2016 Offseason

I guess this isn't coach related so doesn't really belong in the "where do we go from here" thread, so I started a new one.

Goodman's first transfer list is out - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/14390188/college-basketball-transfer-list - no Pilots on there for now, and really not a whole lot from around the WCC. San Diego loses Pusica and Harris, and LMU gets Manuel from Oregon who was a 4-star recruit last year but barely played as a freshman.

More to come, I'm sure.

A few others on the list:

Khalil Bedart-Ghani (USD / Fr. guard)
Brandon Perry (USD / Jr. forward)
Atif Russell (Pepp / Jr. forward)

That makes four Toreros leaving the program, in addition to freshman guard Ryan Woolridge, who left mid-season.

Someone on another school's fan forum described it as a house-cleaning by the new USD coaching staff.

Two of the five (Bedart-Ghani and Woolridge) were recruited by the new USD coaching staff.

I think younger and older fans of Pilots Basketball will really love this story about Lemont Daniels and the road to the Big Dance....20 years ago.  

I hope some of you had a chance to catch up with Lemont and his wonderful wife when they were at a game in February.....he's looking good and enjoying life.

http://www.nptelegraph.com/sports/local_sports/former-npcc-player-reflects-on-ncaa-tournament/article_27097e02-f6c1-11e5-a329-7323ada5682c.html

Been wondering why crews have been tearing up the turf at Autzen Field recently?  Finally, here's the answer:

http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210844591

There'd been rumors that USF PG Devin Watson would transfer....but now it's more than a rumor according the Evan Daniels at scout.com.

Watson always gives the Pilots fits and seems to always match Alec shot for shot and outstanding play for outstanding play....he's a joy to watch.

The All-WCC First Team guard has two more years of eligibility remaining.....

http://espnevents.com/wooden-legacy/teams/

Huh...apparently the Pilots are in the Wooden Legacy tournament this year? Is this new, or did I just miss this completely when it was announced?

Cal State Northridge, Dayton, Nebraska, New Mexico, Portland, Texas A&M, UCLA, and Virginia Tech are the eight teams in the field.

Any other 2016-17 games known at this point?

Dean Murdoch wrote:Huh...apparently the Pilots are in the Wooden Legacy tournament this year? Is this new, or did I just miss this completely when it was announced?

Cal State Northridge, Dayton, Nebraska, New Mexico, Portland, Texas A&M, UCLA, and Virginia Tech are the eight teams in the field.

 I'm pretty sure your friend Terry Cahill knew about this....it was mentioned somewhere on PN back in December.

UP's AD was able to make a relatively small contribution to the Great Alaska Shootout to get UP disengaged from that tournament this coming Thanksgiving, and instead take part in the Anaheim tournament that will allow the Pilots a bigger stage in the middle of a fertile recruiting area.

(It is my recollection the first eight games, Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and Friday, November 24 & 25 will be played at Cal St. Fullerton, and the final four games will be at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Sunday the 27th).

UP posted a gallery of photos from a recent team workout. Coaches Porter and Burns show up, as does Kramer Knutson.

And 10 players appear in the photos, including walk-on Xavier Hallinan. If these 10 are participating in workouts, I think it's safe to say that Todd will be the only outbound transfer.

The transfer issue settled, here are the remaining question marks for next year's roster:

1) Will Chier Maker be on the roster?
2) Will Monson and Smoyer still come to UP?
3) Who will fill Todd's scholarship? Malcolm Porter?
4) If the answer to #1 and/or #2 is "no," what about those 1-3 additional roster spots?

NoPoNeighbor wrote:

1) Will Chier Maker be on the roster?
2) Will Monson and Smoyer still come to UP?
3) Who will fill Todd's scholarship? Malcolm Porter?
4) If the answer to #1 and/or #2 is "no," what about those 1-3 additional roster spots?

1: Who knows? The best hint we have comes from Rev's interview, where he made it sound like he will be.
2: Probably. They have signed LOIs, which means unless both the player and the school agree to a release, the player is bound to the institution (and the institution to the player). So unless one of them wants to re-open their recruiting and UP allows it, it's probably more likely that they'll both be coming.
3: I think there's a very good chance - he said as much in his interview with Canzano - but he is definitely being recruited by several schools.
4: Wouldn't surprise me if they looked at guys who could help right away, like JC players or "5th year senior" guys who would be eligible immediately.

