If I’m a power school I totally recruit transfers first and foremost.
Transfers answer so many questions about coping/succeeding in college that high schools kids cannot.

I think this strategy makes an absolute ton of sense with exceptions for somewhere between the top-50 and top-25 national recruits. I do see the inherent risk identified by Gwmayhem, though.

As for that football player though, I am all for sit outs by unpaid, unprotected players hoping to secure their future. If you can "afford" to sit, and especially if you have access to high-end training outside of your program, I don't see anything wrong with it.

This would probably save lots of money, so I would assume smaller programs would be the ones to jump on the idea instead of well-funded "big boys". If things continue to trend the way they have been of late, it actually makes lots of sense for a UIC or W&M or High Point to cut recruiting spending and take a chance on the transfer pool as a way to balance budgets. But not sure why a cash-heavy program would follow that path.

I think that you should expect any player who could conceivably play real minutes at a high major school to very very seriously consider leaving unless we are a program that starts to compete at the conference level and for occasional tournament berths. 

With exposure and brand-building likely to increase in importance to a player's earning potential, they would be stupid to languish at the bottom of a mid-major conference if they have better opportunities. It is on the coaches to put together a squad that they can believe in. We haven't had that in some time.
 

But, as you noted he had an elite Freshman class and he's now in a position to land top recruits in the SEC in ways he wasn't at Nevada.

Few has never done better with transfers, the last several years, but also never better with HS recruits, hard to see a case for ever giving up on HS recruits, or even largely doing so

I do think there are some schools like Nevada, SLU, where a somewhat transfer heavy focus can work, but you'd still want to land the best HS recruits you can.  




 

That Rothstejn tweet is fascinating.   It makes sense, too.

Whole thing is getting weirder and further away from whatever notion of intercollegiate athletics was still left.

Maybe I'm missing something but doesn't this cut both ways?  As likely as accomplished mid-major players may decide to move up, wouldn't disgruntled players at majors be as likely to move down?  Isn't it easy to tell Joe Bamisile that although you averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game at VaTech, you would have a great chance of starting at GW?  Or courting James Bishop by saying that you'd be going from a 4th guard at LSU to the lead guard at GW?

In fact, one could argue that mid-majors may have things the best in this new world.  A talented player at  a low-major would likely be more prone to join a mid-major than a high major (though there are exceptions).  An unhappy player at a high major would rather find his playing time at a mid-major than a low major.

So all that's changed here is the ability to "scout/illicitly recruit" players in person.  Is this really that big a deal with all of the resources available to watch players on film and subsequently contact them once they enter the transfer portal?  

And as someone mentioned elsewhere, won't midmajors be shooting themselves in the foot by refusing to play major programs?  How could this not negatively impact their postseason chances?

Gwmayhem wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something but doesn't this cut both ways?  As likely as accomplished mid-major players may decide to move up, wouldn't disgruntled players at majors be as likely to move down?  Isn't it easy to tell Joe Bamisile that although you averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game at VaTech, you would have a great chance of starting at GW?  Or courting James Bishop by saying that you'd be going from a 4th guard at LSU to the lead guard at GW?

In fact, one could argue that mid-majors may have things the best in this new world.  A talented player at  a low-major would likely be more prone to join a mid-major than a high major (though there are exceptions).  An unhappy player at a high major would rather find his playing time at a mid-major than a low major.

So all that's changed here is the ability to "scout/illicitly recruit" players in person.  Is this really that big a deal with all of the resources available to watch players on film and subsequently contact them once they enter the transfer portal?  

And as someone mentioned elsewhere, won't midmajors be shooting themselves in the foot by refusing to play major programs?  How could this not negatively impact their postseason chances?

Gwmayhem, thank you for posting these thoughts. I feel your points are all valid. The only thing I might add is that if the recruiting landscape has truly changed and the number of transfers is going to dramatically increase, then fans like me will be extremely disappointed.  To me, one of my favorite things about GW basketball (and most mid-major basketball teams) is watching teams improve over the years with their core HS recruits. 

