MBB: One less incoming freshman

[Friscobull]

30 minutes ago, bullnupe said:

you do know Fred Lewis was a transfer from UT right ?

Hakim was on that team also 

I forgot, knew Fred was a Chamberlain grad and forgot he came To us late in his eligibility, Hakim graduated prior to the at large bid in the metro, so he was not part of that year but was my second favorite player. The sunbelt conf championship was not our best year but it was our only championship, kinda of sad 

[Dave_Glaser]

13 hours ago, Friscobull said:

Why would you not reference Dobras, Alexander, Lewis, and Russell?  they were more successful.  We had to use transfers to plug the numerous holes, CBG has built a nice team full of 4 year guys, just need a couple of missing pieces to complete the puzzle which is the transfer route. Many of the years we had no choice due to lack of depth.

I mentioned the group I did because they had a longer run of “success.” The group you list had bigger success. The group I listed was part of a 6-year run of records at .500 or better - something I can’t remember happening before or since. My point is, they did it primarily with high school recruits. There were always JUCOs and transfers in the mix, but the core was 4-year guys. I hope we don’t go away from that because it hurts the continuity in the program. I’m just saying if you go 2-3 years in a row and whiff on prep players, you’re going to constantly be rebuilding year after year.

[Dave_Glaser]

13 hours ago, Triple B said:

We were consistently competitive back then but never competitive enough to do anything of note. Our best year we were a blend of a little youth (AC), some home grown experience(Toarlyn, Gus) and transfers (VR, RAJ, Jawanza & Hugh). Love the guys you mentioned but they never came close to the success of that year. I'd love to be able to take another step with primarily 4 year players, and we might initially because of the situation CBG came into where he was able to bring in the current players you mention and pretty much guarantee them substantial playing time. As we progress, though, it's going to be harder to do that so I think you're going to see more transitions like this year. Good thing is the staff has so far shown to be fairly good at the transfer/juco thing so while I don't want to see a whole roster of transfers, I think they're still going to be a key part of the program for awhile.

I get that, but what I’m talking about is achieving sustained success. Yes, you can cobble a team together at times and put together a good year, but look at our history, we end up right back in the tank quickly. I think the best way to build a program that can compete annually is by doing it with 4-year guys. Again, I think it’s important not to miss 2-3 years in a row with high school players or you’re going to consistently be rebuilding year after year. I’m not criticizing Coach Gregory. I think he’s done it right with guys like Collins, Brown, Yetna, Durr, Castenada, Williams. I’m just hoping we can stay on that path and not rely on transfers for our core. McCullum - outside of Dominique Jones - and Antigua couldn’t recruit prep players and look where that got us.

[Basketball Jones]

On 4/30/2020 at 12:25 PM, Dave_Glaser said:

I start to get nervous every time our hoops program begins to rely on transfers. We're building something solid right now because we have four-year guys - DC, JB, Durr, X, Lex. Just like when we had guys like B.B., Altron, Ced Smith, Chonsey Asbury, Art Reeves, Reggie Kohn. That's the only time we've been able to put a team on the floor that was consistently competitive. 

Let's PLEASE not go back to relying completely on transfers again. We missed last year, unless Chaplin develops. Murphy has to be the guy. We can't miss a few years in a row with high school players or it's back to piecing a roster together every year and rolling the dice.

I like how you are thinking. The challenge is that around 1,000 Division I basketball players transfer every year. Most of these transfers occur shortly after the season ends and most HS players who are available in March are either among the best players in the nation and they're waiting to see what the rosters look like at schools like Duke, Kentucky and Kansas. Or they are not good enough to be impact players in the American. Or they have academic issues and are likely headed for a JuCo.

But the players who are available and are good enough are...transfers.

It is quite the conundrum.

On 4/30/2020 at 8:19 AM, brybull1970 said:

With our long history of developing shooters I would think we could improve upon that 32%. 

All the way up to 33%

[Roaming Bull]

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/bulls/2020/04/29/usf-hoops-signee-caleb-murphy-no-72-in-espn-100/?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true
 In other basketball related news this seems promising....

[Triple B]

3 hours ago, brybull1970 said:

Wasn't Gary Alexander an FSU transfer as well?

Only FSU transfer I can remember is Jesse Salters .... Think GA was here 4 years, one of my favorite players.

[Friscobull]

3 hours ago, brybull1970 said:

Wasn't Gary Alexander an FSU transfer as well?

No, salters was but Gary was a prop 48 only, and he graduated early, our college tutors used to rock the house. He was in my psych class and only attended once, good stuff!

 

[JTrue]

11 minutes ago, Friscobull said:

No, salters was but Gary was a prop 48 only, and he graduated early, our college tutors used to rock the house. He was in my psych class and only attended once, good stuff!

 

That's the difference between a "major" athletics program and all the others. I remember thinking when I went away to college as an athlete that I was going to be treated like I had always heard. Nope. I had an 8:00am class my freshman year, Music of Western Civilizations, to satisfy my arts requirement. My roommate and I skipped a couple the first few weeks and I showed up to practice one afternoon and my coach pulled us both aside and politely (not so politely) explained that he wasn't paying for us to sleep in and it would be in our best interest to start attending. Then he had us stay after practice and said, and this is a direct quote, "You're going to run until I get tired." And then he pulled out a god **** chair.

[Ricky the Bull]

20 hours ago, Triple B said:

Only FSU transfer I can remember is Jesse Salters .... Think GA was here 4 years, one of my favorite players.

In the "Where are they now?" department, Salters is the principal of Blake High School in Tampa.

[Triple B]

58 minutes ago, Ricky the Bull said:

In the "Where are they now?" department, Salters is the principal of Blake High School in Tampa.

And in the WATN? department Part Deux, Derrick Sharp is his basketball coach, with an SG son playing for him who's currently ranked #50 in the Class of 2022 ...