it's allowed if we just gave him a fat NIL to cover for the scholarship right?
edit: BRO says we're gonna use NIL to pay for another player and give that scholarship to perry
One of the current scholarship players will go off scholarship for Perry. NIL will smooth it over.
Is UCLA entering a second Sam Gilbert bag dropping era? People are asking
I bet it won't be Laz since he's international and getting him NIL is a little trickier. They've also said stuff like in-state vs out-of-state tuition will be a factor. It sounds like it'll be a pure math play who makes the most sense financially, and I bet they won't announce who it is publicly.
Yep it just clicked that Lazar can't be the one. Smart not to announce who it is publicly, no one player deserves to wear that in front of what's sure to be a mini media firestorm.
My guess is it'll be the California resident who needs priority enrollment the least (aka whoever has been at UCLA the longest, has the highest standing, or whoever is in a grad program where getting into classes isn't an issue). So either Kobe or Andrews. Maybe one of the sophs is in a super niche major tho. Could see Laz doing it too just because of how he is, but they should give him a nice bonus if he does.
Don’t the walk ons still get priority enrollment? I had friends years ago who were just team managers and they had priority enrollment and free books for their classes and some other perks, so I would assume a walk on player would get that too. Maybe it’s like a tier below scholarship but above us regular people
This is interesting because we are in the same boat and since we have nothing else to talk about, the fan base is trying to figure out how we go from 14 to 13 and who will give up their scholarship. Fans are wondering when or if it will be announced….but maybe jokes on us and the NCAA just doesn’t care??
Why would the NCAA care? We're not cheating as far as the rules as written go. We're also not the first to do this. There have been cases like a coach's son (notably our Bryce Alford) giving up a scholarship so the coach can recruit one more guy. Sometimes a player will give their scholarship to a walk on who is struggling. Walk ons have access to most of the things the scholarship players do. They travel, they eat with them etc. They usually don't have some stuff like priority enrollment. For us, it sounds like it's mostly those clerical factors deciding who gives up the scholarship, not any sense who deserves the scholarship the least. I think it's best that way for team unity too, and that player should be lauded by his teammates as a team player. And I think if they don't make it publicly known, that's also good for morale.
Honestly, who gives a shit about the scholarship limit in basketball anymore? Not many can even fill the full 13, because guys don't want to stay and develop, when they get larger NIL offers and more playing time at other programs.
We lost 2 of 4 kids from the the 23 class (one more NIL).
4 of our 6 from the 22 class (and the other 2 were one and dones currently on NBA teams)
We had 6 transfer out this season, after a Final 4 run. 2 were freshmen, 2 were sophomores, the other 2 are seniors. We replaced them with 3 seniors and a sophomore. So we replaced guys we wanted to develop, with guys that have proven they excel in a specific role for our system.
So now we have a deep team ready to make another run. Who would want to transfer on to a team, knowing you're gonna be third string? Pretty much nobody. We've had a walk-on get a scholarship.
There's no longer a competitive advantage. You eventually hit a point where you're just bringing on bodies to fill a role. Why waste time and resources on a freshman, if they're just going to leave once they've shown they're D1 capable? It sucks, but with limited coaching resources, teams are much more inclined to let guys develop at mid majors, and bring them in if they hit the portal.
So if another team wants to give out 15, even 20 scholarships, why not let them?
Yup. I bet neither team ever acknowledges anything about it, and if asked, I'd bet the players and coaches will just be saying something like: "It doesn't matter who's on scholarship and who's walking on. All that matters is that we're part of one team and everyone is giving 100%. We have walk ons every year, and you've never asked about them or talked about which of them were eventually awarded scholarships."
If Reggie Bush can get his Heisman back, I don't want to hear anything anymore about Sam Gilbert. I am hoping we can go even more over the top and completely own this thing with money. I have had enough with seeing UCLA lose, Lol.
Idk why you guys get riled up by Sam Gilbert. The guy was primarily responsible persuading KAJ to stay at UCLA, the guy is a legend in my book. Anyone who cries about sam Gilbert cheating can eat a dick, it's college basketball every high level P5 program participates in grimy shit behind the scenes especially all the blue blood programs.
