Good luck. All the best to that young man. I believe Colorado was 17-15 this year. Big 12 is a different animal
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If college athletes want to be treated and paid like pro athletes then yes. Because when recruiting, it’s really the school taking all of the risk. It disappoints me that many of these smaller schools see talent in players the bigger schools might not, they develop them into great athletes, and now the players leave at the first sign of money.
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My thoughts exactly!
Only speculation given relationship, play style, and most importantly money. With them being lower tier B12.
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Realizing Hammond’s offense will be tough to replace, I hope we can attract an elite on ball perimeter defender to mitigate the loss. Our offense against Kentucky was awesome in the second half… but defensively, Kentucky’s Oweh figured out he could get to the rim whenever he wanted. He went 8-12 at the rim, and 10-12 from the foul line.
Good list of portal entrants.
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Midwest, I think you’re on the right track. If these players are essentially professional athletes, they should have contracts which are not unlike NBA contracts.
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Agreed. I like the idea of a commission/buyout. So if a major program wants to pay Graves $2M, then they also have to pay SCU $500k as reward for developing him. It would double as an advantage to the incumbent school who only has to pay $2M to match the offer, compared to the $2.5M total cost for the poaching school.
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So SCU won’t be 2X or 3Xing their NIL allotment??? Not a smart move.
If Hammond leaves, then yes, best of luck to him, definitely enjoyed his play this season.
That said, whether it’s Hammond or someone else, entering the portal isn’t a guarantee a player is leaving. Likely yes, but not 100%. There are examples of guys entering the portal but returning to their original team.
The portal window to enter is narrow, so anyone considering entering needs to act fast, that doesn’t mean you have to actually transfer.
We’ll see how it all shakes out…
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We’re only 120 years behind the European soccer model…
If we identify a 6yr old let’s get him in broncos basketball camps. Have him on campus in his mid teens. Get 1-2 actual playing years out of him, and then cash in and scout the next phenom.
I’m exaggerating quite a bit, but I could see a world where that would be a way for smaller ADs to survive.
Barcelona has scouts all over the world because the cost of finding youth talent pays for itself in the long run. That’s the second most expensive club in the world, but there are hundreds of clubs across England that survive by selling their 19yr olds to Manchester United after having them in their academy for a few years.
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I can contort myself into reasons why it’s far from hopeless that Hammond is walking–faded a bit down the stretch, not the best defender on the team, lacks super reliable offensive weapons except for his floater. But in the end, Hammond was an enormous part of what made this team so good. He brought so much toughness that had been lacking on prior Bronco squads. And he was a three-year guy who had a cool narrative by red-shirting for development and a major role only to seek something else in the end.
I can’t sugarcoat it. I’m pretty bummed. I haven’t felt at ease this time of year since Carlos Stewart decided to try out LSU for a season. The slow trickle of news is killer and before today, I had some hope that the Broncos might keep the core together. I’m still hopeful (Mahi stayed last season) but less naive than just a few hours ago.
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Hammond seemed like one who was all in on SCU. Maybe he’ll test the waters and come back. If not, we have to double down on Sash and Bukke. SCU needs to build on this momentum. Pay these guys and make it happen!!!
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Two LMU starting wings in the portal, 6-6 Rodney Brown and 6-8 Jalen Shelley; I expect they’ll both have decent suitors. Wouldn’t mind if we pursued either of them.
SMC…..will interesting to see if any Gaels head to ASU.
If Hammond leaves, I hope we keep the light on for him. Things don’t always work out.
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It may be time to tap into the Juco pipeline. Mahi was a great ROI. Upperclassmen that have matured and can compete at D1 level or have already competed would be a solid get.
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One of SMC’s HS commits, JRob Croy, who is the son of a former SMC assistant coach, already flipped his commitment to ASU. I’m expecting to see Murauskas to end up in Tempe as well.
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One point of clarification…..the portal doesn’t actually open until April 7th, after the tourney. All these announcements are ‘intends to enter the portal’.
Teams are supposed to not start contacting players until April 7th, but we know that’s a joke, at the very least there are back channel communications going on everywhere.
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This is the most clear example I have seen of more rules making the end result worse. In prior season, the players at least waited for the portal to open to generally make these announcements. But the coaches were (understandably) upset about having to coach teams in the postseason and recruit portal players. So they moved the portal opening back to after the championship game.
The result? Players just announce around the same time anyways. Coaches with active teams will still have to recruit during March Madness but in secret now. And the ones who don’t will be dismayed to see like 50% of portal entrants commit to a new school the same day they enter.
The system just keeps getting worse and worse…just greed and fraud all the way down. I’m sounding like betterer 
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And WSU’s Eemeli Yalaho intends to transfer. 6-8, 235 forward. I liked his game and would take him….wide-bodied 4, adequate athlete who can shoot the 3.
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Was scrolling through the transfer portal options to see if any of them fit the Podz mold of being a big time recruit that did not get much playing time as a true freshman at a Power 5. Ryder Frost from Notre Dame is interesting. He is a 6 foot 7 sharpshooter that had a lot of high major offers out of high school. Of course, we had a better team than Notre Dame this year so not perfectly analogous to the Podz/Illinois situation.
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