UTEP Mens Basketball Recruiting

[SisyphusMiner]

Best of luck to SB.  I really don't think he shoots a high enough percent for the NBA, but I don't blame him for going pro wherever he lands.

To be honest, I think the Terry years of having a designated "The MAN" was not healthy.  Everyone deferred to BW and then to SB and when they weren't on we just gave up.  I'd much rather have a team with 8 guys that score 8-12 and could go off for 20 on a given night.

[kyyote]

Bryson Williams was Terry?s meal ticket. He used for as long as he could. Not complaining but you bet it made us a feed BW team. I think Golding intended to lake TV the go to guy but couldn?t get TV going that way. Luckily we had seriously dangerous three point shooters.
I looked and Few makes 2.1/. Golding is 700k I think. I would think he earned that. He proved he can coach at this level. I would give a raise to a million. I would tell him it goes to 1.5 if he is regular season champions and tournament champion.   I would hope to convince him to do it here and we could pay for if he could.

[kyyote]

and  Kezza Giffa in the portal.

[Chanson]

If Kennedy goes, I would consider it a complete gutting.

[kyyote]

Nine players in the transfer portal plus Hollins completed his eligibility.  Ten of fifteen.  Kennedy, Kalu, Onyema, Sibley, and Dekoninck.  Sibley was doing what TV was doing stat wise.  He was already playing solid basketball.  Kennedy was set to take the reins from JB as the team leader.  Onyema was starting to come into his own.  Kalu was also starting to find his way and his upside potential is huge.  Gutting is what this kind of thing used to be.  In today's environment is a retooling.  Retooling around a core.  That core is pretty solid. 

In the old days, like five years ago, having two thirds of the team leave would indicate a revolt.  Today, it is a sure sign of a team that as a mid-major we are sending people up the chain and sending those not cutting it down the chain.  That means we are alive and in the game.  Had we lost the upwardly mobile but not have sent the deadwood along that would be bad.  But right now, players are making adjustments according to what is best for them based on what they know. 

As I understand it, the players can submit their names to the transfer portal and they are just seeing if there is any interest.  If not, they can, if the school wants to let them come back.  So, theoretically some players could return if they didn't receive the reception they had hoped for.  And Golding can tell them welcome back or sorry we filled your scholarship.  I have not seen any team jump on any of our players like ducks on a June bug.  But by the same token, I haven't seen anything about us jumping on an available player from the portal so some of this may just take a few days to play out.  The next few days are going to be interesting in seeing who Golding lands or is left picking through depending on how well he does.  The first season was an introduction, an appetizer.  This year will be the main course.  We don't know what is on the menu but we know that Golding can cook.  Are we going to get steak and potatoes or something a little different?  Right now we have enough to make a meal.  Not a 5 star resturant meal, but we have enough that we wouldn't go hungry.  I just can't wait to see what Golding brings home from the market.

Btw, looking at the transfer portal,  I realized That we need players immediately eligible and that narrows the field a bunch.

[SisyphusMiner]

sounds about right.  Obviously Dekonick is practice squad.  Kennedy was often our leading rebounder.  Watching some tourney games it looks like bigs blocking out while guards/ SF sneak in for the rebounds is kind of a thing now.  It works.

i was looking on verbal commits for who's leaving.  I take it the portal is available to the public and shows eligibility?  I looked for it once but couldn't find.

[kyyote]

This is the link to where I am getting what seems to be timely and accurate information.

https://www.verbalcommits.com/transfers/2022

[SisyphusMiner]

Thanks.  So you have to click on a guy to figure out if he's eligible?  And that would be based on whether he's transferred once already?  This might be dumb questions, but I'm still really confused about the eligibility thing

[kyyote]

The top part is recent players to have entered.  It like an update.  Below it is an alphabetized list of the players and it has them shown and their eligibility as Yes or left blank.

ie;
   

Christian Agnew JR   6-2 182   Yes      UTEP        Souley Boum RS JR   6-3 160   Yes      UTEP

I haven't thought this through but I might think that if you find a player who was a juco and moved up but is now in the transfer portal he must have really proved himself or he has more likely found out about the Peter Principle.  For instance, Maring is in the portal, and after coming up from a juco he is looking for playing time I figure and if he couldn't get it here he probably isn't moving up.  Vice versa,  I would think we would look for a JB type, a cartel player who found he wasn't getting the pt he needed.  I think the coaches has an enormous influence in these decisions.  Trusted coaches guide the players in the right direction.  But the players make decisions they think best for them.

So, what does that mean for us.  Lower stars moving up to us or supposed to have been stars moving down because they weren't shining?  When you look at the portal, remember that we need some eligible now guys.

One more thing.  I seems maybe that a cartel player coming down is maybe a better bet than a lower player moving up.  But even as I type it I am not sure.  Talent, coaching, at the right time and the right place is the combination but there are so many variables. 

[SisyphusMiner]

oh. haha, I didn't scroll all the way down.  I just saw the top list.

JB, Sibley and Kennedy moved down.   Satterfield and Agnew moved up.

SB and BW were essentially lateral moves.

Sample size too small to know if that means anything or just happenstance

Just thinking out loud, but it seems like the risk / reward favors a guy moving down  -- more likely that he'll find the level of competition easy than a guy moving up.

[kyyote]

That's what I was thinking, but then I thought of the Texas Tech and Baylor teams and they were all kids moving up, I think.  Not sure.

btw, I just realized that some of our players are and some aren't immediately eligible.

Agnew  Yes
Boum  Yes
Clardy
Giffa
Maring
Saterfield
TV    Yes
White

[Chanson]

Looks like we picked up a 6'3" PG in 2☆ Jamal Sumlin out of a Highschool in Cleveland OH. Lid looks pretty good. Top 30 player in OH. Kid also is a very good football player. I saw some video of the kid & he has ball skills. His handles footwork, & strength are really good. Kid is tough as nails. He had a few games where he just went on scoring sprees. He's seems to be more of a driver/distributer than settling for top of the key shots. I don't know about his shooting or rebounding, but I like the kid a lot. With this Highschool commitment, it seems he was on Goldings radar for a while. Im guessing we'll see him on verbal commits tomorrow.
So far we have 1 JR in Kennedy. Everyone else is a Soph or a Freshy.

[SisyphusMiner]

Verbal commits shows we have offered Sumlin but not that he's accepted?

[kyyote]

I believe  the players are saying they are open to offers but can decide they didn't get the offers they were hoping for they are necessarily gone.  My question is will Golding let any return once they said they weren't committed to staying.  And if so, whom?  Like Verhoeven did last year.   Like how many decided they would try the water and how many were told to find a new home.  I guess what I am getting at is that I don't know that when the dust settles who we will have and who will be gone.  The fact that nobody jumped on Boum or Verhoeven the minute they listed may be important.  JB, TV and Boum say pro or transfer.  I think all three of them would love to pull a Bryson and get a year at a cartel to sell themselves.  But, I wonder about the pro part if they don't get called up. 

[Chanson]

Verbal commits shows we have offered Sumlin but not that he's accepted?

Off of his Twitter account.