(03-19-2018 11:03 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Have to assume he wasn’t going to be on a scholarship next year.

Not the case.

I wonder if the coaching staff will look to use that scholarship on a 2018 freshman, a 2018 transfer (sit-out a year), a 2018 grad transfer, or hold the scholarship for 2019? According to Verbal Commits, Rice still has a few 2018 offers out. But getting another true freshman would put that class at 5 players, which really unbalances the scholarship situation for the next few years. Currently, Rice is scheduled to have one 2019 scholarship available (Cashaw graduating), then four 2020 scholarships (Adams, Meyer, Harrison, Martin Jr.).

My personal take would be to try and get a grad transfer who can contribute. Then they get someone for 2018 and have the scholarship available for a 2019 freshman as well. But the last few grad transfers to Rice haven't really been difference makers (though Lapray was held back by injuries).

edit: I just glanced at the outstanding 2018 offers on verbal commits. One interesting name is Drew Peterson, a 6'7" SF from Illinois. He's a top-300 player nationally according to 247sport's composite ratings (#7 in Illinois). In this article, he says that Rice has been out to see one of his games every week for the prior month (this seems confirmed by some twitter comments from other observers)! He received a lot of interest from Wisconsin, but apparently no offer yet. Also, Illinois Prep Hoops (as well as a few other articles I read) has him in the running for Illinois' Mr. Basketball award.

In terms of outstanding offers, I'm not really sure if any of the guys are still targets apart from Peterson (who I think would be a really good fit for our system):

-Nigel Hawkins would be a tremendous local get, but he has offers from A&M and Houston and hasn't expressed interest in Rice from what I've seen
-Brandon Younger would be a good fit and expressed interest in visiting Rice in 2017, but I'm not sure how much that has cooled off. Plus it appears he's getting more looks from Virginia and I assume an offer from them would end his recruiting
-Alec Spence committed to Rice for a couple of weeks last year and then decommitted. Seems like he's only gotten one additional offer in his prep year. I doubt he'd commit again but who knows. He'll probably end up at Sacred Heart.
-David Nzekwesi has cut down his list and I don't think Rice made the cut

Continuing our transfer watch:

-Central Connecticut State guard Austin Nehls recently announced he was transferring. From Arizona and would be immediately eligible. Academic All-District 1st Team. Predominantly a shooter although he's never shot it over a 40% clip.
-BU guard Cheddi Mosely is going to be a grad transfer. Averaged 13.1 his sophomore year but dropped down to 7.5 this year because of injury. He'd be fine academically.
-Iowa grad transfer Brady Ellingson. Played about 10 minutes per game. Had an offer from Rice out of HS.

March 21 Update:
-Pepperdine forward Nolan Taylor is transferring. From Texas and had an offer from Rice out of HS. Would have to sit out a year. Averaged just under 10 ppg his first two seasons.

(03-20-2018 09:10 AM)mrbig Wrote:  But getting another true freshman would put that class at 5 players, which really unbalances the scholarship situation for the next few years. Currently, Rice is scheduled to have one 2019 scholarship available (Cashaw graduating), then four 2020 scholarships (Adams, Meyer, Harrison, Martin Jr.).

This is only true if all 5 of the true Freshmen decide to stay at Rice for their Sophomore seasons and beyond. Based on recent history, there is a decent chance that at least one player will transfer out, so the classes would wind up more balanced anyway.

All told, I prefer to get a grad transfer for one year then get a true Freshman the following year, just at you suggested. However, I'm not opposed to taking a 5th Freshman next year if they are a good fit athletically and academically.

March 22 Transfer update:

-Texas sophomore guard Jacob Young announced he's transferring. I have no clue what his grades are like and he'd have to sit out a year, but he's from Houston. He played 17 minutes per game last year, so I assume he's shooting for high-major, but who knows.

Young is the son of UH legend Michael Young, and his older brother went to UH and played there before transferring to Oregon. I think Dad had a bad split with the UH athletic department and I'd be surprised if Jacob goes to UH. I also doubt he's a candidate for Rice, but I wouldn't be surprised if Oregon or possibly TSU are in the mix.

(03-22-2018 04:39 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Young is the son of UH legend Michael Young, and his older brother went to UH and played there before transferring to Oregon. I think Dad had a bad split with the UH athletic department and I'd be surprised if Jacob goes to UH. I also doubt he's a candidate for Rice, but I wouldn't be surprised if Oregon or possibly TSU are in the mix.

Interesting.

Here's a little background on his and his son Joseph's departure from UH in 2013: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basket...t-houston/ and http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2...s-lawsuit/ and http://www.houstonpress.com/news/michael...is-6715883 and https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/...658627.php .

