2020 Recruiting

Dean Murdoch wrote:At this point my concern about Zac Triplett is him being able to physically arrive in the USA given Australia's overseas travel restrictions.

Zac is reportedly delayed just a couple of days in his, and UP's, quest to get him to Portland.

Indications are he'll arrive on campus around July 1st...

DoubleDipper wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:If he sits a year he might transfer after a year practicing with D1 players. Some other team will get a player who needed redshirt year  at no cost.

Perhaps, but...

A. The NCAA will have to pass the One-Time Transfer Exception rule for basketball, otherwise he'd still have to sit a "residence year" at his new institution, even if he redshirted at UP.

B. Shouldn't our first concern be for the kid?  From tape and comments, Triplett is a very good player, but is he good enough to play ahead of his teammates with two or three years more experience?  I would be very upset with TP if Triplett were to burn a year by playing 37 seconds of garbage time and thereby losing a year of eligibility when he should be redshirting and gaining experience in the Beauchamp Center....

C. Hey, I hope he is the second-coming of John Stockton or Steve Nash or Darwin Cook, it could possibly mean UP wouldn't finish last in the WCC, for a change.  

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Triplett didn't base his decision on coming to UP on the fact that he wouldn't be red-shirting. Make no mistake about it, there is zero reason for Porter to be thinking about UP basketball post this season. So if I the kid can play at all, he's going to play.

A lot of those international kids aren't big on coming to the US and sitting around. They want to play and they want to get on with playing for pay back in their home countries.

The silver lining to this whole men's basketball program debacle is that in theory, long term roster management and the politics that go with it should be at an absolute minimum.  Porter has no other agenda but to get his best guys on the floor that give him (and the program) the best chance to win.

The future is now (fingers crossed of course).

PS 2XD, I would take the 2nd coming of Dave Flint at this point.

lomiton wrote:Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Triplett didn't base his decision on coming to UP on the fact that he wouldn't be red-shirting. Make no mistake about it, there is zero reason for Porter to be thinking about UP basketball post this season. So if I the kid can play at all, he's going to play. A lot of those international kids aren't big on coming to the US and sitting around. They want to play and they want to get on with playing for pay back in their home countries.

I don't know, Saint Mary's has had four international players redshirt just in recent years. Naar, Krebs, Perry, Zoriks.

Taki Fahrensohn told me redshirting was definitely the right decision for him because he needed to develop his body and his game before he'd have a chance to play professionally somewhere. He's put on about 15lbs of muscle and at least an inch in height since he arrived in Portland.

Yes, he'll graduate and possibly grad-transfer somewhere after this coming season if he's not getting many minutes, but he's really liking his time at UP and his girlfriend on the tennis team...

UP now has NINE new players, all eligible to play next season...

Transfer point guard Ahmed Ali (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) will join the University of Portland men's basketball team for his final season of eligibility.

Ali was a JUCO All-American at Eastern Florida State College (Brevard County, Fla.) before earning starter's minutes at Washington State during the 2018-19 season. He transferred to Hawaii following the coaching change at WSU, but did not play for the Warriors during the 2019-20 season due to a health issue.

Ali started 24 games and appeared in 32 overall for Washington State as a junior and averaged 7.3 points and 2.9 assists per game. He posted a 2.4 assist/turnover ratio, scored in double figures in ten games, knocked down 45 three-pointers and shot 83 percent from the foul line.

Apparently it will be announced soon where the scholarship is coming from, but I understand UP is now down to only four returning scholarship players from last season.

Ali is a great get! Patience is paying off! Adams needs a strong true point guard to push him...and frankly, someone on the bench to sub in if he is trying to do too much. This team is going to get some conf wins!

optimist wrote:Ali is a great get!  Patience is paying off!  Adams needs a strong true point guard to push him...and frankly, someone on the bench to sub in if he is trying to do too much.  This team is going to get some conf wins!  

Agreed!

Before Ali's commitment I really thought Cly Griffith would potentially beat-out Adams for the starting spot...now I'm not sure what the pecking order at PG will be...but it's my guess that the recruiting pitch to Ali was his likelihood of starting.

When Kyle Smith took over at WSU from Ernie Kent, he told Ali he would likely no longer start, but would instead play behind Isaac Bonton.  As you may recall, Bonton committed to UP out of Parkrose High School after being recruited by Coach Eric Jackson, but when Porter took over from Reveno he turned Bonton away.

