Still havent heard a good answer to this question

[dennismenace]

Think the portal has actually made top teams worse.

In past years teams like Kansas, Duke, and UNC used to be able to stack talent for 3-4 years in the same system. Now guys leave and they have to replace highly recruited guys who used to develop there with mid major transfers who, at the end of the day, are not more talented than the guys they are replacing and teams don’t have the same continuity of playing with the same guys.

We’ve done an amazing job of finding the right balance of great recruiting, retention, and portal fits to do a great job in this era.

Even though we’ve thrived, at the end of the day the transfer portal is hurting the overall produce of college sports in general.

Agree. We have been great at the balance. We need the portal because we lose another load of players at the end of the year to graduation or the draft. I think it has benefited us because we are seen as about winning NC's and developing talent. No one has to put up with sitting on the bench of Duke or North Carolina or Kansas anymore. It's great for players and evens the playing field for all.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Agree. We have been great at the balance. We need the portal because we lose another load of players at the end of the year to graduation or the draft. I think it has benefited us because we are seen as about winning NC's and developing talent. No one has to put up with sitting on the bench of Duke or North Carolina or Kansas anymore. It's great for players and evens the playing field for all.

I’m not even all the way sure if it’s great for players. At least the really talented ones.

You see great young talent having their development stunted nowadays because coaches are bringing in these ready to go guys instead of developing them their freshmen years. Something they used to be forced to do.

Imagine how good a Hawkins would’ve been with 2 full years to play instead of fighting with Martin for playing time, same with Gaffney and RJ Cole. Solo and Castle with Newton and Cam from this year.

Teams are winning, yes. But a lot of the young talent we used to see find their footing early is kind of no more because of these guys coming in.

My comparison for the transfer portal is AI. Makes life easier, but is it better in the long run?

 

[BigTenFan]

Note* Michigan doesn't seem like much of a road environment here. It's like 80% Purdue from the sound of it. Never heard an away crowd get this loud. Michigan bball is in trouble. Anyway....

Matt Painter on Purdue fans at Michigan. - YouTube. Purdue fans took over Crisler Arena and Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon as Purdue won 84-76 at Michigan. Matt Painter called it an atmosphere his team may never see again on the road in the Big Ten.

 

[Jaydumo20]

Matt Painter on Purdue fans at Michigan. - YouTube. Purdue fans took over Crisler Arena and Ann Arbor on Sunday afternoon as Purdue won 84-76 at Michigan. Matt Painter called it an atmosphere his team may never see again on the road in the Big Ten.

I thought I was tripping. I kept asking myself if this was somehow a purdue home game that they played in Michigan? Or they painted the purdue court wrong. It made so little sense.

 

[BigTenFan]

Just like UConn fans-Purdue fans travel.
Edey only has a few games left in a Purdue uniform and fans want to see him finish out his career
He didn't disappoint today

 

[CTBasketball]

Michigan under Howard:
20: Covid (19-12)
21: Elite Eight
22: Sweet 16
23: NIT
24: Garbage

Definitely not headed in the correct direction.

He doesn’t know how to coach.

 

[Blue Blood]

I think Covid may play a larger role in this and not just the fifth year perspective. A lot of the players currently playing D1 played many if not most of their most formative games in front of no audience. Not saying high school gyms have the same environment as colleges but there would be a level of skin thickening that would happen. Hostile environments are going to feel more hostile if that is not something you are used to. Over the past couple years the upper-classmen on the team had the pre-covid experience that is not the case anymore so I do wonder if there is a bit of that leadership gap there. In addition to that the trend of playing fewer and fewer true road games has continued with more MTEs and computer number manipulation players get exposed to opposing fan bases less and less so the impact of a raucous crowd is enhanced.

 

[Hunt for 7]

I think Covid may play a larger role in this and not just the fifth year perspective. A lot of the players currently playing D1 played many if not most of their most formative games in front of no audience. Not saying high school gyms have the same environment as colleges but there would be a level of skin thickening that would happen. Hostile environments are going to feel more hostile if that is not something you are used to. Over the past couple years the upper-classmen on the team had the pre-covid experience that is not the case anymore so I do wonder if there is a bit of that leadership gap there. In addition to that the trend of playing fewer and fewer true road games has continued with more MTEs and computer number manipulation players get exposed to opposing fan bases less and less so the impact of a raucous crowd is enhanced.

NIL will continue to impact the decisions of players who are projected as mid to late 2nd round picks. We know they make more money with NIL than they will in the Gleague especially if they don’t sign a two way contract. COVID just gave those guys one more year.

 

[navery12]

I think there's just less of a difference between teams 11-25 and teams 26-50 or wherever you want to put the cutoff. There's still going to be the elite teams like UConn, Purdue, Houston at the top. But once you get down a little further I'm not sure there's really a huge difference between a lot of these teams.

Take UConn for example, the road loss to Creighton wasn't all that surprising even if the margin was a little bigger than some expected. But everyone (including me) was surprised by the Seton Hall loss. In reality I'm not sure there's really all that big of a difference between the 2 teams despite Creighton consistently being ranked top 20 and Seton Hall maxing out at RV for a few weeks

 

[Captbluefin]

The 5th year Covid guys have really changed a lot. You have older grown men with 4+ years experience playing against 18yo. Freshmen.

The landscape of the game will be much different next year with the massive decrease in 5th year guys.

Many sophomore and freshman players that would have been on the floor the last few years have been “ waiting their turn”

 

[UConnDad]

Talking about home court advantage brings to mind a question I've had. The home team supplies the balls. Different brands can have a different feel, and the pressure can vary (within specs, of course). Can this give a small advantage to the home team?

Is this true? Didn’t know the brand of balls was different.