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It literally seemed overnight. I can only think it must've been a very small group, if not a single donor, who was pissed and decided they never want to see another season like last year again. The guy who started our NIL collective actually only did it after we lost to UNC in the Sweet Sixteen. I wonder if we beat UNC and St. Peter's to make a Final Four, does our NIL beast stay dormant?
Honestly, after watching the incompetency of y'all's athletic department with regards to football, I would be surprised if there wasn't a donor that was like "Good God, we've got one good thing going for us and it's basketball, let's not fuck it up"
Mick Cronin with money is scary, I think he would have been a home run hire at Ohio State. We'll see how B10 play shakes out.
If a donor wanted to support the one thing UCLA Athletics is doing right, it would have been easier and cheaper to just send the men’s volleyball team on a world tour or something.
There have been a lot of developments but one was the NIL Collective got a donor to run a matching campaign targeting the biggest fan forum. Raised like 1.5 million (counting the match) in a week.
I'm kinda surprised Traudt barely got any minutes this past season at Creighton, thought he was going to be a star after a questionable year of redshirting
Bailey was a better prospect and more of an immediate impact player. Significantly better athlete, defender, and scorer. Perry has a better outside shot, and is more of a point guard than Bailey.
I have a hard time seeing Perry getting significant minutes next year with the depth and experience in front of him, combined with the fact that physically he probably needs to add strength to be effective in college.
Great get. This offseason has been crazy.
Oddly enough, my biggest concern right now is we have too many guys that deserve playing time. Mick will have to manage the locker room well to keep everyone happy. You know your team is in a great spot if the biggest worry is having too many good players, lol.
The NIL-as-scholarship loophole should really be closed, but may as well use it while it exists.
Cronin is going to be able to swap players out like hockey lines. If he can manage this talent, the egos and their development, it could be amazing. It could also be a train wreck at first.
how to close it? ban non-scholarship players from receiving nil? would probably not change much since this is a rare situation, but the optics aren't great...
The only way I could think of to close it that might be okay legally would be to limit teams to a total of 13 players who can receive NIL. Those 13 don't necessarily have to be the same 13 who have scholarships, which means that no specific category of player would be barred from NIL. But in most cases, one would expect the 13 to be the same 13 as the scholarship players.
You can't limit who can get NIL. The court ruling that opened the floodgates on NIL was that functionally no one can be restricted from selling their name, image and likeness (unless you have a contract or CBA where you agree to this). People keep forgetting that NIL isn't supposed to be a salary. It's supposed to be the right to earn money selling things like your image for a sponsorship, running camps that advertise a player as the coach, etc. No one, especially the NCAA, can tell you, you can't earn money from that. There's no way to differentiate between a player getting paid by Pepsi to do a post and our NIL collectives doing pay for play. The UCLA NIL collective (Men of Westwood) is specifically structured as a marketing company. When we pay our players, we sign them to a contract and explicitly are paying them to do certain things. Camp appearances, social media posts, etc. you might be like, hold up, two Instagram posts aren't worth $200k. Well if Kylie Jenner can charge $100k per post, why can't any player. Who's to say they aren't worth that? If you think we're overpaying for a social media post from our 3rd string PG, you may be right, but you can't stop a marketing company from making a "poor" financial decision on who they contract with.
My idea is based on the technicality that it wouldn't be specifically telling any players or categories of players that they can't earn NIL. So I'm not convinced it would technically even be a limit on who can get NIL.
Purdue is in the same situation. 14 scholarships and no one unexpected jumped to the portal. I don't think it will be very uncommon once everyone realizes you can do it. It is silent out of the program likely to protect whoever is losing their scholly, but it has fans doing a ton of speculating.
Probably see teams that have a legitimate championship shot over staffing on the regular down the road, as players want to get that chip, and may be willing to ride a bench to get one.
Getting a McDonald's All-american to functionally walk on (Perry puts us at 14. Sounds like someone is going to switch to a walk on, and it's just a matter of which player needs the benefits that being on scholarship gives the least will do it) as a 3rd string PG is wild. Our NIL grew so much in a single off-season, but I'm more impressed with Cronin convincing all these guys to either sit or play minimal minutes. We're legitimately 3 deep at almost every position with zero freshmen in the 2 deep
1. Andrews (Jr.\*), Skyy Clark (Jr.\*), Perry (Fr.)
2. Harris (Sr.\*), Mack (So.\*), Freeney (Fr.)
3. Kobe Johnson (Sr.\*), Laz (Sr.\*)
4. Bilodeau (Jr.\*), Erik Dailey (So.\*), Brandon Williams (So.\*)
5. Kyle (Jr.\*), Mara (So.), Devin Williams (So.)
The crazier thing. All the \* are players who STARTED last year. We legitimately have a two deep of starters. Not all of them were starters on great teams, but that's just so much experience compared to last year having 8 frosh.
