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Basketball Rutgers Basketball wing Gavin Griffiths enters Transfer Portal

No team built with players that have never played together coming for one season together will ever succeed especially at a non traditional powerhouse like RU.

next year is going to be a massive let down.
Iowa State's record in '20-21 was 2-22.
Iowa State's record in '21-22 was 22-13 and ranked as high as 8th in the country.

The majority of the '21-22 players were from the portal and never played together.

Thoughts @gigantor1024 @bac2therac?
 
The overreaction on this board today about losing a 5 ppg and 2 rpg forward is hilarious

It seems the people who are most upset about him leaving are the same ones who were trashing him in game threads about how badly he sucked.

Time will tell if he is any good but nothing I saw this year makes me think he is a big loss. If he was a 2 star, no one would care, its just because he came in highly rated, people are upset
 
He said
His words, “I’m completely fine speaking about this because I’m never going to transfer”, he said “I’m never going to enter the portal. Even if things go wrong, knock wood, I’m here. I’m staying. I’m not the guy that would enter the portal, ever”

So either this kid’s word means absolutely nothing or this is the coaching staff telling him to explore his options. Looking at the guys who stayed and the guys who are coming he doesn’t have a clear shot at a lot of minutes next year.
BEFORE the season. There was a chemistry issue from jump, you can just tell. Hexeeed UConn going to win a Natty, his girlfriend maybe still up there, that’s my bet…
 
It seems the people who are most upset about him leaving are the same ones who were trashing him in game threads about how badly he sucked.

Time will tell if he is any good but nothing I saw this year makes me think he is a big loss. If he was a 2 star, no one would care, its just because he came in highly rated, people are upset
Exactly it’s not in on court play! It’s his parents and him saying he will only play for Pike.
Stepping into a terrible offensive team and struggling to get good looks.
Perception to other big recruits we go after in the future of what happened.
It matters
 
We can blame Pike for the current state of affairs but any coach at RU is going to struggle in the environment. You think he likes this situation? You can’t build a program anymore just a one year roster.

Until there are major structural reforms that put athletics back in its proper place at universities like RU this is going to be increasingly distasteful and a major turn off to me being invested in the performance of these teams.

How can such constant transferring be consistent with the primary mission of obtaining a college degree? It has turned college into a place to make money versus obtaining skills to get a real job. Many of these kids will not make a living playing professional sports and this might be their highest earning years. Hard to blame the for taking full advantage of an f…..d up situation.

Might I suggest the New York Knickerbockers as an alternative. The professionalization of college athletics has me moving back toward the pro game more and more. The talent level is much better.
 
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He just wasn’t a fit in our freewheeling, unstructured selfish-guard offense and I am sure he will do well on a team that shares the ball.

No doubt Pike promised Ace and Dylan the same playground offense to get them here, and GG didn’t want to suffer another year of that. I can’t blame him.

It’s hard to imagine the incoming portal talent will be greater than the outgoing

Message for Pike: you reap what you sow.
 
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Its going to be fascinating to see where GG lands. He will be a stud at the mid major level. But if he signs with a power 6 school, I don't see how his playing time increases in '24-25 more so than if he stayed with Rutgers.
 
highly doubt he’ll end up there if it’s playing time related as is reported. Not disagreeing there.

But to say this has nothing to do with NIL is wrong, everything coaches, players and programs do now are NIL related
NIL might come into play if he has a good year(2024-5) where he lands and enters the portal letting the NIL bids begin when looking for his next home for the 2025-6 season.
Playing time probably is why he's entering the portal now with an eye towards his NIL future
Leaping Lou made a good point and that goes with my thinking , one real good year at a mid major program and the major players will start bidding for his services.
College basketball has turned into a game for mercenaries to get noticed at one program and leave for the green, of another, if that program's NIL supporters can't pay the going rate
 
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Iowa State's record in '20-21 was 2-22.
Iowa State's record in '21-22 was 22-13 and ranked as high as 8th in the country.

The majority of the '21-22 players were from the portal and never played together.

Thoughts @gigantor1024 @bac2therac?

Is Pike that kind of coach? He will have to earn his money this year
 
F Hobbs on his podcast comments. These are not kids anymore. These are players making up to six figures a year.tbey are paid players not students .they are not in it for education now it's all about the bag.
These 'kids' are making way more than most adults over a 40-50 year work career could even sniff at. These are professionals who no longer have the benefit of the 'kid umbrella'.
 
