RaceToTheTop

I hope that they don’t just have Tama Tonga play the old Solo Sikoa role when Solo was Roman’s henchmen. Tama’s role in New Japan Wrestling during his bullet club takeover was really good….need to run him as a monster alongside Solo until they eventually split.

Did the decisions she made prevent the protests or stop the disruption? Attempting to silence dissension doesn’t stop it and often has the opposite effect. Anyway, protests exist and if the protestors break the law there are consequences. I don’t see any issue with protesting nor an issue with enforcing any laws that are broken by protestors.

Tyreek Smith, SMU. 6’8”. Rim protector. 8.2 pts, 5.4 reb and 1.7 blocks in 19 mpg. Previously at Texas Texh and Oklahoma State. Wooga Poplat, 6’4” guard, Miami. 13 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast

Trilly says a big name entering the portal….thoughts on who? https://x.com/trillydonovan/status/1783557315188191601

It is. https://www.gofundme.com/f/offseason-trip-to-compete-internationally

I don’t see him taking a developmental role — he averaging 19 mpg, 7.7 pts and 6 reb at VCU as a sophomore.

He visits tomorrow, so think it's just a matter of time before it's official.

Tobi Lawal from VCU still intrigues the hell out of me. Godlike bounce. He's a 4 and not a traditional center -- not going to body up against 5's as he's a slender 6'8" but definitely is a rim protector and plus rebounder. Hate to keep harping on the kid -- I shared a highlight video of him in the general transfer portal thread. Below is a different one -- it's from high school and it's mostly dunks and blocks. But check out the dunk at about the 5 second mark and see if it doesn't remind you of a very famous missed dunk (except Lawal makes it).

Miami, Louisville, then U Mass. hit the portal this year and committed somewhere — don’t recall where — then devommitted when the coach left.

Supreme Cook, 6'9" center from Georgetown, enters. 10.5 ppg, 8.0 rpg in 27 mpg. First three seasons at Fairfield. Kyky Tandy,6'2" shooting guard, Jacksvonille State. 17.8 points, 2.6 reb, 1.4 ast. Shot 42/39/88, bulk three point shooter. Previously played at Xavier for four seasons (injured one season) where he was a bench player.

so glad to see that little brother’s title game appearance has really helped their NIL fund.

Trey Townsend (Oakland) commits to Arizona. 6'6" forward, 17.3 pts, 8.1 reb, 3.1 ast. Shot 46/38/78. Was thought to be an Ohio State lean. Another Evansville big in the portal -- Yacine Toumi. 6'10", averaged 10.8 points and 6.5 rebounds.

The problem is there has been zero character development that they've done with her since she peaked. Would have perhap them to put the title on Liv Morgan as a placeholder. Morgan isn't a great in ring performer but she is good enough and there is no one in the WWE that is more of a wrestling fan than her. She's worked with what they've given her. She's not meant to be some long term title holder but with Ripley out, they should have used Liv to transition the title to an up and comer. Worst thing they could do is yet another Becky Lynch/Charlotte Flair story line. Flair is a good in ring worker but the constant put-her-at-the-top-of-the-card moments are getting boring. EDIT: Looks like she still has a ways to go on her knee recovery.

NCAA never ceases to amaze the legislation they approve that will get struck down in court. Formally approving a closing of the portal for grad transfers 9 days from now?

Note on a couple of. The bigs listed here: Both Coleman-Jones and Sissoko very recently visited San Diego State. Sissoko has 3 more visits lined up, all in the West. Would assume he ends up out west. EDITTED from my mistake on Coleman's name, LOL

I posted his name when he entered the portal but just because of the length of his name. Monmouth 4/5. Played at Tulsa his freshman year (just 9 mpg), hurt his sophomore year. Good rebounder, not a run protector. Limited offensively. Averaged about 9 pts and 8 reb in 2: minutes at Monmouth.