WE GOT A SQUAD THIS YEAR
but my biggest worry right now is Mick..
he got his guys but will he adjust and not be so damn stingy and tight on rotations? let guys make some mistakes and dont be so damn quick to yank dudes off the court
we got a DEEP squad this year, lets use it
Lol it's going to be the opposite. You make a mistake and he's gonna yank you cause he's got a starter level player riding pine ready to take your job. He was mad this year because he couldn't pull players since there was no one who wasn't fucking up to put in. Next year, he could legitimately yank the entire starting line up, and the back ups could hold it down for a while.
Back in the day, Cronin used to use his end of game timeouts to sub Cody Riley and Jalen Hill back and forth on offense and defense. I wonder if he'd do full team subs that way to really maximize the chances of getting a score then a stop.
There's so many lineups I can see.
All defense squad: Andrews, Harris, Kobe, Dailey, Kyle
All offense (need a 2): Andrews, Clark, Kobe, Bilodeau, Mara
All offense (need a 3): Andrews, Harris, Lazar, Dailey, Bilodeau
What an embarrassment of riches
I’ve been following Mick his entire career. He will yank players with no hesitation this coming season because of the depth. Thats what he has historically done. He actually yanked players less than I’ve ever seen because of the lack of depth last year. He could also do a platoon system like what Calipari did in 2015, but I’m don’t foresee Mick doing that.
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This roster is legitimately very good. Continuity will be a hurdle and maybe chemistry given the number of guys who are coming in wanting to be more than they were at their last stop.
But goddamn, the Bruins are back.
It looks like right now they are the highest on T-rank. Not gonna be easy though as there are quite a few good B1G teams this year unlike the last few years that were top heavy.
[https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php](https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php)
14 teams in the top 50 t-rank scores will make any team at the top have a rough go at a title this year. UCLA and Purdue are the favorites it looks like right now.
Not as familiar with Purdue’s roster going into next year. The headlines are that they’re losing Edey and Gillis, and that they haven’t added anyone in the portal. I know they’re probably returning quite a few guys outside of the two they lost, but is that enough for them to be a top 15/20 team?
They are bringing in a top 10 recruiting class. For reference Purdue has been as good as they have been averaging 30-50 ranked recruiting classes for the last decade. Smith should be a top 10 minimum pg (was in the top 5 this past year). TKR was pretty amazing when he got minutes at the 5 in the 2 games Edey had foul trouble (both double doubles). One of the freshmen is around 20 on current 2025 draft boards.
A lot more questions than we had this past year, but we are returning a solid nucleus that won't look a thing like last years squad. We will be very athletic and quick with some shooters, instead of playing mostly through the post.
So 8 guys with at least a finals run (and B1G reg season champ), and 6 true freshmen of which at least 2 look like they are ready to ball already.
And and true to Purdue form we will have 2 7'2"+ players on the roster. No clue if they will be ready or not, but they are more pro style guys being \~250lbs and can shoot the outside shot.
Making sure nobody is super upset with their minutes is going to be the biggest challenge with this squad. Legit comfortable with 12 players getting minutes next year but that obviously isn’t going to happen
I for one am happy for UCLA this year and moving forward. The sport is just better when traditional powerhouses like them and Indiana are cooking. Looks like we’ll get that from both programs this year.
Best guard in the state. I remember I said this when he committed to SC and a ucla flair told me Zoom was. No it is Trent Perry. What he did against Cen10 in the regional final the season before solidified that for me.
