VC Transfers

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Your point #7 has been on display these past few days. After watching a very high level MEC tournament and Atlantic Regional tournament, I keep watching these D1 games and wondering if these players have ever heard of shot selection.

D1 players watch way too much of the NBA.

The pro game ... I can't even watch it. Hurts my eyes.

[Columbuseer]

D1 players watch way too much of the NBA.

The pro game ... I can't even watch it. Hurts my eyes.

Im with you. With exception of gonzaga, and michigan to an extent, the players make decisions grade schoolers would not make .
LSU was shining example of ball sticking and jacking up incredibly difficult shots with no one under. What a waste of lot of bags of shoe money. :-)

d2 regionals were much higher level basketball. If wvu could have made interior passes like mercyhurst they would still be playing.

[IUP24]

And these D2 guys might not realize it, but they do have people following them and rooting hard for them. I remember once when my wife, son, and I were out shopping years back, and we ran into Chris Morrow (who was a WLU post player at the time) in a store. My kid (maybe 7 years old at the time) went nuts. He was pointing and whispering. All he knew was that he had bought a ticket to watch this guy play (as a 7 year-old he had no idea he was one of only 1,200 in the arena), and the guy was a hero to him. And Morrow to his credit--even though he had a reputation for sometimes being a hot head on the court--was a true gentleman. He came right over and introduced himself to my kid and had a little chat. Made the kid's day. So those experiences of "stardom" are available to D2 guys in good programs. But they're fewer and farther between for sure.

Fewer and far between is right. Those guys at the next level feel that every time they leave their dorm. IUP and West Liberty get great support, but the strong majority of the students on campus don't care much about what's happening with the basketball team outside of liking a post on social media.

It's all how you make it. If your dream was to play Division 1 basketball, then go for it.

I've chronicled this before, but West Liberty seems to have strong success retaining players for their system that they play because they find kids from the middle of nowhere. Obviously not the case all the time, but I remember a few years back looking at a WL roster and seeing where some of these players were from. Rural, and I mean RURAL, parts of Ohio. 100 people or less graduating class rural. Non-urban areas of WV and KY made up the rest. Great players who were overlooked from smaller areas that likely would not have succeeded in a setting different from what was offered to them at WL.

For a lot of those kids, the dream isn't to play D1 ball. It's to go to college and maybe not work on the family farm or the factory that employs the whole town.

The transfer portal has changed college sports certainly. But the stark reality is that it allows players to recognize their priorities and go get them. I'm not saying I agree or disagree. It's just the way that it is. If Hill wanted to play D1 basketball and had a dream to make the NCAA Tournament, imagine the feeling that kid had. When his team punched their ticket he felt his decision to leave was ultimately worth it.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Fewer and far between is right. Those guys at the next level feel that every time they leave their dorm. IUP and West Liberty get great support, but the strong majority of the students on campus don't care much about what's happening with the basketball team outside of liking a post on social media.

It's all how you make it. If your dream was to play Division 1 basketball, then go for it.

I've chronicled this before, but West Liberty seems to have strong success retaining players for their system that they play because they find kids from the middle of nowhere. Obviously not the case all the time, but I remember a few years back looking at a WL roster and seeing where some of these players were from. Rural, and I mean RURAL, parts of Ohio. 100 people or less graduating class rural. Non-urban areas of WV and KY made up the rest. Great players who were overlooked from smaller areas that likely would not have succeeded in a setting different from what was offered to them at WL.

For a lot of those kids, the dream isn't to play D1 ball. It's to go to college and maybe not work on the family farm or the factory that employs the whole town.

The transfer portal has changed college sports certainly. But the stark reality is that it allows players to recognize their priorities and go get them. I'm not saying I agree or disagree. It's just the way that it is. If Hill wanted to play D1 basketball and had a dream to make the NCAA Tournament, imagine the feeling that kid had. When his team punched their ticket he felt his decision to leave was ultimately worth it.

Solely campus speaking, WL isn't going to be for everyone. It's remote. Very remote.

I think it's kind of kind of neat. That remoteness would have also driven the 18-21 year old version of me insane.

