For both good reasons and not so good reasons, I am excited about Akingbola.  Sure, this has "blatant hit or miss" written all over it.  To offer a few comparisons, Stretch has the opportunity to provide on defense what Hunter Dean provided last season on offense.  This fits with CC's philosophy since he tends to be a more defensive-minded coach.  On this team, it appears that defense is a more scarce commodity than offense right now, so this move helps to balance the scale a bit.  Two former names who come to mind are Joe Katuka and Hermann Opoku.  Katuka was a Montverde product who had a very polished offensive game while at GW.  Opoku prepped at South Kent and was more of a defensive threat.  Each had solid coaching which helped enable them to contribute at the next level (though Joe far more than Hermann).  Having been at Auburn for 4 seasons, I am confident that Bruce Pearl and his staff have helped shape his game.  He was a 4 star/3 star out of high school.  Never has been a scorer and should not be counted on for much.  Nevertheless, if he can stay on the court for 25+ minutes a game as a true rim protector, Stretch will become a very important cog on this team.

The not-so-good reason..it's mid-June and how many prospective rim protectors are out there at this point?  If you're not sold based on what Babatunde did at Auburn, then you should be sold on the adage that beggars can not be choosers.  This is exactly the type of player we needed; we shall see if he can contribute in a big way.

GWRising, am not sure whether it was your intent to turn this board into the interview portion of professional wrestling but some of your comments did bring back childhood memories of Freddie Blassie and Captain Lou Albano.  IMO, there's no real need to take your perfectly fine track record and turn it into something that it's clearl;y not.  You have been a great source of information but 99% accurate?  In my best Jerry Seinfeld cadence, "I...don't...think...so."  When your information turns out to inaccurate, you consistently offer a good reason for this...player changed his mind, a new party got involved at the 11th hour, etc.  All good.  We understand.  You are likely as accurate as is possible but given the nature of what we've communicating about here, there simply is no such thing as 99%.

Even though Rising is a proto-fascist,reactionary,counter-revolutionary I trust his posts and enjoy his shtickWithout DMV and Rising I would be in the dark on so many fronts.They are indispensable to the 
board.

Interesting conversation. Crazy new world of college basketball where there are too many unknowns going into a season. Can't say anyone likes it. Where's Bruno Sanmartino when you need him.

GW69 wrote:

He never acknowledged that Diaz made the right call-I think?He left the board!Like the rest of us he is now a huge CC fan.I guess it was just the “process”. As you can all surmise I don’t have a lot to do today.Sick in bed.

 Two things can be true at once. Diaz treated JC poorly and basically undermined him. Diaz is an asshole in my opinion (and by the way I am far from the only one with that opinion) and that won't ever change. He f'ed JC plain and simple and put several others in terrible spots. But he's gone now which helps a lot. If he didn't leave, I probably would have stayed gone.

Separate that from CC who I've never had a problem with and we share a number of mutual friends. It's not CC's fault that Diaz acted like an asshole towards JC. That preceded him. 

So the process was separating the "coach" (here) from the asshole (gone).

moneybox wrote:

Will Akingbola have one or two years of eligibility? There seems to be a debate over this. 

According to Twitter post I can’t find anymore, Akingbola is currently working with the NCAA to get a redshirt for last year seeing as he was injured and played all of 15 minutes last year. If approved, he’d have two years. Otherwise it would just be one year.

Interesting tweet today from Jeff Goodman:

Source: The D-1 Council was also informed the overwhelming majority of the second-time undergrad transfers thus far have been denied waivers. There were exceptions, but minimal. Many of them that have been ruled on thus far were football, but it doesn’t bode well for those trying in basketball.

https://twitter.com/goodmanhoops/status/1674138124790710272?s=46&t=m2xsjs4EY33TDlbMVwhKzQ

To me, the enforcement of the rule against two-time transfers means it’s really smart of CC to be focusing on guys with 3 or 4 years of eligibility left, like Schroder and Buchanan because they can’t transfer again without sitting out a year until they graduate.  Means we should have them for at least 3 years, assuming they stay in college. 

Note that the enforcement of this rule likely means joe Bamasile should have to sit out. And, given that it’ll be his 4th year, he could graduate after this year… and potentially transfer yet again without ever playing a game for VCU.

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

I was thinking the same thing, Free.  Nearly all of the transfers in have lots of eligbility, as much as 4 years.  That makes the liklihood of a second transfer that much less.   It is a great strategy.   I suspect that many of these students have real talent that have did not develop quickly enough for their top 5 programs, who were not willing to wait.  We have seen this at least 3 times now at GW, with Bishop, Adams and Lindo...all coming from top 5 programs and then having to transfer down to get off the bench and becoming solid performers at GW.   Maybe even 4 times, if you count Bamisile.   I think it is a great plan. 

Don’t forget Armwood and Cavanaugh.

Joe Bamisile was just had his waiver to play denied.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1701997368021770509

4 teams in 4 years.  At some point, the NCAA has to say No.   Left Virginia Tech because he did not play.  Left GW due to severe anxiety (silly me...I thought it was the coaching change).  Left Oklahoma due to ailing father (wonder if he would have still left if he was playing 25-30 minutes per game and averaging double digits).   Admittedly, I have some problems with Joe's credibility, but even assuming Joe's dad is as gravely ill as he claims, he will now have more time to spend with him.    

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (9/13/2023 5:15 pm)

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

4 teams in 4 years.  At some point, the NCAA has to say No.   Left Virginia Tech because he did not play.  Left GW due to severe anxiety (silly me...I thought it was the coaching change).  Left Oklahoma due to ailing father (wonder if he would have still left if he was playing 25-30 minutes per game and averaging double digits).   Admittedly, I have some problems with Joe's credibility, but even assuming Joe's dad is as gravely ill as he claims, he will now have more time to spend with him.    

This is sort of the sentiment the NCAA expressed in its recent statement:

"Citing extenuating factors, such as mental health, does not necessarily support a waiver request but instead may, in some situations, suggest a student-athlete should be primarily focused on addressing those critical issues during the initial transition to a third school."

I too don't want to entirely dismiss Joe's stated reason for transferring but he kind of gives it away in his statement when he says "Despite basketball not being the reason I transferred, continuing to play and the structure, connectivity to my support system and my future earning potential provide the best outlets for me..."

His statement brings up multiple instances of trying to alleviate mental health challenges by transferring schools.  Like the NCAA said, maybe sometimes it's best to settle in and try to treat anxiety/depression/etc. than entering the transfer portal, making a quick decision without even seeing the school (like Joe did at Oklahoma), and hoping you made the right choice.