2025 Transfer Portal Thread

It’s not surprising when we’re making lower offers and all the other teams in the mix are fine with “overpaying.”

If the kid is not from here, why would they take way less money? I don’t know why we ever thought the four guys we are pursuing (including JG) would all take less money. Maybe a couple of them will, but not all of them.
It’s the recurring theme with nearly every guy and that’s what is beyond frustrating. It happened with Chaz last year with BYU and Kentucky. Both had higher offers but thankfully for us he was from Tennessee and wanted to be here so he took less. Same deal with Jakobi getting offered nearly double from Nova. I’m not sure if our staff is surprised when this happens? Idk it’s a simple solution, you either pay up or we miss on our top targets and then act convince ourself we’re fine
 
All of the Freeman collapse was last night, cleverly after eod on a holiday. Auburn is a much higher offer and we typically don’t re-enter those games. Don’t know if it can be saved. Maybe. Rice is also tenuous as I said Thursday. His personal communication with us is ongoing, but Willard continues to drag his agent. The Ament thing is only holding because we promised him his moment. We need to all appreciate that he’s the highest modern recruit we’ve signed and has freaky length for a 3. It’s a huge get. I continue to believe we’ll put together a great roster top to bottom, knowing that there are unanswered questions. One odd variable is that there is a threatened class action suit from the 25 class to pursue damages if they are excluded from the fifth year. Remember that the pool of possibilities there is not just ZZ and Gainey, but players from other schools. Many teams are holding space and money based on this. Look for Basilio to have a new position on all these matters following this post. Legion of Poon will update us in the morning.
I’d take Ament and Rice and be satisfied all day long.Will be very interesting for the outcome concerning the 25 class.Seems to reason that their is a strong case to be made regarding their eligibility especially with the COVID year in play.Thanks for your perspective.
 
As I've mentioned before: we won't get both Freeman & Ament. That's a given. Both the same position w similar measurements. I would prefer Nate Ament 10 times out of 10 over Freeman anyway especially after seeing Elyjah Freeman going live last night. Freeman does not seem like he would fit the Barnes Vol culture that we have had as ive never seen a vol hoops player do what he had done at almost midnight last night with his "2's for a band" live. We will have a good team but we don't want to just throw together a team of talent that doesn't fit. I hope we don't get Freeman honestly, let's get Nate Ament
 
Yes. He is a scorer. He’s a good outside shooter, has an old school turnaround ala Bird, and also has good court vision. He can drive on HS kids, and has the height to score over them, or pull up. I don’t know how that translates. I’ve expressed concern about his size, but that may be paranoia. He’s at the top of most draft boards. You don’t often get an athletic guy with that wingspan who can handle and shoot outside. It’s a massive get.

I’ve seen a few reports saying he needs to work on being more aggressive for his size.

Needing to get to the rim more often. Settles for too many jumpers.

Easily fixable though with RB
 
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I’d take Ament and Rice and be satisfied all day long.Will be very interesting for the outcome concerning the 25 class.Seems to reason that their is a strong case to be made regarding their eligibility especially with the COVID year in play.Thanks for your perspective.
Freeman would be the one I would be most comfortable not getting, even though I think he's an awesome player. Think if Ament and Rice sign, focus should shift to a guard with scoring punch off the bench a la Gainey/Aberdeen from Florida type.

PG: Gillespie / Boswell / Henderson
SG: Rice / TRANSFER
SF: Ament / Evans
PF: Carey / Phillips
C: Okpara / JP / Brown

Yeah I'd take Freeman as another SF/PF and be thrilled, but a proven SG off the bench also makes this team elite imo.
 
Goodness... soooo TN... we think and we're trending and it makes sense for us to get Rice and Freeman, and just like that, they are trending elsewhere... WTF happened!?
If we whiff on them, only get Ament, we better be getting ZZ and Gainey back or we're looking at taking a major step back...
 
