Jalen Blackmon
- Thread starter SmellyCat
- Start date
He's from Marion, IN so he's got ties to the area. Makes sense as a senior whose able to log major minutes. He chucked it 260 times from 3, yet hit it at a 36.2% clip. (Boo shot the trey 205 times). Looking at his kenpom, he also played better in 6 Tier A+B games compared to his season averages, so he could probably hold his own in B1G.
Son of Indiana high school basketball legend James Blackmon, whose other son was a very good player at IU.
He just finished his third season. So unless he's on track to graduate this spring, I thought we couldn't have upperclassmen transfers?
I believe he’s visiting Miami (FL) this upcoming weekend. Not sure how he would fit in there with Nigel Pack running the show.
Transfer portal is open to anyone, as long as they do during the open period periods. There is 45-day transfer portal period that began at the end of the basketball regular season that ends May 1. There is also a 30-day transfer portal period at anytime for programs where there is a Head Coaching change.
The restrictions on class-level or intra-conference transfers are all gone and they do not have to sit out a year.
Players are basically free agents with one major exception that if a player has 2 or more transfers, they have to sit out a year unless they get a NCAA transfer waiver or they are a grad transfer.
For what it’s worth, Ryan Taylor was a 21ppg scorer at Evansville and really struggled at NU. Blackmon seems like a better shooter.
Blackmon spent a year at Grand Canyon before two at Stetson (fixed). Might be an admissions challenge? Not sure whether or not visits at this juncture correspond to admissions approval.
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Blackmon is at Stetson, FWIW.
His listed major is “Discovery,” which is definitely weird for a guy who’s been in college as long as he is. Makes you wonder about academics, but typically a guy taking a visit means he’s either supported by Admissions or coaches are very confident.
I was talking about the NU Admissions Department restrictions on transfer students.
Yeah I know. But I do believe Ryan Taylor could play. Just happened to not be a good fit. I have always believed he could have been fire for some other top teams.
And he still averaged 10 a game I think. We just thought we would be getting maybe 15. In the end had he averaged 10 and we made the tournament we would have remembered him as a valuable contributor. As we sucked we remember him as a disappointment.
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He missed some big shots early on and I felt like that affected his confidence. He had size and skill and pretty good athleticism.
Blackmon and Leach to replace Boo and Langborg would be pretty solid.
Both high-usage guys who could scale back a bit when surrounded by Berry, Barnhizer and Nicholson and get acclimated to the Big Ten level.
I like it. Need a backup big ideally to round things out.
Both high-usage guys who could scale back a bit when surrounded by Berry, Barnhizer and Nicholson and get acclimated to the Big Ten level.
I like it. Need a backup big ideally to round things out.
Maybe that is part of the pitch. Come to NU and we will teach you defense and make you a complete player.
Hope Blackmon doesn’t want to take this guy‘s money at Miami… not a good look.
I saw this on the Miami basketball message board about Blackmon's visit to Miami last week:
My nephew Jalen Blackmon had a very good visit. They spent a lot of time with Coach L and his wife who had them over for breakfast this morning. The family was very impressed with Coach L, they felt he was genuine, and the facilities which are the equivalent of what they have seen elsewhere. And whereas no final numbers were discussed, Miami has a very healthy and competitive NIL program. At a minimum, Jalen is not choosing another school over UM because of NIL. They also loved the campus which they described as more like a resort than college campus.
The issue the family has is that UM still has 5 open roster spots and Coach L admittedly wants 6 guards, 5 forwards and 2 centers. So the concern is if Jalen commits, who else will UM go after. The other issue is playing time. 25 minutes is probably enough, 18-20 is not. UM didn’t promise anything specific but said he needed to arrive and compete. This is Jalen’s last season of college ball so roster and playing time are the only strikes against UM, but they are potential strikes.
