The NEW Team for 2021-22

DoubleDipper wrote:Deng Dut G 6-4/190 Sophomore from Melbourne, Aus...transfer from College of Southern Idaho (JUCO) has confirmed he is "all in" to play for the Pilots.

Deng Dut had a monster season while leading the NJCAA 10th-ranked Golden Eagles to a 21-3 overall record. He is averaging 14.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game.

Dut has been extremely efficient in all three shooting categories. He is 52.3 percent from the field, 51.2 percent from three-point range (No. 9 nationally) and 84.1 percent at the free throw line.

UP Athletics wrote about Dut yesterday:  https://portlandpilots.com/news/2021/4/15/mens-basketball-portland-commit-deng-dut-leads-csi-to-juco-nationals.aspx

DoubleDipper wrote:Can we expect more high school players to commit to UP?  I think so, but with no in-person recruiting allowed until at least June 1, I am wondering if Coach Legans will go after some of the seven recruits that committed to him while he was at EWU.  It is often the case that high school kids are more attracted to the coach than the university.

If that is the case, three EWU commits stand out from the rest:
1. Yaru Harvey 6-2 guard from Sacramento
2. Fan “Chris” Yiming 6-8 forward from China
3. Skylar Wilson 6-7 small forward from Denver

Coach Legans hit the trifecta today with the signing of the third member at the top of the EWU incoming group, Fan "Chris" Yiming, a 6-8 power forward from China, but who is going to school in Modesto.

I know nothing about the young man, but I am sure we will see something from UP in the coming days....

FloridaPilot wrote:I’m sure EWU is thrilled with us these days.

Yaru Harvey's signing is official: https://portlandpilots.com/news/2021/4/16/mens-basketball-pilots-sign-point-guard-yaru-harvey-to-nli.aspx

"Coach Legans was the first to offer me a scholarship and made a real effort to form a relationship with me," Harvey said. "He believes in me and with his success as a former point guard, he understands what it takes to play the position at a high level.

"I am a team-first guy with a winning mentality and will do whatever it takes to help the team. I'm excited for the experience of moving to an unfamiliar place and forming new bonds in Portland."

Waited all day for Stoney to post this, but he's probably got an life outside UP sports...

Mike Meadows is "officially" signed:

"Portland is a gold mine to be tapped in to and I know we can make it something special," Meadows said of his decision to come to The Bluff. "It's a great opportunity to turn the program around and if the fans stick with us, we'll get it done."

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2021/4/17/eastern-washington-transfer-mike-meadows-signs-with-portland.aspx

The NJCAA National Championship Tournament begins tomorrow in Hutchinson, Kansas, and Deng Dut's College of Southern Idaho is the #3 seed.  

This is one sports writer's assessment of Dut and CSI:

Sean Paul wrote:Region champions CSI could be poised to make a deep run in this tournament due to the play of a few players, most notably Portland commit & uber-talented guard Deng Dut.

Dut is a 6’4 true PG that dropped a phenomenal 14-5-5 line on the season, in conjunction with a splendid 52% overall and 51% from three. Dut’s court navigation & Basketball IQ is tremendous; a guy that makes his teammates better and a pivotal part of Coach Jeff Reinert attack.

You can attribute CSI’s star’s efficiency to his IQ. Seldom will you see Dut take an ill-advised shot. If he doesn’t have a good look, get ready for a Southern Idaho player to receive a quick pass from Dut.

Deng is looking better and better! Wonder how many coaches tried to poach him after Porter got canned.

DoubleDipper wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:3. Skylar Wilson 6-7 small forward from Denver

Now listed at 6-8, Wilson had signed with EWU, but was obviously released from his commitment.

Of the three EWU commits I listed above, I believe Skylar was the most coveted.

UP makes it "official,"  Dynamic wing Skylar Wilson signs with Pilot Hoops:

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2021/4/18/mens-basketball-skylar-wilson-signs-nli-with-pilot-hoops.aspx

UP makes Tyler Roberston an "official" addition to the roster:

Coach Legans wrote:"Tyler is the ultimate student of the game.  His natural instincts and basketball IQ are second to none. He possesses a rare confidence, and it shows not only in his shooting percentages, but also in his ability to hit big shots with the game on the line. Tyler is coming off a Sixth Man of the Year award in the Big Sky, and our staff is thrilled to watch him continue to succeed here at Portland!"

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2021/4/23/mens-basketball-mens-hoops-adds-ewu-transfer-tyler-robertson.aspx

Well, he may not be 6-10, but he is 6-8 and is a Shooter, and has committed to UP.

