The 2023 Official “Jay Bilas No Rules” Transfer Portal Thread

[ShockerFever]

Low. But after reading all of the sunshine and rainbow posts on here about how great he and his staff are and how they're going to upgrade the talent level and do big things early, and that was before the Abmas rumors, one starts to wonder. Especially when the unicorn crowd shits on anyone who doesn't fall in line. So many of them are so damn certain that things will be better from day one regardless of the lack of supporting evidence.

I'm waiting to see the full roster. But as of now, I don't get the excitement levels of many. I'm pretty sure we could sign a kid that say the bench at Alcorn State and some on here would talk about him like he's the 2nd coming of FVV.

It's no secret I wanted Brown gone. It's also no secret I wasn't near as high on the Mills hire that so many on here became after he was hired. Even though most on here had him rather low on the list of possibilities prior to being hired. I don't change my thoughts just because someone is now a Shocker. I hope he works out. I hope he's better than I think he is. I hope he can recruit better than I think he can. But I have to see it to believe it. There's nothing to see yet.

If your expectations are truly low, then you’ll have no problem with patience with a first-year coach.

He’s literally been on the job for one month and some are already hedging towards “failure”.

You made a statement initially that you would be happy with a roster overhaul. Now you seem to be questioning it. And it’s not even complete yet.

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

Low. But after reading all of the sunshine and rainbow posts on here about how great he and his staff are and how they're going to upgrade the talent level and do big things early, and that was before the Abmas rumors, one starts to wonder. Especially when the unicorn crowd shits on anyone who doesn't fall in line. So many of them are so damn certain that things will be better from day one regardless of the lack of supporting evidence.

I'm waiting to see the full roster. But as of now, I don't get the excitement levels of many. I'm pretty sure we could sign a kid that say the bench at Alcorn State and some on here would talk about him like he's the 2nd coming of FVV.

It's no secret I wanted Brown gone. It's also no secret I wasn't near as high on the Mills hire that so many on here became after he was hired. Even though most on here had him rather low on the list of possibilities prior to being hired. I don't change my thoughts just because someone is now a Shocker. I hope he works out. I hope he's better than I think he is. I hope he can recruit better than I think he can. But I have to see it to believe it. There's nothing to see yet.

I don't think I have seen anyone on here saying he would do big things early. I think everyone on here fully expects it to take a while. I could be wrong and maybe I missed it though.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

It's not a bad thing if you're able to upgrade talent. We've only added two guys so far, but neither I'd consider an upgrade over what we lost at their positions.

If we're looking at production, I'd probably give the edge to Jacob Germany over Kenny Pohto. I think Kenny has a lot of potential, but Germany is a proven replacement.

Germany 2022-23 Per Game Stats

• Minutes: 26.9
• Points: 12.3
• Rebounds: 8.3
• Assists: 0.9
• Blocks: 0.83
• Turnovers: 2.3

Pohto 2022-23 Per Game Stats

• Minutes: 26.8
• Points: 8.7
• Rebounds: 5.7
• Assists: 1.9
• Blocks: 0.74
• Turnovers: 1.26

[WstateU]

Come on Chase!!!

Koch Industries could use an up-and-coming spokesman!!!

Or our ‘ace in the hole’ Tom Kosich...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kosich-37827732?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

[Stickboy46]

Even though we have six scholarships available, Mills isn't averse to letting a couple go unused, as he did his first year at ORU.

I'm not saying that's what I want to see happen, but if he can get a couple of PGs, a SF/PF guy and a PF/C guy we would at least have enough to put on the floor and absorb an injury or two while the staff works on getting some young talent in here. Even with the portal and NIL, I think we need to pull in a few kids from HS or juco.

I'm not sure I buy there is a benefit to leaving scholarships open in a world where you should realistically expect to lose half your roster every year anyways. We've left one open in the past and it seemed to bite us with injuries through the year. You can get away with leaving multiple open at a place like Oral Roberts because expectations there are low. I'm not signed up to the fact that we have "throwaway" years at WSU. It's a flag to me if you cant find 13 AAC level people that want to play for you as the coach of WSU IMO.

