Thoughts About Transfer Portal

[rgoode57]

1. If players like AJ Storr are expecting to get $1m, you know the world has gone completely crazy.
2. I suspect that most players who enter the portal are looking for the most money they can get rather than an opportunity to play for a different coach, etc. Of course, some are looking for playing time, but my suspicion is that money is the driving force behind the portal.
3. As much as I hate the wide-open transfer portal, it is a tool that coaches are learning to use. Some coaches, like Keats, are using it to entirely revamp rosters quickly while others, like Hurley and McDermott, are using it to strategically improve their teams with one or two select players.
4. I love Shaka's philosophy of recruiting high school players and developing them, truth is that the freshmen MU gets are not ready to contribute significantly their first year. In their second year, they can make better, but still limited contributions (i.e. Ross and Gold). It is really their third year before they are ready to really play in a meaningful way. So, you have a guy on scholarship for four years and, in most cases, get two really productive years from him. Maybe you get a bit longer productive run if you use the portal to get guys who already have the freshman growing pains behind them. I honestly do not know.
5. I do not want MU to be the kind of program that pays one player a ton of money. If that means MU never wins another National Championship, that's ok with me. I just don't want to use players who are only interested in getting as much cash as possible. All players have to be paid now, and I get that, but I have no interest in the AJ Storr's of the world.

[tower912]

Yes.  Factor in the Storrs story when randomly throwing out names from the portal that Shaka 'should' get.

[Jockey]

There is a thread called '2024 Transfer Portal'.

Do we also need one called 'Thoughts about the Transfer Portal?

[wadesworld]

You're handcuffing yourself if you don't use the transfer portal to improve your roster.  You can add proven D1 contributors who can step in day 1 and perform.  Some may backfire and not work out, but that's also true of freshman recruits.

I like Shaka's culture as well, and don't think just throwing around as much money as possible to the biggest names in the portal is the right way to go about using it for Shaka and this program.  But I definitely think he's doing a disservice to his rosters if he's completely ignoring it.  Not everyone who enters the portal is someone who wouldn't fit the culture, is only out to get the bag, or is a selfish basketball player/person.

[Goose]

rgoode

The one thing I have learned via watching the transfer portal is that there is a lot of very good basketball players that I never would have heard of pre portal. TK, Kur and Omax probably fall into that group. I do think there are great opportunities in the portal that are 2-3y guys and won't break the bank. I believe there are guys out there every year that fit the Shaka mold and we will see we land one this year or not.

[Viper]

I don’t care how it gets done…drop a bag to one or drop bags to all…ship em all out or keep the band together…just win, baby!(and beat Red)

[dgies9156]

Ya’ll ever heard of a Bid/Ask spread?

Just because AJ Storr asks for $1 million doesn’t mean he will get it. That’s wacko money.

That’s the college basketball equivalent of Bobby Bonilla’s contract!!!!

[WarriorDoc]

It's weird how much the old talking heads in Wisconsin despise the transfer portal.  Sports talk radio, Journal Sentinel writers like Jeff Potrykus, Madison's paper (Oates).  These guys are "play for your state" purists and live in 1995 as if Wisconsin football is still relevant.  They think they still live in a world where Diamond Stone might actually consider UW. 

They've spent over a week whining about Storr transferring out, when Storr transferred in just a year ago.  They whine when guys transfer out, and celebrate when guys transfer in. 

[Viper]

It's weird how much the old talking heads in Wisconsin despise the transfer portal.  Sports talk radio, Journal Sentinel writers like Jeff Potrykus, Madison's paper (Oates).  These guys are "play for your state" purists and live in 1995 as if Wisconsin football is still relevant.  They think they still live in a world where Diamond Stone might actually consider UW. 

They've spent over a week whining about Storr transferring out, when Storr transferred in just a year ago.  They whine when guys transfer out, and celebrate when guys transfer in.

100%. Post of the week! Walmart Badgers are insufferable.

