Transfers

[IndyEIT777]

Saw this on transfer portal today ... Xavier Casteneda a Junior transferring from South Florida. VU offered him a scholarship 3 years ago. Played along with Javon Freeman at Whitney Young. A 6'1 Point guard that shot over 35% from 3 point line and averaged 8.3 pts. 

His best overall FG% was this season- 36%. That's all we need is another point guard that can't keep the defense honest.

That may be true, yet Daniel Sackey shot 6-41 (14.6%) from three this year, and Donovan Clay shot 20-98 (20.4%) from three this year. A 35% shooter would be a remarkable improvement on that dimension.

Daniel   42% 2PT FG  14% 3PT FG
Xavier   34% 2PT FG 39% 3PT FG

Yes, we could trade 1-dimensional Daniel for 1-dimensional Xavier, but wouldn't it be nice to find a PG that can do both for a change?

While I agree it would be nice to have a point guard that can actually shoot, first and foremost, I want a point guard that it good at handling the ball/dribbling, can execute good passes and actually facilitate an offense. Maybe it was because Sackey wasn't much of a shooting threat, but the offense usually felt more stagnant with him out there. Too many times when Sackey drove inside, not only was he out of control and either get blocked or bricked a layup, but he did get the ball stripped a lot (to be fair, a lot of the team needs to work on ball handling).

My point is, during the Broekhoff years, Buggs wasn't a big offensive threat, but he did everything else to be a solid point guard. Would I love to have a point guard that can shoot 50/40/80? Of course. But let's not get just a shooter at the expense of all the other tools a successful point guard needs to have. Hopefully either Palesse or Devario are the full package.

[JD24]

Saw this on transfer portal today ... Xavier Casteneda a Junior transferring from South Florida. VU offered him a scholarship 3 years ago. Played along with Javon Freeman at Whitney Young. A 6'1 Point guard that shot over 35% from 3 point line and averaged 8.3 pts.

His best overall FG% was this season- 36%. That's all we need is another point guard that can't keep the defense honest.

The weird thing is that he shot better from 3 than he did from 2. He shot 38% from 3. He's not a shooter though.

[nkvu]

Speaking of teams with lots of transfers, the University of Cincinnati has six players in or have announced their intention to go into the transfer portal. Four freshman (including their best), one sophomore, and a seldom used red shirt junior. They also currently have zero commits for next year. Former NKU head coach John Brannon will have some work to do to fill out his roster for next year.

[Just Sayin]

Mid majors in the transfer portal ranked by the % of minutes they played.
349 listed. At bottom, click on "show 100 more" a few times. Can be sorted by conference.

https://barttorvik.com/playerstat.php?link=y&sIndex=4&showfull=1&cvalue=Mid&xvalue=trans&year=2021&minmin=0&start=20201101&end=20210501

[VU75]

Speaking of teams with lots of transfers, the University of Cincinnati has six players
Penn State 8
Portland 8
Green Bay 9
UT Martin 12

[Just Sayin]

Coaching changes on any of those?

[vu72]

We can only hope that some transfers-in could make the difference for us next year.

Witness Drake with Hemphill coming in from Green Bay to be their leading scorer and Penn previously transferring in from Siena. Then there's Loyola with Norris transferring in from Oakland and Hall coming in from Indianapolis. Throw in a couple of JC guys and they have combined had a big impact on their program. Bradley always has a few.

Let's hope Matt et al can pull in a couple of guys to put us in a position to finally get over the top half hump. Like it or not, it is a big part of college basketball.

[elephtheria47]

Well crap, JO is now in the transfer portal as well. Thats a big loss.

[Valpofamfan]

I think that's a serious red flag for the program. Promising freshman who got a good amount of playing time and developed well over the course of the year deciding to jump ship...

[AlaskaCrusader19]

You can't justify seven players entering the transfer portal as a normal part of college basketball. Clearly, something is very wrong within the program right now. It's a shame that Lottich received a contract extension based off of one miracle weekend. Looks like it could be a long couple of winters in NWI.

[bb33]

I have a feeling big time programs came calling, You know they reach out before a lot of  these kids enter the portal. So much behind the scenes recruiting happens all the time.  He will be great and still has four years.  This one hurts the most.  I really enjoyed his game. 

[valpopal]

Breaking News: Valpo Fans consider entering the Transfer Portal. Asked to comment, a representative stated: "This is a difficult decision. I have nothing against Valpo. The community—students, faculty, athletics department, fellow fans, the pep band, the ushers, the Crusader, Culver's ice cream people, etc.—has been good, and any possible transfer of loyalty will be friendly. However, times change (even if the ARC hasn't) and circumstances certainly are different. The facilities may look the same as they always have, but this program does not resemble what it once was. Although there may be a physical departure, many fond memories will remain."

[vu72]

WTF. The ship is taking on water...QUICKLY.  I doubt President Padilla will be OK with all the stuff going on.  If Ray Brown is an example, expect heads to roll.

[JD24]

WTF. The ship is taking on water...QUICKLY.  I doubt President Padilla will be OK with all the stuff going on.  If Ray Brown is an example, expect heads to roll.

Nothing will happen, assuming it does, until after "it" is settled and we see the results of that settling. So we're talking at least a year from now. I'm referring specifically to the 7 in the portal issue. 

[elephtheria47]

I've been waffling back and forth regarding ML the last few months, but I'm starting (again) to be in the camp that something is very wrong and this time I may not be able to be persuaded back out of it. I wonder what actually happened with Nick Robinson and if some of these is a result of that fallout. You can replace the other players, but you don't replace a 6'8" sniper. This one sucks. With him and Krikke we had two excellent long term players, but with this news it feels like we're going to be back at the bottom. And that's not good. On the recruiting trail ML now has to overcome the questions of being at the bottom, the instability, and the facilities. Tough to get quality players that our peers (or better) want when we have to be jumping those hurdles now and those coaches can easily say...why go to Valpo, look at them?

