2021-2022 B1G Basketball thread

[FearlessF]

Nebraska basketball didn't take long in adding a player from the transfer portal as Xavier freshman guard C.J. Wilcher announced his commitment to the Huskers on an Instagram post Friday morning.

Wilcher, a former four-star guard in the 2020 class, averaged 3.3 points and 1.1 rebounds a game for the Musketeers, though he started to come on late scoring 10 points against Marquette, a season high, and seven points against Butler in the final two games.

[FearlessF]

Jack Hoiberg is entering the transfer portal. Do you think he could be coming to play for his Father?

[ELA]

Jack Hoiberg is entering the transfer portal. Do you think he could be coming to play for his Father?

The rumors are that he wants to go somewhere where he could play

[bayareabadger]

Yes.  I don't get some can't acknowledge something as being mostly good (although far from always) for players, but bad for everyone else.  Including the fans who fund the machine.

I'll be interested to see if it is. 

On the one hand, many people are saying, "This is ruining it for me." But people have been saying that about various things around sports forever. Maybe this breaks it. But I assume people thought million dollar coaches and players leaving early and whatnot were going to destroy sports, and they didn't really. 

Maybe it will. But in my experience, fans like new things a lot. Very often more than old things. I don't know if that's impactful, but it's something I'm keeping in mind.

[MaximumSam]

I guess part of the appeal of the regular season now is to figure out who is on your team.

[847badgerfan]

Nate Reuvers is in the portal. Disappointing season, and the rumor is it was related to breaking up with his girlfriend.

This is a bit of a surprise because all we heard this season is that he was no longer pursuing basketball. Perhaps a change of scenery will help him.

[ELA]

I'll be interested to see if it is.

On the one hand, many people are saying, "This is ruining it for me." But people have been saying that about various things around sports forever. Maybe this breaks it. But I assume people thought million dollar coaches and players leaving early and whatnot were going to destroy sports, and they didn't really.

Maybe it will. But in my experience, fans like new things a lot. Very often more than old things. I don't know if that's impactful, but it's something I'm keeping in mind.

I'm not sitting it out in some sort of protest or anything like that.  I just preferred college sports to pro sports for many things that had little to do with the level of play.  The more that is stripped away, just to give college players (sorry "student athletes") every freedom except to get paid, I just find myself losing interest.  I've always bought Extra Innings, but this past year I bought the other 3 pro packages too.  I bought League Pass one other time, but this is the first for Center Ice or Sunday Ticket.  I've just naturally started drifting away from college sports.

I think the only MSU game I watched last year start to finish was Northwestern.  I'd have it on in the background while I did other stuff, even the Michigan game, which was unheard of even 2-3 years ago, when I had two small children that actually made it HARDER to do.  I treat college football like I treat MLB now.  I like to have it on, but I don't much care about the result, and I don't feel the need to be engaged with how it's going.  At least football, to an extent, is about the helmet, so IMO the portal has less of an impact on me there.  Basketball has always been about the personalities.  I think I still hate Brian Cardinal.  Making it a year to year sport, meh.  I'm no fan of Fran, but I found myself rooting for Iowa this year, simply because they were a team of guys that had built together over the course of the past couple years, and I feel like I knew them.

[bayareabadger]

The beard guy from Eastern Washington is now in the portal.  Screw this.

We might get to see him more than once!

[MaximumSam]

Sparty gets a point guard in Northeastern transfer Tyson Walter.

[MaximumSam]

I'm not sitting it out in some sort of protest or anything like that.  I just preferred college sports to pro sports for many things that had little to do with the level of play.  The more that is stripped away, just to give college players (sorry "student athletes") every freedom except to get paid, I just find myself losing interest.  I've always bought Extra Innings, but this past year I bought the other 3 pro packages too.  I bought League Pass one other time, but this is the first for Center Ice or Sunday Ticket.  I've just naturally started drifting away from college sports.

I think the only MSU game I watched last year start to finish was Northwestern.  I'd have it on in the background while I did other stuff, even the Michigan game, which was unheard of even 2-3 years ago, when I had two small children that actually made it HARDER to do.  I treat college football like I treat MLB now.  I like to have it on, but I don't much care about the result, and I don't feel the need to be engaged with how it's going.  At least football, to an extent, is about the helmet, so IMO the portal has less of an impact on me there.  Basketball has always been about the personalities.  I think I still hate Brian Cardinal.  Making it a year to year sport, meh.  I'm no fan of Fran, but I found myself rooting for Iowa this year, simply because they were a team of guys that had built together over the course of the past couple years, and I feel like I knew them.

I agree with this, at least to a certain extent. Seeing kids commit to your school, seeing them develop, knowing they have a finite amount of time in the program - that is all part of the fun of watching college sports.  Unlimited transfers do damage that experience. The amount of guys in the transfer portal is already huge - at some point it's just watching a random collection of guys against another random selection of guys and rooting for the right uniform.

But the NCAA created this problem. They held on tight to the idea that even in a multibillion dollar business, they shouldn't have to pay their most important employees. "Amateurism" became code for any old restriction they could think of, but logically speaking, you can't say it is important to keep players "amateur" and also say they shouldn't get to go to whichever school that will have them. This constant effort to have their cake and eat it too has really kept them from looking at what is important for college sports and focusing on that, instead of the treadmill of trying to eke out every last buck.

TLDR - restrictions on transfers make more sense when a school is invested in you. But under current rules a kid doesn't get anything different from one school to the next. So why restrict them from going to one school or the next?

[bayareabadger]

TLDR - restrictions on transfers make more sense when a school is invested in you. But under current rules a kid doesn't get anything different from one school to the next. So why restrict them from going to one school or the next?

So I kinda don't believe this. I think it's just a case of seeing there's a broader world. Like kids used to transfer some, usually when a coach had to run someone off or when they just felt like dipping out. But now, there's just so much info. 

In 1995, finding out there was going to be an opening somewhere was hard. And getting in contact with places was hard. And getting info and film over was hard. And now it's all just easier on kids and families. Also, coaches probably got more leeway and had less ability to find and woo transfers. 

[MaximumSam]

So I kinda don't believe this. I think it's just a case of seeing there's a broader world. Like kids used to transfer some, usually when a coach had to run someone off or when they just felt like dipping out. But now, there's just so much info.

In 1995, finding out there was going to be an opening somewhere was hard. And getting in contact with places was hard. And getting info and film over was hard. And now it's all just easier on kids and families. Also, coaches probably got more leeway and had less ability to find and woo transfers.

Might be talking about two different things - what I mean is restrictions on transfers make more sense when a school is paying a player (directly or indirectly), and not when they aren't paying.

[bayareabadger]

Might be talking about two different things - what I mean is restrictions on transfers make more sense when a school is paying a player (directly or indirectly), and not when they aren't paying.

I honestly think some of it was branding. The NCAA never really managed to get across that this situation was kinda gonna be pandemonium. Like, I'm ok with it, but really the best argument for the sit-out year, and one I don't disagree with, is that it provides a little speed bump and tamps down a little college kid impulsiveness. But coaches loved their "we have to teach them to battle adversity" moral high ground bit, and that was never that great.

But they managed to do enough kinda aggressively stupid stuff (Bo Ryan helped!) that it made it hard to make some logical arguments without seeming super hypocritical and extra holier than thou. 

[ELA]

Rocket Watts in the portal.  Would be shocked if some or all of Loyer, Brown and Kithier didn't join him.