2022 Transfer Portal Discussion

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Gopher_In_NYC said:
Wow you must have been good!
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Lol I was not, I was a backup center at Minnehaha. A couple of the team captains’ parents signed us up for a bunch of tournaments/summer camps and this was one of them. I do remember that Jared Jeffries reffed or coaches one of our games. And we got to sleep in the student dorms which we thought was super cool.

I’d like to think I paved the path for Chet.
 

eker0016 said:
Lol I was not, I was a backup center at Minnehaha. A couple of the team captains’ parents on our team signed us up for a bunch of tournaments/summer camps and this was one of them. I do remember that Jared Jeffries reffed or coaches one of our games. And we got to sleep in the student dorms which we thought was super cool.

I’d like to think I paved the path for Chet.
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Great story - did u play against any renowned roundballers?
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Great story - did u play against any renowned roundballers?
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MNVCGUY said:
He didn't say we wouldn't need a PG but rather that we wouldn't need a scoring PG.

I will be surprised if we don't use 3 of the 4 transfer spots we have on guards with at least one going to a true PG. Last year we needed everything in the portal, this year we have fewer spots and a much bigger need in the backcourt to go along with some decent pieces in the front court that would get even better if Garcia comes on board.
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Assuming Ben gets Garcia we have 3 openings for this year, As of now there won’t be any seniors. We probably want 3 recruits for 2023 so any other transfers we get this year should be grad transfers.
 


Willwin40 said:
Assuming Ben gets Garcia we have 3 openings for this year, As of now there won’t be any seniors. We probably want 3 recruits for 2023 so any other transfers we get this year should be grad transfers.
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It is something to consider. I do hope at least 2 are grad transfers But We will have moving parts next year regardless.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Great story - did u play against any renowned roundballers?
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I scored a 3 point play on Kris Humphries when we hosted Hopkins. I think he put up 25 points that night. I guarded Dan Coleman though on D and I remember sagging off him a bit on the 3PT line...he drained it. I was our biggest guy so I played a lot more that game.

Unless you were around at the same time you probably don't remember most: we played against Eric Webb of Grand Rapids who was sneaky good, Stephen King from Holy Angels was a great shooter, Jonathan Williams from St. Cloud was big and strong, and John Carlson from Litchfield (who went on to play football for Notre Dame/Seahawks) who I remember being the strongest guy I ever played against. DeLaSalle was our big rival (who I don't think we ever beat) and they had some really good players, like Jadee Jones (cousin of Tyus I think?) and Travis Bledsoe. Also I remember our coach talking about Dave Thorson with a lot of respect, and then how much Thorson yelled during games was eye opening.

Dominique Byrd was a very athletic forward for Breck who went to USC and was drafted in the 3rd round by the Rams. I still remember our coach saying he had a tendency to be lazy/disengaged in the game as long as we didn't trash talk him, so one of our players who had a few technicals and who had a penchant for getting fired up was warned to not engage him. We beat them.

My favorite story though was when I was a junior, we played a holiday tournament hosted by a team near Duluth. I think it was Hinckley-Finlayson, or may Cloquet? They had a JV squad who wanted to play a game and Minnehaha had no JV...so our coach just played our 5 man bench, "Iron 5" style against their JV. I had a triple double that day -- 27 points, 17 rebounds, 11 blocks. I'm 6'7" and I think the tallest player on their team couldn't have been bigger than 5'11". Good times man.

Okay I'll stop derailing the thread now.
 


eker0016 said:
I scored a 3 point play on Kris Humphries when we hosted Hopkins. I think he put up 25 points that night. I guarded Dan Coleman though on D and I remember sagging off him a bit on the 3PT line...he drained it. I was our biggest guy so I played a lot more that game.

Unless you were around at the same time you probably don't remember most: we played against Eric Webb of Grand Rapids who was sneaky good, Stephen King from Holy Angels was a great shooter, Jonathan Williams from St. Cloud was big and strong, and John Carlson from Litchfield (who went on to play football for Notre Dame/Seahawks) who I remember being the strongest guy I ever played against. DeLaSalle was our big rival (who I don't think we ever beat) and they had some really good players, like Jadee Jones (cousin of Tyus I think?) and Travis Bledsoe. Also I remember our coach talking about Dave Thorson with a lot of respect, and then how much Thorson yelled during games was eye opening.

Dominique Byrd was a very athletic forward for Breck who went to USC and was drafted in the 3rd round by the Rams. I still remember our coach saying he had a tendency to be lazy/disengaged in the game as long as we didn't trash talk him, so one of our players who had a few technicals and who had a penchant for getting fired up was warned to not engage him. We beat them.

My favorite story though was when I was a junior, we played a holiday tournament hosted by a team near Duluth. I think it was Hinckley-Finlayson, or may Cloquet? They had a JV squad who wanted to play a game and Minnehaha had no JV...so our coach just played our 5 man bench, "Iron 5" style against their JV. I had a triple double that day -- 27 points, 17 rebounds, 11 blocks. I'm 6'7" and I think the tallest player on their team couldn't have been bigger than 5'11". Good times man.