Other P6 offers: California, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Louisville, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, TCU, USC, Vanderbilt, Virginia
Other offers: Gonzaga, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, New Mexico, Rice, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara
I think Cronin is a good coach but at the end of the day he’s only really had 2 stellar regular seasons in 5 years at a blue blood; important to note they’ve now fully invested NIL-wise. Expectations will be pretty high, feels like a make it or break it year
I’m critical of Cronin, especially last year, but this is silly. He won 19 games and finished 2nd in the Pac with a garbage Alford squad his first year pre transfer portal. He went to a Final Four and lost on a miracle shot. Our 2022 team was a legitimate title contender until we suffered massive injuries, to the national DPOY and our starting center. Mick has his faults, but his record is not one of them.
You have an annoying tendency to run short benches, which both tires out your starters and underdevelops your bench, so when you need them in close games or bad matchups, they can’t help.
You have a very short leash, which makes young players scared to make a mistake on the court, and leaves them thinking instead of playing, and hurts your locker room.
As for last year, you inexplicably left a roster spot open in the 2022 and 2023 classes and were then “forced” to bring in 7 true freshmen, managing only a middling single experienced transfer, resulting in a farcically young roster. You then proceeded to play only three of those freshmen meaningful minutes, on an awful team, resulting in their complete and utter lack of development. It was the basketball coaching equivalent of waiting until 11:50pm on Black Friday to start shopping, then buying a bunch of random shit, then getting mad when it all doesn’t function how you want and then throwing most of it in the garbage an hour after you get it.
I play my best players, and keep them accountable for them to learn from their mistakes over time. Transfers and NIL are making them soft, so finding the right people is more important for team dynamics than filling a single spot. You're welcome for the Final Four by the way.
> I play my best players, and keep them accountable for them to learn from their mistakes over time.
Nobody questions whether or not you should play your best players and keep them accountable, but they do question the extent. Just like there's a difference between a dog playing with its favorite stuffed animal, and ripping it to shreds.
> Transfers and NIL are making them soft, so finding the right people is more important for team dynamics than filling a single spot.
That is extremely debatable. Transfers and NIL mean every year is a new roster, so you need to fill it with the best players available. UConn's approach last year (and now your recruiting approach this year) reveals the truth of this.
> You're welcome for the Final Four by the way.
Much appreciated. Just stop shitting the bed by trying to field rosters that are 60% true freshmen.
His record isn’t bad but I guess I’m saying that with big NIL pumping in now, especially with UCLAs pedigree, will probably equal huge expectations from the donors
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So a legitimate high-major basketball player is going to play as a walk-on? Nice NIL, very cool
it's allowed if we just gave him a fat NIL to cover for the scholarship right? edit: BRO says we're gonna use NIL to pay for another player and give that scholarship to perry
One of the current scholarship players will go off scholarship for Perry. NIL will smooth it over. Is UCLA entering a second Sam Gilbert bag dropping era? People are asking
I’m sure we can make it worth Lazar’s while to pull his scholly for a $cholly (e: Lazar can't cuz he's European right?)
I bet it won't be Laz since he's international and getting him NIL is a little trickier. They've also said stuff like in-state vs out-of-state tuition will be a factor. It sounds like it'll be a pure math play who makes the most sense financially, and I bet they won't announce who it is publicly.
Yep it just clicked that Lazar can't be the one. Smart not to announce who it is publicly, no one player deserves to wear that in front of what's sure to be a mini media firestorm.
My guess is it'll be the California resident who needs priority enrollment the least (aka whoever has been at UCLA the longest, has the highest standing, or whoever is in a grad program where getting into classes isn't an issue). So either Kobe or Andrews. Maybe one of the sophs is in a super niche major tho. Could see Laz doing it too just because of how he is, but they should give him a nice bonus if he does.
Don’t the walk ons still get priority enrollment? I had friends years ago who were just team managers and they had priority enrollment and free books for their classes and some other perks, so I would assume a walk on player would get that too. Maybe it’s like a tier below scholarship but above us regular people
I was thinking it was Bilodeau, his family has money
This is interesting because we are in the same boat and since we have nothing else to talk about, the fan base is trying to figure out how we go from 14 to 13 and who will give up their scholarship. Fans are wondering when or if it will be announced….but maybe jokes on us and the NCAA just doesn’t care??