It would be great to add another PF or C who can be more of an offensive threat than Barreno and Hartwich (which is a pretty low bar to clear), and who can rebound. We lose a lot of rebounding w Pressley and Todd gone.

As great as it would be to get Malcolm on the squad, guard is not our biggest need.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:It would be great to add another PF or C who can be more of an offensive threat than Barreno and Hartwich (which is a pretty low bar to clear), and who can rebound. We lose a lot of rebounding w Pressley and Todd gone.

As great as it would be to get Malcolm on the squad, guard is not our biggest need.

100% agreement with you there, NPN.

Barreno and Hartwich have not proven to be the D1 players Rev and his staff thought they would be....and IMO the inbound Smoyer is going to have to redshirt to add some muscle/weight/strength to compete as a D1 player.  

Russell should have redshirted last year considering how little playing time he saw.....I really liked his hustle but he, along with Barreno and Hartwich showed very little on the offensive end of the court. The one big factor in Russell's favor over the other two is his great attitude and willingness to work and learn.

With Todd's departure, and Maker not eligible until mid-December if he returns, I think we'll see a lot more playing time from Jackson. I still consider him to be the best athlete on the team and a guy who can really go up and grab rebounds and find loose balls.  Jackson got very little playing time last year and was the other student-athlete, in addition to Todd, that I predicted would transfer, but with the new staff I think he may find a renewed hunger for basketball and he certainly should see increased playing time.  Rev wanted Jackson to be a shooter....he's a lot more than that.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:UP posted a gallery of photos from a recent team workout. Coaches Porter and Burns show up, as does Kramer Knutson.

And 10 players appear in the photos, including walk-on Xavier Hallinan. If these 10 are participating in workouts, I think it's safe to say that Todd will be the only outbound transfer.

Had a very nice chat with Coach Burns today:

1. The new staff does not plan to run any of the players off like some new staffs do at other schools.
2. Except for Jason Todd, no one has indicated to the staff they are planning to transfer.
3. Smoyer and Monson are still committed to attending UP.
4. Kramer Knutson will remain on as the DOBO.  (Coaches Porter and Burns told me they recognize how important Kramer is to the day-to-day operation of the team).
5. Just reading between the lines (I did not ask the question directly) it would seem next season's team will have no additional big (tall?) men besides Smoyer.

Xavier tells me he's going to attend summer school and continue to play ball in the fall as a walk-on.

Jason seemed pretty excited to be moving on to the next chapter in his life, but gave no indication where that might be.

Philipp says he'll be heading home for two weeks after finals, but plans to spend the summer at UP going to school and working-out instead of playing for the German U-20 as he did last summer.  (Coach Burns felt pretty confident they could provide Philipp some good coaching and a workout routine to make him stronger and better for next season).  It might have just been my wishful imagination, but Philipp looked like he's added quite a bit of strength and size in his shoulders over the last couple of months.

Did you buy Philipp a milkshake?

Thanks for the report. Any thoughts on when the two additional assistants will be added? And is the strength and conditioning position still open?

up7587 wrote:Thanks for the report.  Any thoughts on when the two additional assistants will be added?  And is the strength and conditioning position still open?

Sorry, 3 strikes and I'm out on all three.  The subject never came up.

We did talk about Rev some.....he's a man Coach Burns considers a good friend and thinks "it was stupid of Stanford not to hire him as an assistant" under Haase.

Great update, Dipper.

I have to admit, I kind of expected Chier Maker to show up on some team's roster in a second-tier league under the NBL in Australia. But they're now a month into their season now and no sign of him anywhere on the player lists for the Waratah League or SEABL, the two most likely leagues he'd end up in.

The Waratah League (based in New South Wales, where Newington College is) also has three divisions under its top level. Division One, and Division One/Two for youth. He's not in any of those either.

So if he's not playing professionally in Australia, I figure that leaves three options -

• He's retired
• He'll come back to UP and will play after first semester ends
• He'll go to a different school, redshirt another year, and play 2017-18

Seems like #2 is the most likely option. But what do I know.

Also, I find it amusing that after NoPo rightfully harped for years about balancing out scholarships, with the Todd transfer they're now literally as balanced as they can possibly get (assuming Maker really is coming back).

