@Rez I’m probably one of the old farts you mention above 👴🏻. I admire your optimism and positive spin. Old farthood comes with a little experience. We’ve seen a lot. Made plenty of mistakes (and usually, but not always, learn something as a result). That’s why realism (not necessarily negativism) has a sinister way of creeping into old fartiness.
Here’s some hard-to-swallow pills:
▶️ Home attendance and campus support, even with an exciting bunch of young guns who won double the games of the previous season, hardly moved the needle off the previous two seasons.
▶️ The Valpo NIL collective needs to be competitive so that we can sign competitive players — i.e, “if you fund it, they will come.” Nickels and dimes that is Valpo’s alumni’s traditional response to athletic funding campaigns won’t cut it. An underfunded collective will only produce enough to sign a few new youngsters who will ultimately leave for greener pastures. If a billionaire should happen by, then we have a chance.
▶️ We were among the youngest teams in D-I and lost our leading player who was only a sophomore. If we lose All as well (and that is a lock next year), the program Roger wants so much to build goes back on the build-from-scratch gerbil mill. I think JD24 summed it up best
Powell's 90 sec social media post was an ad to high school and prep school seniors that Valpo will build their resume so they can earn future dollars. As a fan of the program he's telling me that this season may be the best it gets. The chances of a high rate of success with a roster full of freshman and sophomore's is pretty low.
Right now, if Wright returns, the best we can hope for is to recruit a center who'll at least be an effective presence in the middle defensively, maybe a 3 and D at the 4, put Stafford and Wright on opposite sides of the court and play bombs away.
I agree with the comments that losing Wright may not have nearly the same effect on the roster as losing Schwieger. Stafford and Wright are similar players although, frankly, Stafford's a better defender and rebounder.
I still say that recruits with zero or only low mid-major offers, would be happy to sign an NIL contract of a few years, that challenges themselves to improve and get their money elsewhere. You are saying that you are committed to them as much as Valpo can financially for the duration, but at the same time, let's push you to the next level and get you a great "transfer deal," if you do end up with all-league credentials. A lot of English soccer players have these types of contracts in the League 2/League 1/Championship divisions (and even some lower Premier League teams), as the "haves/P4" with all of the resources are using the "have nots/the rest" as their training ground, so it is only fair that the "have nots" get compensation for their development academies. This then builds up our own NIL collective, so that we can hopefully be more competitive for transfers, while still using some scholarships in our investment opportunities to replenish the collective.
OK, I’ll weigh in I suppose. First, nothing is going to change with NCAA basketball. This is the new dynamic, players are coming into the mid and low majors for only two years at most and then transfer. Great players that is.
What we need to do is recruit from majors and lower organizations (Division II and lower) in addition to the two year youth players. We just have to expect them to leave. A JV system of sorts. We become the JV before players like Cooper move up to Varsity.
Coach Powell is embracing this new dynamic, making the best of it. It becomes a part of the process. Player A goes to mid major and leaves after two seasons before making the big bucks at a major.
On the flip side of that, you have Player B who goes to a major and it doesn’t work out playing time wise. Then after two years goes to a mid major and makes less money but he also gains playing time. I see a bit of a pattern developing here and it’s not so bad. And it seems familiar…
We just have to buy into this new dynamic. Those who know how to work it will thrive. Or at least they’re willing to work within that system will thrive. Can VU do that?!? IDK, at least Coach Powell is willing to work within this new dynamic.