Okay I'll stop derailing the thread now.
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Great tidbits and I really like those kind of sports anecdotes - I’m much older than you, but recognize moar of those names as a long time recruitnick - helped me stay tethered to MN since I moved away 25 years ago,

Your Triple D is great 👍

mine was on a nerf hoop against a neighbor kid I babysat - beat him in DOT🍾🥳🎊!
 











eker0016 said:
I scored a 3 point play on Kris Humphries when we hosted Hopkins. I think he put up 25 points that night. I guarded Dan Coleman though on D and I remember sagging off him a bit on the 3PT line...he drained it. I was our biggest guy so I played a lot more that game.

Unless you were around at the same time you probably don't remember most: we played against Eric Webb of Grand Rapids who was sneaky good, Stephen King from Holy Angels was a great shooter, Jonathan Williams from St. Cloud was big and strong, and John Carlson from Litchfield (who went on to play football for Notre Dame/Seahawks) who I remember being the strongest guy I ever played against. DeLaSalle was our big rival (who I don't think we ever beat) and they had some really good players, like Jadee Jones (cousin of Tyus I think?) and Travis Bledsoe. Also I remember our coach talking about Dave Thorson with a lot of respect, and then how much Thorson yelled during games was eye opening.

Dominique Byrd was a very athletic forward for Breck who went to USC and was drafted in the 3rd round by the Rams. I still remember our coach saying he had a tendency to be lazy/disengaged in the game as long as we didn't trash talk him, so one of our players who had a few technicals and who had a penchant for getting fired up was warned to not engage him. We beat them.

My favorite story though was when I was a junior, we played a holiday tournament hosted by a team near Duluth. I think it was Hinckley-Finlayson, or may Cloquet? They had a JV squad who wanted to play a game and Minnehaha had no JV...so our coach just played our 5 man bench, "Iron 5" style against their JV. I had a triple double that day -- 27 points, 17 rebounds, 11 blocks. I'm 6'7" and I think the tallest player on their team couldn't have been bigger than 5'11". Good times man.

Okay I'll stop derailing the thread now.
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That's too awesome. Thanks for that.
 


Gopher_In_NYC said:
Great tidbits and I really like those kind of sports anecdotes - I’m much older than you, but recognize moar of those names as a long time recruitnick - helped me stay tethered to MN since I moved away 25 years ago,

Your Triple D is great 👍

mine was on a nerf hoop against a neighbor kid I babysat - beat him in DOT🍾🥳🎊!
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BTChamp said:
That's too awesome. Thanks for that.
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You're welcome! I left Minnesota in 2008 after grad school so following the Gophers is one of the ways I stay connected as well.

Last story I forgot to add -- the Braham Bombers.

I remember playing them in a summer/fall league game, and we completely underestimated them. Tiny ass town with a bunch of skinny farm boys and no size on their team, we thought it would be a cake walk.

We beat them but they gave us a real run for our money. One of our players was so exasperated that it was a back and forth game, he cussed us all out during a timeout in the huddle. Isaiah and Noah Dahlman would have been freshmen/sophomores and I had no idea who they were at the time, but they were ballers even back then.
 

Willwin40 said:
Assuming Ben gets Garcia we have 3 openings for this year, As of now there won’t be any seniors. We probably want 3 recruits for 2023 so any other transfers we get this year should be grad transfers.
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Yeah, it' interesting. With the transfer portal, I think pushing people out of a program is less looked down upon. So I think we want to add seniors for the reason you mentioned, but if we can get much better players who are juniors, I could see us going that route and "figuring out" the scholarship numbers later.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, it' interesting. With the transfer portal, I think pushing people out of a program is less looked down upon. So I think we want to add seniors for the reason you mentioned, but if we can get much better players who are juniors, I could see us going that route and "figuring out" the scholarship numbers later.
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I think the concept of balancing classes is dying a slow death. There is so much movement it becomes almost unnecessary. I suppose the one notable exception would be developmental programs who want to avoid the reputation of recruiting over guys who have paid their dues.
 

Holy Man said:
I think the concept of balancing classes is dying a slow death. There is so much movement it becomes almost unnecessary. I suppose the one notable exception would be developmental programs who want to avoid the reputation of recruiting over guys who have paid their dues.
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Yes, and maybe not a slow death. A few posters here still stress "balancing classes" but it's fairly meaningless now. As far as the transfer portal vs. prep recruiting, we should note that the two most successful recruiters of national freshman talent (Calipari and Coach K) have also gone to the transfer portal.

