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Kunkel has a high shooting percentage, but he was probably the 3rd best player on Belmont last year. He's not a ball handler or an athlete (2.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists versus 1.8 turnovers).

Grayson Murphy only averaged 9.8 points, but he averaged 7.4 rebounds and 6.2 assists. He was 2nd in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio and 6th in steals per game. He put up roughly the same numbers against good teams and bad teams over the past 2 years, but he really upped his rebounding last year. Impressive because he's only 6'2".

Nick Muszynski is a 6'11" center from Pickerington OH who averaged 15.3 points and 6.4 rebounds.

Murphy, Muszynski, and Kunkel were all Sophomores last year. They also have 2 nice role players in their class (Tate Pierson, who is 6'6" and shot 40% from 3-point range, and Caleb Hollander, a 6'8" player who averaged 7 points and 4.5 rebounds as a freshman in 18-19 but didn't play much last year). A shame they couldn't have stayed together.

So he wasn't good enough to play for UC anyway, right?

(07-27-2020 12:03 PM)dsquare Wrote:  It will be interesting to see if a late add like this runs off frosh recruits after year 1 due to playing time, etc. X has had a problem with guys leaving, and when you add a guy with experience it often is at the expense of new kid. Time will tell.

OT but to your point: I don't know all the details but the turnover at X seems to be constant. They just got another transfer commit who sounds like he's ready for instant quality playing time: Hampton University transfer Ben Stanley. Stanley chose XU over Dayton, Georgetown, Maryland, Oregon, Illinois and others. after averaging 22 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. He has 2 years of eligibility left and is applying for immediate eligibility.

(07-26-2020 07:16 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 11:24 PM)GameTime_21 Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 08:27 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 12:30 PM)eroc Wrote:  Xavier lands Belmont transfer Adam Kunkel

I'm guessing our lack of available schollies made us an impractical candidate, but he says he picked XU over Arkansas, Creighton and Oklahoma.

I mean, he couldn't pick UC if he wanted to. His first call was to Brannen where he was told UC didn't have a spot. His second call was Mack where he was told the same. It is what it is...

That sucks...a proven commodity in a decent mid major conference who wanted to be here and he ends up across town. That's the way the cookie crumbles some times, but it still bites knowing he's the kid of kid Brannen seems to want (rangy, strong shooting wing).

our experience with transfers that were highly successful in smaller venues did not equal same results at UC. He'll help Xavier at times but some of the upper echelon teams at top of Big East might frustrate him.
I'm just glad that Coach Brannen is aggressive on recruiting and not limiting what players he could recruit like Cronin did.

I watched the last 10 game minutes of the XU/Marquette game today and Kunkel was on fire (22 points in 17 minutes) including a game-winning step-back 3 at the buzzer. He looks like he's in high school but he also looks like he wants the ball when they need a basket. I don't know the whole story wrt to UC, but I hope we find somebody with that attitude for all the times Williams is out or doesn't have it.

Zero chance that kid wasn’t going to succeed at X. If we had not used 2 scholarships on Gabe Madsen and he would have come here (he was reportedly interested) he’d be parked on the pine at the end of the bench next to the Russian kid in favor of guys who can’t shoot or defend.

I know in hindsight it seems like we could use him, but the last thing this team needed was more grad transfers that don't get us anywhere near Brannen's vision especially at the shooting guard spot. I think he'd get playing time over Mika and Harvey when Keith is on the bench, but i'm not really sure that helps the team moving forward. We had to take Rap and by all accounts he should be better than he is but I don't think Brannen envisions filling his entire roster every season with 3 grad transfers. I want to give the Madsen's a chance to succeed before we write them off. Kunkel wasn't getting minutes for UC as a freshman either.

Brannen’s vision? What is that, exactly?

I see better than I hear. Last year he wised up and scrapped his stuff that didn’t work for going back to what did work for the prior staff. Now we have a plain jane run of the mill middle school motion with hardly any screening or anything off ball. We are actually a lot worse offensively than defensively in every computer rating this year. For anyone who has watched this team allow a layup line on D every game, let that sink in.

This team needed a guy who could hit an outside shot at an alpha rate rather than continually chucking up 25-30 3s a game at a low rate. But there was no open scholarship. Is what it is. I wasn’t a big fan of giving two scholarships to get one player in that class. Time will tell if that was wise or not.

(12-21-2020 08:21 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Zero chance that kid wasn’t going to succeed at X. If we had not used 2 scholarships on Gabe Madsen and he would have come here (he was reportedly interested) he’d be parked on the pine at the end of the bench next to the Russian kid in favor of guys who can’t shoot or defend.

Know the family very well and UC was his first choice after UK, but no room for him at UC. Brannen will regret this decision!

No Regerts! Lol

I had heard he called and asked to come to UC. Frankly, he’s probably better off where he went. I don’t have much faith we would have figured out how to utilize him effectively here. Plus, he will get to experience the NCAA tournament again.

(12-21-2020 11:05 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  No Regerts! Lol

I had heard he called and asked to come to UC. Frankly, he’s probably better off where he went. I don’t have much faith we would have figured out how to utilize him effectively here.

We would have magically transformed him into a 14% 3-point shooter.

(12-21-2020 11:14 AM)geef Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 11:05 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  No Regerts! Lol

I had heard he called and asked to come to UC. Frankly, he’s probably better off where he went. I don’t have much faith we would have figured out how to utilize him effectively here.

We would have magically transformed him into a 14% 3-point shooter.

Laughing but only because it hurts. Plus, we’d be hearing he wasn’t showing nearly enough on D in practice to get into the rotation. Remember, we spend nearly all of our time in practice on D...