[mj]

WTF. The ship is taking on water...QUICKLY.  I doubt President Padilla will be OK with all the stuff going on.  If Ray Brown is an example, expect heads to roll.

I've seesawed between calling for Lottich to be fired and giving him the benefit of the doubt. But I think this is the last straw. There needs to be an explanation of why we can't keep talent on our roster.

At this point, just give the job to Jake Diebler.

[VU2014]

Wow. Just wow. I don't know what to say. This is crushing.

https://twitter.com/nwioren/status/1374010128261865477?s=21

[NativeCheesehead]

Pal's post is both hilarious and hits pretty close to home.

Even putting aside the W/L record and transfers, there is a serious culture problem at the ARC. Barring 2-3 high level INCOMING transfers next season just picture what a ghost town the arena will be for the opener against A&T Tech State Northwest next November. Student attendance and interest declines every year and there doesn't seem to be a will or a plan to combat it. The pep band was barely 15 strong playing the same songs from when I was at Vu. The facilities are part of the problem, but they don't tell the whole story. JO, Clay, JFL, all knew what our facilities were when they signed. And before someone goes on a rant about "kids these days" I hope you watched ORU yesterday. They brought more kids to a tourney game hours away in a pandemic than Vu has brought to the ARC in three years, AND had a packed arena watching at home. Winning is a HUGE part of that of course, but without a good infrastructure to interest students and involve them you wouldn't see those levels.

Paul's tweets during Arch Madness about having experienced teams was spot on. You need upperclassmen who can spend 2-3 seasons growing and learning TOGETHER to get where we want to be. So what's the path? How does this program go from where it is today, with yet another offseason of roster gutting, to having an experience-laden roster ready for postseason success. I just don't see a path under this head coach.

[VU2014]

The question needs to be asked why. Why are kids transferring?

The AD needs to do a thorough investigation.

[JD24]

Pal's post is both hilarious and hits pretty close to home. Even putting aside the W/L record and transfers, there is a serious culture problem at the ARC. Barring 2-3 high level INCOMING transfers next season just picture what a ghost town the arena will be for the opener against A&T Tech State Northwest next November. Student attendance and interest declines every year and there doesn't seem to be a will or a plan to combat it. The pep band was barely 15 strong playing the same songs from when I was at Vu. The facilities are part of the problem, but they don't tell the whole story. JO, Clay, JFL, all knew what our facilities were when they signed. And before someone goes on a rant about "kids these days" I hope you watched ORU yesterday. They brought more kids to a tourney game hours away in a pandemic than Vu has brought to the ARC in three years, AND had a packed arena watching at home. Winning is a HUGE part of that of course, but without a good infrastructure to interest students and involve them you wouldn't see those levels. Paul's tweets during Arch Madness about having experienced teams was spot on. You need upperclassmen who can spend 2-3 seasons growing and learning TOGETHER to get where we want to be. So what's the path? How does this program go from where it is today, with yet another offseason of roster gutting, to having an experience-laden roster ready for postseason success. I just don't see a path under this head coach.

While the coach may be an issue, the culture questions are spot on. I don't think the facilities matter all that much but attendance and enthusiasm for the program do. Part of that can be on the coach, players, AD. Part of that can also be due to the makeup of student body. 

[nkvu]

Is this transfer and play immediately stuff just this year or is this the way it will be permanently?  If so, I guess we will look to be a minor league developmental team for the big guys. Bring kids in, develop them for a year or two, the best ones leave, wash and repeat. Maybe you pick up some players who want to transfer down who have comparable talent, but then your best players never have more than a year or two in a system which maybe limits what kind of schemes you can run. If this becomes the norm for mid-majors I think the overall quality of play will diminish as you won't have those teams with talented seniors who have three years in a system. Then the gap between mid-majors and P-5 only gets bigger.  Hate to see it.

[IndyEIT777]

The question needs to be asked why. Why are kids transferring?

The AD needs to do a thorough investigation.

This is a serious issue. How could players after 1 year of being at this school already want out? I get that some of these guys are talented and may think eventually they can move up a level, but I don't get how larger schools could pick off our guys after just one season of play. If these schools are using 1 year as evidence, then why weren't they recruited straight out of high school? This just doesn't add up to me.

My gut says there is a serious problem within the program and it starts with the coach. His offensive scheme just does not work, who knows what else in addition to the Robinson situation has gone on in the locker room and from a results standpoint, all Lottich has to show for the last 5 years is an NIT birth which he was gifted and a lucky run to the conference title once. 5 years of this is enough for me. Lottich needs to go, who in the administration has the guts to right the ship?

[NativeCheesehead]

Keep in mind this is the AD who gave Tracy Dorow an extension after 4 years and a 33-90 record when her contract was set to expire and he could have moved on without any financial issues.

[vu72]

aybe you pick up some players who want to transfer down who have comparable talent

I sure don't know what the answer is let alone what the problem is. I think Matt can coach but can he communicate?  Remember his team beat a full strength Drake team and nearly beat Loyola on the road.  As for transfers, some transfer "down" and some transfer "up".  Remember that Drake's leading scorer came from Green Bay as did Loyola's Norris from Oakland and Tate Hall from Indianapolis.  These guys would certainly be considered to have transferred "Up"

[Chairback]

Remember this is a national trend so it's ok....nothing to do with Lottich.

I can't wait to see how some of us justify this transfer.  Can't say shooting, or a parent, etc.  There is an fundamental issue with the program

Can you imagine if 50% of your co-workers left every other year.  how successful would your company be.