Transfers

[crusader05]

I know this is difficult but we need to try to prioritise recruiting guys who want to be a student at valpo as well as to play on the basketball team. Given how easy it is to transfer now, no wonder we keep losing guys who have, from an outsider's point of view, little affinity to valpo outside of sport and basketball. I would be interested to see the statistics of how many of our recent impact non-grad transfers were kiniseology/sports management majors./quote]

I really do think this is a part of the answer. If you want to recruit basketball first and only guys you need to give them something to stay in your slightly dimmer lights year in and year out.
The first is obviously high levels of success and higher levels of status. We used to have the first and now we have the second but I really think we need both still
The second is other avenues to inroads and success in the basketball world and I think this was a part of what helped Bryce out. To be coached by a former NBA player who still had connections and knew people? That type of networking or a coach with a little star power themselves can definitely help out in these situations.

I really do think at this point the goal needs to be good basketball IQ and solid players that are coachable and able to be built up have to be what you bring in next time around. This is becoming more and more of a businesses which is why I don't begrudge a single person who transfers necessarily but it's also why we may have to change up how or who we recruit cause just being  a "family" isn't gonna be enough (nor should it be) for certain players

[wh]

Donovan's offensive stats were miserable, yet Matt played him heavy minutes the entire season. What more could a coach do show his support and loyalty. Apparently, Donovan's dad (and probably Donovan) felt the offensive scheme didn't fit his game? I'll be interested in seeing what kind of offense turns a 20% 3-point shooter into 40%.

There are plenty of fish in the sea. Next man up.

[Vinny]

At some point Donovan has to cut the cord and be his own person. Is dad going go with him on his Foot Locker interview in a couple of years?

[wh]

Recruit kids like JO, who shoots 3's incessantly on his own every day of his life to improve his game and increase his value to the team, and the rest will take care of itself.

[crusader05]

One other piece that I wouldn't' be surprised to see just effect a larger number of transfers in general is that, let's be honest, this entire year sucked. Obviously the level it sucked probably changed for each individual but there might have been just a large number of players out there that just didn't have a great year and that could lead to transferring whether it be to be closer to home, or start over someplace new or just put a gray cloud over everything. Plus the extra year just takes away any real penalty to transfer and i'll bet that for how loose the transfer market is this year it's gonna be super tight next year when those caps on scholarships really start taking effect and so it might have been a now or never year.

[vu72]

Recruit kids like JO, who shoots 3's incessantly on his own every day of his life to improve his game and increase his value to the team, and the rest will take care of itself.

Who actually wants to be at Valpo!

[hailcrusaders]

At some point one has to wonder why so many of our players who've played plenty of minutes keep transferring out. Is it simply bad luck? Lack of culture or leadership? I realize that transferring is so much more commonplace than it once was, but it certainly feels like an indictment of our program right now if it isn't a place that good players want to stick around. 

[RS]

I expect at least one more player to leave. But like it has been pointed out earlier the culture has changed in college basketball quite a bit over the past decades. Obviously Valpo needs to move on and fill these spots. So I'll put out this question ... what would you like to see brought in for a year or so to help stabilize the team. Graduate Seniors who are immediately cleared to play? More freshmen? Transfers who will need to sit out a year? some big questions to resolve obviously. With a freshman class that already has 4 players do we need to keep adding more and in the long run have a team that is top heavy in a single recruiting class? Interested to hear others thoughts.

[vu72]

I expect at least one more player to leave. But like it has been pointed out earlier the culture has changed in college basketball quite a bit over the past decades. Obviously Valpo needs to move on and fill these spots. So I'll put out this question ... what would you like to see brought in for a year or so to help stabilize the team. Graduate Seniors who are immediately cleared to play? More freshmen? Transfers who will need to sit out a year? some big questions to resolve obviously. With a freshman class that already has 4 players do we need to keep adding more and in the long run have a team that is top heavy in a single recruiting class? Interested to hear others thoughts.

It would appear that we will have plenty of good shooting guards and wings. I would think we need a "banger" on the inside like Prin.  6'9" 250# BOOM!  We needed rebounds last year and though Donovan's rebounds were identical to the previous year, it still was 5.5 per game.  I'd take an immediately eligible grad transfer before adding another freshman.  Besides, the talented freshman candidates have already signed with other schools. 

