2022 Transfer Portal Discussion

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cjbfbp said:
We've had short point guards before who have been successful. Larson was a surprisingly good rebounder for a 6'1" guard. Larson is good enough to be offered and pursued by a program of our stature at this point and, hopefully, the local origin will help.

His player efficiency rating and win shares per 40 minutes were pretty decent this past season. He played 32 minutes per game (durability and stamina appear to be necessary qualities for Ben's starters). He's not a big scorer but he hit double figures in 13 games this season. He averaged a respectable 3.6 assists per game and his assist to turnover was bit above 2 to 1. He is a very good free throw shooter. He had fair games against higher level competition (Clemson, Georgia, South Carolina, and Chattanooga).
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Can he play defense?
 

Spottedmuskie said:
I'm not holding my breath and doubt we get him, but how hard is it to reach out and make one little call/salespitch? There are many teams doing this who are scouting their opponents in the NCAA tourney yet still reaching out. It would be very lazy on our end if we didn't do anything. The portal is about to blow up in a few weeks, we need to extend an offer to every decent player we can right now, and be choosy later when the portal is 3x as big
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Of course, you want to offer. You can't end up on a list of finalists if you don't offer and a big man should be the #1 priority right now because capable ones are the scarcest commodity. I agree with you about offering as many as we can but realistically there are only so many we can put the time in to pursue. We probably need about 4 transfers; better than last year but still a time consuming task.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Can he play defense?
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Don't really know. I haven't watched him and I think you need to watch a player for a significant amount of time to get a decent handle on that. However, I did find these defensive rankings on his sports reference page:

Defensive Box Plus/Minus
2019-20 Southern 2.1 (6th)
2020-21 Southern 2.6 (3rd)
2021-22 Southern 0.6 (10th)
Career Southern 1.7 (18th

Defensive Rating
2020-21 Southern 98.4 (11th)
2021-22 Southern 102.9 (16th)
 

Keyser Söze said:
Has Kerwin not been a good defender for UNC? I haven't watched him play, but I think he had a good reputation as a defender coming out of high school?
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Maybe it's just a matter of UNC having better options this year than last year. UNC has a much more successful team this season than last season. Of course, they also have a different coach this season and a new coach may just prefer to give more minutes to another player. Walton's composite performance metrics (that are not dependent upon minutes played) have declined significantly this season (7.1 PER this year vs. 15.9 last year; .052 Win shares per 40 this season vs. .148 last season). That's not so unusual when a player gets demoted. I notice that a few other NC guards (Love, Davis, and Johnson) are playing noticeably more minutes this season than last season. Those players were the #13, #43, and #59 players respectively coming out of high school for their years.

UNC has 9 former top 100 high school players on their team and one who wasn't is a big impact 5th year transfer from Oklahoma. Must be nice.
 

cjbfbp said:
Maybe it's just a matter of UNC having better options this year than last year. UNC has a much more successful team this season than last season. Of course, they also have a different coach this season and a new coach may just prefer to give more minutes to another player. Walton's composite performance metrics (that are not dependent upon minutes played) have declined significantly this season (7.1 PER this year vs. 15.9 last year; .052 Win shares per 40 this season vs. .148 last season). That's not so unusual when a player gets demoted. I notice that a few other NC guards (Love, Davis, and Johnson) are playing noticeably more minutes this season than last season. Those players were the #13, #43, and #59 players respectively coming out of high school for their years.

UNC has 9 former top 100 high school players on their team and one who wasn't is a big impact 5th year transfer from Oklahoma. Must be nice.
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The guards playing over Walton were at UNC last season, but it appears they have improved and Walton hasn't. Manek from Oklahoma is really the only difference between last years team and this one.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
The guards playing over Walton were at UNC last season, but it appears they have improved and Walton hasn't. Manek from Oklahoma is really the only difference between last years team and this one.
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Yes, that's what I meant. Also, a new coach can have different preferences.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
I'm not so sure about a player like Larson. He is only 6'1". Loewe is 6'4" and averaged almost twice as many ppg agaisnt similar competition. Larson probably a better shooter though. EJ Stephens put up 16.4 ppg at Layfatte while being 6'3". If Larson wasn't from Minnesota we wouldn't be talking about him.
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Agree. I base that on very limited Wofoord highlights that are available. Looks to be a perimeter type player and lacks quick feet. Good FT and from 3 range but doesn't appear to be top BIG PG material. He has lots of game experience which is always helpful.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Agree. I base that on very limited Wofoord highlights that are available. Looks to be a perimeter type player and lacks quick feet. Good FT and from 3 range but doesn't appear to be top BIG PG material. He has lots of game experience which is always helpful.
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I wouldn't want him to get Loewe minutes, but if he can be a dependable 10-15 minutes of heady guard play and defense off the bench then I like it.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Good FT and from 3 range but doesn't appear to be top BIG PG material. He has lots of game experience which is always helpful.
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We are not likely to get a transfer point guard that is Top Big Ten Material. One who is experienced and capable, especially one with local ties, might be good enough. I would also mention that the previous Wofford point guard transferred to Virginia Tech as a 5th year and started there this season. They had a pretty good year and won the ACC tournament.

