Miles has requested permission to transfer.

Rice G Miles Lester (FR) has received permission to contact other schools. https://t.co/AyNJtYwsnl

Check out @mileslester23’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/mileslester23/status...twterm%5E3

I have to say, regardless of whether Lester would have had a great and storied career at Rice or been buried on the bench, I am so tired of seeing guys transfer away.

Scholarships are only one year now-a-days. Not surprising to see the turnover. Perhaps NCAA should adopt baseball model across all sports ?

(03-20-2018 09:14 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  Scholarships are only one year now-a-days. Not surprising to see the turnover. Perhaps NCAA should adopt baseball model across all sports ?

And people think we suffer in baseball because we can’t offer full scholarships???

Willing to bet the average D1 baseball player comes from a wealthier family than the average D1 basketball player.

Class act. He posted on twitter a very gracious and complimentary note-- specifically calling out (positively) his fellow Freshmen and Coach Pera, but gave no reason for his decision.

(03-20-2018 10:18 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Class act. He posted on twitter a very gracious and complimentary note-- specifically calling out (positively) his fellow Freshmen and Coach Pera, but gave no reason for his decision.

What did you expect him to say? It’s a copy of literally every tweet when a player requests a release... let’s wait a month and make sure things are stable.

(03-20-2018 10:23 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 10:18 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Class act. He posted on twitter a very gracious and complimentary note-- specifically calling out (positively) his fellow Freshmen and Coach Pera, but gave no reason for his decision.

What did you expect him to say? It’s a copy of literally every tweet when a player requests a release... let’s wait a month and make sure things are stable.

No, it was anything but. His note attached to the tweet was very personal in nature include a heart-felt comment to Malik and Nanja.

(03-20-2018 10:25 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 10:23 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 10:18 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  Class act. He posted on twitter a very gracious and complimentary note-- specifically calling out (positively) his fellow Freshmen and Coach Pera, but gave no reason for his decision.

What did you expect him to say? It’s a copy of literally every tweet when a player requests a release... let’s wait a month and make sure things are stable.

No, it was anything but. His note attached to the tweet was very personal in nature include a heart-felt comment to Malik and Nanja.

Ok.... go back and read the tweets from the 4 guys who left last year who didn’t graduate.

From my (probably faulty) memory, Lester was originally recruited as a walk on who received a scholarship after the large number of transfers exited South Main last year. If this is the case, there was probably no guarantee that he would continue to be a scholarship player after his first year and given the the current recruiting class (and perhaps some other recruiting opportunities), the possibility exists that he would not receive a 2nd year scholarship from Rice (all pure speculation on my part...no direct evidence to support this theory).

We do know that Miles Lester grew from a player that looked over-matched at the beginning of the season, to a competitor that was able to play 10+ competent minutes a game for the Owls. For Mr. Lester, I think this year proved to him that he can compete and contribute at a D-1 level and could be looking for the type of opportunity in the future that perhaps Coach Pera and the Owls cannot guarantee, based on the incoming talent.

(03-20-2018 09:21 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 09:14 AM)Da.Owl Wrote:  Scholarships are only one year now-a-days. Not surprising to see the turnover. Perhaps NCAA should adopt baseball model across all sports ?

And people think we suffer in baseball because we can’t offer full scholarships???

Willing to bet the average D1 baseball player comes from a wealthier family than the average D1 basketball player.

Not likely, but possible he meant adopting the rules for draft eligibility? I.e. you can be drafted out of high school, but if you go to college, you're not draft eligible for a given period of time. Theory would then be that less spots open up at other schools because one-and-dones don't exist anymore, so if anyone's there, they're there for two or more years, which might make the transfer market more stable.

Not a bad thought, imo.

(03-20-2018 09:21 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  And people think we suffer in baseball because we can’t offer full scholarships???

Willing to bet the average D1 baseball player comes from a wealthier family than the average D1 basketball player.

In fairness, this misrepresents what is said

What is said is that we can't offer as much as some of our competitive peers... and the fact that they come from wealthier families actually works against us.

Back to the topic

I hate this one and done in basketball, but it's been this way for some time and has worked against us. We used to seek guys who would play for 4 years while other schools sought guys who were likely to be one and done... by definition they were more 'ready', hence all of the academies and prep schools, etc.

