It makes no sense to open the portal this early. That center from Rutgers will likely pick a school before we can even host him for a visit.
2024 Transfer Portal Thread
- Thread starter Steat
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I don't trust midmajor players to step up and play at UNC's level consistently - Wojcik, Justin Pierce, Christian Keeling
I completely agree! I like that they reduced the portal from 60-45 days, but they should take those 15 days off the back end.
The portal should not be open till after THIS WEEKEND.
Somewhat surprised Sean Pedulla is entering. He will be hard pressed to find another coach that gives him as much freedom as his current coach.
DeVries is an all around baller. Strong, mature guard. He may be going with his father who just got the West Virginia job though.
Levels certainly matter, those guys were not "mid major" though to me, there is a clear sub level witin "mid majors" . Those were all low D-1, Drake is in a legit mid major conference, not power 5, but not Ivy, Patriot, or MEAC level types either.
There was a play in the last game when a smaller player under the goal barely bumped into Washington and JW fell over. It was hilarious . I'm rooting for JW, and I hope he stays and proves me wrong, but it is no secret that Hubert will be looking for a portal 5 that can compete for a starting position. IMO, it is best to have a player and "don't need him" than to need a player and "don't have him". We have been very lucky on the injury front this year compared to the past. Can you imagine where we would be if RJ or Bacot would have missed several games this year? We may not be as lucky next season.
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JWash will continue his very steep learning curve and surprise many peeps on here next season! BUT we should still get a 5 + a guard from the portal to hedge our bets. JWash, JWit, JB, ZH, and a portal Big will be a very nice rotation for our frontcourt, but if you add Harry-it becomes great!
With the possible exception of Keeling, I don't think we expected those guys to be starters - although it would have been nice if they had surprised to the upside. Viewed as bench players, they were fine. Unfortunately, we needed Pierce and Keeling to be more, because that team had problems.
Per 247, Miami has already snagged center Lynn Kidd.
If Omier sticks around (unlikely) that would be a killer front court.
OTOH, Miami is losing 5 guys to the portal, so far. Ouch.
ACC portal entries, so far. Not many of them are tempting.
Incoming Cal has 4 guys entering the portal.
FSU has 2.
Ga Tech = 2.
Louisville = 10. Yikes! Skyy Clark has already been picked up by UCLA. I remember when we were interested in him.
Miami = 5.
NC State = 1.
Notre Dame = 2.
Pitt = 1.
SMU = 1.
Stanford = 4. Some worth a look.
Syracuse = 2.
Va Tech = 6* - 3 already claimed.
Wake = 1.
* numbers from 247, which doesn't update as reliably as they should, imo.
Incoming Cal has 4 guys entering the portal.
FSU has 2.
Ga Tech = 2.
Louisville = 10. Yikes! Skyy Clark has already been picked up by UCLA. I remember when we were interested in him.
Miami = 5.
NC State = 1.
Notre Dame = 2.
Pitt = 1.
SMU = 1.
Stanford = 4. Some worth a look.
Syracuse = 2.
Va Tech = 6* - 3 already claimed.
Wake = 1.
* numbers from 247, which doesn't update as reliably as they should, imo.
As I have said many times, we will need and I think Hubert will set his sites on a starter level 5, we don't have a 5 projected for us next season that has those broad shoulders and powerful frame. Both Jalen and High are thin 5's that can be rooted out of position deep paint. Brown could be that one day but he will not be that next season, I am not expecting much more than High level minutes for the kid next season. He isn't dominating in high school so what do you expect his game to be like as a college freshman? I like High, really like his motor, good length but his frame is hard to get weight on, I would not be shocked to see him enter the portal for more playing time when we bring in a big starter level 5.
I think it is very important that we keep BOTH Jalen and JWit and I do expect Ingram to be back. Both haver shown us the ability to have really good production for us while both have aspects of their game that need work. Telling you this right now, tonight vs bama we should use Jalen's ability to jump shoot over pretty much any defender he would see. JWit's versatility to play multiple positions and the athletism to play them well may be extra important vs bama. Having both these guys next season is to me a really critical need.
I think between Jackson and Drake our 3 spot should be in good hands thou I do worry about freshmen. If RJ goes, Seth's ball handles concerns me and he does not seem to have confidence in his jump shooting and jump shooting from our 2 is critical for us, double down on that with freshmen at the 3 that may not jump shoot great and of course Cadeau at the point is not the jump shooter.
First, Roy is no longer our head coach so why are we tagging Hubert for mistakes Roy may have made in his portal decisions? Thou he has not been the level of jump shooter we expected, Paxon has come in and played well for us late season in limited minutes to the point I don't consider him to be a portal mistake. When I look over every player Hubert has brought in thru the portal, I see a grand total of 1 that I consider to have been a mistake and that one Garcia, was seen by many as a huge win when he committed to us.
I don't care what level the conference was that a portal guy played prior, I am only concerned as to if he can play at this level. Where again did Omier play before coming to Miami, Arkansas St, wow, that is a world beater program? Tyler Kolek, the Marquette PG that some consider the best PG in the nation played at George Mason before coming to Marquette. Gems can be found any where.
I might add Dalton Knenect from Northern Colorado to your list of small school transfers that worked out pretty well.
Unfortunately, I might also add Pete Nance to the list of transfers that didn't meet expectations.
While there are plenty of examples to be listed on both sides of the argument, logic tells me that players from small schools have less chance to be successful at North Carolina.
Usually there is a reason a player lands at a small school to begin with. If they excel, enter the transfer portal, and gain the interest of a P5 school, they have clearly done something well. I do think there is an adjustment going from small schools to P5 schools and then when you add the intense bright lights and expectations of a blue blood like UNC, the adjustment curve really gets steep.