Kristian Sjølund 6-8/210 SF from Kongsberg, Norway…was a ESPN Four-Star recruit out of high school in Katy, Texas.

Played his freshman year (2018-19) at Georgia Tech and then redshirted his next season at GT before transferring to UTEP for the 2020-21 season.

At UTEP this past season he did not play a whole lot of minutes (14 per game) but shot 40-82 overall including 31-66 from the beyond the arc while averaging 5 points per game.

@ExpertWcc wrote:Portland landed Chika Nduka according to his Instagram. He is a 6'6 small forward from South Kent School.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNyUrw8lcuw/

Chika Nduka 6-6/210 SF from Bellevue.

Interesting addition that comes as a complete surprise to me, which is not unusual in itself, but he is a player that has apparently gotten very little notice from college coaches.

I guess we'll learn more in the days ahead...

Dean Murdoch wrote:Ohhh, scoop of the day here...

@Eurohopes wrote: 2021 class Montenegrin guard Nikola Milosevic (‘02) has committed to Portland, per sources

Did some digging and it turns out Nikola Milošević isn't an uncommon name in the Balkans.

I think the Nikola Milošević we're looking had played in Serbia for at least a few seasons, but played for the Podgorica club in Montenegro this past year. He mostly played with Podgorica's second team in the Prva B Liga (12.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 3.2 APG, 38% from 3PT in 13 games). Also played 10 games with Podgorica's top team in the Erste Liga, the top level of Montenegrin hoops. And one site had his birthplace listed as Toronto?

I could also be inadvertently combining info from two or more Nikola Miloševićs, though. Who knows!

Nikola Milosevic was playing for BC Buducnost from Montenegro until 15, then he played for most talented team in Serbia Mega Bemax ( I believe for 2 years). When Covid started last year he returned to Podgorica to play first division, 2nd division and U18 national league, as a youngest player on team. He was born in Toronto and lived there 7yo. He has great highlights on youtube. You are going to see great talent for sure.

Coachnm wrote:Nikola Milosevic was playing for BC Buducnost from Montenegro until 15, then he played for most talented team in Serbia Mega Bemax ( I believe for 2 years). When Covid started last year he returned to Podgorica to play first division, 2nd division and U18 national league,  as a youngest player on team. He was born in Toronto and lived there 7yo. He has great highlights on youtube. You are going to see great talent for sure.

Welcome to PilotNation, Coachnm, and thank you for the insight on Nikola.  We are looking forward to watching him play and to reading your future posts here on PilotNation.

Sound Voltex wrote:

@ExpertWcc wrote:Portland landed Chika Nduka according to his Instagram. He is a 6'6 small forward from South Kent School.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNyUrw8lcuw/

DoubleDipper wrote:Interesting addition that comes as a complete surprise to me, which is not unusual in itself, but he is a player that has apparently gotten very little notice from college coaches.

Have not and will not say anything negative about a player's ability, but I can only guess that Coach Legans must see something in this kid that will eventually blossom and make him a good D1 player.  With four freshmen already committed for next season, I am just surprised at the addition of another that is not 6-10 or taller!

Based on his tape, Nduka is excellent at finding different ways to put the ball in the hoop, but compared to the tapes we have seen of other incoming Pilots, he is slower and less athletic.  And as we know of no other colleges who have pursued him, I am wondering if he is going to be a walk-on practice player at UP, not a scholarship player.  

DoubleDipper wrote:I guess we'll learn more in the days ahead...

DoubleDipper wrote:Kristian Sjølund 6-8/210 SF from Kongsberg, Norway…was a ESPN Four-Star recruit out of high school in Katy, Texas.

At UTEP this past season he did not play a whole lot of minutes (14 per game) but shot 40-82 overall including 31-66 from the beyond the arc while averaging 5 points per game.

IMO, Sjolund is the most exciting addition to the new team despite scoring only 5ppg at UTEP this past season because he will stretch the opposing defenses.

Anyone who can shoot close to 50% overall and 47% from behind the arc is bound to contribute while bringing a defender with him to the perimeter and freeing up lanes for cutters.  

Now, if we can just recruit that 6-10 guy for the high and low post!    

DoubleDipper wrote:I am wondering if he is going to be a walk-on practice player at UP, not a scholarship player.  

You wondered correctly, DD, Chika Nduka will be a walk-on at UP this coming year.

I was putting up some shots today when one of the coaches came through and confirmed Nduka had been accepted to UP on an academic scholarship and will be a great help as a practice player this coming season.

StudentPilot wrote:You wondered correctly, DD, Chika Nduka will be a walk-on at UP this coming year.