[bb33]

I agree.  We need someone tough who can get in the paint, box out hard  and get the rebounds.  Someone who is physical and won't get pushed around.  And can hopefully finish under the basket.

[valpo95]

Not sure it would help.  In the last 9 years transfers have gone from 577 to 1030 and we are already over 300 now. Homer's last season 2010-2011 if I'm not mistaken so maybe there were a couple of hundred transfers his last year.  We scout out underrecruited talent and hope their heads or their manager's head isn't too big.  Thank goodness we're got big shooters coming in.  That may have played a role as well.  He knows he's got a shooting problem and when your bringing in guys as tall who can shoot, finally your playing time goes down and so does your chance to be "the star".

72 is right. As much I would like to have Donovan Clay stay around, there are so many factors. It seems unlikely that the offense will be designed around him, especially with the competition for playing time. Would the team be better if he stayed? Absolutely, and wish him all the best in his next location.

It is too easy to blame the coach when players leave, as others have mentioned this is now fairly common. A case in point: Was it the coach's fault that Liam Robbins left Drake and had a successful year at Minnesota? Would Drake have been better this year with Robbins in uniform? Probably, yet we'll never know.

[AB]

When your a star player at mid major, you tend to have more needs/or a very influential parent behind the scenes. Brandon Wood's dad, JFL's uncle etc...Sometimes a star player will use a mid major to develop and look for greener pastures (The Robbins kid at Drake). The difficult part is not landing the star player at a mid major, but developing that star player, when he goes through struggles on the court.   In his fathers eyes Clay never looked comfortable in the role he played on offense, which contributed to his decline in numbers so we are going to explore our options. Is that the coaching staff's fault for not figuring out a role/court positioning that allowed his offense to blossom. Is it the opposing team's game planning for Clay? Or is the player's fault for a decline in statistics? Coaches can't shoot the ball for them.

[crusader05]

I think it depends on if we end with just these 2 or if we end up with 3+ spots. I agree that we may see one or two more especially if say Morgan sticks around.

If  Mileek doesn't come back or you lose Emil you try to find an experienced player with size for under the hoop and then you balance between graduate transfer experienced shooters who can drive the lane as well and a transfer or freshman with size as well.

[justducky]

I will miss Donovan but parents wanting to control every step that is taken are never a program loss when they get lost.

[wh]

I expect at least one more player to leave. But like it has been pointed out earlier the culture has changed in college basketball quite a bit over the past decades. Obviously Valpo needs to move on and fill these spots. So I'll put out this question ... what would you like to see brought in for a year or so to help stabilize the team. Graduate Seniors who are immediately cleared to play? More freshmen? Transfers who will need to sit out a year? some big questions to resolve obviously. With a freshman class that already has 4 players do we need to keep adding more and in the long run have a team that is top heavy in a single recruiting class? Interested to hear others thoughts.

It would appear that we will have plenty of good shooting guards and wings. I would think we need a "banger" on the inside like Prin.  6'9" 250# BOOM!  We needed rebounds last year and though Donovan's rebounds were identical to the previous year, it still was 5.5 per game.  I'd take an immediately eligible grad transfer before adding another freshman.  Besides, the talented freshman candidates have already signed with other schools. 

Jake LaRavia, come on up!

2020-21 SEASON STATS
(plays Donovan's position), Sophomore
6-9, 228 lbs. (Donovan 6-7, 205 lbs.)
PTS 12.3 (D 10.1)
REB 6.3 (D 5.5)
AST 2.3 (D 2.3)
FG% 47.3 (D 39.1)
3FG% 31.3 (D 20.2)

[Valpofamfan]

I don't think Emil will go - he's an engineering major and the only center on our roster

[Chairback]

Critique him how you want, but Clay hands down was our best player.  How many rushed shots did he have to put up because our offense is crap. 

Something is fundamentally wrong with the Valpo program.  We can spin this and say it's a national trend and the norm but we have some big issues.

