David Skara is transferring...

[talksalot]

I'm curious as to how many kids who transferred from Valpo really improved their situation.

Like Andrew Ferry?

http://cornellbigred.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=23335

[nkvu]

I'm curious as to how many kids who transferred from Valpo really improved their situation.

Like Andrew Ferry?

http://cornellbigred.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=23335

True but he wasn't getting much pt at Valpo was he?  Again if a kid isn't playing and has no prospects of playing and can transfer to an Ivy League school and play as well - go for it. His was definitely a success story.

[a3uge]

I'm curious as to how many kids who transferred from Valpo really improved their situation.

Like Andrew Ferry?

http://cornellbigred.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=23335

True but he wasn't getting much pt at Valpo was he?  Again if a kid isn't playing and has no prospects of playing and can transfer to an Ivy League school and play as well - go for it. His was definitely a success story.

He didn't even have an athletic scholarship at Valpo... he didn't play much and he was on the worst Valpo team since before Bryce came here as a player.

[VULB#62]

Written after two martinis:  This is so sad. For decades Valpo has pretty much been immune to the crap that is big time college basketball. Then within two weeks we are exposed to a coaching change into the big time (actually a good thing for both Bryce, VU and Vandy IMO) and on the back side the underworld of  the meat market that is seething under the cover of amateur athletics.

I would like to draw a different analogy from the one that talked about a drug addict. No, David is an impressionable kid who trusted older advisors (who saw his marketability). So, he enrolled at Valpo and found another family. Times were good. He excelled and had a great future. But the advisors had a different agenda that was self serving. When that agenda was not met, the advisors leveraged their influence and administered the cool aide of years past to pull the kid away from what was a glowing personal future back into a situation that was better for the advisors. The kid became a pawn in a power play. He had divided laoyalties. He went with the oldest. Now he goes wherever the advisor gets a coaching job as a part of the deal. Doesn't that sound just  like interstate trafficking of child prostitution?

[vufan75]

Per Post Trib's Michael Osipoff tweet this afternoon. My thought is interesting but blocks lately around college bball at least in P5 transfers seem to get rescinded due to all the expert public opinion.
Tweet shown below.

"From source: David Skara has been granted his release from #Valparaiso. Blocked from transferring to Vanderbilt and within Horizon League."

[VULB#62]

[tweet]722514711929970688[/tweet]

Have fun David sitting out one year and then possibly excelling in the ..... Big South ? ....    or wherever.  There is still time to change your mind.  You are cutting off family that you will not experience again.

[oklahomamick]

I wonder if David was present at the ARC Awards?  That might change his mind.

[valpopal]

As for the roster, a spot was left open for Keith, who is more likely going to get another year than not.

Since Chef is a knowledgeable and prudent betting man who usually is aware of the odds, I liked reading his optimism in this sentence, and I hope he is correct!

[Chairback]

Sounds like a big test for a new coach in this situation.  If given an ultimatum (if I coach he stays, etc.) I hope they told them to stick it up their a$$.  In a nice Lutheran way though.

Kudos for not hiring them.  +1 for Coach Lottich!

[a3uge]

Who even is the director of basketball operations and what do they actually do?

[ValpoDad89]

a3Huge, typically a DOBO is a person trying to cut his teeth into coaching. Many end up getting better positions after time served so to speak. I believe they can "recruit" a kid once he's on campus but cannot recruit outside like the HC and other designated assistants. Sometimes they're guys trying to get back their credibility as well.

As far as Skara and tampering, going to be hard to prove. Was there some tampering? Most likely. As I said in earlier posts, colleges reached out to Tevonn amd Jubril through their sources. Was definitely indirect contact but definitely sent out feelers. Thank God, better heads prevailed for now. Valpo is a "high" mid major now and in a state of flux will draw out the snakes if you will. College hoops is big business and if a coach can coax a kid out with "greater" possibilities, they are gonna sell that.

[ValpoFan]

Blocked from transferring to Vandy? is that even an option? Is his advisor at Vandy?

[valpotx]

It only makes sense that we attempt to block him from transferring to other HL schools and Vandy, given the situation regarding his leaving.  If it were more straightforward, rather than being related to Vu's 'butt hurt,' I would be against blocking any schools from his transfer list.  Since it is mainly because Vu didn't get a Valpo job, and convinced David to leave because of it, I find it more than just...