We can blame Pike for the current state of affairs but any coach at RU is going to struggle in the environment. You think he likes this situation? You can’t build a program anymore just a one year roster.

Until there are major structural reforms that put athletics back in its proper place at universities like RU this is going to be increasingly distasteful and a major turn off to me being invested in the performance of these teams.

How can such constant transferring be consistent with the primary mission of obtaining a college degree? It has turned college into a place to make money versus obtaining skills to get a real job. Many of these kids will not make a living playing professional sports and this might be their highest earning years. Hard to blame the for taking full advantage of an f…..d up situation.

Might I suggest the New York Knickerbockers as an alternative. The professionalization of college athletics has me moving back toward the pro game more and more. The talent level is much better.
You don’t leave a Big10 program as a likely starter unless the you know the team around you won’t jive with your talents. That was GG’s fate last year and would have been the same next year. I’ll root for him wherever he goes.
 
blaming Geo for NIL is silly. the whole NIL thing started waaaaaaaaaay before Geo.

blame the NCAA. they should have recognized what was coming a LOOOONG TIME ago and passed some fair rules allowing kids a reasonable return on their name/ image/ likeness.

Instead they put their head in the sand. forcing the Supreme Court to rule against them

...and now we have the Wild West.

blame the NCAA for greed, corruption and/or ineptitude and lack of foresight and balls to address the issue before it came to that.

Geo? puhleaze. youre giving him waaaaaaay too much credit.
Cold ham samich NCAA tournament covid year
 
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You will get guys that are bad because they dont have value in the open market

I've said before - I want players who don't want to be here.
That means our coaching staff (football and basketball) talked a player into coming here.
Player wouldn't even consider us until the Staff made their pitch and turned them.
Give me an elite kid who grew up a Duke or Alabama fan. Dreamed of going there.

Until HC Pike or HC Schiano showed up at their door.
 
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For everyone concerned with the number of players in the portal, let’s just look at them:

1. Chol — no surprise, landed at Howard.
2. Wolf — bummer he didn’t develop from a few nice glimpses we saw freshman year, but clearly was not adding much value.
3. Mag — talent for sure, but decided protecting his market value was more important than going to war with his guys — I’m fine letting someone else deal with that type of player.
4. Simpson — clearly wasn’t hacking it at the B1G level, statistically at the bottom of any P5 offensive metric BY A LOT.
5. Cliff — sucks for sure and I’d love to have him back for his defensive presence alone next year, but guy gave us 4 years. I think the general sentiment around the fan base is respect.
6. GG — stings for sure given the expectations we all had, but also there are indications that he was being told his role might not be guaranteed next year. Fact is: we don’t know how much of this is due to Pike telling him what to expect next year

I’m with everyone else — this NIL/portal era absolutely sucks, it’s deflating, and it has the potential to really change the way a lot of people feel about their college team. But when you evaluate each one of our departures, there are arguments to be made that they all make some sense for Rutgers going forward.

With that said, Pike NEEDS to win the offseason now.
 
You're missing my definition of wanting to be here. I heard that maybe 70% of players will enter the portal this year. Are they all going to be promised starting roles/minutes, ball in your hand at crunch time? That's impossible! If that is everyone's expectation, many are in for a rude awakening - either while in the portal when they are don't get the promises/$$ they feel they deserve, or next season when the promises don't come to fruition.

I love the sport and am looking forward to the games tonight, but the direction this is heading is not sustainable. The golden goose will be dead.
 
Is Pike that kind of coach? He will have to earn his money this year
Pike can coach diamond in the rough, lower tier recruits and get them to win. The track record is pretty bad with all of his higher rated recruits (when they committed). This is why i am not in love with Harper and Bailey coming here.

With the portal and NIL things have changed so much so i dont know where that leaves is with Pike.

Will be very interesting to watch. Also keep your eyes on Bennett at Virginia. Can he make the transition to a new environment?
 