I assume the nightlife is all in Wheeling. But, even that is about 8-10 miles away.

So, to your point, recruiting the kids from desolate places probably helps. It would be difficult to get kids who grew up in an urban environment to stay there four years.

[Scrub]

Fewer and far between is right. Those guys at the next level feel that every time they leave their dorm. IUP and West Liberty get great support, but the strong majority of the students on campus don't care much about what's happening with the basketball team outside of liking a post on social media.

It's all how you make it. If your dream was to play Division 1 basketball, then go for it.

I've chronicled this before, but West Liberty seems to have strong success retaining players for their system that they play because they find kids from the middle of nowhere. Obviously not the case all the time, but I remember a few years back looking at a WL roster and seeing where some of these players were from. Rural, and I mean RURAL, parts of Ohio. 100 people or less graduating class rural. Non-urban areas of WV and KY made up the rest. Great players who were overlooked from smaller areas that likely would not have succeeded in a setting different from what was offered to them at WL.

For a lot of those kids, the dream isn't to play D1 ball. It's to go to college and maybe not work on the family farm or the factory that employs the whole town.

The transfer portal has changed college sports certainly. But the stark reality is that it allows players to recognize their priorities and go get them. I'm not saying I agree or disagree. It's just the way that it is. If Hill wanted to play D1 basketball and had a dream to make the NCAA Tournament, imagine the feeling that kid had. When his team punched their ticket he felt his decision to leave was ultimately worth it.

Another great point. And, yes, Howlett & Crutch have had great success leveraging the remoteness of WLU to get those rural Ohio/Kentucky kids to come in and feel comfortable. No surprise that the kids WLU has lost in recent years are all from more metropolitan places (Hill--Cleveland, Dave Dennis--suburban Columbus, and Jon Alessandro--Dayton). But, man, the kids from Berlin, OH or Gnadenhutten, OH sure do feel comfortable here! And the rural kid from Berlin, OH used his opportunity to play his way into a life in Berlin, Germany. Not a bad gig!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Fewer and far between is right. Those guys at the next level feel that every time they leave their dorm. IUP and West Liberty get great support, but the strong majority of the students on campus don't care much about what's happening with the basketball team outside of liking a post on social media.

It's all how you make it. If your dream was to play Division 1 basketball, then go for it.

I've chronicled this before, but West Liberty seems to have strong success retaining players for their system that they play because they find kids from the middle of nowhere. Obviously not the case all the time, but I remember a few years back looking at a WL roster and seeing where some of these players were from. Rural, and I mean RURAL, parts of Ohio. 100 people or less graduating class rural. Non-urban areas of WV and KY made up the rest. Great players who were overlooked from smaller areas that likely would not have succeeded in a setting different from what was offered to them at WL.

For a lot of those kids, the dream isn't to play D1 ball. It's to go to college and maybe not work on the family farm or the factory that employs the whole town.

The transfer portal has changed college sports certainly. But the stark reality is that it allows players to recognize their priorities and go get them. I'm not saying I agree or disagree. It's just the way that it is. If Hill wanted to play D1 basketball and had a dream to make the NCAA Tournament, imagine the feeling that kid had. When his team punched their ticket he felt his decision to leave was ultimately worth it.

You know how many kids sit at the end of the Kansas (or Pitt, or whatever D1) bench for four years and may get a token 30 seconds here and there? A lot. Most of those kids are good players. They just aren't P5 players. Many would have had great D2 careers. Look at Curtis Aiken Jr. this year at Pitt. I get he's a legacy at Pitt. But, he's also going to ride pine for four years. He'd be a very strong Atlantic Region player.

They get to say they play basketball at Pitt or North Carolina (although they don't really 'play' basketball). They get the big school experience. The perks. The jet rides. The warm-ups in packed venues. It probably helps with the ladies on campus.

So, the jump from high-end D2 to the bush leagues of D1 basketball ... the Cleveland State's, Youngstown State's, etc., ... is it worth it? I think to that age group ... yes, it is.

Armoni Foster at IUP could certainly get caught up in this mess. Thank goodness for us he doesn't seem interested.