[ValpoDad89]

It is typical for most if not all programs to prevent any underclassmen transfer from going to an Inconference school ( and most conferences have that stipulation as well) to help save thier brand or asset that is their program. Often they'll truncate that outward to schools they may possibly play or have an arrangement with in advance in the future. When a coach leaves, they typically include the former coach's new school as well to prevent any kind of presight tampering or just to be sour grapes, who knows.

In the case of 4 year or kids who satisfied their eligibility by getting their degree at the original school, none of that applies as they are true "free agents" if you will. In the end it is common practice and in the grand scheme of things you're really not limiting any kid as they have, like, 325 other programs they can go to.

[IndyValpo]

Who even is the director of basketball operations and what do they actually do?

One account of the DOBO position....

http://www.testudotimes.com/2014/5/21/5738070/director-of-basketball-operations-job-description

[chef]

Each coach has a different plan for the DOBO. Both Will Phipps and Luke Simons were a combination traveling secretary/assistant to the head coach. Matt Lottich has a different plan for the DOBO. He's hired a very successful former head coach, and he's going to help with scouting and game planning. The DOBO has two main restrictions - he can't be on the road recruiting and he can't be on the court coaching during practice. Thus the schools have many options for the DOBO. Bryce and Matt have a different philosophy.

[covufan]

Blocked from transferring to Vandy? is that even an option? Is his advisor at Vandy?

This is not unusual. For both football and bb grad transfers, they might also exclude schools in their upcoming season schedule.

[VULB#62]

Each coach has a different plan for the DOBO. Both Will Phipps and Luke Simons were a combination traveling secretary/assistant to the head coach. Matt Lottich has a different plan for the DOBO. He's hired a very successful former head coach, and he's going to help with scouting and game planning. The DOBO has two main restrictions - he can't be on the road recruiting and he can't be on the court coaching during practice. Thus the schools have many options for the DOBO. Bryce and Matt have a different philosophy.

That article is a very good accounting of what a DOBO does (in short, anything and everything that is needed to get done that otherwise would interfere with coaching and off campus recruiting).  The other thing that is critical and that was brought up by the Nebraska DOBO is coordinating travel logistics.  Getting players, coaches, trainers, media, and other athletic staff on buses, planes and trains and hotels and restaurants and back home again is a lot of work.

[VULB#62]

Blocked from transferring to Vandy? is that even an option? Is his advisor at Vandy?

This is not unusual. For both football and bb grad transfers, they might also exclude schools in their upcoming season schedule.

If you recall just a few weeks ago Spike Albrecht was graduate xferring from Michigan and UM, at first, put restrictions on where he could go (no B1G schools) but eventually backed off due to the bad PR it gave them.  Spike is now rumored to be talking with Purdue (along with Syracuse).

[valpotx]

True, but I highly doubt that we will be cast in such a light in this instance, and I believe that the restrictions will remain.

[VULB#62]

True, but I highly doubt that we will be cast in such a light in this instance, and I believe that the restrictions will remain.

Absolutely correct.  Skara is a non-graduate Xfer.  Valpo has every right to place blocks in the release -- and should, based on how this thing went down.  Albrecht completed his degree and, as ValpoDad mentioned, is virtually a free agent -- that's what got UM in PR trouble.  I was responding to the grad part of COVUFAN's reply.

[Vale O. Paradise]

Someone posted an advertisement/highlight reel on YouTube of Skara yesterday. The username has uploaded about a dozen videos, all for Euro players.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ismscout

[hoopfan22]

glad i was wrong. Also looking at the username of those videos we know who it is now. Ismscout. Which brings me to this. Why/how did Skara get to play NCAA ball if there's an agent involved?!

[oklahomamick]

man, that full house HL championship game looked good at the ARC. 

[VULB#62]

Someone posted an advertisement/highlight reel on YouTube of Skara yesterday. The username has uploaded about a dozen videos, all for Euro players.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ismscout

Interesting how quickly this YouTube came together and from so many separate sources.  ISMScout may have been collecting these over time as a fallback. This is really looking slimy.  Its this affinity I have for Oliver Stone conspiracy theories