Again, just my data-less eye test but give me the Harrison Ingram's and Cormac Ryan's and I'll beat the Paxon Wojik's of the portals every time.
As for DeVries, I think it is a moot point with his father getting the West Virginia gig, but he was a top 100 4 star who went to play for his dad coming out of high school. Heck, looks like multiple Drake kids will follow coach DeVries to West Virginia.
He also would be the highest projected player for the upcoming draft on this year's UNC roster already.
He also would be the highest projected player for the upcoming draft on this year's UNC roster already.
I don't see Nance as a bust, I see him as a guy that we didn't use properly. He actually for me played well when he played inside the paint but we camped him out past the 3pt arch like he was Brady Manek and that made no sense. I mean, if we went thru this season and camped Bacot out past the 3pt line as often as we did Nance, we would have struggled this season like we did the last one.
Still on Nance, I believe that you MUST gear your attack to the players you have available and I have said this many times, Hubert did a poor job of that last season. IT was like he was determined to have a stretch 4 no matter what, no matter if he actually had one or not. So he forced the square peg in to the round hole and it didn't fit. What we should have done IMO was go to a twin tower look, that was the personal we had and UNC has been VERY successful using the twin tower attack in the past.
I don't disagree with a thing you said, but, regardless of the reason, I believe most Tar Heel fans expected more than we got from Nance.
And just for the record, I did not label Nance as a "bust".
Sure, but you might also say that wasn't Pete's fault. Not that you said it was.
Pete looked like a good fit to a lot of us when we got him, but it turned out he wasn't. I put that on our coaching staff, not Pete. Not that they did anything wrong, per se, but they just couldn't figure out how to make it work. Which is their job, so they get the heat.
The risk of bringing in guys like Pete Nance is you don't truly know what they are as shooters. He had one year where he shot under 30%, one year he shot 36%, and one year where he shot 45% from 3. We were probably assuming we were getting a 36-40% shooter but in reality, that 45% season was probably a bit flukey. Also, Pete Nance was their #1 interior option at Northwestern for 2 years, then basically became a side piece offensively. Tough adjustment.
It's similar to Withers. Withers had a ton of variance in his perimeter shooting at Louisville. He hasn't taken enough 3s this year to fairly judge him, but he's 4-19 this year so I'm assuming his 42% last year was not overly transferrable. Fortunately, we don't really need a productive Withers to win games this year. Realistically if we were told that Withers would average 4.2 PPG this season, the vast majority of us would've been disappointed in the preseason. But again, his production isn't as important as Nance's was last year.
People talk about fit and fit is definitely important. But Brady Manek also had over 600 3PAs at 37% before coming here. There was very little question whether his shooting would translate.
When it comes to mid-major players, I do think their physical measurements matter some. Dalton Knecht is 6'6" and looks like he has a 6'10" wingspan. He's a physically impressive 2 guard. Nick Timberlake is a 6'4" 2 guard and looks less wingspany to me than Knecht does.
I think most people thought Wojcik would be what he turned out to be. A seldom-used role player. But you probably prefer the experience Wojcik has if he had to play major minutes. Not everyone is going to be good just because they get recruited by UNC. But you need to fill out a roster still.
But yes, mid major guys are hard to predict how well they'll translate. Who were the 2 mid-major guys on that really bad team a handful of years ago? Christian Keeling? And Justin Pierce? Those guys didn't belong despite playing at a high level in a mid major.
I think you also have to take into account how much court time Pete and withers had before coming here. You tend to press a little knowing you have limited minutes. At least in Withers case, he’s seen a lot less playing time.
Realistically, I doubt we'd even recruit him. Dude bailed on us once already. Now the VT fans are saying all the players are quitting over NIL.
3 colleges in 3 years is a bad look. And I really hate that all transfer eligibility rules are seemingly out the window now. Don't know if the NCAA will try to put their foot down, or if we just have to accept that players will always be immediately eligible no matter how many times they transferred.
He bailed on us? lol all we’ve heard was all of them left because they were pushed out. All hearsay of course.
They weren't pushed out. Hubert was just honest with them. The team missed the NCAA tournament, he wouldn't promise any of them playing time, bc Hubert was gonna add portal players.
Can't see any reason why those two would leave. Our NIL will focus on keeping both. Cadeau obviously needs a lot of shooting work this summer. Trimble needs all around offensive work. Coach Marcus Paige should be a big help. He's also literally Trimble's childhood hero and I can't imagine Seth walking away from that after only 7 months of working with Paige, seeing how far his development has already progressed.
Only transfers out I expect are from our front court bench players. None are ready for this level. We'll have to add much better bigs.
They're both going to stay right where they are!
Right. I’m not sure wash is a legit big for us - at least not a starter or a significant rotation guy. Has nice shot - but he absolutely sucks on defense and muscling for scoring in the paint. Just not good at utilizing his physical gifts. Needs to get a lot stronger, faster feet, and meaner / tougher. Does withers have another year?
We can use two bigs or a big to replace Bacot and a very good shooting 3-4 to replace cormac. I hope we get at least 2-3 big time portal guys. Maybe HI can get some guys from Stanford
Not that it makes it better - but you could say teams like Kentucky, even Kansas, Arizona, Iowa st, had better athletes than us and didn’t get as far.
But to win a game like this -‘the coach has to realize what isn’t working on offense - and move to a different game plan. We should’ve won this game in the paint and especially at the ft line.
On a tiny number of threes though. I don't think he'd shoot that percentage on any amount of volume.
Not sure Trimble is a PG at all. Also, Trimble and Cadeau cannot start together. Can't have two starting guards who can't shoot.
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