Zach Braziller @NYPost_Brazille 
GW grad transfer Arnaldo Toro has committed to St Johns, per source #sjubb

Gwmayhem wrote:

Congratulations Arnaldo on becoming the third Mike Lonergan recruit to transfer to the Big East.  (Can't count Lasan who played for ML but was not recruited by him.)...Can you imagine if that guy actually knew how to recruit? 

I will intentionally try to keep this neutral and not go down the ML rabbit hole, but in today's day and age of transfers, what good is it if a coach recruits kids that ultimately transfer away? So by the time someone has matured and shown himself to be a BCS-level talent they are persuaded to leave and move on to bigger things.  How does that benefit the school that originally recruited him?  While you may end up with a lower ceiling by intentionally recruiting people that you think will stay all 4 years, doesn't that look better as a program if you don't have all your best players leave?  Look at Davidson.  Since they joined the A-10 they haven't had ONE player transfer.  I would take that over a team that is constantly churning but can say, "Hey!  All our best players transferred to bigger conferences!"

Yeah I was mostly speaking in general terms.  I don't know how much I value I would place on where kids transfer out to.  Fordham comes to mind as a school that every now and then gets top 100 recruits to commit and then they bolt to a bigger school as soon as one comes knocking.  I don't think any Fordham fan gives much credit to Pecora for recruiting Paschall or Neubauer recruiting Nick Honor.  They all wish players like that stayed all 4 years.

As to ML specifically, I agree that what ended up being his last recruiting class has shown to have significant talent.  However, if schools like UCF, South Carolina, and say St. John's all came calling after 2017 or 2018 do we keep them all?  Maybe? But it's equally likely we end up in the same position we were in this year only celebrating one of them on senior night.  I just think there are way too many variables to just assume that had ML not been fired, we would have kept the entire recruiting class in tact. 

Successful teams in the A-10 are teams are the ones that are Junior and Senior led.  While our last strong recruiting class that mostly stayed in tact did not end up competing for A-10 titles, they at least ended up as at-large bids to the NIT.  Would I take that right now? Absolutely!  But like I said about Davidson, there is something to be said for recruiting individuals that are not only good basketball players, but who buy in to the school for all four years.  As McKillop has shown, THAT can win you A-10 titles.
 

Last edited by GW0509 (4/03/2020 3:29 pm)

Davidson is a unicorn in this era of college hoops.  Having a hall of fame coach who has been there forever and has the court named after him. They are probably the only school at this level not affected by transfers, or close to it.  Really can’t look to them for comparison (just like every non BCS fan thinks their team should be able to do what Gonzaga has done). 

On the question of recruiting guys who will transfer vs stay, I think it’s impossible to guess so you just have to get the best guys.  Hopefully having a coach with a relentlessly positive attitude and a clear vision and plan will lead to keeping most of the best players for 4 years.

VCU's Marcus Santos-Silva has declared for the 2020 NBA Draft, but will keep his options open, per his Twitter page.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1246256226943602688

Good luck to AT. I think St. John's is a solid spot for him. The Red Storm seem out of the NCAA picture for next year as of now, but a run similar to Butler this year who weren't expected to be all that good could get them in. Will be rooting for Arnaldo to make it.

Other news around the A10:
- Shortly after Tape decommitted from Duke, incoming URI freshman Abou Ousmane did the same within just days of his commitment, likely because of the Mitchell twins coming in. St. Bonaventure offered soon afterwards, which could be an interesting development should Ousmane sign there. There has definitely been a lot of instability within the URI program this offseason.

- Fordham's AD retired and they are expected to name a new coach on Monday. Word on the street is that it will be Shaheen Holloway (current St. Peter's coach), which would be a pretty solid hire although Holloway is probably eyeing the Seton Hall job long term. Adam Zagoria also listed Tim O'Toole (Pittsburgh assistant), Matt Langel (Colgate), Jared Grasso (Bryant, former assistant at Fordham), Steve Lavin (former head coach at St. Johns/UCLA), Kyle Neptune (Villanova assistant), and Mark Taylor (head coach at St. Benedict's Prep in NJ - AT's school) as possible options. Maybe it's a good thing that Neubauer is leaving Fordham for us!

- Baltimore native Matt Johnson is leaving St. Bonaventure. He didn't do much there, but scored a season high 12 points against us in the Foggy Bottom game.

- Sean East of UMass is headed back home to the midwest to play at Bradley. He will be teammates with Terry. The Braves will look to win the MVC conference tournament for the third year in a row despite finishing fourth and fifth in the regular season standings the past two years.

- Bobby Planutis (who first played under JC at MSM and most recently was at St. Bonaventure) is transferring to Purdue Fort Wayne. The Mastodons will be moving to the Horizon League (from the Summit) this season.

- Goanar Mar is leaving George Mason. The Minnesota native averaged 10.9 ppg his freshman year, but unfortunately injuries caught up to him and he became less effective his sophomore and junior years.

- A couple walk-ons in Patrick Casey (Davidson) and Luka Radovich (Fordham) are transferring. Not sure why walk-ons are even reported, but I guess you could say Casey leaving is surprising given it's Davidson.

As for us, according to this video Wishart has heard from a bunch of schools, but mentions specifically GW, Minnesota, Northern Iowa, Santa Clara, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, UC Santa Barbara. A bunch of good mid-majors on the list. He was a Minnesota Mr. Basketball finalist his senior year. I think Jamison was a semi-finalist.

New name to track: Liam Robbins of Drake. Led the Bulldogs in scoring with 14.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg, and 2.9 bpg; 50% FG, 24% 3-pt, 69% FT. Robbins would have two years to play and is 7', which I guess could always be useful to a team and we haven't had that kind of rim protection in some time. A native of Iowa, so I could see him heading to the Hawkeyes or Cyclones, and of course Wichita State always has room.
 

Florida Colonial wrote:

    Colby Giacubeno[/url] [url=https://twitter.com/ColbyGHoops]@ColbyGHoops·4h Former @MSJ_Basketball standout James Bishop officially in the transfer portal. Spent his freshman year at LSU. The 6-foot-2 lefty will have programs calling quickly. Natural three-level scorer.

Ryan Devlin and Anthony Register are now following him

Bishop to GW (just to add to this thread for posterity).

LSF, I’m not concerned.  BCS teams are all salivating at any transfer. Assuming the issue with Toro was a combo of injury and lack of motivation, it is worth a gamble that he the injury will heel and the change of scenery will get his head in the game. 

And if you have a need up front, it’s not to look at a guy who had 22 points, 18 boards and 18 points, 24 boards in back to back games before he got hurt the next game and not want to take a change that he could find that form again, or something close enough to be useful.  I am a bit surprised that an uptempo team would take a below the rim player in Toro, but not surprised that a Big East team would take a shot to see if he can get back to form for them.

Verbal Commits[/url] [url=https://twitter.com/VerbalCommits]@VerbalCommits·49s 
George Washington G Shawn Walker, Jr. (FR) has entered the transfer portal. http://verbalcommits.com/players/shawn-walker-jr

Tape recommits to Duke.  Weird. 

Jimmy Sotos to Ohio State.