Mahi situation is a little different than Mahaney and Avila given Mahi’s JC tenure and the court ruling a year+ ago. I’d think Mahi and other would have a case if he tried. But I thought someone here mentioned Mahi was ready to move on, presumably to a pro career.
But not a fan of Mahaney, Avila, et al getting a 5th for really no reason…just feels wrong, especially when guys who came just before them (Cam) weren’t afforded the same luxury.
What I’d be more in favor of is for the NCAA to consider injury cases. I believe the medical redshirt ‘rule’ has been limited to playing a max of 30% of your team’s games; under that amount and you have a straightforward request though I assume it has to be backed up with medical reports, etc…can’t claim a medical redshirt for a hang nail. But I’d be in favor of the NCAA considering situations where a player missed significant playing time (say 1/3 to 1/2 of a season) but played more than 30% of games on multiple occasions over several seasons to consider giving them a 5th year.
I think Sash has room to grow yet. He’s not an NBA frame (short of being Curry-like), so I understand the incentive to maximize his time in college. But I think he should take a leap forward next season, and next year’s roster will need to replace a lot of scoring from Mahi, Hammond, and Graves. Sash getting to a place where he’s reliable for 12+ PPG would be huge, and he’s shown he can get there especially if he can move off ball a bit more with someone like Longcor doing more distribution.
Always enjoy your insights, Patty Mac. Good thought about Sash. Will be interesting to see how he matures in the next year. If I’m not mistaken, he is going to be a sophomore eligibility-wise so he has an opportunity to develop. Perhaps, like Hammond before him, he will play with a bit of a chip on his shoulder next year. I think we saw a creator in him this year (LMU, SMC 3). Sendek gives him a lot of latitude in the offense. There is room to grow as well as a passer, facilitator, and defender. Perhaps he becomes a leader that has not been seen yet. The fun is just beginning with him and the next band of Broncos.
I’m curious about how the rest of the portal machinations shake out. Obviously, everyone would prefer continuity and a foreseeable roster without annual churn, but one thing SCU can now do is sell player development and a chance to score a bigger bag at another school after a season or two here. In that regard Graves, Tilly, Hammond and maybe Bukky are as cogent selling points as Podz and JDub. I hate this idea, but the nomadic realities of the current portal/NIL situation, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to me, even if it’s unspoken.
Sendek and crew will certainly fill the lost production with aggregate pieces. Instead of replacing Elijah, Christian, and Graves 1:1 we’ll most likely mix the pieces we have with newer acquisitions. It can be hard to tell how much lf an increase Longcor or even KJ will receive. I imagine that the Broncos will look for a scoring engine and a low usage high efficiency big to out along side Sasha. I expect them the team Increase Sasha’s role as well.
In addition getting Normand and Tadjo are essentially like new portal acquisitions. Normand would be a floor spacer and Tadjo would be a rebounding unit that provides stability on the defensive side and low usage efficiency on offense.
I imagine we could use a PG to stabilize the offense. An offensive engine to pair with Sash and a rotational or development big with low usage and high efficiency. This tracks with the looks at Christian Fermin and Money Williams.
Sash can be a great shooter, but I just don’t like him handling the ball. He is very loose with the ball, and his one-hand push passes drive me nuts. I’d rather see him exclusively play the 2.
I know they don’t grow on trees but would love to find a pick and pop forward or center that can shoot 3s. Sash has a nice feel for that and orchestrated it well with Graves toward the end of the season. Ensminger will likely fill some of that role as I expect his shot volume to go way up next year. We are going to need him to score at least 10 points per game. Longcor will be a very good distributor and that should allow Sash to get off ball reps where he can put a lot of shots up. Cochran/Longcor/Sash should be a really solid perimeter but hopefully we can find a defensive specialist to join them.
I think Badibanga is supposed to be this, but it’ll be a big ask coming off his redshirt into his first D1 experience. Jolin also seems to have this potential, but you know how I feel about true frosh bigs (though Jolin is more of a long 3 like Badibanga).
There’s also tape of Tadjo being able to put the ball on the floor for a strong drive from the perimeter or close to it. It’s probably not his strong suit–I am not expecting anything like Mahi’s coordination when driving to the hoop–but there may be enough there to spread the defense.
Long time 20 year lurker here - with Bukky off to Auburn, it seems like the rumor that he was offered $2.5 million by an SEC team is true. At least the discussions if not the exact amount which I presume was quite generous in any event.
There are active lawsuits over this, but so far schools have been successful in keeping NIL deals from being exposed through PRAs. Eventually it will come, but it’s a very opaque market for the moment.
Yeah, but don’t cry for Will Wade. LSU reportedly has the most NIL of any school in the country. He will buy his way out of this problem. Whether he does it effectively or not is another question.
He definitely has at least $2 million that he’s throwing at our own Allen Graves as we speak…