This thread is brutal. People saying they never heard of him a month ago. Just stop it. You never heard of him because you never watch Towson games. Who does? Doesn't mean the kid can't play. You also probably never heard of Joey Calcaterra this time last year or Souley Boum for that matter. We did very well in the portal last year. Newton was the big fish. We had connections with Diarra and somewhat(through Castle) with Alleyne. Calcaterra we got late in the game and seemed to be largely overlooked by most teams. I do feel we will have more trouble recruiting the portal more than high school kids going forward. With high school kids our great staff sometimes has a couple years to foster relationships. This helps, at least with some players, somewhat mitigate our NIL issues. Still, it was a minor miracle we secured a top 5 class before this years success. Says a lot about our staff and the recruits. The portal is more like speed dating with deals being cut to players who are looking for new scenery for a variety of reasons. A main reason is to cash in. Anyone who thinks different has their head in the sand. Don't blame the players. They are just taking advantage of a broken system like most of you all would. Blame the NCAA for watching the car accident happen, and then continuing to speed right past the wreckage. The fact is if UConn can't or won't compete with some more "cash flush" programs, they will continue to lose some players on occassion. You shouldn't be shocked. Winning it all helps recruiting but money still talks.