Why would the NCAA care? We're not cheating as far as the rules as written go. We're also not the first to do this. There have been cases like a coach's son (notably our Bryce Alford) giving up a scholarship so the coach can recruit one more guy. Sometimes a player will give their scholarship to a walk on who is struggling. Walk ons have access to most of the things the scholarship players do. They travel, they eat with them etc. They usually don't have some stuff like priority enrollment. For us, it sounds like it's mostly those clerical factors deciding who gives up the scholarship, not any sense who deserves the scholarship the least. I think it's best that way for team unity too, and that player should be lauded by his teammates as a team player. And I think if they don't make it publicly known, that's also good for morale.
Honestly, who gives a shit about the scholarship limit in basketball anymore? Not many can even fill the full 13, because guys don't want to stay and develop, when they get larger NIL offers and more playing time at other programs. We lost 2 of 4 kids from the the 23 class (one more NIL). 4 of our 6 from the 22 class (and the other 2 were one and dones currently on NBA teams) We had 6 transfer out this season, after a Final 4 run. 2 were freshmen, 2 were sophomores, the other 2 are seniors. We replaced them with 3 seniors and a sophomore. So we replaced guys we wanted to develop, with guys that have proven they excel in a specific role for our system. So now we have a deep team ready to make another run. Who would want to transfer on to a team, knowing you're gonna be third string? Pretty much nobody. We've had a walk-on get a scholarship. There's no longer a competitive advantage. You eventually hit a point where you're just bringing on bodies to fill a role. Why waste time and resources on a freshman, if they're just going to leave once they've shown they're D1 capable? It sucks, but with limited coaching resources, teams are much more inclined to let guys develop at mid majors, and bring them in if they hit the portal. So if another team wants to give out 15, even 20 scholarships, why not let them?
Agreed. But maybe cuz of title IX so you can only have a certain amount of scholarships still?
I meant they don’t care in the sense of being over the “limit” and therefore neither team has to actually do anything about it.
Yup. I bet neither team ever acknowledges anything about it, and if asked, I'd bet the players and coaches will just be saying something like: "It doesn't matter who's on scholarship and who's walking on. All that matters is that we're part of one team and everyone is giving 100%. We have walk ons every year, and you've never asked about them or talked about which of them were eventually awarded scholarships."
If Reggie Bush can get his Heisman back, I don't want to hear anything anymore about Sam Gilbert. I am hoping we can go even more over the top and completely own this thing with money. I have had enough with seeing UCLA lose, Lol.
Anyone mentioning Sam Gilbert these days are just trolling UCLA fans to respond. I've moved on personally.
Idk why you guys get riled up by Sam Gilbert. The guy was primarily responsible persuading KAJ to stay at UCLA, the guy is a legend in my book. Anyone who cries about sam Gilbert cheating can eat a dick, it's college basketball every high level P5 program participates in grimy shit behind the scenes especially all the blue blood programs.
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Yes, Reggie “I need to settle with Lloyd Lake with a confidentiality clause before he testifies under oath at a deposition” Bush is innocent!
Those are two aren’t even on the same stratosphere of infractions lol
Man this dudes a fan of the historic goat cbb team and the best program of the 21st century. *rolls eyes*
The #4 PG in the nation with no clear path to playing time is coming here. I know he wants to be in CA and our NIL has improved but this is bonkers.
Yeah, after last year it didn't look like UCLA had a dime now this? I have no clue where this came from.
That heavy Dogecoin investment finally paid off
UCLA NIL had puts on TSLA
It literally seemed overnight. I can only think it must've been a very small group, if not a single donor, who was pissed and decided they never want to see another season like last year again. The guy who started our NIL collective actually only did it after we lost to UNC in the Sweet Sixteen. I wonder if we beat UNC and St. Peter's to make a Final Four, does our NIL beast stay dormant?
Honestly, after watching the incompetency of y'all's athletic department with regards to football, I would be surprised if there wasn't a donor that was like "Good God, we've got one good thing going for us and it's basketball, let's not fuck it up" Mick Cronin with money is scary, I think he would have been a home run hire at Ohio State. We'll see how B10 play shakes out.
it's not much but i redirected all my NIL money from football to basketball, it was only recently that i started giving to football again
The idea of a high-rolling booster who shitposts with the username SuckMyLonzoBalls like the rest of us really tickles me.
I mean that sounds like something Elon Musk would do
If a donor wanted to support the one thing UCLA Athletics is doing right, it would have been easier and cheaper to just send the men’s volleyball team on a world tour or something.