I feel those Karl Hobbs teams with Omar, JR, Mike, Pops and Carl were a joy to watch over the years. Seeing Pato and Yuta (along with our great transfers) win the NIT was amazing.  If Jamion were successful recruiting great players like them (as I expect he will be) and then lost them after a year or two to transfer, it would take a lot of the fun out of the game for me.  Personally, i don't watch a lot of Power 5 conference basketball.  Sure, the players are great, but the best ones leave after a year or two. That's just not interesting to me.  All that being said, I agree with most of your points as I think they are valid, except that losing our top HS recruits is a big deal to me, but not such a big deal to the UMD, VA Tech, or LSU because almost all of their recruits have already been recognized as 3, 4 and 5 star HS basketball players. I would imagine it takes a lot of work and skill for a low budget school like GW to identify recruit, land and develop a diamond in the rough like Jamison Battle.  I'm glad great HS recruits like Yuta, Pato, Mike, JR, Carl, Omar and others stuck with us.  I'm not so sure they would have done so in today's world. I mean I know our basketball program has had terrible problems for the past 5 years or so, so the comparison may not be exactly fair, but JC seems like a great persona and coach to me.

22ndandF wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something but doesn't this cut both ways?  As likely as accomplished mid-major players may decide to move up, wouldn't disgruntled players at majors be as likely to move down?  Isn't it easy to tell Joe Bamisile that although you averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game at VaTech, you would have a great chance of starting at GW?  Or courting James Bishop by saying that you'd be going from a 4th guard at LSU to the lead guard at GW?

In fact, one could argue that mid-majors may have things the best in this new world.  A talented player at  a low-major would likely be more prone to join a mid-major than a high major (though there are exceptions).  An unhappy player at a high major would rather find his playing time at a mid-major than a low major.

So all that's changed here is the ability to "scout/illicitly recruit" players in person.  Is this really that big a deal with all of the resources available to watch players on film and subsequently contact them once they enter the transfer portal?  

And as someone mentioned elsewhere, won't midmajors be shooting themselves in the foot by refusing to play major programs?  How could this not negatively impact their postseason chances?

Gwmayhem, thank you for posting these thoughts. I feel your points are all valid. The only thing I might add is that if the recruiting landscape has truly changed and the number of transfers is going to dramatically increase, then fans like me will be extremely disappointed.  To me, one of my favorite things about GW basketball (and most mid-major basketball teams) is watching teams improve over the years with their core HS recruits. 

I feel those Karl Hobbs teams with Omar, JR, Mike, Pops and Carl were a joy to watch over the years. Seeing Pato and Yuta (along with our great transfers) win the NIT was amazing.  If Jamion were successful recruiting great players like them (as I expect he will be) and then lost them after a year or two to transfer, it would take a lot of the fun out of the game for me.  Personally, i don't watch a lot of Power 5 conference basketball.  Sure, the players are great, but the best ones leave after a year or two. That's just not interesting to me.  All that being said, I agree with most of your points as I think they are valid, except that losing our top HS recruits is a big deal to me, but not such a big deal to the UMD, VA Tech, or LSU because almost all of their recruits have already been recognized as 3, 4 and 5 star HS basketball players. I would imagine it takes a lot of work and skill for a low budget school like GW to identify recruit, land and develop a diamond in the rough like Jamison Battle.  I'm glad great HS recruits like Yuta, Pato, Mike, JR, Carl, Omar and others stuck with us.  I'm not so sure they would have done so in today's world. I mean I know our basketball program has had terrible problems for the past 5 years or so, so the comparison may not be exactly fair, but JC seems like a great persona and coach to me.

While the Omar/Pops/Hall era wasn’t affected, the next great GW team was.  Remember we lost Kethan Savage, part of the core 4, to an unexpected transfer, then Paul Jorgenson. Fortunately, it cut both ways then as Mo Creek and Tyler Cavanaugh came in and helped us to an NCAA tourney and NIT Title respectively. 

With a good coach, this probably winds up a wash for us - we will probably lose more than just one good player per year, but whenever their is PT would should be able to find a Bishop or Bamisile to come in.  It’s just going to take a good coach to bring a team with new parts together each year - and it probably puts a premium on player’s coaches who keep guys happy and together (while coaching winning basketball), rather than a tough task master that players don’t like. 

Also, I really doubt mid-majors (and especially low majors) will really stop taking buy games anyway, since the reason they play those games is to find their academic departments.  I think only the financially self-sufficient ones that barely play them anyway would give up the money like that.