I do think we made the gamble, and lost, as you said. I think we got desperate to land a big name that other programs were shying away from. This is why i wish we could get to a point where the players have to have some skin in the game for these NIL deals. A player like JQ should have never been in the position, or having the leverage, to get $2mil from any program.
Looking at it another way, what NFL player would get 10% of the team salary for a 1-year/unrestricted free agent deal, coming off an ACL tear? Like, does Patrick Mahomes even get that? You might give that to some of the NBAs best players, but someone like Tyler Herro isnt gonna get a deal like that. Thats essentially what we did with JQ. And other teams werent far behind our offer.
College basketball players might honestly have the most leverage of any sport out there right now. Unproven players are getting multi million dollar deals, where theres no penalty for not playing and they can leave after 1 year for a better deal. That is INSANE when you really think about it. Highway robbery.
