I wanted to share that two players in the transfer portal received offers from SCU as HS Seniors, and both made campus visits.
Myles Bird…..SF (San Diego St)
JJ Mandaquit….PG (Washington)
I doubt that Bird is entertaining SCU, but Mandaquit is intriguing with both Christian and Sash entering the portal. Mandaquit is from Hawaii and has 3 years of eligibility.
Source: 247 Sports
I also doubt that Bird comes to SCU, but the willingness to even visit says a lot about where this program is trending. I think Mandaquit could be a great fit, somewhat in the mold of Podz and Bal as a HM guy with lots of talent who didn’t quite connect at his first stop. The offense is a little rough, but he’s tough and smart. It may take a little patience as he finds his shot, but SCU is always much better when we have real PGs (and are not trying to force various shooting guards and wings into the role).
Talented, tough and smart will take you a long way in most endeavors. Given how we’ve developed players, he sounds like a great potential pickup.
Another name in the portal the Broncos may have their eye on is Elijah Perryman, PG, Utah St. transfer.
He played in 36 games this season as a true freshman and averaged 4.4 PPG. He saw action in NCAA tournament with their win over Villanova, and loss to Arizona. He scored a season high 16 pts vs Fresno St.
SCU extended him an offer as a high school senior. He attended Clayton Valley HS (Concord).
Hammond to visit NC State.
Whose the coach at NC State now that Will Wade is in his way at LSU?
I think it’s great for him to explore his options, but transferring to a power conference could backfire. We’ve seen it all too often before. Hoping SCU finds a way to bring him back into the fold.
I hope if Christian transfers to a power 5 that he at least gets minutes and a viable opportunity. The new NC State coach is former Sendek recruit at NC State Justin Gainey. He may understand Christian and look to build under Herbs some of Herbs coaching philosophy under their new rebuild. Maybe it makes sense. I’d prefer him back at the Mission.
Does anyone have an educated guess as to how much NC State would need to pay him, and how that might be structured (e.g. 2 year deal for $500K with $300K paid in year 1 and $200K paid in year 2).
If Tilly got 1M last year I would think Hammond’s number is a lot higher than 250K/yr based on production. However, it’s been noted that size gets a premium.
Byrd commits to providence
Also Dink Pate of the Winchester Knicks where Adama was playing before his recent call up. New coach new vibes…
Bryan Hodgson new Providence coach on the insanity/competitiveness of the portal: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWuIC1pDAu6/?img_index=1&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Graves just entered with a Do Not Contact tag. Someone bought him out of the draft, it looks like.
He can still go through the draft process.
Don’t think anyone has bought him out of the draft. His initial plan was to enter both the draft and portal (with a DNC tag) before he released his official announcement on his IG.
The $1M ask doesn’t surprise me. Sickening, but not surprising.
Graves is featured in ESPN top transfer players and actually ranked #3 in the entire portal by ESPN.
That’s impressive and a credit to how SCU develops its players (and Graves’ coachabilty and work ethic)..
Given the narrow portal entry window, hopefully Graves is just keeping his options open.
Would prefer that he remains a Bronco but can’t fault him for entering the draft, especially if he gets a consensus 1st round evaluation. Related, it will be interesting to see how he tests out at the NBA combine.
But the last thing we want is for him to transfer to UConn, Kentucky, et al.