Maybe what we should do is go the other direction and seek to be a destination for players who start off at a lesser school, athletically and/or academically who prove themselves or mature later... get their degree from Rice as opposed to (just picking a school) UTSA. Let other schools fill their rosters with projects and we take 'graduates' rather than the other way around?

I don't know how that sells and it could obviously be abused, but its a thought

(03-20-2018 08:58 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I have to say, regardless of whether Lester would have had a great and storied career at Rice or been buried on the bench, I am so tired of seeing guys transfer away.

Guys that would’ve been seniors or younger this year in our program:

Egor (graduated)
Marcus Jackson (graduated)
Drew bender
Oliver Xu
Nizar Kapic
Maurice Rivers
Denzel Davis (injured)
Nate Pollard
Sean obi
Keith Washington
Marcus Evans
Jordan Reed
Harrison Brown
MLE
Amir Smith
Jeremy Jones
Chad Lott
Corey Douglas
Miles Lester

NCAA basketball is a complete joke. They need to get rid of the one and done rule and they need to take a year of eligibility from kids unless the school unconditionally releases them or something. This wasn’t a problem 10 years ago.

Nizar, Denzel, Obi, and a few others wouldn’t have been eligible this year.

Rhoades essentially forced a couple of those guys off the team (as they stayed at Rice to finish their degree).

(03-20-2018 02:36 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Nizar, Denzel, Obi, and a few others wouldn’t have been eligible this year.

Rhoades essentially forced a couple of those guys off the team (as they stayed at Rice to finish their degree).

I know, but they’re listed on our 4 year chart for verbal commits. I still think NCAA basketball is completely broken at this point and I don’t think it’s getting better anytime soon.

(03-20-2018 02:32 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 08:58 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I have to say, regardless of whether Lester would have had a great and storied career at Rice or been buried on the bench, I am so tired of seeing guys transfer away.

Guys that would’ve been seniors or younger this year in our program:

Egor (graduated)
Marcus Jackson (graduated)
Drew bender
Oliver Xu
Nizar Kapic
Maurice Rivers
Denzel Davis (injured)
Nate Pollard
Sean obi
Keith Washington
Marcus Evans
Jordan Reed
Harrison Brown
MLE
Amir Smith
Jeremy Jones
Chad Lott
Corey Douglas
Miles Lester

NCAA basketball is a complete joke. They need to get rid of the one and done rule and they need to take a year of eligibility from kids unless the school unconditionally releases them or something. This wasn’t a problem 10 years ago.

I think the biggest problem of all, and its facilitated by the NCAA, is that a large number of these kids are really just looking for a place to just keep playing, and (a) could care less about the school, (b) don't want study time interfering with their court time, and © are indifferent as to whether they actually get a degree or not. And that's all very sad to me. Once upon a time, kids viewed an athletic scholarship as an opportunity to get a degree and oftentimes from a school that they might otherwise not be able to get into. The school and degree mattered. If someone plays at 3-4 different schools over the course of his/her "college" career, then IMO the educational aspect of the experience has very little value to them.

True. These players need to lose a year if they transfer.

(03-20-2018 04:26 PM)Ourland Wrote:  True. These players need to lose a year if they transfer.

No. Not until coaches are made to sit out a year before taking another job.

(03-20-2018 04:45 PM)InterestedX Wrote:  

(03-20-2018 04:26 PM)Ourland Wrote:  True. These players need to lose a year if they transfer.

No. Not until coaches are made to sit out a year before taking another job.

Most transfers don’t occur when a coaching change occurs. A coaching change also requires a buyout (for breaking the contract) and the university can use that to go hire another coach of their choosing. Any player who wants out then gets released. When a player decides he wants to leave for greener pastures on a whim it leaves Rice out in the cold for another 7 win year. We’re a farm team for the majors.

This is only an issue because all of these players think they’re going to play in the NBA or go make a bunch of money overseas. And I’m not exaggerating... all of them. Maybe they should make all conference in CUSA first. It’s like guys last year wanting to play “better competition” but can’t even win their own conference.

(03-20-2018 04:54 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  This is only an issue because all of these players think they’re going to play in the NBA or go make a bunch of money overseas.