Who would you spend NIL $ on for next year (current roster)
- Thread starter RUdepressed
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Only players whom I would make a concerted effort to retain are Francis and Powers.
Didn't read yesterday's comments until now; And hate to be extremely not happy after watching the worst (home court) effort of the year; but there is no one on this team that is a must have for next season. Agree that Francis is by far the closest - but this is a starting line-up portal rebuild. Now - don't know if D. Jones is a viable starter; and if Francis does start - he can't play alongside another 6' PG - not in this league. We mentioned others who would like to retain (for me as bench players). Powers, Nwuli, Buchanan, Dortch & Ware. If Mark stays - he needs to learn to shoot a little; otherwise go get a veteran PG. And don't care about any of this unless you find & pay for a Center - who actually looks like he can compete in this league.
FIne to keep Francis but literally anyone who wants to walk, should. The problem is that if Pike is still here (and I seriously doubt he will be), expect them to be replaced with more of the same…at best.
I have zero confidence that any of the freshmen will be legit B1G players, however, Powers has a shot.
I have zero confidence that any of the freshmen will be legit B1G players, however, Powers has a shot.
You really think there is $ there? We heard that about football and look at the guys they have been bringing in. Questionable if any are better than what we are losing. Keep and develop they youth, even if just for bench roles, this school can't afford new 13 man rosters.
Keep Francis.
Maybe Powers and Buchanan if price is right.
Everyone else... ehhhh...
Lino can't shoot from 3. That's a problem.
Maybe Powers and Buchanan if price is right.
Everyone else... ehhhh...
Lino can't shoot from 3. That's a problem.
He also can't shoot from 2.
Mods are claiming 8-10 million
Now they also claim its middle of pack..well thats bs...its in a grouping with bottom 5. We are not outspending UCLA or Nebraska
Even still its double the money from this year
Double the money, a year later, really means the money goes just as far as it did last year.
Basically college players are being payed too much..its sad. They arent worth this
Things will eventually find some equilibrium - but that isn't happening by next season; so for now - if we want to be competitive, you need to overpay for a decent (looks like he belongs in our league) Center & another top scorer; and no - I don't think realistically we will have the money for an entirely new starting five. But at least start off with paying significantly for the Center & SF; and add in Francis, Jones, Powers, Buchanan, Dortch. Then figure out who else to retain (and wants to stay) or thru the portal. And you shouldn't need to spend that much on 9 thru 12. Shouldn't need to constantly play that many anyway.
It’s fine to be optimistic on Jones but keep in mind he weighs 160 pounds and was a take by OSU because Diebler didn’t want to lose a local four star as a new HC. They weren’t high on him.
That doesn’t mean he won’t be good I’m just saying it’s not a player I would count on. If it works, great.
HC Pike and his salary agree
Who isn't being paid too much?
At least Baye Fall isn't in a 6 yesr contract with a $20+m buyout.
I'm not seeing that. Mark is a nice athlete who is out of control and can't shoot at all. For three years I've seen JMike's shooting ability ripped apart and him labeled a lower level player. He gets a layup blocked and everyone is all over him. Mark gets one blocked and its OK. He'll get better. JMike is about 40% from three and he can't shoot. Mark is 0-16 from three but it's OK. He'll get better. And if Mark has one foot out the door then his a%% should be glued to the bench, as should anyone who is talking about leaving.
I remember WVU had a good PG back in the BE days who didn’t take 3s. Commentators used to talk about it a lot in the Press Va days. I love defense so used to follow those Bob Huggins teams.
Just looked him up - Juwan Staten. Went 0-9 from 3 as WVU’s starting PG in 2012-13. Shot 40% from 3 the following year on low volume.
If D Jones is actually any good, he won’t be here next year. He sees what we all see.
There aren’t a lot bench 5s as good as Ogbole and we’d likely pay more for them than to keep him. Not sure he’ll get the waiver but if he does we should keep him.