[GB Warrior]

It's weird how much the old talking heads in Wisconsin despise the transfer portal.  Sports talk radio, Journal Sentinel writers like Jeff Potrykus, Madison's paper (Oates).  These guys are "play for your state" purists and live in 1995 as if Wisconsin football is still relevant.  They think they still live in a world where Diamond Stone might actually consider UW. 

They've spent over a week whining about Storr transferring out, when Storr transferred in just a year ago.  They whine when guys transfer out, and celebrate when guys transfer in.

Jeff and Tom Oates are big fans of indentured servitude

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

It's weird how much the old talking heads in Wisconsin despise the transfer portal.  Sports talk radio, Journal Sentinel writers like Jeff Potrykus, Madison's paper (Oates).  These guys are "play for your state" purists and live in 1995 as if Wisconsin football is still relevant.  They think they still live in a world where Diamond Stone might actually consider UW. 

They've spent over a week whining about Storr transferring out, when Storr transferred in just a year ago.  They whine when guys transfer out, and celebrate when guys transfer in. 

These are the guys who defended Bo Ryan when he slammed Duke with the "rent-a-player" comment after losing the national championship in 2015.

So I am not surprised that guys who abhorred the one-and-done less than a decade ago, still can't wrap their heads around NIL and the transfer portal.

[Uncle Rico]

It's weird how much the old talking heads in Wisconsin despise the transfer portal.  Sports talk radio, Journal Sentinel writers like Jeff Potrykus, Madison's paper (Oates).  These guys are "play for your state" purists and live in 1995 as if Wisconsin football is still relevant.  They think they still live in a world where Diamond Stone might actually consider UW. 

They've spent over a week whining about Storr transferring out, when Storr transferred in just a year ago.  They whine when guys transfer out, and celebrate when guys transfer in.

Jeff and Tom have been feeding fans the same line since the arrival of Pat Richter:

Wisconsin does it the right way.  Make the tournament, makes bowls, occasionally the other sports do well and we cover them.

Richter and his coaches did a great job cultivating the two biggest mouthpieces on the beat.  And those two acquiesced.

Two things have happened now in the intervening years.  Bo Ryan made back-to-back Final 4’s and Bert won 3 straight Big Ten titles including the first two title games.

Expectations have raised in the new generations.  Couple this with the new reality of college sports and their worldview has been challenged.  It also appears McIntosh has been far less inclined to feed them information, hence, the less than enthusiastic embrace of Fickell by Oates and Potrykus.

The reality is, the most levelheaded person covering Wisconsin sports is Jim Polzin, who understands the current landscape much better.  Like all beat/local guys, he has some homerism in him but he’s pretty honest in his assessments and understands where Wisconsin is in the pecking order.  He also knows the reality of modern college athletics and that until the portal gets regulated, well, things just aren’t the same.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Exactly Reeko.

Anyone who thought Chris McIntosh was going to come in and just continue the Richter / Alvarez way of doing things has to be surprised at how that athletic department is now run. (And I am one of them!)  Richter was an incredible success, but under Barry the money flowed, but a lot withered on the vine as college sports moved to a new era.

McIntosh fired Badger lifers Paul Chryst and Tony Granato in back-to-back years, and brought in two highly sought after coaches with no Badger ties to replace them. Gard's not dumb. He knows the expectations have changed and is responding accordingly.

[Uncle Rico]

Exactly Reeko.

Anyone who thought Chris McIntosh was going to come in and just continue the Richter / Alvarez way of doing things has to be surprised at how that athletic department is now run. (And I am one of them!)  Richter was an incredible success, but under Barry the money flowed, but a lot withered on the vine as college sports moved to a new era.

McIntosh fired Badger lifers Paul Chryst and Tony Granato in back-to-back years, and brought in two highly sought after coaches with no Badger ties to replace them. Gard's not dumb. He knows the expectations have changed and is responding accordingly.

Between basketball and football, they’re more likely to win it all in hoops.  I think the football ship has sailed.  They’ll never be able to compete for the elite athletes needed to win titles in football anymore.