[Scrub]

I think of a guy like Marlon Moore. Cleveland kid. Probably shell-shocked by the smallness of West Liberty, WV. But in a recent local news story (interviewed about going to the Elite 8), he cited those banners on the rafters of the ASRC. He talked about knowing the storied history of WLU and wanting a chance to hang one of those Elite 8 banners that he can say he had hand in. Mission accomplished, Marlon. So it's nice to see kids like Marlon or Armoni Foster who seem to "get it" despite D2 lack of cache, rural campus, 1,200 fans, etc.

But as others have pointed out, I'm not sure if 18-year-old me could have had the maturity to make the choice that a Marlon Moore or Armoni Foster is making. Glad to see if pay off for kids like that though.

[Columbuseer]

[Fightingscot82]

I think if you win enough, kids will overlook a lot. Case in point - hundreds of Penn State football alumni talk about how tough it was for them to feel comfortable in State College when coming from more urban or predominantly black communities.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Two leaving Mercyhurst ... Aaron Slaughter and Tony Henderson.

Combined, they appeared in (3) games this season.

Slaughter is listed at 6'9" and 290 lbs. He's listed as a junior (transfer from Mercyhurst Northeast).

They recruited Henderson (freshman). He played at Taylor Allderdice in the Pittsburgh City League and had a pretty stellar career there. Gary typically redshirts most freshmen ... maybe he didn't want to wait around.

[Columbuseer]

Another great point. And, yes, Howlett & Crutch have had great success leveraging the remoteness of WLU to get those rural Ohio/Kentucky kids to come in and feel comfortable. No surprise that the kids WLU has lost in recent years are all from more metropolitan places (Hill--Cleveland, Dave Dennis--suburban Columbus, and Jon Alessandro--Dayton). But, man, the kids from Berlin, OH or Gnadenhutten, OH sure do feel comfortable here! And the rural kid from Berlin, OH used his opportunity to play his way into a life in Berlin, Germany. Not a bad gig!

Maybe location was a factor, but they did not move the school after they visited and committed.

Transfer scuttlebutt in columbus during his first year was that dennis thought he was an overlooked d1 player. Nice person.

In watching alessandro play, imho i thought he never really got comfortable with the rapid recognize-analyze-react philosophy. He is a smart guy, but he may have found the lack of structure was not a good fit. Just speculation on my part. It just takes some longer for the game to slow down and he was only a rs freshman. Nice guy.

I can only speculate about hill. Given the juco he attended, it is a d1 audition factory. So i suspect he wanted the D1 experience. He is also playing in home town, which is a big plus. nice young man.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Noticing a definite pattern in D2 transfers this year ... these aren't all pine riders looking for more minutes. I never recall a year with so many legit D2 contributors bailing at the same time.

It will work for some. I think we'll see a couple P5 moves. Several legit mid-majors. Several bush league low-majors.

And, some will be back to D2. Some of these guys are solid D2 players. That's it.

[Columbuseer]

Noticing a definite pattern in D2 transfers this year ... these aren't all pine riders looking for more minutes. I never recall a year with so many legit D2 contributors bailing at the same time.

It will work for some. I think we'll see a couple P5 moves. Several legit mid-majors. Several bush league low-majors.

And, some will be back to D2. Some of these guys are solid D2 players. That's it.

It will be interesting to see where solid players land. Will it be an upgrade or downgrade from current school?
I hear supply of transfers exceeds demand.

[Scrub]

Danny Ogele and Zach McIntire of Mercyhurst in the portal. Man, would the McIntire kid look good next to his old high school pal, Will Yoakum! Make it happen, Mr. Howlett!

[boatcapt]

Danny Ogele and Zach McIntire of Mercyhurst in the portal. Man, would the McIntire kid look good next to his old high school pal, Will Yoakum! Make it happen, Mr. Howlett!

That's two starters from Hurst giving them five total in the portal. McIntire would be a good get for WLU but I think I'd rather have Ogele. 6'7", 220 who can run and shoot...He'd give us an inside presence without being a "liability" in the WLU style.

Buuuutttt...If no one transfers/chooses to graduate off of this years team, I'd be OK without either.