Portal

[Pete Hogwallop]

Are the portal kids not pretty important if you don’t get the high school kids? We will have players leave and not likely just Oweh, Aberdeen and Lowe. I understand you’re saying the portal is where you add players now, not high school but I don’t understand how that makes desiring the transfers humorous.

It makes all the complaining and bashing humorous (in a sad way, I guess). It's like all those people had forgotten there was going to be a ton of good talent available when the portal opened. Meanwhile, I was seeing things like "Fire Pope - he has no recruits", etc.

It's humorous in the sense that I'm laughing at how silly those posts were.

[Catsrock]

Well I sure hope we round up some true studs from the portal. I’ll be excited if/when we do. Would be REALLY nice to assemble a team and to get to see what happens if they can stay healthy. And I certainly agree the portal is more important in this era than the high school ranks. 2 years of evidence from the wide open NIL/portal era are proof. Scheyer/Duke and Self/KU are doing the better than anyone with high school kids. Basically getting everyone they want. ZERO final 4’s. The teams built around 23 year olds are the top dogs.

[bthaunert]

Well I sure hope we round up some true studs from the portal. I’ll be excited if/when we do. Would be REALLY nice to assemble a team and to get to see what happens if they can stay healthy. And I certainly agree the portal is more important in this era than the high school ranks. 2 years of evidence from the wide open NIL/portal era are proof. Scheyer/Duke and Self/KU are doing the better than anyone with high school kids. Basically getting everyone they want. ZERO final 4’s. The teams built around 23 year olds are the top dogs.

While I agree that the portal is as important as ever, 3 of Arizona's top 4 scorers are freshman and Illinois top 2 scorers are freshman. It doesn't have to be one or the other. It can be both.

My biggest issue with the lack of recruiting is that he's trying to get these guys and just can't land anyone. It's not like he is choosing to take the portal route for almost 100% of the remaining roster spots....it's that he doesn't have an option.

[bucsrule8872]

Just my opinion, but I don’t think it’s a portal or HS debate. Any time you have to work in a whole team of new players, it is difficult.

The key to me is retention. To build a true contender, you need guys coming back. Look at the last several champions, they had lots of retention.

You need a bunch of core guys back and then fill in the blanks with a few portal guys and/or a few HS studs.

[Catsrock]

While I agree that the portal is as important as ever, 3 of Arizona's top 4 scorers are freshman and Illinois top 2 scorers are freshman. It doesn't have to be one or the other. It can be both.

My biggest issue with the lack of recruiting is that he's trying to get these guys and just can't land anyone. It's not like he is choosing to take the portal route for almost 100% of the remaining roster spots....it's that he doesn't have an option.

Arizona—OK. Illinois though—the NCAA decides what class these guys are, just like they did with AJ. They are an old team—an Eastern European professional team.

Last years champ—very old Gator team.

But I don’t mean to indicate you can’t have any freshman. I hope Arizona does get it done.

[EKYCat]

What do all the teams that are in the Final Four have in common? Portal or freshman, they have dudes. We didn't have and don't appear to be on the radar for the top talent right now, and that's the problem. If we lose out on Stokes (and I expect he will head to Kansas) then we are probably going to find ourselves where we currently are. I know Pope built a roster his first year of portal guys. I'd say his first year was good. But, let's be honest. It was a 24-12 year where we had some good to great wins and some befuddling losses.

[Tomcats1990]

Tennessee just picked up a portal commitment a week before it even opens. Pope is snake bit his first 2 seasons with injuries to key players. Recruiting Top talent falls on assistants who definitely were not getting it done. Let’s hope his new ones can make strides and quick.

[Catsrock]

What do all the teams that are in the Final Four have in common? Portal or freshman, they have dudes. We didn't have and don't appear to be on the radar for the top talent right now, and that's the problem. If we lose out on Stokes (and I expect he will head to Kansas) then we are probably going to find ourselves where we currently are. I know Pope built a roster his first year of portal guys. I'd say his first year was good. But, let's be honest. It was a 24-12 year where we had some good to great wins and some befuddling losses.

True about the dudes. But can’t we pretty well divide Pope’s first team in two—the team that was beating top teams (Duke, Gonzaga, Lville, eventual champ Florida, Tennessee twice) and the post injury team that had head scratching losses and was knocked out by a Tennessee team we had beaten twice earlier?

Robinson was playing the best ball of his life when he went down. Losing him and our 2 actual PG’s kinda leaves you in a tough spot. Much like this past season.

[bucsrule8872]

A lot of decent PG options in the portal. Not sure who really fits in Pope’s system.

I am assuming Ruffin is our top PG 2 target, since he played for Coach Mo. Big “if” on eligibility for him, though.

We need a star at PG 1. Shelstadt from Oregon is probably the best so far, but should be a lot of movement between now and the 21st, so I hope Pope doesn’t rush anything.

PG has to be priority #1 at this point. Got to get two.

Hard to say what else we need until our current guys decide what they want to do.

[bucsrule8872]

KU’s Bidunga to the portal.

Will likely be the best Big in the portal.

Also going to the draft.

Some are saying he is Duke bound.

[EKYCat]

True about the dudes. But can’t we pretty well divide Pope’s first team in two—the team that was beating top teams (Duke, Gonzaga, Lville, eventual champ Florida, Tennessee twice) and the post injury team that had head scratching losses and was knocked out by a Tennessee team we had beaten twice earlier?

Robinson was playing the best ball of his life when he went down. Losing him and our 2 actual PG’s kinda leaves you in a tough spot. Much like this past season.

I would say yes and no. Robinson and Butler both played 25 plus minutes in a blowout loss to a really bad Ohio State team. And would you classify Robinson and Butler as studs? Both were nice players but neither were drafted.

[Catsrock]

I would say yes and no. Robinson and Butler both played 25 plus minutes in a blowout loss to a really bad Ohio State team. And would you classify Robinson and Butler as studs? Both were nice players but neither were drafted.

No. Not really studs. But certainly (to me) 2 of our most important 5 pieces. I’d put them ahead of Brea and Carr. And when they were healthy my hopes were high for a deep run. Felt like we may be onto something. Carr’s back trouble was no insignificant problem either. We were just not the same team by March that we were early January. Ohio State felt like an outlier in the moment.

Brea was sixth man when we were fully loaded. Interesting that he didn’t typically start but was drafted. The fact he’s such a great shooter but couldn’t crack the starting lineup or really step up big—other than a couple isolated games—told me his career as a backup just didn’t have him mentally prepared to be THE GUY. That disappointed me a bit. Wonder if he’s done anything as a pro?