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It’s not surprising when we’re making lower offers and all the other teams in the mix are fine with “overpaying.”

If the kid is not from here, why would they take way less money? I don’t know why we ever thought the four guys we are pursuing (including JG) would all take less money. Maybe a couple of them will, but not all of them.
This is why it’s really hard for me to get wrapped up in recruiting these days. I have no grasp of the financials, and it seems there are plenty examples of teams that “overspend” and underperform. I’ll reserve judgement on how we manage the budget until after the season
 
I’ve seen a few reports saying he needs to work on being more aggressive for his size.

Needing to get to the rim more often. Settles for too many jumpers.

Easily fixable with RB
I think that’s right. He pulls up a lot and has an incredible turnaround fadeaway, but can’t get a step on the drive sometimes and needs to grow there. A kid with that height should be able to score or get to the line pretty frequently.
 
Also, don’t care if i’m being “negative” We haven’t had much other traction with other quality players. Can’t invest the time and resources into Rice and Freeman and let them go because of a 400k offer more than ours. Basilio was saying Barnes is all in for a final 4 run based on what he heard. Well it’s time to get real serious about that
 
Yes. He is a scorer. He’s a good outside shooter, has an old school turnaround ala Bird, and also has good court vision. He can drive on HS kids, and has the height to score over them, or pull up. I don’t know how that translates. I’ve expressed concern about his size, but that may be paranoia. He’s at the top of most draft boards. You don’t often get an athletic guy with that wingspan who can handle and shoot outside. It’s a massive get.
Careful...honest and balanced acknowledgement of this is a touchy subject for a few.
 
Ament’s value as a screener is underrated as well.

Screen, kick it back out to Ament. Can hit the 3, can drive it to the rim and use his size to get a bucket/draw a foul, orrrr you can just lob it to him.
 
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As I've mentioned before: we won't get both Freeman & Ament. That's a given. Both the same position w similar measurements. I would prefer Nate Ament 10 times out of 10 over Freeman anyway especially after seeing Elyjah Freeman going live last night. Freeman does not seem like he would fit the Barnes Vol culture that we have had as ive never seen a vol hoops player do what he had done at almost midnight last night with his "2's for a band" live. We will have a good team but we don't want to just throw together a team of talent that doesn't fit. I hope we don't get Freeman honestly, let's get Nate Ament
You're free to have that opinion, but up until an 11th hour offer of allegedly $400k more from Auburn, it sure seemed like it was pretty likely.
 
Yes. He is a scorer. He’s a good outside shooter, has an old school turnaround ala Bird, and also has good court vision. He can drive on HS kids, and has the height to score over them, or pull up. I don’t know how that translates. I’ve expressed concern about his size, but that may be paranoia. He’s at the top of most draft boards. You don’t often get an athletic guy with that wingspan who can handle and shoot outside. It’s a massive get.
I’m excited for Ament. Kid can hoop. I recall someone mentioning CRB being adamant on landing him. I think he has a vision for him that we’ll end up seeing next season.

Need to land Rice too, or a comparable transfer to play at the 2 spot. This NIL era is just gets more unpredictable by the day.

Always appreciate the insider info @Stoerner Fumbles
 
Wow small world is the college basketball rumor mill. Curious, why are you on a paid Gonzaga board and how would they know it came from you?
They are my two favorite teams, and i love college basketball. Stupidly, my username was at the bottom of the screenshot. Didn't even notice it.
 
To be really clear, neither Freeman or Rice are officially dead. Freeman got an offer from Auburn 400k higher than us last night. That’s bad, but we may stay in. Rice is still believed to be coming here by most reporters, but Willard keeps dialing up offers to his agent. It needs to close soon, or we’ll let go.
Willard seems like a real POS, so I'm not surprised he's playing those kind of games. He has to sign a splash player for his first class at Nova or risk looking like a damn fool for leaving Maryland.
 

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