Paul Oren is reporting that Schmidt and Scroggins will both enter the portal. Even as someone who's no skeptic to the current realities of the sport, this is pretty wild.
You don’t see these types of exoduses every year at other comparable schools. If Powell was truly building as strong of a “culture” as we would like to believe, it wouldn’t be THIS bad. Clearly players like Scroggins or Monegro aren’t transferring because they are having money thrown at them, so what’s up? Sure, you could say Powell told them they aren’t going to have roles next year, but then that is just an indictment on his ability to find players that can contribute to winning at this level. We can’t start from 0 every year
Is it possible people just don’t like being at Valpo? Dingy stadium that draws no fans, located in northwest Indiana, very few wins, nonexistent campus life, dwindling academic reputation. I can’t say Valpo has much to offer to prospective students these days…
You don’t see these types of exoduses every year at other comparable schools. If Powell was truly building as strong of a “culture” as we would like to believe, it wouldn’t be THIS bad. Clearly players like Scroggins or Monegro aren’t transferring because they are having money thrown at them, so what’s up? Sure, you could say Powell told them they aren’t going to have roles next year, but then that is just an indictment on his ability to find players that can contribute to winning at this level. We can’t start from 0 every year
Is it possible people just don’t like being at Valpo? Dingy stadium that draws no fans, located in northwest Indiana, very few wins, nonexistent campus life, dwindling academic reputation. I can’t say Valpo has much to offer to prospective students these days…
you hit the nail on the head
Too early to say that other teams are not experiencing the same thing. We were one of the least affected teams in the MVC last offseason, even with the few transfers. This is just what college basketball has become for mid-majors. They will always try their hand at the portal with any type of playing time, stats, and video snippets to take with them, in hope that they can get at least $80k-$100k+ in NIL, and in the really good player cases, $500k+. It's sad, as I had already been resigned to Valpo basketball apathy over the last few seasons, but I was at least able to care about some players from year-to-year. As of this moment, it looks like Darius is the last Valpo player that I will really ever care about or even remember, as everyone else are just a bunch of Antonio Falu, JFL, and Sheldon Edwards footnotes. Unfortunately, we will never see another Valpo Hall of Famer come from Men's Basketball, tied to anyone who played for Valpo from the last few seasons to moving forward from this moment.
The marketplace for college basketball players is broken. How much NIL money, outside the P5 and some mid-majors, is really out there? Do the lower level mid-major conferences really have that much to spend?
There are 5,460 D1 scholarships. If you’re a replacement level player, you’re giving up a scholarship to go after what exactly?
Valpo plays in one of the best mid-major conferences. There are players who would love to play in the MVC. The talent is out there, let’s give those guys a chance.
Clearly players like...Monegro aren’t transferring because they are having money thrown at them, so what’s up?
You're right about not having money thrown at them, but perhaps it's more about how they are getting essentially nothing at Valpo, and that in today's college basketball, like it or not, starters in a league as good as the Valley should be getting a respectable NIL paycheck that we are unable to give.
@vok22 -- Sounds like you should transfer and remove yourself from the perceived misery of being a Valpo fan?
According to the guy who sits on the board of Murray's collective on a podcast hosted by one of Murray's media guys, Murray State's NIL was $400k this past season and will reach $1 million this year. He also said Murray's isn't even the highest in the league.
I will beat the drum: there is not a path to sustain being a contender in this league with the worst NIL and worst facilities. NIL has completely revamped the sport. I was all in on the MVC move when it happened because you could overcome the worst facilities in the league pre-NIL through coaching, but NIL went from not existing to transcending coaching in importance in the past 5 years.
The only path to overcome our facilities is positioning ourselves in a league where we're not completely dwarfed in NIL - ideally a league where our NIL is closer to the top. Whether the answer is the Horizon or OVC I will leave for others, but there is not a pathway to being a sustainable contender in a league where our NIL is a fraction of the top schools.
Bradley's found a way to keep top guys. Northern Iowa announced their players are returning. Illinois State just fended off P5 schools to keep Chase Walker. Murray State's NIL is now hitting $1 million. We don't have the money - let alone the facilities.
The only path to overcome our facilities is positioning ourselves in a league where we're not completely dwarfed in NIL - ideally a league where our NIL is closer to the top. Whether the answer is the Horizon or OVC I will leave for others, but there is not a pathway to being a sustainable contender in a league where our NIL is a fraction of the top schools.
Would you rather have the worst house in a nice neighborhood or the best house in a bad one? There are lots of advantages to staying in the MVC vs dropping down.
We don’t really know how much NIL money is below us. We assume it’s less, but is that accurate?
It was clear that you were directly identifying winning the the HL as a participation trophy. That's where we did the winning that earned our reputation as a basketball school. Along with the even lower rated Mid-Con. You made the direct reference that disrespected our past. Insulting me doesn't undo that. And having a pissing contest over 30 vs. 40 vs. 50 years of following the team is childish and disrespectful too.
More simply put. The participation comes in patting ourselves on the back for losing in the MVC.
Since yesterday Valpo lost a guy who didn't play because he's apparently not good enough or he would have played and a guy who gave some nice minutes but otherwise was probably thought was done anyway. So now the program is the scourge of the earth?
@jd24 - the issue is partially Valpo’s economic woes, the bigger issue is that the NCAA men’s basketball product with NIL and the transfer portal sucks. If not for bracket gambling, the product would be tanking at a faster rate. With general managers being hired for basketball programs, the significant decrease in parity amongst teams and the lack of loyalty, the product is less intriguing. When I saw Cooper Flagg on the bench wearing a gaudy heavy diamond-gold chain, that pretty much says it all.
When I saw Cooper Flagg on the bench wearing a gaudy heavy diamond-gold chain, that pretty much says it all.
This was the moment that broke the camel's back?
At any rate....nothing's going to be done until this all stifles or reduces the money for the NCAA. I don't see that happening anytime in the near future.
Ramzi Salem to the portal.
Yes.... walk on Ramzi Salem.
There's a guard available in the portal as of a few mins ago. Bennett Stirtz.