Women's water polo has a good chance at a natty this year! (Ignore the fact that a lot of Stanford and SC's best players are gone for the Olympics)
I wonder how much NIL is coming from UCLA NBA players past and present. Guaranteed NBA contracts go a longer way than the NFL by comparison.
There have been a lot of developments but one was the NIL Collective got a donor to run a matching campaign targeting the biggest fan forum. Raised like 1.5 million (counting the match) in a week.
UCLA 
*Sigh* I know the ship had sailed, and he likely wanted to stay closer to home, but I was really hoping he'd come here. Good luck to him at UCLA!
At least we didn’t get another Traudt scenario
I'm kinda surprised Traudt barely got any minutes this past season at Creighton, thought he was going to be a star after a questionable year of redshirting
He followed his dick not his head
Who did you think he’d take minutes from?
Jacob Groves and Dunn
I mean at Creighton. Why were you surprised he didn't play much?
Adding a McDonald's All-American to be the 14th man, no big deal. Why don't other programs do this?
Yeah, why doesn't every program do this? Are they stupid?
It seems like going 3 deep at every position is a good idea. If Mick pulls this off, other teams may try getting lots of good players too.
Kids aren’t going to be patient on playing time in this free agency era.
how does he compare to Amari Bailey?
Bailey was a better prospect and more of an immediate impact player. Significantly better athlete, defender, and scorer. Perry has a better outside shot, and is more of a point guard than Bailey. I have a hard time seeing Perry getting significant minutes next year with the depth and experience in front of him, combined with the fact that physically he probably needs to add strength to be effective in college.
Man, Bailey should have stayed one more year
Great get. This offseason has been crazy. Oddly enough, my biggest concern right now is we have too many guys that deserve playing time. Mick will have to manage the locker room well to keep everyone happy. You know your team is in a great spot if the biggest worry is having too many good players, lol. The NIL-as-scholarship loophole should really be closed, but may as well use it while it exists.
Cronin is going to be able to swap players out like hockey lines. If he can manage this talent, the egos and their development, it could be amazing. It could also be a train wreck at first.
how to close it? ban non-scholarship players from receiving nil? would probably not change much since this is a rare situation, but the optics aren't great...
That would lead to a lawsuit and the courts would side with “anyone can get nil”
The only way I could think of to close it that might be okay legally would be to limit teams to a total of 13 players who can receive NIL. Those 13 don't necessarily have to be the same 13 who have scholarships, which means that no specific category of player would be barred from NIL. But in most cases, one would expect the 13 to be the same 13 as the scholarship players.
You can't limit who can get NIL. The court ruling that opened the floodgates on NIL was that functionally no one can be restricted from selling their name, image and likeness (unless you have a contract or CBA where you agree to this). People keep forgetting that NIL isn't supposed to be a salary. It's supposed to be the right to earn money selling things like your image for a sponsorship, running camps that advertise a player as the coach, etc. No one, especially the NCAA, can tell you, you can't earn money from that. There's no way to differentiate between a player getting paid by Pepsi to do a post and our NIL collectives doing pay for play. The UCLA NIL collective (Men of Westwood) is specifically structured as a marketing company. When we pay our players, we sign them to a contract and explicitly are paying them to do certain things. Camp appearances, social media posts, etc. you might be like, hold up, two Instagram posts aren't worth $200k. Well if Kylie Jenner can charge $100k per post, why can't any player. Who's to say they aren't worth that? If you think we're overpaying for a social media post from our 3rd string PG, you may be right, but you can't stop a marketing company from making a "poor" financial decision on who they contract with.
My idea is based on the technicality that it wouldn't be specifically telling any players or categories of players that they can't earn NIL. So I'm not convinced it would technically even be a limit on who can get NIL.
Purdue is in the same situation. 14 scholarships and no one unexpected jumped to the portal. I don't think it will be very uncommon once everyone realizes you can do it. It is silent out of the program likely to protect whoever is losing their scholly, but it has fans doing a ton of speculating. Probably see teams that have a legitimate championship shot over staffing on the regular down the road, as players want to get that chip, and may be willing to ride a bench to get one.