We’re not buying 10+ players in the portal. It’s not a realistic strategy. If it’s so easy to get back up players, why do the last guys we bring in from the portal always end up riding the bench - Fall, Denis, Agee, PJ, etc.
We need to retain the 2 guys with starter / versatile 6 man potential on the roster (Tariq and Buchanan) along with one additional player minimum at each position group 1-5 who could at worst slot into a utility role:
One of Mark / J Mike
One of Powers / Zrno
One of Ogbole / Bryce (I’d prob keep both)
Group 3/4 together - 2 of Grant / Nwuli / Bryce / Denis
We shouldn’t really consider keeping Fall or Ware if they couldn’t see the floor at center on this team. Denis seems like a lost cause on D and Zrno’s starting price point might be too high.
But the bottom line is - it would be a pipe dream amazing feat if we actually succeeded in buying a proven starting center, a starting forward and a starting PG with height. We have one frosh recruit. That would only put us at 11 players. Even if Jones stays, that’s 12 and we’d still have 3 more slots available to fill in the portal / late frosh pick ups.
This team is awful. No one is must keep. Awful can be replaced by more awful pretty easily. Maybe a 35 year old Ogbole may finally get to playable
Powers is no longer a deep bench player as I think he's started the last couple of games. I think he has more upside than anyone on the team. When his defense gets better, and it will, he will be a better version of Caleb M. IMO.
Huh? Caleb was the best defender in the country, Powers is absolutely awful. If his defense gets better, it just reaches bad. He does project as a better offensive player, but even Caleb as a freshman had a better eFG%, TS% and still did everything else better too.
Why are you so down on Kaden Powers? His issues on D seem to be typical frosh stuff, not lack of hustle or athleticism. I think he’ll improve there.
While he hasn’t been efficient - he also started off the season going 0-6 (all from 3) in his first couple collegiate games. Since then he’s making almost 37% of his 3s. I think he’ll get better and probably won’t cost to much to keep around because of his ugly efficiency numbers. Don’t see a good reason to send him away.
Caleb put up 9 ppg. Our fans forget this. He wasn’t anemic on offense. Powers hurts us a lot on D this year but to be fair, Caleb wasn’t a good defensive player as a frosh either. Powers defensive issues seem teachable to me. I think he’d improve significantly in the off season under Pike if he ends up staying. Zrno on the other hand, is trying, but his issues on D seem more tied to his athleticism and agility issues.
Maybe. Caleb was working with much better natural size than Powers. Both he and Zrno have issues on help, which don't really involve the athleticism aspect, but Zrno definitely struggles chasing a guy around, no doubt. Caleb had that dog in him, not sure I see it in either Powers or Zrno. You have to want defense.
Difficult to project without knowing how much of a budget RU has for NIL nor how much the players will receive in NIL, To win (or at least be very competitive) you likely need a mix of 1-2 studs as well as some seasoned vets who are solid role players. Last season we had the studs, but fell very short in the "solid" role player department.
I'm going to take an educated guess that Pike will be back next season due purely to the financial situation (deficit at RU) and his $20M buyout. Will also assume that RU's NIL will be modest when compared to Peer BIG programs. With that in mind, and based on his history at RU both good and bad, as well as his relative number or "misses" from the transfer portal - the program might be best served trying to spend any NIL on player retention with a few transfer additions......rather than a complete purge of the current roster with a significant number of transfers in.
Seniors - (in) Francis, Buchanan, Davis........(out) Fall
Juniors- (in) Dortch, Grant - thinking that Grant will leave
Sophmores - (in) Powers, Mark, Nwuli, Zrno (out) Badalu (undecided - retain only if for basically no NIL) Ware
Freshman - Wooten, Jones??
That leaves 4-5 spots open: Focus on Portal Center & PG.
