis
April 23: Nehemiah Turner
May 9: Chance Stephens
June 1: Cade Tyson

I looked up last year's thread and Bobby Durkin was not listed as someone we'd contacted until April 6th. And then a rumor later that day he'd committed.

Cade Tyson visited in mid-April and didn't commit until June, and it seemed out of the blue.

I'm wondering if the only news we hear is from players/agents, and the staff is not leaking to a Ryan James/Tony Liebert type.

I have zero worry about no commits yet.
 


eker0016 said:
Last year:
April 1: JCJ
April 2: BJ Omot
April 7: Bobby Durkin
April 10: Rob Vaihola
April 13: Langston Reynolds
April 14: Chansey Willis
April 23: Nehemiah Turner
May 9: Chance Stephens
June 1: Cade Tyson

I looked up last year's thread and Bobby Durkin was not listed as someone we'd contacted until April 6th. And then a rumor later that day he'd committed.

Cade Tyson visited in mid-April and didn't commit until June, and it seemed out of the blue.

I'm wondering if the only news we hear is from players/agents, and the staff is not leaking to a Ryan James/Tony Liebert type.

I have zero worry about no commits yet.
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For context, 2025 Window Duration: March 24 – April 22, 2025

Niko was hired March 24
So it took over a week for JCJ to follow Niko to UMN
3 guys signed after portal closed


relax everyone. at least this year Niko had time to plan for portal execution, instead of having to do a Coach Ben special and just scramble to find guys
 

I don't know why the portal window needs to be two weeks long. Is a guy like Willis waiting to see how the dust settles a bit before making his decision? Can make it hard for the team that the player is currently on if they don't know if they need a replacement or not. It doesn't need to be more than 3 days.
 



GophersInIowa said:
I don't know why the portal window needs to be two weeks long. Is a guy like Willis waiting to see how the dust settles a bit before making his decision? Can make it hard for the team that the player is currently on if they don't know if they need a replacement or not. It doesn't need to be more than 3 days.
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I'm more irritated by the fact that it took so long to open this year. In professional sports, you get some consolation (draft order) for being unsuccessful that season but in college sports you don't even get a short jump on the more successful teams for portal recruiting.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I don't know why the portal window needs to be two weeks long. Is a guy like Willis waiting to see how the dust settles a bit before making his decision? Can make it hard for the team that the player is currently on if they don't know if they need a replacement or not. It doesn't need to be more than 3 days.
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It's the NCAA, they can screw up a 1 car parade. Last year they geniuses and opened the portal before the tournament was done, creating all sorts of speculation for teams still playing. at least this year they pushed it to after the season was done. The long duration is so nobody can sue them claiming they didn't have enough time.
 

Unregistered User said:
USC - 0
iowa - 0
wisconsin - 0
Michigan State - 0
Northwestern - 0
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So, Niko said something to the effect of we have been planning for the portal all season. Everybody is a free agent. Words to that effect prior to going to Vegas. Last year the portal opened the same day he got hired. As a result he wasn't prepared and we had slim pickings.
We got JCJ to sign with him.
We got very lucky Tyson was spectacular. He could have easily been North Carolina Cade all year long.
The other recruits were not sought after prospects...they were guys we signed.
If I had the opportunity to select from the first 150...say first 5 rounds of the NFL Draft...I'd rather select from those guys rather than the undrafted free agents that we selected from last year.
I'd just do it differently.
Iowa needs a couple guys, Michigan State hardly uses the portal. Wisconsin, I agree same boat as us....they need a bunch of guys....puzzling.
We will get whatever the plan is 5,6,7 or 8 guys...that is not what I'm worried about.
If Kyan Evans and Groves are our two top targets....that'd be silly...do they average 5 points between them on paper? Sure, they could blossom.
We need better players than we have, we need better players than we signed last year.
That's all.
 




Spottedmuskie said:
Does our staff have anything to gain by leaking info to Ryan James/Tony Liebert, etc.? I like how tight lipped its been so far, ready for that first splash
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I'm not sure what the advantage of being tight lipped would be but it's a non factor for me.
Signing guys is the goal. If you are saying we are going to announce three guys later today that we have been quietly stockpiling....that'd be great. lol depending who they are
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Does our staff have anything to gain by leaking info to Ryan James/Tony Liebert, etc.? I like how tight lipped its been so far, ready for that first splash
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Nothing to gain. We diehards are filling cyberspace without any leaked information and would be no different than with leaks. Not sure what 20 year olds think, but keeping them off gossip chains might be a bump for us.
 


Interesting side bar...there are a ton of guys signing today...kind of expected that...but there are almost as many guys getting into the portal today...didn't anticipate the volume in half way through.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Does our staff have anything to gain by leaking info to Ryan James/Tony Liebert, etc.? I like how tight lipped its been so far, ready for that first splash
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Who knows. I don’t really care either way. I just don’t see this as a game of musical chairs that we are losing because we haven’t signed anybody yet. We have no idea what the plan is and who might be getting close to signing. I’m happy to just wait until the dust settles.
 

