Is the warmer weather comment pertaining to Stafford?
Concerning the brother comment, that would be icing on the cake for Cooper. Third school in three years for Carson. I'd have a hard time believing Northwestern would be able to justify the transfer, as an undergrad, for a +1 type of player who would be trying to bring credits from 2 institutions ...if they did, it's a testament to how bad they want Cooper.
The NCAA changed the amount of scholarships from 13 to 15 for this coming year.
Yes, but keep in mind that the roster limit, including walk-ons, is also 15. This is also another change by the NCAA that is advantageous to bigger programs; if they want, each of those schools is now able to offer 2 more scholarships to players who otherwise might be among the better players on a mid-major team.
With that in mind, my guess is that Cooper ends up at a Big East or A-10 school that can pony up the money for him, but also take a bigger risk on Carson.
Kasper Sepp’s departure is where Powell’s brutal honesty gets him in trouble. If you hearing Powell say all year long that you have get better (bigger) inside, you basically telling Sepp and for matter, Ellis and Schmidt, I don’t want you. At least that is how these players likely felt.
However, I did think Kasper was here as much for Engineering degree as he was basketball. Valpo is a top 15 undergrad Engineering program in the country. There is only a couple schools that have D1 basketball that ranked higher than Valpo ( Bucknell, University of San Diego and San Jose State).
There’s no evidence to suggest that this mass exodus of players has anything to do with Roger or the coaching staff. Clearly, the 800 pound gorilla is NIL and revenue sharing. The players know as well as we do that Valpo has little to no outside financial support for NIL. As for revenue sharing, the athletic department has no extra money to share. Ticket sales are terrible, and it goes without saying that the university has no additional funds ito throw into the athletic budget. In this evolving “pay to play” era, we are on the outside looking in.
Hopefully Cooper goes more towards Northwestern or Wake Forest, and not Michigan or Kansas. He wouldn't get much playing time at these better programs in his Junior year, and would likely be a second unit guy as MI/KS. To succeed at these high level programs, he needs to work on his dribbling in traffic, offensive quickness, and 3 pt shot release point.
I think any playing time might be a stretch at programs like MI/KS. He doesn't have the profile of any player I can think of recently who got any much time of the floor. His defensive effort/awareness would either have to get a lot better or the coach's philosophy would need to change. Bill Self isn't changing.
They are leaving Valpo-who gives a shit what happens now? They did not provide us with any measurable benefit and in the world of NCAA now thats all that matters.No loyalty either way-which is fine but I for one could not care less what happens to these guys
On DI + engineering allure...
Just to clarify since this detail is often left out, VU is ranked among the top 15 in universities that have-engineering-undergrad-programs-but-NOT-masters/PHD-programs (aka undergrad *only* engineering).
This doesn't mean VU's undergrad engineering isn't strong -- it IS -- but we risk fundamentally misunderstanding the landscape out there if we imagine the scope of this 'top 15' is universal, when the reality is that the vast majority of strong engineering programs (and most the public state ones with UG/M/PHD offerings) are on an utterly different category/list.... where students will find plenty of D1 schools.
I am surprised by how so many here are continually surprised by every portal announcement. Can I yell it louder? EVERY YEAR IS A REBUILD. That doesn't just mean your stars. That means your whole roster. Change your mindset. Be surprised when players stay. Every player. Be surprised when injured/redshirt players stay. Be surprised when 4th options stay. Be surprised when one-dimensional players stay. Be surprised when relatives of the program stay.
Please tell me that we get it now. EVERY player is likely to leave EVERY year. But sometimes some will stay. But the next year, they are likely to leave again.
Stop being surprised. Start to fully understand.
Someone asked the other day about Horizon League transfers. Just saw that Robert Morris who was conference champion and tournament team has lost all 5 starters to the portal. Over 1400 D1 transfers now which averages out to about 4 per team. As everyone agrees it is killing college basketball. These announcers think it is cool that is happening. Disgusting.
Have watched about 20 minutes of the tournament since round 1. Didn’t watch any regular season games outside of Valpo this year. They stripped away everything that gave it charm and parity. Now it is just the NBA with worse basketball and more missed shots.
For some reason the ratings are up, though, so don’t see anything changing. Greed is taking pretty much everything good from this world.
I saw a poster somewhere who said you might as well not worry about names on jerseys. Nor should you worry about learning names of players, the poster said. Bit of a stretch but comically true I suppose.
It is 100% true. I don't care about the name on the back moving forward, just the numbers and the name on the front. It is pointless to get attached to a player at Valpo. I am also one of those that has watched 0 minutes of the NCAA tournament, as it is just a bunch of BS big schools that grew large enough at the right time to profit and rip off the smaller schools, and once in that position, continue to leverage the monopoly that the P4 have on top talent.
I've watched most of the tournament. Not many exciting moments. ZERO real upsets. I don't like the direction of college basketball. Or any sport for that matter. Except maybe College Football for figuring out to have a playoff two decades late. I am a sports fan. You all can shake your fist at a cloud and take up gardening. I'm still going to choose sports. Though I'll gladly tell you all the things wrong with it if you'd like to know. 👍
The portal has a lot of elements of bs. Seems that every player who commits is a story. For example...I read that Murray State is the first school in the MVC with a "big time" signing. This came from the MVC social media site.. Didn't see who it was. Turns out it is Creighton's Mason Miller who led the Big East in 3pt pct two years ago. I didn't recall him at all and I've seen a few Creighton games over the past few years. The big time recruit played in every game last year and averaged a stunning 1 pt a game. In his great shooting year he averaged 5 pts a game.
He's Ryan Miller's nephew and Mike Miller (former Florida player) son. This is the big time signing. It's all bs and Valpo does it too with the stupid "boom!" tweets. Recall Isaiah Shaw's introduction last year.
Isaiah would have been better off staying at Grand Canyon. The Lopes won another conference championship, went to the NCAA tournament, and likely will have a large revenue sharing pot going forward. Add in lost family support, friendships, and familiarity, plus the fact that all his Valpo teammates have bailed, and I’m guessing that he’s feeling pretty miserable about now.
