Jalen Blackmon
- Thread starter SmellyCat
- Start date
I don't like it, really. But it is the new reality until a better system is developed.
Draw him out with a post about how awesome Ohio State hoops are going to be next year.
This situation is probably the best possible version of the system. A guy who was with his first school for a number of years and is transferring out after getting his degree and having established himself as a difference maker for one big opportunity and payday. Much better than an AJ Storr changing schools literally every year. Even I don’t like that.
IMO the NCAA should implement LOIs for transfer periods to avoid the situations like unfolded at MN. Allow players to submit binding paperwork confirming they are declining to enter the portal during this window. It would be even better if they could sign a document that declined entering a certain number of future portals too, effectively allowing multi-year contracts. Bring in a guy with multiple years of eligibility and actually put them on a binding multi-year NIL deal.
The point is taken, but this will be Jalen’s third school, with Stetson being his second.
Wouldn't NIL deals allow that? Couldn't a sponsor say, You promote my product for two years while you play at NU, I give you $10,000 up front and $90,000 at the end; unless we renegotiate the contract for some reason. Obviously there would be other criteria, options and restriction to protect both parties.
Yes, but there can’t be inducement and there’s no way to ultimately enforce them if you get outbid. I’m talking about letting guys voluntarily waive transfer rights.
Sounds like Miami per his uncle this AM.
Should be a good day today in Coral Gables.
Should be a good day today in Coral Gables.
We'll see how much influence this uncle has. He sure seems to be pushing hard for Miami.
Jalen Blackmon's role at NU seems pretty well defined:
LG - Leach
Wing - Barnhizer
Wing - Berry
Wing - Blackmon
Big - Nicholson
6th man - Martinelli
The longer this strung out, the less convinced I am that he'd pick NU. Which is ultimately fine.
No disrespect to the young man, but, generally, if a person has NU and Miami as finalists, they are probably not coming our way. That's an odd Venn Diagram. What I mean is, the things that are important at the two schools are so widely divergent, that if you like what Miami is offering, you probably don't value what NU has. I suppose there could be exceptions for Upper Midwest kids out of HS but that's about it. This probably sounds arrogant, and perhaps it is, but it's sort of like 'do you want to live on a country estate or in an Upper East Side high rise of the same value'.
Not right or wrong, just too disparate
Being a small private school, Miami has more in common with NU than you might think. It’s certainly not a sprawling campus like the majority of the SEC and/or B1G.
Listen, Larranaga is great and I can totally understand someone wanting to play for him, especially for a single year. Staying in Florida I’m sure is more comfortable/less change. ACC comes with cool factor for sure. Money was obviously a priority; that’s fine, and we’d all do the same if it were us. Hopefully it’s life changing for the kid.
Also hopefully this agent isn’t putting his client in a bad position. That’s the part that worried me - if he gets here and ends up with 27 minutes and 9 shots a game, will the staff have to deal with an agent (or player, via his agent planting seeds) grumbling that it’s not 34 and 14?
Fit and cohesion are really important. They’re not incompatible with NIL. Boo made a nice payday last season and was the beating heart of the program. He’s also homegrown. The more info we got, the more it felt like too many cooks to me. Wish him well and keep looking for the right fit for us. There are plenty of great players still available all over the country.
All this sour grapes about fit is silly. It would have been awesome to get Blackmon and he had a choice between two great places to play. Two private schools in big cities but very different cultures. Congrats to the young man for earning the opportunity to chose between the two and best of luck to him. Would have been fantastic but frankly there is more playing time available at Miami.
We’d have been hella deep with him though. Oh well.
We’d have been hella deep with him though. Oh well.
The grapes aren’t all that sour. Just a bit disappointed…a pretty normal reaction all things considered.
From some, yes. Others are insisting he wasn’t a fit who could help us anyway.
No big deal, as you said, move on.
How is it sour grapes when one, before the decision was made, already had voiced bad vibes about the fit?
It's uninformed, it's speculative, it's purely gut-driven. But it's not sour grapes.
It was fairly recently I realized that Miami is a pretty good school. It’s not elite, but it’s a good private school. I don’t think it’s based on that the two prospects are dramatically different.
However, the sports side of the schools might make the two options, indeed, very different. You can’t come to NU and not play school. You’ll have a lot of concessions vis a vis the general student body, but you can’t just ignore school. I’m not sure that’s the case at Miami. For all I know they are just, sports-wise, another Alabama.
Last edited:
Miami definitely cuts their players a fair amount of academic slack. Perhaps not like the bad-boy phase - they worked to clean that up - but they make allowances. I believe they also legitimately reach out to the South Florida black football community both because there are great players but also because they believe the university has a commitment to the community. This is a notable difference from NU that doesn't appear to cut much slack in admissions.
Even though a relatively small school it is the leader in collegiate sports in South Florida. South Florida is pretty densely populated - other than the swamps. The U also runs the premier hospital system in the region and it is world-class, in particular drawing the elite from South America. So The U has a lot going for it.
Even though a relatively small school it is the leader in collegiate sports in South Florida. South Florida is pretty densely populated - other than the swamps. The U also runs the premier hospital system in the region and it is world-class, in particular drawing the elite from South America. So The U has a lot going for it.
As soon as rumors he was leaning toward another school a series of absurdly thin reasons why he wasn’t a good fit anyway appeared. Convienient.
The fact Collins offered him means he thought he was a fit but I still won’t call what people say as sour grapes. I have seen criticism on all recruits and current players so no exception was made.
We’re not - there’s no sense in carrying an empty slot with no true PG - but I can’t imagine we’re far down the road with anyone at this point. Hopefully someone good doesn’t mind that we’re coming in late. Otherwise it’s on to the B-minus or C-list.
When should the fit concerns arise? Please enlighten my absurdly thin reasons.
Most of us had never even heard his name until April 16, so we're talking less than two weeks we went from (some people) learning of his existence/interest in NU to (some people) getting excited about him, to (some people) getting cool on him, to him picking another place. If we're not supposed to talk about it during that time period, when are we?
I wanted him because of his shiny scoring average and what getting him might represent for our program, but when GatoLouco talks about a player, I am going to at least listen.
Your comment (well above) was insightful except for this sentence.
First of all, you don't know what Miami offered him and you don't know what NU offered him.
So you have no basis for making any decision.
But beyond that, you are speaking only for yourself!
To say "We'd all do the same thing" is somewhere between "wrong" and "offensive."