Spottedmuskie said:

Terrence Brown - Columbia Heights
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From jeff goodman:
Utah transfer Terrence Brown is considering the following schools, a source close to the situation told
@TheFieldOf68
. North Carolina, USC, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon and Ole Miss. The 6-3 junior guard averaged 19.9 points and 3.8 assists this past season for the Utes. He spent his first two seasons at FDU.
 

60's Guy said:
From jeff goodman:
Utah transfer Terrence Brown is considering the following schools, a source close to the situation told
@TheFieldOf68
. North Carolina, USC, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon and Ole Miss. The 6-3 junior guard averaged 19.9 points and 3.8 assists this past season for the Utes. He spent his first two seasons at FDU.
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He will get paid, Mn not showing interest
 

WHB Brewer said:
For context, 2025 Window Duration: March 24 – April 22, 2025

Niko was hired March 24
So it took over a week for JCJ to follow Niko to UMN
3 guys signed after portal closed


relax everyone. at least this year Niko had time to plan for portal execution, instead of having to do a Coach Ben special and just scramble to find guys
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Yup. Niko gave us reason to trust him last year. I am looking forward to hearing about who he adds but I have no concern at all about falling behind other teams.

Last year he thought he had Kyan Evans before UNC came and offered a bag too, so he had to do a major pivot to Chansey Willis which blew up in our face due to his injury.

Man it would be interesting to be in the war room and see what the strategy is -- do they have a very specific player or role they are going for? Or just best talent available? Do they have a list of names and budgets for each player?

Seems like a staggering amount of player eval and vetting needs to be done in such a short time.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
He will get paid, Mn not showing interest
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Ya, especially this group is not shy about spending money on players: North Carolina, USC, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon. They all will likely have one player getting our whole budget. Kentucky was reported with having a $22M budget last year.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I don't know why the portal window needs to be two weeks long. Is a guy like Willis waiting to see how the dust settles a bit before making his decision? Can make it hard for the team that the player is currently on if they don't know if they need a replacement or not. It doesn't need to be more than 3 days.
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If you had worked at a company for about a year and were considering a change, would you be overly concerned about how your leaving, or the timing of when you turned in your notice was going to affect the company? Or would you be concentrating on whether you can get the new job in the first place and what timing of giving notice and being available for the new place would work best for you.

Pretty sure the guys who are considering transferring, for whatever reason, are far more concerned about how their choice and timing will affect their new path, rather than how it will affect their former team. The idea is that the company/team/athletic program will continue to function whether you stay or go. The level at which it functions isn't really your concern.
 


Spottedmuskie said:
Does our staff have anything to gain by leaking info to Ryan James/Tony Liebert, etc.? I like how tight lipped its been so far, ready for that first splash
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"No" to the question. They were tight lipped last year too. As you'll recall, there were significantly more releases about Gopher targets and visits during the Ben Johnson administration. The result of that was that the fans got to see how many targets Johnson failed to sign.
 


Ski-U-Ham said:
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UT Martin leaned heavily on the foreign market to say the least. Of their top 6 players in minutes played, 2 were Serbs, one was Lithuanian (Deniusas), one was from Bosnia-Herzegovina, one was from Slovakia, and another from Portugal.

The OVC isn't one of the strongest non-major leagues but Deniusas was pretty good for a freshman. Effective field goal percentage was mediocre but free throw shooting was good (75.2%) and he averaged almost 4 free throw attempts per game. In addition to being Rookie of the Year, he was second team All OVC. Player Efficiency Rating was quite good for a freshman (18.4) and he was 7th in the league for Win Shares per 40 Minutes (.141). He was 7th in the league in Box Plus/Minus. He was also 4th in the league in Defensive Rating.

I like that Medved is going after a freshman and he has the potential to play three years here.
 

Matas Deniusas would be a great a great addition to the roster. 6-9 FR
Story. Screenshot 2026-04-13 at 9.04.41 PM.png
Isaac Celiscar would be an excellent guard addition. 6-6 So. from Yale
Screenshot 2026-04-13 at 9.01.58 PM.png
Then add Kyan Evans

Hopefully, we close these 3 guys tomorrow. We have possibly met with all 3 in person from reports.
 

We get one of the Fortune 500 companies to hire Chris Voss every year for two weeks when the portal opens. He does in house training for the company for half the day and closes portal guys for the Gophers the other half of the day. Screenshot 2026-04-13 at 9.20.56 PM.png
Matas loves nature, misses the forests of Lithuania...you don't even need Chris Voss to take him on a hike overlooking the St Croix River, Lake Harriet etc. Nature we got.
Get it done.
 

Sorry if this was already posted somewhere. Not surprising but now officially official.

 

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