SR (3) - Wintering, Marshall, Barreno
JR (3) - Tyson, Taylor, Hartwich
SO (3) - Johnson, Jackson, Russell
FR (3) - Monson, Maker, Smoyer

DoubleDipper wrote:
We did talk about Rev some.....he's a man Coach Burns considers a good friend and thinks "it was stupid of Stanford not to hire him as an assistant" under Haase.

Oregon demoted Don Pellum as defensive coordinator instead of firing him. Maybe we can do the same with Rev and make him an assistant.

blacksheep wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:
We did talk about Rev some.....he's a man Coach Burns considers a good friend and thinks "it was stupid of Stanford not to hire him as an assistant" under Haase.

Oregon demoted Don Pellum as defensive coordinator instead of firing him.  Maybe we can do the same with Rev and make him an assistant.  

Already drunk at 10am?

Dean Murdoch wrote:Also, I find it amusing that after NoPo rightfully harped for years about balancing out scholarships, with the Todd transfer they're now literally as balanced as they can possibly get (assuming Maker really is coming back).

SR (3) - Wintering, Marshall, Barreno
JR (3) - Tyson, Taylor, Hartwich
SO (3) - Johnson, Jackson, Russell
FR (3) - Monson, Maker, Smoyer

Turns out I have a lot of sway w/ the Athletic Department. First, they balanced out the recruiting classes, then they hired Porter. I've got to be careful what I ask for in the future!

Seems like the freshman class is most likely to end up with a fourth scholarship if Malcolm Porter comes aboard. I'd rather see a skilled post player join the junior class (JC transfer) or senior class (graduate transfer).

To make that happen, Porter could pay Malcolm's way next year, then save one of the three 2017 scholarships for him (and please get Isaac Bonton back for one of the other 2017 spots!). A recent example of a coach's son playing as a walk-on is Doug McDermott as a senior at Creighton. His family paid his tuition, making him officially a walk-on, so that teammate Grant Gibbs could play his senior year as a sixth-year medical redshirt.

One pertinent detail from the linked article: "Even though McDermott's father is an employee at [Creighton], NCAA rules don't permit any financial aid unless that person has been employed for more than five years."

So even if UP would give Porter an exemption to it's normal waiting period for free family-member tuition, the NCAA would not permit it if Malcolm were on the basketball team.

Nopo wrote:One pertinent detail from the linked article: "Even though McDermott's father is an employee at [Creighton], NCAA rules don't permit any financial aid unless that person has been employed for more than five years."

So even if UP would give Porter an exemption to it's normal waiting period for free family-member tuition, the NCAA would not permit it if Malcolm were on the basketball team.

Looks like bookkeeping. There are no NCAA rules on coaches salary and bonuses.

NOPO wrote:Turns out I have a lot of sway w/ the Athletic Department. First, they balanced out the recruiting classes, then they hired Porter. I've got to be careful what I ask for in the future!

So.. What you are saying is that if Porter makes a move he will unbalance the recruiting classes?

Dean Murdoch wrote:I have to admit, I kind of expected Chier Maker to show up on some team's roster in a second-tier league under the NBL in Australia. So if he's not playing professionally in Australia, I figure that leaves three options -

• He's retired
• He'll come back to UP and will play after first semester ends
• He'll go to a different school, redshirt another year, and play 2017-18

Seems like #2 is the most likely option. But what do I know.

Yup, you got it, #2 is the correct answer!!

Chier is "excited to be returning to UP" he says. Excited to get back in the classroom with his classmates and on the court with his teammates.

His plan is to be back at UP prior to the beginning of the first summer session which begins on May 16.

He can then workout with the team all summer and begin practicing at the normal beginning of fall practice in mid-October. Once first semester is over and finals are taken, on or around December 15th, he'll finally be eligible to suit up and play for the Pilots!

Considering this young man's journey from war torn Sudan to horrendous conditions in refugee camps with little or no education until he reached Australia a few years ago, he is looking forward to basketball, but he is even more "excited to get a college education."

If he becomes eligible half way through the year, when does his eligibility end? Half way through a fifth season? Or at the end of a fourth?

This seems like good news for the Pilots. One roster spot left. Will it be Malcolm?