Thanks for checking!

Still three scholarships available...

How many players in the portal are over 6’10”?

Geezaldinho wrote:How many players in the portal are over 6’10”?

Actually, quiet a few, over 50 have yet to find a new home.

IMO, it will be important to bring in a grad-transfer or at least someone with experience, but it may be just as important, and likely more difficult, to bring in a 6-10+ high school kid...perhaps from Eastern Europe?

DoubleDipper wrote:Deng Dut G 6-4/190 Sophomore from Melbourne, Aus...transfer from College of Southern Idaho (JUCO) has confirmed he is "all in" to play for the Pilots.

Details still emerging, but Deng Dut has been released from his NLI at Portland and is looking to play elsewhere.

Apparently he has a couple of high major offers, but there is also the possibility he could follow Coach Johnson to San Jose St.

Dut signed "early" in November with the previous coaching staff and then had a breakout season that got the attention of others schools.  I don't think there is much doubt his JUCO coach is the one who encouraged Dut to get his release from UP.

Hey, it opens up another scholarship and gives more playing time to those who truly want to be at UP playing for Coach Legans!!

DoubleDipper wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:Deng Dut G 6-4/190 Sophomore from Melbourne, Aus...transfer from College of Southern Idaho (JUCO) has confirmed he is "all in" to play for the Pilots.

Details still emerging, but Deng Dut has been released from his NLI at Portland and is looking to play elsewhere.

Apparently he has a couple of high major offers, but there is also the possibility he could follow Coach Johnson to San Jose St.

Dut signed "early" in November with the previous coaching staff and then had a breakout season that got the attention of others schools.  I don't think there is much doubt his JUCO coach is the one who encouraged Dut to get his release from UP.p

Hey, it opens up another scholarship and gives more playing time to those who truly want to be at UP playing for Coach Legans!!

DD: Pinning the Dut departure on his JUCO coaches may be true but I doubt it for many reasons. Mostly because the relationship between high end JUCO programs like CSI and D1 programs are all about smooth transitions. JUCOs don't get any bonus points for deflecting a player from one school to another.

No, this comes down a) to his main recruiter, Johnson, going elsewhere, b) Shantay and crew NOT recruiting him to EWU and thus no prior relationship and c) no doubt some "higher prestige" schools whispering in his ear. In today's environment, everyone says "yes" first and the figure out if they actually meant it later.

Not busting on Deng; the system doesn't give credit for honesty to neither player or program so it's easy to put honesty on the back shelf.

My guess is that Shantay really wanted Dut he would have found a place for Coach Johnson to insure it. Sounds like a kid that any program would love to have but in the end it wasn't meant to be. Plenty of other players out there for Portland, plenty of schools out there for Dut.

With all of those things being true, I can't really blame Shantay for wanting a clean break from what was (regardless of Coach Johnson's credentials) an awful time for the program.

Does not seem to be worth it to keep anything around from a time of so much disappointment and underachievement.

Deng wasn’t around for any of the disappointment or underachievement. This is a player who absolutely blew up at CSI this season and would have been an excellent building block at UP.

And JUCO coaches absolutely get “bonus points” for sending kids to P12 schools instead of the Idaho States of the world.

While Deng may simply follow Coach Johnson to SJSU, I think there’s a strong chance he ends up in the P12 or a higher profile MWC school. He will have options.

I didn't articulate my previous post very well, what I was trying to say was that if Deng was only going to stay on account of Coach Johnson I'm not sure that's worth it in the long run as opposed to letting Legans have a complete reset of the staff.

Obviously Deng looks like a big time talent and I would have loved to see him in Purple!

Dean Murdoch wrote:

And JUCO coaches absolutely get “bonus points” for sending kids to P12 schools instead of the Idaho States of the world.

Sure, it looks better on the school's resume to send a kid to a successful Power 5 school then your average Big Sky school.

The response was to the assertion by the original poster that his CSI coaches talked Dut out of not honoring his oral commitment to Portland. Not buying it.

I don't doubt that they told him he has Power 5 potential and Power 5 schools asking about him. But they weren't the lead on this. CSI and staff have zero to gain by turning a kid that is already publicly announced where he was going to play to play somewhere else. JUCO programs sell getting players placed at D1 school and pissing off Shantay and staff is one less place to do that.

Kid changed his own mind. I am supremely confident his JUCO coaches told him to follow his heart. Shantay either couldn't turn the decision back to UP - or he decided he didn't want or need him.

Unless Dut ends up playing at a WCC school it doesn't particularly matter at this point.