Early in the portal there seems to be a lot of information on teams that have contacted certain players. Late in the portal.....not so much. Anyway, have to sell somebody on coming in and backing up Ballo. Plus would be if that player is capable of playing the 4 as well since that would allow more flexibiity. You aren't going to get a starting caliber P5 guy to come into that description most likely. Possible guys (only listing guys I think are realistic....top 20 centers in the portal aren't coming to backup Ballo): Churchill Abass, DePaul. 6'9". 3.9 pts, 3.5 rebounds in 15.8 minutes. Interior post only. Justice Ajogbor, Harvard. 6'10". 8.4 pts, 6.5 rebounds, 2.9 blocks in 23.2 minutes. Interior post only. Bent Leuchten, UC Irvine. 7'1". 9.0 pts, 4.6 reb, 1.1 block in 16.5 minutes. Shoots outside some but not well. Frederick King, Creighton. 6'10". 2.6 pts, 2.2 reb. Interior only. K.C. Ibekwe, Oregon State. 6'10". 5.1 pts, 4 reb in 18 mpg. Interior only Moussa Cisse, Ole Miss. 7'. Player I like. 4.5 pts, 4.6 reb, 1.7 blocks in 17.5 mpg. Interior only. Good d and rebounder, not much offense and horrible free throw shooter Harlan Obioha, Niagara. 7'. 10.3 pts, 7.8 reb in 26.6 mpg. Interior only Mady Sissoko, Michigan State. 6'9". Probably out of the question now -- he is visiting four schools in the next four days all in the West. One of those schools, though is interesting: Colorado, which I believe he visited today. I would think if he commits to Colorado, Malone won't. Kijani Wright, USC. 6'9" 3.9 pts and 2.6 reb in 12 mpg. Kenny Pohto, Wichita State. 6'10". 8.8 pts and 5.9 reb in 22 mpg Dennis Evans, Louisville. 7'1". Rankings for him are all over the map. Was ranked 25th in the recruiting class of 2023. Barely saw the court last year and didn't play in a game after November 29th -- suffered a shoulder injury. Worse, Louisville issued a statement later that he would no longer be able to play at Louisville because he did not have medical clearance. Tobe Awaka, Tennessee. 6'8" PF/C. 5.1 pts, 4.6 reb in 13 mpg. Baba Miller, Florida State. Stretch 4/5, 6'11". 7.6 pts, 4.9 reb in 25 mpg Sasa Ciani, Xavier. 6'9" PF. 2.5 pts, 2.9 reb in 13.2 min. Thierno Sylla, UCF. Stretch 4/5, 6'11". 4.3 pts and 3.9 reb in 15 mpg Braxton Meah, Washington. 7'1" center. 5.3 pts, 5.3 reb in 17 mpg. Amazing number: He has a career 72.6% field goal percentage in his four year, so don't expect him to take any shot except one near the rim. Mohamed Wague, Alabama. 6'10". 3.1 pts, 2.5 reb in 8.5 mpg Carlton Linguard, UTSA. 7' center. 9.3 pts, 6.2 reb, 1.5 bpg in 25 mpg. Stretch 5. Josh Gray, South Carolina. 7' center. 3.2 pts, 2.8 reb in 10 mpg

If those guys from Purdue aren't going to even try to have a complete athletic program, maybe we need to change the governor's cup to a school more competitive like Ball State.

There are definitely options, but there are 300+ division 1 teams filling spots. So we're like everyone else in that respect -- however I think it was Trilly Donovan (or Ant Wright) that said the other day that the run on bigs signing was slowing down while guards were heating up. So a lot of the the P5 teams have already filled their bigs.

Guy I mentioned in the IU thread entered as well —Alabama’s Mohammed Wague. 3.1 pts and 2.5 reb in 8.5 minutes, 7’1”. UCF’s Thierno Sylla as well — stretch big. Didn’t shoot it that well this year but still has put up respectable three point numbers for a guy his size — 31% from three in his freshman and sophomore years. 4.3 pts and 3.9 reb in 14 mpg this year. Yesterday Carlton Linguard of Texas-San Antoni entered. Played two years at Kansas state but didn’t play much. 7’. At UTSA this year averaged 9.3 points and 6.3 rebounds in 25 mpg. Stretch 5, almost half his shots were threes. Shot 42/31/79 this year, making 38 of 124 from three. 1.5 blocks/game.

In terms of Furst’s current role at Purdue: he averaged 9 minutes per game last year and in the NCAA tournament registered 3 DNP-CD and played a total of 11 minutes in the NCAA tournament. He’s obviously not in the portal right now but if it was all about looking for an expanded role he would have been the first guy in. Kaufman-Renn’s minutes are going to skyrocket this year. I would expect that Painter will be looking for a lot of minutes for Kaufman-Renn, Heide, and Catchings as well as getting minutes for his seven footers.

Just need one more.

FWIW, Woodson playing Sparks at the 5 when Ware was hurt is only partially true. Sparks did play 29 minutes against Wisconsin when Ware was out. But in the other two games that Ware was out, sparks played 14 minutes (against Kennesaw State) and 2 minutes (against Illinois), so Sparks averaged 15 min/game when Ware was out. The larger recipient of minutes during that time was Anthony Walker who averaged 22 minutes in those game.

No, I’m saying 100110011101.

Mohammed Wague (Alabama) might be a good backup big to contact. He just entered. One year at west virgins, 10 mpg, one year at Alabama, 8 mpg.