Impressive. Ahmed’s WSU team wasn’t great, but he himself put up solid numbers as a Pac-12 starter. I’m surprised the Pilots were able to pull in a guy of this caliber this late in the game!

Now we see wait and see who leaves, though.

FYI, Ahmed is 5'11". Didn't see that reported. I love the 83% FT number.

So the returning players were JoJo, Chase, Quincy, Taki, and D. Wondering who is the odd man out?

This kid (Ali) has great range and is more polished than Adams.

It will be interesting to see how playing time is distributed.

I'm excited for this team! Hopefully they have time to create chemistry.

up7587 wrote:So the returning players were JoJo, Chase, Quincy, Taki, and D.  Wondering who is the odd man out?

It is my understanding that Chase, Quincy, Taki and D are already on campus or will be back on campus next week...

JoJo is not sure what he will do next, but it was the university's decision that he not return to UP, not his.

He said he grades were fine, and that Porter was ready for him to return to the team, but something obviously happened that caused Waldschmidt Hall to ban him from returning.

I consider him a friend, and I'm sorry to see his college education at UP come to an end...

I'd read that new UP point guard Ahmed Ali was at one time referred to as "Mr. 103"...and wondered why.

Turns out Ali scored 103 points in a high school game in December 2015

https://www.hiiraan.com/news4/2015/Dec/103120/somali_canadian_guard_ahmed_ali_makes_history_drops_103_points_in_high_school_game.aspx

And if this workout tape from the same time-frame is any indication, he puts as much effort into his physical conditioning as Geezer...



It's mentioned in the article, and I also heard it from a WSU friend, Ali still needs to get better on defense.

From my WSU guy this morning about Ali's one year in Pullman, "While Ali’s offensive game was respectable and he could put together hot-handed scoring streaks, his defense struggled at times. He had trouble against some of the bigger guards in the Pac-12, and often got caught on screens and switches."

StudentPilot wrote:JoJo is not sure what he will do next, but it was the university's decision that he not return to UP, not his.

He said he grades were fine, and that Porter was ready for him to return to the team, but something obviously happened that caused Waldschmidt Hall to ban him from returning.

I consider him a friend, and I'm sorry to see his college education at UP come to an end...

Yikes. I'm sorry to hear this. I can't find any sources online. Has this not broke yet?

TP has toyed with his playing time in the past. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he was advised that he wouldn't be starting. I think (my thoughts worth a hill of beans) Triplett gets thrown right into the starting lineup.

Kevin wrote:Yikes. I'm sorry to hear this. I can't find any sources online. Has this not broke yet?

TP has toyed with his playing time in the past. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he was advised that he wouldn't be starting. I think (my thoughts worth a hill of beans) Triplett gets thrown right into the starting lineup.

You will NOT hear anything.

It is a personal matter between the university and a student, and it has nothing to do with athletics.

DD wrote:And if this workout tape from the same time-frame is any indication, he puts as much effort into his physical conditioning as Geezer... Shocked

C’mon. Where is a college kid going to get that much Pliny? Rochin couldn’t even pull that off.

As COVID-19 tragically continues to spread across the country, many student-athletes are reprioritizing their lives and choosing to transfer or take a year off from school to be closer to high-risk family members. I have not heard of that happening at UP, and so far, all but three members of the MBB team are on campus getting to know one another and getting ready for organized drills beginning July 20.

Cly Griffith is still finishing up his associate degree, Zak Triplett is cutting through the red tape to leave Australia, and Ahmed Ali is working on the logistics to leave Canada.  

I am just hoping for everyone’s mental and physical health there will be a basketball season starting this November, and with that in mind, let’s take a geographical look at this year’s roster.  

It seems all the MBB head coaches who come to UP emphasize recruiting in Oregon, and thanks to the Porter brothers, it has been a while since UP did not have someone from Oregon on the team when others have left, but Franklin and Malcolm also left early, and now there are none...

California – Quincy Ferebee, Miles Turner
Florida – Eddie Davis
Illinois – Chase Adams
Louisiana – Latrell Jones
New Jersey - Isiah Dasher
North Carolina – Hunter Seymour
Washington – Hayden Curtiss, Mikey Henn, Wyatt Watson
Australia – Zak Triplett
Canada – Cly Griffith, Ahmed Ali
Mali – Tahirou Diabate
New Zealand – Taki Fahrensohn

I cannot even guess a starting lineup from this group, but I will predict that among the new guys, the Canadians, Griffith and Ali, will be big contributors at guard, that Washingtonian Henn will shore-up the inside, and that North Carolina’s Hunter has the potential to be a break-out star sometime during his last two years in college.