Right now we have 5 players who I would put into the "Solid AAC-Level Bench players" (Germany, Bell, Ballard, Ricks, Abidde). You might see one of them become a starter level player but shouldn't be counted on based on what we know. (Germany with lots of potential there but hard to say because UTSA was so bad). Beverly and Rogers are both unknowns at this level. Rogers looked great at a lower level and Beverly was bench level in the ACC. So as of right now we have 6 scholarship to IMO find at least 5 starter level players. You really can't leave any scholarship open if we are going to be competitive this year.

My hopes are we can be AT LEAST a upper half (ideally first day bye) AAC team and be in the hunt for the NIT this year. I don't think that's crazy expectations for a program of WSU calibers. It should be the bare minimum expectation every year.

[Shockm]

I understand, but also think it's a bit unfair to compare Tang's situation with Mills. We're not in an attractive conference, it turned out that Nowell might have been the best pg in the country, and from what I remember, Tang really only got one big piece (albiet, very big) in the transfer portal. I think Manhattan has a lot of local businesses (I know one of the car dealerships is very big into NIL) that help with their NIL funds.

BUT, I do agree that the portal makes rebuilding less of a process. I think this year is a good example. KSU has been linked to some pretty high-profile portal guys since their E8 run.

We almost beat KSU with last years team. I’m going to wait until this recruiting year fully plays out. Quit putting seat belts on the team before we know anything. From what I can see, Johnson was the only big timer (4* or maybe 5*) that was new. KSU had a lot of role players, and they were a little up and down, but they and several players reached a peak at the right time with a few players exceeding their expectations in March.

[SubGod22]

If your expectations are truly low, then you’ll have no problem with patience with a first-year coach.

He’s literally been on the job for one month and some are already hedging towards “failure”.

You made a statement initially that you would be happy with a roster overhaul. Now you seem to be questioning it. And it’s not even complete yet.

I said I was willing to lose the entire roster for the right coach. I'm not convinced we have the right coach.

I question the cheer leading by some because the talent level at this point is still below last years squad.

Those are simply observations. But if I'm not allowed to have differing thoughts from the rah rah crowd I can stop posting. I won't stop, so you can keep classifying it however inaccurately you choose. You're becoming as bad ash ShockM has been in the past in twisting everyone's words to fit whatever narrative you wish to put out there.

[SubGod22]

If we're looking at production, I'd probably give the edge to Jacob Germany over Kenny Pohto. I think Kenny has a lot of potential, but Germany is a proven replacement.

Germany 2022-23 Per Game Stats

• Minutes: 26.9
• Points: 12.3
• Rebounds: 8.3
• Assists: 0.9
• Blocks: 0.83
• Turnovers: 2.3

Pohto 2022-23 Per Game Stats

• Minutes: 26.8
• Points: 8.7
• Rebounds: 5.7
• Assists: 1.9
• Blocks: 0.74
• Turnovers: 1.26

A SR who has most likely hit his limit and a SO who was just finding his groove later in the season. I'll take Pohto if we're just picking one.

[wsushockerdude]

I said I was willing to lose the entire roster for the right coach. I'm not convinced we have the right coach.

I question the cheer leading by some because the talent level at this point is still below last years squad.

Those are simply observations. But if I'm not allowed to have differing thoughts from the rah rah crowd I can stop posting. I won't stop, so you can keep classifying it however inaccurately you choose. You're becoming as bad ash ShockM has been in the past in twisting everyone's words to fit whatever narrative you wish to put out there.

You're so persecuted, aren't you?

[Slackpacker]

Low. But after reading all of the sunshine and rainbow posts on here about how great he and his staff are and how they're going to upgrade the talent level and do big things early, and that was before the Abmas rumors, one starts to wonder. Especially when the unicorn crowd shits on anyone who doesn't fall in line. So many of them are so damn certain that things will be better from day one regardless of the lack of supporting evidence.

I'm waiting to see the full roster. But as of now, I don't get the excitement levels of many. I'm pretty sure we could sign a kid that say the bench at Alcorn State and some on here would talk about him like he's the 2nd coming of FVV.

It's no secret I wanted Brown gone. It's also no secret I wasn't near as high on the Mills hire that so many on here became after he was hired. Even though most on here had him rather low on the list of possibilities prior to being hired. I don't change my thoughts just because someone is now a Shocker. I hope he works out. I hope he's better than I think he is. I hope he can recruit better than I think he can. But I have to see it to believe it. There's nothing to see yet.