PG - Portal, Mark, Davis
SG - Francis, Powers
Wing - Nwuli, Zrno
Wing/Combo- Grant, Buchanan, Wooten
Center- Portal, Dortch
Caveats:
I'm going to take an educated guess that Pike will be back next season due purely to the financial situation (deficit at RU) and his $20M buyout. Will also assume that RU's NIL will be modest when compared to Peer BIG programs. With that in mind, and based on his history at RU both good and bad, as well as his relative number or "misses" from the transfer portal - the program might be best served trying to spend any NIL on player retention with a few transfer additions......rather than a complete purge of the current roster with a significant number of transfers in.
Seniors - (in) Francis, Buchanan, Davis........(out) Fall
Juniors- (in) Dortch, Grant - thinking that Grant will leave
Sophmores - (in) Powers, Mark, Nwuli, Zrno (out) Badalu (undecided - retain only if for basically no NIL) Ware
Freshman - Wooten, Jones??
That leaves 4-5 spots open: Focus on Portal Center & PG.
PG - Portal, Mark, Davis
SG - Francis, Powers
Wing - Nwuli, Zrno
Wing/Combo- Grant, Buchanan, Wooten
Center- Portal, Dortch
Caveats:
- Highest NIL target = PG
- RU will likely be priced out of any type of stud Center - so seek a 2nd tier guy with some offensive skills around the basket
- Prioritize Francis and Powers but do not over-pay NIL to retain as everyone is replaceable if they ask for too high $$$$.
- Focus on a core of 12 - fill out the roster with $0 NIL transfers (including Ware if he agrees to stay).
Dime a dozen..we should get better and more experienced in portal
Is he really showing more than Simpson showed..our bar is so low
It was a different situation. Derek was the highest usage player on our roster and he happened to play the same position as incoming frosh Dylan Harper. It’s hard to go from highest usage guy to back up. Keeping him that season wasn’t a good fit. Keeping him after his frosh season made sense.
Many players do show development after a full season in a system. And he’s not going to cost much. That’s why I’d keep him. We only have 13 active players on the roster now. We have Jones and could’ve take another if we wanted. We didn’t. We retained 4 players and brought in 4 frosh. We only landed 2 real transfers from the traditional American portal and both of them are starters and lead us in conference scoring. It took us to the very end of April to finally land the first of the two Euros. We scrambled to add another one later and then picked up Fall who is a waste of space. We added Jones who isn’t eligible and left the 15th spot open.
So let me ask the question - a different way. Based on that result, why do you think it’s in Rutgers best interest not to keep the inexpensive players on our roster in the hope that a few of them develop into guys who can help us? Do you really think by keeping only 3 guys on the current roster instead of 7 we’re going to land 4 better guys in the same price range to fill out our bench? We’re not buying 9-11 playable guys in the transfer portal. After the first 4-5 guys we would land, the rest would end up being deep bench players potentially not even at the high major level. Again - think about how the last cycle went. Money doesn’t only talk now in terms of the cash, it symbolizes projected playing time. Why on earth would Rutgers be an attractive place for anyone to come ride the bench? It’s much more likely we could convince the guys we have to stay and develop than convince someone to transfer here to start the development process sitting on the bench of what has been a losing team. Transfer know now when they are viewed as bench guys because the contract tells the story. The world is different.
And think of the grad who can’t find a job that lets them have a decent salary after busting their *** for four years at Rutgers. Will they even want to donate as alumni?
We can keep him but dont pay much but he is a bench player..he lijely wint want to hear that
We cant keep nwuli dortsch and grant..1 has to go
Yeah if he doesn’t turn it around. Let’s see what happens. Maybe Grant is starting to turn a corner. Tonight a good start. Need to see more. Zrno has been up and down. Will have to see how the rest of his season goes.
We should be looking to keep around 7 guys - Francis and Buchanan being locks, and then the others TBD based on how the rest of this season unfolds. With Jones and Wooten that would still leave up to 6 spots to guys in the portal if we wanted but I think the focus should be on getting 3 quality guys that fill the biggest holes we have right now and continuing to develop the 7 returners.
We need target a top tier center…big guys killed us in pick n rolls tonight and think they is truly the centerpiece of Pike defense. That Could also help in offense with Francis
Was so rough watching that collapse tonight