DoubleDipper wrote:I cannot even guess a starting lineup from this group, but I will predict that among the new guys, the Canadians, Griffith and Ali, will be big contributors at guard, that Washingtonian Henn will shore-up the inside, and that North Carolina’s Hunter has the potential to be a break-out star sometime during his last two years in college.

PG - who knows?
SG - who knows?
SF - who knows?
PF - who knows?
C - probably Diabate

Dean Murdoch wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:I cannot even guess a starting lineup from this group, but I will predict that among the new guys, the Canadians, Griffith and Ali, will be big contributors at guard, that Washingtonian Henn will shore-up the inside, and that North Carolina’s Hunter has the potential to be a break-out star sometime during his last two years in college.

PG - who knows?
SG - who knows?
SF - who knows?
PF - who knows?
C - probably Diabate

As I indicated in my earlier post but didn't actually say, it seems like the traditional positions may almost not apply to this team with the exception being the Center. I would venture a timid guess that this team will need to play without a "traditional" power forward to be successful as they have at times in years past.
I also agree that the only one who is truly a locked in starter now with Jojo gone is D.

My "way too early" cut at the starters

Ali
Dasher
Jones
Henn
D

Shall we put a pool together?

Going to be fun to watch it play out, covid willing. Feels like the staff has pulled together some good pieces...depth and competition will make a difference. But so many unknowns...a handful of the newbies had few if any other offers...will they prove the doubters wrong? Time will tell.

Given the lame duckness of Porter's tenure, things could have been much worse. Can't wait to see the boys in action.

optimist wrote:
Given the lame duckness of Porter's tenure, things could have been much worse.  

Glass half full

I was asked why the basketball players from both the men's and women's teams are arriving on campus now if they cannot start organized drills until July 20 and summer school is online, not face-to-face.

The reason they are arriving now is because all the student-athletes have to go into quarantine upon arrival, will be tested frequently, and will have to undergo some medical evaluation before beginning any sort of strenuous workouts after being essentially “off” for the last four months.

I believe the players on both the men’s and women’s teams can go to the gym to shoot baskets, or whatever, but they must do it solo…one basket, one ball, one player…and no players are allowed in the locker rooms.

The COVID protocol seems to change weekly, depending upon the threat, but that is the last I heard.

I wanted to send a note on what I've heard through the rumor mill:

Ali - the real deal...guy can shoot it
Jones - Super athletic, as advertised
Dasher - Pleasant surprise of the group...
Henn - bringing maturity and leadership to the mix

What have you guys heard?

optimist wrote:I wanted to send a note on what I've heard through the rumor mill:

Ali - the real deal...guy can shoot it
Jones - Super athletic, as advertised
Dasher - Pleasant surprise of the group...
Henn - bringing maturity and leadership to the mix

What have you guys heard?

I have heard that Ali is in need of two waivers from the NCAA before he can play.  

One of the waivers has been approved, but the other is still pending.

(No, I don't know why the waivers are needed, but the pending one may be because he left U. of Hawaii at mid-semester and may not have graduated.)

Dean Murdoch wrote:I meant to post about it at some point, but PSU has had an outstanding offseason. It seems like they're mentioned on virtually every "teams that have reached out" list when a decent transfer hits the portal, besides the ones that are obviously headed to high-major destinations. And it's worked out for them in a big way.

Does Hardy need to sit a year with everyone else eligible right away?

Because Elijah Hardy was apparently "run-off" at UW, the NCAA granted him a waiver to play immediately at PSU this coming season.

Also receiving waivers to play immediately at PSU are Khalid Thomas (run-off at ASU), and Monty Scott coming from Temple.

By my unofficial count, 244 transfers asked for a waiver to play immediately at their new school this season:

Approved: 123
Pending: 114
Denied: 7

UP has one player in each category. Akwuba got a waiver to play at Louisiana, Ali has a waiver pending to play at UP, and Tryon's request to play immediately at New Mexico St. was denied, and now he is apparently sitting a year at Samford.