I agree with this to some extent. We've all got to be careful about expectations that are unrealistically high, whether we get Abmas or not. I think the likelihood of success the first year would be better with a great player like Abmas, but this first year is going to be a tough hill to climb no matter what. IB in his "interim" first year had some pretty salty players and some experience as well. He largely kept the same system the players had experience with. He knew their strengths and weaknesses having watched them play in actual games. As a result he was able to exceed expectations his first year before everything went downhill from there. Mills is going to have no experienced players whatsoever playing his system (unless we get Abmas), and even very few players who have ever even met one another. Barring some portal miracles, I suspect this first year will be pretty mediocre. The important thing is that Mills shows us what the future can look like. That he starts getting people excited about the program, get businesses interested in providing NIL money. Basically, Mills has to demonstrate that the trajectory of the program is back to moving upward. That is what IB couldn't do, and that more than anything cost him his job. Mills gets a "clean slate" to work from but it won't matter if the fans are expecting a return to the NCAA tournament this coming season.

[BOBB]

Then it's also too ridiculously early for you to say it's dumb. We are all just throwing our opinions out here. Right now we lost the 5 top scorers off an average team and have brought in a decent Center and a guy with a 5.3ppg 39%/22%/63% 4 year (or 3.5) career average. Add to that we are likely missing out on our most realistic impact player for next year.

Right now the realistic take is that things don't have much momentum. The sunshine and rainbows take is that we will magically be better even without any buzz around the program. Neither are dumb, just different opinions.

I had written this season off as soon as we fired IB. Plenty of decent pieces out there in the portal, but those thinking we were going to be improved in the W/L perspective are on hopium and copium, bigly. If we are playing better in February of 2024 than November of 2023 then I’ll feel good about the hire. Regardless of record.

Gregg Marshall won 11 games in his first season here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar this coming year.

[Stickboy46]

If we're looking at production, I'd probably give the edge to Jacob Germany over Kenny Pohto. I think Kenny has a lot of potential, but Germany is a proven replacement.

Germany 2022-23 Per Game Stats

• Minutes: 26.9
• Points: 12.3
• Rebounds: 8.3
• Assists: 0.9
• Blocks: 0.83
• Turnovers: 2.3

Pohto 2022-23 Per Game Stats

• Minutes: 26.8
• Points: 8.7
• Rebounds: 5.7
• Assists: 1.9
• Blocks: 0.74
• Turnovers: 1.26

I agree from a per game stat perspective. My only caution is that UTSA was bad .. really bad and they played one of the easiest schedules in D1 (288th per NET). So when comparing the two, I'm generally taking it with a grain of salt and saying that probably roughly comparable. I still think both of them are AAC-Backup quality centers and not starter level IMO.

[Topshock]

I had written this season off as soon as we fired IB. Plenty of decent pieces out there in the portal, but those thinking we were going to be improved in the W/L perspective are on hopium and copium, bigly. If we are playing better in February of 2024 than November of 2023 then I’ll feel good about the hire. Regardless of record.

Gregg Marshall won 11 games in his first season here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar this coming year.

I would agree with that, if the college basketball world was the same as then. It Isn't.

In this era, with so many players available, if you haven't turned a program in 2 years it probably isn't happening. If you can recruit good young players and keep them in the program then that doesn't apply. There doesn't seem to be many coaches that can do that however. I would be thrilled if we had one of them.

[Stickboy46]

I had written this season off as soon as we fired IB. Plenty of decent pieces out there in the portal, but those thinking we were going to be improved in the W/L perspective are on hopium and copium, bigly. If we are playing better in February of 2024 than November of 2023 then I’ll feel good about the hire. Regardless of record.

Gregg Marshall won 11 games in his first season here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar this coming year.

All true statements. I just think the program itself is in a better position and thus has higher expectations now than when 3G took over. And to be clear, that is thanks to the amazing work that 3G did. We are more of name brand, in a better conference and just shouldn't ever be looking at 11 win seasons again. Especially when you have access to the transfer portal now.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

A SR who has most likely hit his limit and a SO who was just finding his groove later in the season. I'll take Pohto if we're just picking one.

Kenny is a JR this year but point taken. I'm just saying that, untapped potential aside, Germany outproduced Pohto by a decent margin in identical minutes last season. Germany also averaged 15 and 7 as a SO.