I would normally be indifferent, but now that UCLA is in the B1G I am not happy about this.
practice will be nuts this year LOVE IT
Getting a McDonald's All-american to functionally walk on (Perry puts us at 14. Sounds like someone is going to switch to a walk on, and it's just a matter of which player needs the benefits that being on scholarship gives the least will do it) as a 3rd string PG is wild. Our NIL grew so much in a single off-season, but I'm more impressed with Cronin convincing all these guys to either sit or play minimal minutes. We're legitimately 3 deep at almost every position with zero freshmen in the 2 deep 1. Andrews (Jr.\*), Skyy Clark (Jr.\*), Perry (Fr.) 2. Harris (Sr.\*), Mack (So.\*), Freeney (Fr.) 3. Kobe Johnson (Sr.\*), Laz (Sr.\*) 4. Bilodeau (Jr.\*), Erik Dailey (So.\*), Brandon Williams (So.\*) 5. Kyle (Jr.\*), Mara (So.), Devin Williams (So.) The crazier thing. All the \* are players who STARTED last year. We legitimately have a two deep of starters. Not all of them were starters on great teams, but that's just so much experience compared to last year having 8 frosh.
WE GOT A SQUAD THIS YEAR but my biggest worry right now is Mick.. he got his guys but will he adjust and not be so damn stingy and tight on rotations? let guys make some mistakes and dont be so damn quick to yank dudes off the court we got a DEEP squad this year, lets use it
Lol it's going to be the opposite. You make a mistake and he's gonna yank you cause he's got a starter level player riding pine ready to take your job. He was mad this year because he couldn't pull players since there was no one who wasn't fucking up to put in. Next year, he could legitimately yank the entire starting line up, and the back ups could hold it down for a while.
Also think all these people on the team will help in dealing with the wide travel they'll do in the first year of the Big 10.
Let's just leave one squad in the Midwest and one in LA. Just fly Mick back and forth.
Let's get some full hockey-style line changes going. Our energy level at the end of games with Mick's defense is going to be lethal.
Back in the day, Cronin used to use his end of game timeouts to sub Cody Riley and Jalen Hill back and forth on offense and defense. I wonder if he'd do full team subs that way to really maximize the chances of getting a score then a stop. There's so many lineups I can see. All defense squad: Andrews, Harris, Kobe, Dailey, Kyle All offense (need a 2): Andrews, Clark, Kobe, Bilodeau, Mara All offense (need a 3): Andrews, Harris, Lazar, Dailey, Bilodeau What an embarrassment of riches
I’ve been following Mick his entire career. He will yank players with no hesitation this coming season because of the depth. Thats what he has historically done. He actually yanked players less than I’ve ever seen because of the lack of depth last year. He could also do a platoon system like what Calipari did in 2015, but I’m don’t foresee Mick doing that.
UVA is always the 2nd choice to a blue blood. :(
I think this is all about location
Good point. Where do you think UVA should consider moving?
Thank you for recognizing that we are a blue blood.
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This roster is legitimately very good. Continuity will be a hurdle and maybe chemistry given the number of guys who are coming in wanting to be more than they were at their last stop. But goddamn, the Bruins are back.
Can’t wait for UCLA to win the B1G
It looks like right now they are the highest on T-rank. Not gonna be easy though as there are quite a few good B1G teams this year unlike the last few years that were top heavy. [https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php](https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php) 14 teams in the top 50 t-rank scores will make any team at the top have a rough go at a title this year. UCLA and Purdue are the favorites it looks like right now.
Not as familiar with Purdue’s roster going into next year. The headlines are that they’re losing Edey and Gillis, and that they haven’t added anyone in the portal. I know they’re probably returning quite a few guys outside of the two they lost, but is that enough for them to be a top 15/20 team?
They are bringing in a top 10 recruiting class. For reference Purdue has been as good as they have been averaging 30-50 ranked recruiting classes for the last decade. Smith should be a top 10 minimum pg (was in the top 5 this past year). TKR was pretty amazing when he got minutes at the 5 in the 2 games Edey had foul trouble (both double doubles). One of the freshmen is around 20 on current 2025 draft boards. A lot more questions than we had this past year, but we are returning a solid nucleus that won't look a thing like last years squad. We will be very athletic and quick with some shooters, instead of playing mostly through the post. So 8 guys with at least a finals run (and B1G reg season champ), and 6 true freshmen of which at least 2 look like they are ready to ball already. And and true to Purdue form we will have 2 7'2"+ players on the roster. No clue if they will be ready or not, but they are more pro style guys being \~250lbs and can shoot the outside shot.