I don't suppose Musselman of Arkansas cares too much about balancing classes these days. He brought in 5 transfers last summer and 3 of them were seniors. His team returned to the regional final. He had 5 seniors, 2 juniors, and 4 sophs. He had one freshman (a top 100 player) who played 8 minutes during the season. The 2 juniors didn't play that much so his rotation consisted mostly of seniors and sophs.
 

ecoperson said:
Couple hours from Philly where he grew up. Everyone thought the other U was the team to beat.
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There must be more to it than that. All of the following are closer to Philadelphia (or in the Philly metro):

Temple
La Salle
St. Josephs
Villanova
Drexel
Rutgers
Delaware
Lehigh
Lafayette
Monmouth
Rider
Seton Hall
St. Peters

I left out a few (including two Ivy schools that don't give 5th year scholarships)

Now, maybe some of these programs might not have admitted him (Lafayette, Lehigh) or given him a scholarship (Villanova, Seton Hall) but that still leaves more than a few better programs that are closer to home. Maybe there's a personal connection here or maybe he wanted to try a historical black college after many years of going to very white schools (including his exclusive prep high school).
 
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cjbfbp said:
There must be more to it than that. All of the following are closer to Philadelphia (or in the Philly metro):

Temple
La Salle
St. Josephs
Villanova
Drexel
Rutgers
Delaware
Lehigh
Lafayette
Monmouth
Rider
Seton Hall
St. Peters

I left out a few (including two Ivy schools that don't give 5th year scholarships)

Now, maybe some of these programs might not have admitted him (Lafayette, Lehigh) or given him a scholarship (Villanova, Seton Hall) but that still leaves more than a few better programs that are closer to home. Maybe there's a personal connection here or maybe he wanted to try a historical black college after many years of going to very white schools (including his exclusive prep high school).
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Good digging and speculation. Definitely an odd case...maybe he was looking for a place close to home with playing time available that gave him guarantees he could put up 20+ shots per game. He spent his first 2 years at Binghamton and was putting up 17.3 shots per game, averaging 19.4 points as a sophomore.

I did not know Coppin State was an HBCU but that could make sense as well. I taught at a fancy private middle school and our top student a couple years ago could have gone anywhere she wanted for high school. She chose her neighborhood public high school, which is not highly regarded and surprised a lot of people. In addition to being one of the few non-white students, most of her classmates would take off for a condo in Vail every weekend, and then vacation in Hawaii/Mexico/Europe etc. on breaks. I think she was ready for a change in scenery. I could definitely see Sessoms wanting to spend his grad year in a different setting.
 


cjbfbp said:
There must be more to it than that. All of the following are closer to Philadelphia (or in the Philly metro):

Temple
La Salle
St. Josephs
Villanova
Drexel
Rutgers
Delaware
Lehigh
Lafayette
Monmouth
Rider
Seton Hall
St. Peters

I left out a few (including two Ivy schools that don't give 5th year scholarships)

Now, maybe some of these programs might not have admitted him (Lafayette, Lehigh) or given him a scholarship (Villanova, Seton Hall) but that still leaves more than a few better programs that are closer to home. Maybe there's a personal connection here or maybe he wanted to try a historical black college after many years of going to very white schools (including his exclusive prep high school).
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Ivy does not give any scholarships -- academic or athletic. It is only need-based. Source: I went to one.
 

mn_optimist said:
Ivy does not give any scholarships -- academic or athletic. It is only need-based. Source: I went to one.
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Well, OK, but -

1) You have to be admitted (not an easy thing) because of some mixture of academic and extracurricular accomplishment; and

2) at approximately $60,000 tuition per year (and, of course, other necessities of considerable cost), the majority of students, even there, are going to require some sort of aid.

So, whatever they call the aid, #1 takes care of the accomplishment part.
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, OK, but -

1) You have to be admitted (not an easy thing) because of some mixture of academic and extracurricular accomplishment; and

2) at approximately $60,000 tuition per year (and, of course, other necessities of considerable cost), the majority of students, even there, are going to require some sort of aid.

So, whatever they call the aid, #1 takes care of the accomplishment part.
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Yes. I looked into the process myself out of high school.

It’s a semantical game they play, to portend of pureness.
 

eker0016 said:
Good digging and speculation. Definitely an odd case...maybe he was looking for a place close to home with playing time available that gave him guarantees he could put up 20+ shots per game. He spent his first 2 years at Binghamton and was putting up 17.3 shots per game, averaging 19.4 points as a sophomore.

I did not know Coppin State was an HBCU but that could make sense as well. I taught at a fancy private middle school and our top student a couple years ago could have gone anywhere she wanted for high school. She chose her neighborhood public high school, which is not highly regarded and surprised a lot of people. In addition to being one of the few non-white students, most of her classmates would take off for a condo in Vail every weekend, and then vacation in Hawaii/Mexico/Europe etc. on breaks. I think she was ready for a change in scenery. I could definitely see Sessoms wanting to spend his grad year in a different setting.
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Good story about your former student. A person who isn't of the dominant social strata would feel out of place in that environment and very well might want something different at their next stop.

If you count free throw attempts as half a shot, Sessoms took about 19 shots per game during his final season at Binghamton. That's one reason why I had misgivings about him coming here. He's a good scorer but ball dominant. I did like the ball movement on this year's team much better than Pitino's teams and I'd prefer to see that style continue.
 


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