For everyone concerned with the number of players in the portal, let’s just look at them:

1. Chol — no surprise, landed at Howard.
2. Wolf — bummer he didn’t develop from a few nice glimpses we saw freshman year, but clearly was not adding much value.
3. Mag — talent for sure, but decided protecting his market value was more important than going to war with his guys — I’m fine letting someone else deal with that type of player.
4. Simpson — clearly wasn’t hacking it at the B1G level, statistically at the bottom of any P5 offensive metric BY A LOT.
5. Cliff — sucks for sure and I’d love to have him back for his defensive presence alone next year, but guy gave us 4 years. I think the general sentiment around the fan base is respect.
6. GG — stings for sure given the expectations we all had, but also there are indications that he was being told his role might not be guaranteed next year. Fact is: we don’t know how much of this is due to Pike telling him what to expect next year

I’m with everyone else — this NIL/portal era absolutely sucks, it’s deflating, and it has the potential to really change the way a lot of people feel about their college team. But when you evaluate each one of our departures, there are arguments to be made that they all make some sense for Rutgers going forward.

With that said, Pike NEEDS to win the offseason now.

Portal plus players leaving is like 11 newcomers..thats extreme even for portal life
 
For everyone concerned with the number of players in the portal, let’s just look at them:

1. Chol — no surprise, landed at Howard.
2. Wolf — bummer he didn’t develop from a few nice glimpses we saw freshman year, but clearly was not adding much value.
3. Mag — talent for sure, but decided protecting his market value was more important than going to war with his guys — I’m fine letting someone else deal with that type of player.
4. Simpson — clearly wasn’t hacking it at the B1G level, statistically at the bottom of any P5 offensive metric BY A LOT.
5. Cliff — sucks for sure and I’d love to have him back for his defensive presence alone next year, but guy gave us 4 years. I think the general sentiment around the fan base is respect.
6. GG — stings for sure given the expectations we all had, but also there are indications that he was being told his role might not be guaranteed next year. Fact is: we don’t know how much of this is due to Pike telling him what to expect next year

I’m with everyone else — this NIL/portal era absolutely sucks, it’s deflating, and it has the potential to really change the way a lot of people feel about their college team. But when you evaluate each one of our departures, there are arguments to be made that they all make some sense for Rutgers going forward.

With that said, Pike NEEDS to win the offseason now.

wow. you literally explained my position perfectly - on every player, on every aspect of this whole thing.

thanks - saved me a lot of typing ;)
 
I wonder how JWill feels watching Iowa St Vs Illinois tonight knowing he was forced to leave both due to a bogus gambling scandal….and is probably the piece to get either over the hump for the final 4
 
He said

BEFORE the season. There was a chemistry issue from jump, you can just tell. Hexeeed UConn going to win a Natty, his girlfriend maybe still up there, that’s my bet…
Weird, all we heard about was how great chemistry was going to be because of the summer trip.
 
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I wonder how JWill feels watching Iowa St Vs Illinois tonight knowing he was forced to leave both due to a bogus gambling scandal….and is probably the piece to get either over the hump for the final 4
No idea but I do know I’m selfishly very happy he ended up here.
 
For anyone that said coaches leave all the time, players should be able to also. Here it is, hope you like it.

Coaches sign contracts, usually with a buyout that must be paid to the school if they want out of their contract early.

How many coaches leave yearly? Storrs from St. John’s, to Wisconsin, to portal.
 
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I wonder how JWill feels watching Iowa St Vs Illinois tonight knowing he was forced to leave both due to a bogus gambling scandal….and is probably the piece to get either over the hump for the final 4
JWill plead guilty to the gambling charge was handed a suspension by the NCAA that he accepted, but the NCAA pulled a fast one and didn't fairly implement his punishment so he fought the way they treated him and the court decided in his favor.
I'm sure he's happy
 
We’ve officially got a problem
It’s up to Pike to turn this around

Need a good tourney run this year
Followed up with a solid class and successive tourneys

It’s put up or shut up time

Love Pike and what he’s done for the program but this is a results driven business

And the results the past 2 years have sucked

The results, this far into the off season, have been distasterous

Let’s give him some time to figured it out
First game isn’t until November

But the clocks ticking, and it’s getting late early for Pikes future on the banks
 
For anyone that said coaches leave all the time, players should be able to also. Here it is, hope you like it.

Coaches sign contracts, usually with a buyout that must be paid to the school if they want out of their contract early.

How many coaches leave yearly? Storrs from St. John’s, to Wisconsin, to portal.
Simple but would be impossible to do.
A solution tothe mercenary college ball envirement that exists today
Players portal or HS recruits looking for the best NIL a school can offer who accepts a college approved NIL must stay at that school for a minimum of two years before they can collect any of it.
All players entering NIL agreements must have that agreement approved by the program they committed to.
If not they are ineligible to play college ball until the school they committed to approve that agreement or they find a school that will or sit a year after leaving
 
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