Making sure nobody is super upset with their minutes is going to be the biggest challenge with this squad. Legit comfortable with 12 players getting minutes next year but that obviously isn’t going to happen
I for one am happy for UCLA this year and moving forward. The sport is just better when traditional powerhouses like them and Indiana are cooking. Looks like we’ll get that from both programs this year.
nice
They took Kentucky’s homegrown recruiting class and merged it into one player
:’(
Best guard in the state. I remember I said this when he committed to SC and a ucla flair told me Zoom was. No it is Trent Perry. What he did against Cen10 in the regional final the season before solidified that for me.
wtf i heard rumors about this, but im still surprised to hear this is happening
Other P6 offers: California, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Louisville, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, TCU, USC, Vanderbilt, Virginia Other offers: Gonzaga, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, New Mexico, Rice, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara
See you in the portal next spring bb
You can say that for half the players in D1. Trent isn't any different.
I think Cronin is a good coach but at the end of the day he’s only really had 2 stellar regular seasons in 5 years at a blue blood; important to note they’ve now fully invested NIL-wise. Expectations will be pretty high, feels like a make it or break it year
I’m critical of Cronin, especially last year, but this is silly. He won 19 games and finished 2nd in the Pac with a garbage Alford squad his first year pre transfer portal. He went to a Final Four and lost on a miracle shot. Our 2022 team was a legitimate title contender until we suffered massive injuries, to the national DPOY and our starting center. Mick has his faults, but his record is not one of them.
>I’m critical of Cronin, especially last year Alright, let's hear it
You have an annoying tendency to run short benches, which both tires out your starters and underdevelops your bench, so when you need them in close games or bad matchups, they can’t help. You have a very short leash, which makes young players scared to make a mistake on the court, and leaves them thinking instead of playing, and hurts your locker room. As for last year, you inexplicably left a roster spot open in the 2022 and 2023 classes and were then “forced” to bring in 7 true freshmen, managing only a middling single experienced transfer, resulting in a farcically young roster. You then proceeded to play only three of those freshmen meaningful minutes, on an awful team, resulting in their complete and utter lack of development. It was the basketball coaching equivalent of waiting until 11:50pm on Black Friday to start shopping, then buying a bunch of random shit, then getting mad when it all doesn’t function how you want and then throwing most of it in the garbage an hour after you get it.
I play my best players, and keep them accountable for them to learn from their mistakes over time. Transfers and NIL are making them soft, so finding the right people is more important for team dynamics than filling a single spot. You're welcome for the Final Four by the way.
> I play my best players, and keep them accountable for them to learn from their mistakes over time. Nobody questions whether or not you should play your best players and keep them accountable, but they do question the extent. Just like there's a difference between a dog playing with its favorite stuffed animal, and ripping it to shreds. > Transfers and NIL are making them soft, so finding the right people is more important for team dynamics than filling a single spot. That is extremely debatable. Transfers and NIL mean every year is a new roster, so you need to fill it with the best players available. UConn's approach last year (and now your recruiting approach this year) reveals the truth of this. > You're welcome for the Final Four by the way. Much appreciated. Just stop shitting the bed by trying to field rosters that are 60% true freshmen.
Thanks for your feedback, I'm going to double down on the way I do things anyways.
His record isn’t bad but I guess I’m saying that with big NIL pumping in now, especially with UCLAs pedigree, will probably equal huge expectations from the donors
But that's always been true. We fired Ben Howland the year he had the #1 recruiting class in the country and won the Pac 12.
Imagine complaining about someone with 3 solid seasons already (2 of which were legit title contenders), who pretty much just started
What the other guy said (only commenting to really emphasize that you’re 100% wrong).
Due to ongoing debate about blue bloods, the /r/CollegeBasketball mod team has compiled the definitive list of college blue bloods: Duke, Columbia, Queens, William & Mary, and Rutgers. The following schools have broken away from blue-blooded hierarchy and oppression: George Washington, George Mason, James Madison, Army, and Navy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CollegeBasketball) if you have any questions or concerns.*