The key to the upcoming season is recruiting capable players for all of the spaces we have and not getting any duds. This season we had 3 duds, one freshman with potential who wasn't ready, and a veteran big man with a history of damaging health issues that limited him physically; we only had a 10 man active scholarship roster so that's 50% of the scholarship roster.

A transfer point guard doesn't have to be great; experienced and capable is good enough.
 
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Well, no court time for #24 of the Tar Heels. Have to admit, thought they would get dumped and was prepared to keep checking the portal.
 



fan of Ray Williams said:
Lack of engagement meaning effort or hustle? Mental lapses?
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Yeah he doesn’t seem fully confident or bought in right now. Other guys passed him that he beat out last year. Just can be tough for a 20 year old to manage. Not knocking him. It’s part of the deal when you choose a blue blood
 



Gopherfan84 said:
Yeah he doesn’t seem fully confident or bought in right now. Other guys passed him that he beat out last year. Just can be tough for a 20 year old to manage. Not knocking him. It’s part of the deal when you choose a blue blood
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Understood. You were on top of Battle coming in last year. Any ideas on players this year?
 




South Dakota State's Noah Friedel enters the portal. Buried on the bench this year for unknown reasons. Didn't play last season in summit league tourney and opened up the door for Oral Robert's to advance. In three seasons with the Jacks 13.6ppg and 39% 3pt. Probably not a player Ben will target, but will be interesting to follow. Orginally committed to Wright State. Does Coach Nagy give him a call?
 


Spottedmuskie said:
South Dakota State's Noah Friedel enters the portal. Buried on the bench this year for unknown reasons. Didn't play last season in summit league tourney and opened up the door for Oral Robert's to advance. In three seasons with the Jacks 13.6ppg and 39% 3pt. Probably not a player Ben will target, but will be interesting to follow. Orginally committed to Wright State. Does Coach Nagy give him a call?
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Roland Brooks mentions Noah in an earlier post in this thread. Noah has some issues regarding mental health and he’s open about it on his Twitter account. He said he is looking for a school that understands and supports those type of issues. Wishing the best for him.
 
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Blackhammer said:
Michael Jones?
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Good player. From Woodbury. Played 3 years at Davidson but has senior status as he sat out with an injury his freshman year. Really good shooter. Scored in double figures in 21 of Davidson's games this season with a 29 point game against Richmond and a 21 point game against Alabama.
If he enters his name in the portal, he would be a very good acquisition.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Roland Brooks mentions Noah in an earlier post in this thread. Noah has some issues regarding mental health and he’s open about it on his Twitter account. He said he is looking for a school that understands and supports those type of issues. Wishing the best for him.
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Whoops, not sure how I missed that. A few issues we will probably never get the full story. Immature player the way it sounds and coaches were pretty harsh on him too. Already hearing rumors of Iowa State and Nebraska, not sure how credible those rumors are
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Roland Brooks mentions Noah in an earlier post in this thread. Noah has some issues regarding mental health and he’s open about it on his Twitter account. He said he is looking for a school that understands and supports those type of issues. Wishing the best for him.
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Well, whatever mental issues he may have, they didn't seem too detrimental to his playing when he took the court. 18.4 PER average in 3 seasons and that number improved each year. 58.1% career True Shooting Percentage. Averaged 13.6 points per game over his 3 years.
 


cjbfbp said:
Good player. From Woodbury. Played 3 years at Davidson but has senior status as he sat out with an injury his freshman year. Really good shooter. Scored in double figures in 21 of Davidson's games this season with a 29 point game against Richmond and a 21 point game against Alabama.
If he enters his name in the portal, he would be a very good acquisition.
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No grad school at Davidson either
 

Greissel to his "dream school" Nebraska. I guess everyone's dream is a little different 😁 . But knock one PG off the list.
 





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