Something tells me this will not be the last and will be a wild week with transfers.   

[vuny98]

Critique him how you want, but Clay hands down was our best player.  How many rushed shots did he have to put up because our offense is crap. Something is fundamentally wrong with the Valpo program.  We can spin this and say it's a national trend and the norm but we have some big issues. Something tells me this will not be the last and will be a wild week with transfers.

Hands down our best player?? No. That is Krikke.
I would say we had 5 players that I did not want to transfer (Clay, Krikke, Jo, Edwards, Barrett), but as long as we keep Krikke and 2 others I am happy. Transfers are the norm, and we are in the unlucky spot of being right in the middle, so our good players want to move up and our players that aren't getting playing time want to move down. Can't fault the players for that nor can you put that all on Valpo when nearly every school deals with it. As a mid major, unless you are stacked and looking like a top 50 team thats a shoe in for the tournament (i.e. Loyola) you are going to get the transfer bug almost every year.

[valpotx]

This doesn't really affect me, to be honest.  It does not at all feel like JFL leaving, or Alec entering the portal.  Clay was an offensive liability, outside of his occasional drives.  His jump shot is really bad, and most of his looks were not rushed, as mentioned above.  He missed plenty of wide open or earlier shot clock shots, which often came at critical times.  He is a stellar defensive player, but if he goes P5, he is going to be a bench player that struggles to find an offensive rhythm, unless given the shot freedom like he had with VU. 

I wish him luck and appreciate his 2 years, but I am not going to miss him as much, as I would have if he had left after a solid FR season last year.

Edit:  I will add that I mentioned during several games, that Clay had completely checked out at times.  This transfer is not a surprise.  As to other posters mentioning that it is or is not ML's fault, it is hard to say.  The amount of transfers nowadays is absolutely ridiculous.  It is a generational change.  It is the same attitude for many folks that graduated over the last few years, and always looking for the next best thing, versus trying to make a career at a single company. 

[mj]

Always tough to see a good player leave but I'm not going to blame Clay. I'm more upset at the NCAA for creating this situation in the first place. Just another example of the rich getting richer and the big getting bigger (See MLB and the minor league realignment)

[wh]

Thinking back to something I said earlier about Donovan's dad's critical comments on Twitter, I should not have done that. When I was growing up I played sports year round, and my dad and mom never came to any of my games in anything. Finally, during basketball season of my senior year my dad was in the barber shop and happened to over hear someone talking about me. He mentioned it when he came home, so I said why don't you come to a game, and he did, and brought my mom. That was about half way through the season. They never missed another game. It meant the world to me. The last thing I should ever do is criticize parents for being overly involved.

[bbtds]

Yeah it's always a gamble for sure. But it's not like Siggy got much playing time here and Steve loses nothing really. He's a walk-on not paying anything to go to school here.

Helm also has the option to transfer his free tuition to another school if there is a tuition remission opening under the tuition remission program that Valpo is involved in. I wonder how many on this message board has used this program. A good friend of mine who's father was once a Vice President at Valpo used it.

[valpolaw]

I'd rather have someone who wants to be there and work hard on the team. The grass isn't always greener elsewhere. Clay was given a ton of minutes and a lot of opportunities this year, but he didn't have a good year and won't be hard to replace. I'll be interested to see where he ends up and wish him well. I can't see him moving to power 5 with the year he had and his jump shot.

[nkvu]

I'd rather have someone who wants to be there and work hard on the team. The grass isn't always greener elsewhere. Clay was given a ton of minutes and a lot of opportunities this year, but he didn't have a good year and won't be hard to replace. I'll be interested to see where he ends up and wish him well. I can't see him moving to power 5 with the year he had and his jump shot.

I think that he could have a Skara kind of career at a lower to mid level P5 school. Come off the bench for a year, get some starts the next primarily as a defensive specialist scoring the occasional basket. A contributor but not the focus, unless of course he finds his shot somehow. Then his ceiling could be higher. It would have to be at a school that is confident they can help him find it.

[Just Sayin]

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to play ball. I love the university, the coaches,   my fellow players, and the fans. I also love the university.

That being said, I'm getting the hell out of here.