I am trying to push but not be seen as trying to push. Their agent loves UM, but Arizona and Nova have both shown recent interest. It is unclear whether Jalen will take any more visits beyond Northwestern and Miami. Right now I would give UM the advantage over Northwestern, in particular because the family likes Coach L. Jalen’s high school coach (dad) was not a yeller so they don’t care for coaches who stomp around and yell and blame players (see Rick Pitino).
Still very fluid and I will disclose what I can.
My nephew Jalen Blackmon had a very good visit. They spent a lot of time with Coach L and his wife who had them over for breakfast this morning. The family was very impressed with Coach L, they felt he was genuine, and the facilities which are the equivalent of what they have seen elsewhere. And whereas no final numbers were discussed, Miami has a very healthy and competitive NIL program. At a minimum, Jalen is not choosing another school over UM because of NIL. They also loved the campus which they described as more like a resort than college campus.
The issue the family has is that UM still has 5 open roster spots and Coach L admittedly wants 6 guards, 5 forwards and 2 centers. So the concern is if Jalen commits, who else will UM go after. The other issue is playing time. 25 minutes is probably enough, 18-20 is not. UM didn’t promise anything specific but said he needed to arrive and compete. This is Jalen’s last season of college ball so roster and playing time are the only strikes against UM, but they are potential strikes.
I am trying to push but not be seen as trying to push. Their agent loves UM, but Arizona and Nova have both shown recent interest. It is unclear whether Jalen will take any more visits beyond Northwestern and Miami. Right now I would give UM the advantage over Northwestern, in particular because the family likes Coach L. Jalen’s high school coach (dad) was not a yeller so they don’t care for coaches who stomp around and yell and blame players (see Rick Pitino).
Still very fluid and I will disclose what I can.
This post gives me bad vibes:
1) WTF is an uncle doing commenting on things like this? Seems like too many hands in the pot
2) Why are there mentions of Arizona and Nova? I mean if the kid had found his place, why mention them?
3) It all adds up to me feeling very iffy about a cultural fit. Don't compromise on culture.
I'm surprised an uncle who was truly in the loop would put all of that on a public message board. Those who speak don't know ... or is it a public negotiating tactic for that post to end up back here and drive up our NIL offer??
I thought the same. Could all be very methodic negotiating, throw Arizona and Nova there. It could be the uncle is a tool or just wants attention and is not in the picture at all, but then he mentions an agent. In the end it just stinks.
Creeper uncle wants part of that bag too. Weird weird weird.
“I will disclose what I can.” Weird weird weird.
If you imagine that the "uncle" is actually a crafty member of the NU basketball staff, it gets funny.
Hopefully we checked to make sure Jalen Blackmon actually has an uncle.
"They're bringing in other guys, Jalen. You won't see the court too much in Miami...."
But if it is really his mom or dad's brother running his mouth to get more cash or feel important, thats baaaad.
Unprompted mention of Arizona and Nova tells me that the family really loves Wildcats. This is good news for us.
All I can say as someone who spent plenty of time on the Miami campus is that the only things that feel like a resort are the palm trees. It is an OK campus, small, but hasn't had the big money investments that places like NU and the Big Ten schools have seen. Arena is fine, small and newish and they have updated athletic facilities. Most of the campus buildings are dated. On the other hand, I am sure Coach L has a lovely home on the water and South Beach is a stones' throw away.
I was thinking not pleased but not surprised. Could be an uncle who has been very involved in Jalen's career and feels like he wants his nephew to get every little bit he can for his efforts. If it his way of making a subtile negotiation on Jalen's behalf, I can't blame him even if it is not standard and a little off putting to some people.
This is very bizarre and maybe I’m reading this with purple-tinted glasses but it seems bullish for NU.
At a minimum, Jalen is not choosing another school over UM because of NIL.
(Read: UM isn’t a sure thing, they’ll win on NIL but that isn’t the end-all-be-all.)
The other issue is playing time. 25 minutes is probably enough, 18-20 is not. UM didn’t promise anything specific
(Read: Northwestern pitched him as Buie’s replacement and will get as much playing time as he can handle. Also… they have no guard depth.)