I don't want to get too deep down this rabbit hole, but people have spent most the season complaining about transfers from mid majors...but this guy was a mid major transfer that was a "mistake" not to get... Just going over my notes... Mid Majors from Valpo, Oakland, NKU, Colgate, and Middle Tennesee = Bad, but Belmont=Good? Just want to get on the same page as everyone else.

(12-21-2020 11:23 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 11:14 AM)geef Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 11:05 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  No Regerts! Lol

I had heard he called and asked to come to UC. Frankly, he’s probably better off where he went. I don’t have much faith we would have figured out how to utilize him effectively here.

We would have magically transformed him into a 14% 3-point shooter.

Laughing but only because it hurts. Plus, we’d be hearing he wasn’t showing nearly enough on D in practice to get into the rotation. Remember, we spend nearly all of our time in practice on D...

Watching this team play defense makes that comment down right scary.

(12-21-2020 02:00 PM)Banter Wrote:  I don't want to get too deep down this rabbit hole, but people have spent most the season complaining about transfers from mid majors...but this guy was a mid major transfer that was a "mistake" not to get... Just going over my notes... Mid Majors from Valpo, Oakland, NKU, Colgate, and Middle Tennesee = Bad, but Belmont=Good? Just want to get on the same page as everyone else.

Well, the guy who got a $1.2 million dollar per year raise to move his office 10 miles north is the one who gets paid to make the correct assessments on those. I think it’s fair to say he may have missed on this one. Perhaps it’s not the only one he’s missed on.

(12-21-2020 02:14 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 02:00 PM)Banter Wrote:  I don't want to get too deep down this rabbit hole, but people have spent most the season complaining about transfers from mid majors...but this guy was a mid major transfer that was a "mistake" not to get... Just going over my notes... Mid Majors from Valpo, Oakland, NKU, Colgate, and Middle Tennesee = Bad, but Belmont=Good? Just want to get on the same page as everyone else.

Well, the guy who got a $1.2 million dollar per year raise to move his office 10 miles north is the one who gets paid to make the correct assessments on those. I think it’s fair to say he may have missed on this one. Perhaps it’s not the only one he’s missed on.

I'm not advocating one way or the other on this, I have just read through a ton of posts that have been critical of CJB and mid major transfers, so it is funny to me that people are upset we did not land this mid major transfer.

(12-21-2020 03:22 PM)Banter Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 02:14 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 02:00 PM)Banter Wrote:  I don't want to get too deep down this rabbit hole, but people have spent most the season complaining about transfers from mid majors...but this guy was a mid major transfer that was a "mistake" not to get... Just going over my notes... Mid Majors from Valpo, Oakland, NKU, Colgate, and Middle Tennesee = Bad, but Belmont=Good? Just want to get on the same page as everyone else.

Well, the guy who got a $1.2 million dollar per year raise to move his office 10 miles north is the one who gets paid to make the correct assessments on those. I think it’s fair to say he may have missed on this one. Perhaps it’s not the only one he’s missed on.

I'm not advocating one way or the other on this, I have just read through a ton of posts that have been critical of CJB and mid major transfers, so it is funny to me that people are upset we did not land this mid major transfer.

Well they think this particular transfer is good at basketball and the ones we got are not so good. That seems like a relevant difference?

I don't fault Brannen for bringing in a bunch of transfers. He was trying to keep from bottoming out while he built his own program. He brought in enough guys last season to be a tournament team with Jarron, Tre, and Keith Williams. It's just not working this year. Next year could be better, who knows. Things aren't looking good, but it's a long season, let's see if they improve.

The real coup for X is that this wasn’t a 1 year rent a player...has 2 years of eligibility..with this free year he could be making shots for them through the 22-23 season.

And he’s not some mid major role of the dice. He is a fairly well known commodity...local kid who put up close to 40 points against Boston College last year. At 6’4” he’s tall enough to shoot over defenses...hitting about 50% from behind the arc and scoring 10 points a game in 15-18 minutes a game. That is like having the luxury to roll a Field Williams out there off the bench.

Sucks that he wanted to come here because that is what this struggling offense needs. We had no scholarships due to using one on a kid who likely shouldn’t be playing at this level. We may wish there was a re-do button on that one.

What was Brannen supposed to do when he didn’t have a scholarship available?

Mick’s track record with local players outside of Cumberland and Yancey was really bad.

(12-21-2020 04:51 PM)levydl Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 03:22 PM)Banter Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 02:14 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 02:00 PM)Banter Wrote:  I don't want to get too deep down this rabbit hole, but people have spent most the season complaining about transfers from mid majors...but this guy was a mid major transfer that was a "mistake" not to get... Just going over my notes... Mid Majors from Valpo, Oakland, NKU, Colgate, and Middle Tennesee = Bad, but Belmont=Good? Just want to get on the same page as everyone else.

Well, the guy who got a $1.2 million dollar per year raise to move his office 10 miles north is the one who gets paid to make the correct assessments on those. I think it’s fair to say he may have missed on this one. Perhaps it’s not the only one he’s missed on.

I'm not advocating one way or the other on this, I have just read through a ton of posts that have been critical of CJB and mid major transfers, so it is funny to me that people are upset we did not land this mid major transfer.

Well they think this particular transfer is good at basketball and the ones we got are not so good. That seems like a relevant difference?

I don't fault Brannen for bringing in a bunch of transfers. He was trying to keep from bottoming out while he built his own program. He brought in enough guys last season to be a tournament team with Jarron, Tre, and Keith Williams. It's just not working this year. Next year could be better, who knows. Things aren't looking good, but it's a long season, let's see if they improve.

Brannen had no choice but to bring in transfers

Mick’s last recruiting classes would be bad for Bellarmine