Entering the portal - 2026 | Page 21 | The Boneyard

Entering the portal - 2026

navery12 said:
I'll try to be a little more clear. I think there are freshman PGs who are absolutely capable of doing what Malachi Smith did and we could hand them the keys and be fine. I think there are guys ranked around where Junior County is that can absolutely contribute as freshman, as we've seen.

I think counting on both of those things happening as a lower ranked recruit playing out of position is a lot to ask. That does not seem like a very good gamble, especially when it is that exact gamble that has burned us multiple times in the past few years
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HW611 can't help but push his agenda because he wants to relive Kemba and Shabazz even though it's 15 years later. I'll give him consistency, that is for sure.
FightOnCT said:
I think that Silas shouldn’t be spending 40 min on ball, but NO PG instincts? You think he has zero? Definite stretch
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Well not none, sorry, too much. He really doesn't appear to be a natural PG - those guys are natural fascilitators, savvy. He's good enough for the college game, don't see a lot of NBA stuff. Silas plays the position without much of the art that you like to see, more a one gear guy, has very little on the footwork end in terms of the stop/go accelerate/decelerate. You don't really find him making the clever pass, mainly the status quo stuff. A lot of his big assist were at the sacrifice of providing any offense himself. Haven't really found him to provide much in terms of dribble penetration and dish or bucket. Our offense really became almost all off actions 3s or dumps into Tarris.
 
upstater said:
Of course Adams was not at the level required. Not sure why we're mentioning Lewis since he wasn't committed to us. It very well could be that you lose out on a PG out of HS who can actually play. This is why so many of the freshman stars this year were unheralded like Wagner.
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What other freshman stars were unheralded like Wagler? I thought that was what made him stand out. He's not like most of the stars.
 
Donyell 360 said:
What other freshman stars were unheralded like Wagler? I thought that was what made him stand out. He's not like most of the stars.
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Not many. There were a couple kids out of the top 50 that had really nice years though.

Nigel James - 86
Amari Allen - Bama - 64

Most of the really impactful freshman were the usual top 30.
 
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RuffRuff said:
Not many. There were a couple kids out of the top 50 that had really nice years though.

Nigel James - 86
Amari Allen - Bama - 64

Most of the really impactful freshman were the usual top 30.
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That's what I thought. Not familiar with other conferences but thought about Nigel, also Jamier James and Stefan Vaaks. International players are not ranked the same so harder to say how "unheralded" they were.
 
aceboon said:
Tenn went to the Elite 8 and damn near their whole team is in the portal

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I honestly expect the vast majority of undraftable players with years remaining to enter the portal unless you are flagged core returner in a program with big NIL.

Kansas' entire team is in there too. The DP experiment went really bad. If they got Stokes along with Tiller and Bidunga and maybe Jackson, that is a top 5 team.
 
Donyell 360 said:
What other freshman stars were unheralded like Wagler? I thought that was what made him stand out. He's not like most of the stars.
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I would say Wagler, Allen Graves, Nigel James & Jamier Jones, all had very good seasons -- just off the top of my head. There may be more.
 
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Kemba15 said:
I really don’t see Solo Ball being a bench player next season just because fans have dreams of acquiring certain players in the portal. Hurley is loyal and very likely will stick with him as the starting 2, so it’s probably either going to be Silas, Ball and a transfer 3/Ross or Silas, Ball, and Mullins.
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That was Hurley's mistake this year sticking with Ball as a starter and not recruiting a good shooter. He would be a good bench player not a starter. His defense is very questionable too.
 
tower1 said:
That was Hurley's mistake this year sticking with Ball as a starter and not recruiting a good shooter. He would be a good bench player not a starter. His defense is very questionable too.
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He was a great shooter the year before and zero reason to believe he wouldn’t be again. Also, he started all year and we made the Final Four
 
bendm said:
lol is this a serious comment?

Yeah we should all expect/hope he improves as a sophomore. The issue is what he’s shown recently, especially relative to our last 2 backup Cs that were elevated to starters, and whether he will improve enough to be a reliable starter on a championship caliber team next season.
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We are going to have plenty of Centers over the years who are neither Donovan Clingan nor Tarris Reed.
 
husky429 said:
Williams? He's 195lbs. I'd put a guy like Ross or Stewart on him for the mismatch even if we do recruiting a 6'8 240lb forward.
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I hope we are not counting on Stewart and Ross as starters or next year !
 
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FightOnCT said:
I mean everyone is clamoring about how May will have his pick of bigs, but why not Hurley? Proven track record of molding elite bigs come tourney time.

I’m least worried long-term about that position
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$$$$$$ primarily.

It's only going to help May with donor money that he won it this year. He runs a high low offense with two bigs that is attractive. No one else really featuring them offensively like he is. He's probably gotten the 4 of the top 5-6 portal bigs the last two years in Wolf, Goldin, Johnson and Mara.
 
RuffRuff said:
To each their own with those picks - Lakers took Bronny in those slots.

I see nothing about Silas that looks NBA to me. I saw absolutely zero PG instincts - he is a tough, grinder of a defensive guard though. I see a guy that could potentially play WR in the NFL.
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Yeah ummm, he led the league in assists. Do you think before you speak?
 
Donyell 360 said:
That's what I thought. Not familiar with other conferences but thought about Nigel, also Jamier James and Stefan Vaaks. International players are not ranked the same so harder to say how "unheralded" they were.
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There a ton of great international freshman much better than Vaaks; was not thinking of them. Main guy is Graves, but Jones and Nigel James looked good too.
 
businesslawyer said:
We are going to have plenty of Centers over the years who are neither Donovan Clingan nor Tarris Reed.
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Ok but I was referring to Reed and Samson. I think 24-25 is the template for next year. Samson was returning but we still brought in Reed to compete with him. Samson won the starting spot but it was a platoon with Reed.
 
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bendm said:
Ok but I was referring to Reed and Samson. I think 24-25 is the template for next year. Samson was elevated to starter but we still brought in Reed to compete with him. Samson won the starting spot but it was a platoon with Reed.
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I honestly don't think Hurley will ever recruit over his guys in the portal - it's not how he builds his culture of trust, and honestly I cannot doubt him. This is what gets his guys playing harder than anyone else. I tend to think he'd rather lose with his guys than win with mercenaries, and again cannot blame him. I know I'm sometimes the first one to fall victim to wishing we had this or that, but after this run, I'm going to just dump my trust into what he's doing and let it ride. After watching Arizona fold like a cheap tent, full of talent, and us take UM down to the wire, I tend to prefer what he's doing over any of these other programs turning their roster over annually.

The 2024 was something really darned special because it checked all the boxes and we all crave that bullet proof team. I don't think we can expect that to happen again. It was too perfect a scenario.

I'm going to be curious to what he does this portal season, expect him to try and retain his guys as much as possible, but happy with what he builds based on the culture he looks to establish.
 
What do we know about this guy - I admittedly know nothing. #52 in 2023 class, so a senior. Bring him in to battle the 4 with Stew?

 
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