GWFinalFour wrote:

That guy on twitter is trolling. Epps is not in the portal and didn't say that about Cooley, unfortunately. 

I should know better than to believe BS on Twitter.  Sorry.

He could also be getting paid a ton to play there because he’s a celebrity.  I could see him making more than in the NBA.

MG14 wrote:

https://twitter.com/Derek__Murray/status/1780295314756251869

Looks like it's official

https://247sports.com/college/basketball/recruiting/article/college-basketball-transfer-portal-rafael-castro-chris-caputo-230520291/

Fantastic!  As I posted, he has great rates for rebounding, blocks/steals, and elite rates for finishing 2 pointers.

LSF, you should know better by now to look at stat rates, rather than raw stats.

Castros stat rates show a player with immense upside, but some big holes in his game (which is prob the best we’ll do in this NIL world).


In fact, his rates in many areas compare favorably to his teammate Josh Oduro. Castros weaknesses are he fouls too much, has a low assist rate, and really really can’t shoot FTs (sub-50% for his career).

BUT some of his stats are eye-popping 👀

—Ortg 110.5 (roughly equal to Garrett Johnson), on medium usage

—68.6% effective FG%!!!

—Combined Rebounding rate of 29.9% (11.4 offensive, 18.5% defensive).  That’s higher than anyone our team last year (max led at 25.5) and higher than Oduro.

— good block rate of 4.9% (and 7.9 in limited time as a freshman)

- Steal rate of 1.7% (block and steal rates both better than Oduro, only stretch had better combined block/steal rates than Castro from our team).

- shot 68.4% on two pointers (not a three point shooter, but hit 1-2).


Stretch had good block and steal rate in his limited playing tome at Auburn, but nothing else these stats.

These numbers suggest Castro is raw, but has some real ability to finish around the basket and play some defense (though, as I said, he fouls too much, though he prob didn’t have to worry about fouls as a bench guy).

I think he’s probably still pretty raw, but I think he would be a really nice pickup for us.

Gwmayhem wrote:

This has bad karma written all over it.  First, Arkansas runs Eric Musselman out of town, a coach who had an admittedly disappointing year coming off of three consecutive trips to the Dance.  What an entitled and ungrateful fan base.  And now, they hitch their star to Calipari who has yet to figure out the new world of college basketball and does not look all that motivated to learn.  Maybe a new job gets his juices flowing?  Otherwise, get ready for the Razorback faithful bitching about how little he accomplishes given what he is paid, and for Calipari to blame everyone in sight except himself for any perceived disappointments.

They didn’t run Muss out. He’s a California guy and always wanted to coach there so when the USC job opened up, he jumped at it.

Justin Moore from Drexel (all-CAA) transferring to Loyola (Chi).  Another get for the A10.

I will say, a lot of the players moving already are guards. It’s going to be a real challenge to get quality big men because they are so in demand. LaSalle landed a post player from Penn St , who was little used. No idea if that’s a good get for them or not, but I’m hopeful we can land someone a bit more accomplished.

BM wrote:

Surprised at his shooting percentages.  He was a great shooter at IMG (and Kenner for that matter)

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/jamie-kaiser-1.html

Like Trey Autry, I think he’s a much better shooter than his percentages show.  I suspect both will turn into very good, reliable shooters before their college careers are over.

Tourney expansion makes it harder for the average fan to fill out a bracket. And brackets are what make the tourney so successful - tens of millions of people, most with little to no interest in college basketball during the season have a vested interest in each and every game because of their brackets. If you kill the brackets, or wildly reduce the number of people who fill them out because they get too complicated, then you’ll ruin the whole thing.

The Dude wrote:

Can anyone win at Vandy?

They can if they draw GW in the first round. 

Too soon?

While I know to take what I hear on X with a grain of salt, I can’t help he think the list of players we’ve been linked to suggests that CC is at least considering adding guys from lower levels as opposed to previous emphais on guys transferring down (yes I know Johnson came from sweet 16 Princeton and smith from Evansville, but Max, Benny, DBJ all transferred down).