(BTW, his youngest child -- daughter Milan -- was a state champion hurdler at Lamar High School with good grades ... and is now a freshman at LSU. )

(03-22-2018 05:35 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(03-22-2018 04:39 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Young is the son of UH legend Michael Young, and his older brother went to UH and played there before transferring to Oregon. I think Dad had a bad split with the UH athletic department and I'd be surprised if Jacob goes to UH. I also doubt he's a candidate for Rice, but I wouldn't be surprised if Oregon or possibly TSU are in the mix.

Interesting.

Here's a little background on his and his son Joseph's departure from UH in 2013: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basket...t-houston/ and http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2...s-lawsuit/ and http://www.houstonpress.com/news/michael...is-6715883 and https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/...658627.php .

(BTW, his youngest child -- daughter Milan -- was a state champion hurdler at Lamar High School with good grades ... and is now a freshman at LSU. )

Whatever happened to Young’s suit?

Malik Osborne is leaving.

Another guy I expect us to look at is Columbia transfer Kyle Castlin. Has had some injury trouble but averaged 10+ when healthy. Think we offered him out of HS. He's a 6-4 guard and would be immediately eligible.

Time to replace Pera with Bailiff? At least his players mostly stay at Rice and graduate...

(03-22-2018 09:09 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Time to replace Pera with Bailiff? At least his players mostly stay at Rice and graduate...

No, no, a thousand times no.

We need someone more like what I think most of us believe Bloomgren is/will be.

Not sure I get all the negativity on Pera after one season. Our situation looks pretty similar to Rhodes after one season. Maybe he should be given another season or two?

(03-23-2018 12:54 PM)ranfin Wrote:  Not sure I get all the negativity on Pera after one season. Our situation looks pretty similar to Rhodes after one season. Maybe he should be given another season or two?

For me personally, my negativity is based on the concern (hopefully unfounded) that we will lose more than 2 guys as transfers. If we only lose Osborne and Lester, it will not be quite as bad. But it is a big part of his job to recruit guys that want to be at Rice and will stay at Rice, so Pera absolutely deserves criticism if he is either recruiting guys that aren't committed to Rice University, or if he recruits in a way that gives players a false sense of what to expect at Rice.

In retrospect, Rhoades lost more guys than I realized after his 1st season (and before he left for VCU). So perhaps my initial reaction has been unnecessarily harsh. But its hard to imagine men's Rice basketball every being consistently successful if the department can't stem the tide of transfers. It hurts both the athletic side of it, but also the academic side of it if these guys don't end up getting a degree.

There seems to be what I think is a bit of a misconception among some on here. Specifically, I am talking about the idea that athletes are going to have the same level of reverence for that Rice degree that our most ardent non-athlete students have. I think it is absolutely fabulous to recruit athletes who value that Rice degree so much that they will stick it out through anything to get that degree. And I think those who do feel that way are admirable. But you're not going to get 15 basketball players or 85 football players or 20-odd baseball players who feel that way. Or at least if you do, that is going to be the aberration. That's just reality, and pretending otherwise is kidding ourselves.

(03-23-2018 03:50 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  There seems to be what I think is a bit of a misconception among some on here. Specifically, I am talking about the idea that athletes are going to have the same level of reverence for that Rice degree that our most ardent non-athlete students have. I think it is absolutely fabulous to recruit athletes who value that Rice degree so much that they will stick it out through anything to get that degree. And I think those who do feel that way are admirable. But you're not going to get 15 basketball players or 85 football players or 20-odd baseball players who feel that way. Or at least if you do, that is going to be the aberration. That's just reality, and pretending otherwise is kidding ourselves.

Well, you only need 3-4 basketball players per year (assuming you spread the scholarships out). Are there really that few quality D-1 basketball players that also value a degree (acknowledging that the best ones are probably looking at Stanford, Vandy, etc.)? Not like we need 13 every year. Heck, even getting 2-3 every year would minimize the transfer issues.

(03-23-2018 04:08 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 03:50 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  There seems to be what I think is a bit of a misconception among some on here. Specifically, I am talking about the idea that athletes are going to have the same level of reverence for that Rice degree that our most ardent non-athlete students have. I think it is absolutely fabulous to recruit athletes who value that Rice degree so much that they will stick it out through anything to get that degree. And I think those who do feel that way are admirable. But you're not going to get 15 basketball players or 85 football players or 20-odd baseball players who feel that way. Or at least if you do, that is going to be the aberration. That's just reality, and pretending otherwise is kidding ourselves.

Well, you only need 3-4 basketball players per year (assuming you spread the scholarships out). Are there really that few quality D-1 basketball players that also value a degree (acknowledging that the best ones are probably looking at Stanford, Vandy, etc.)? Not like we need 13 every year. Heck, even getting 2-3 every year would minimize the transfer issues.

We can probably get 2-3 each year. That's not enough bodies to make it through a 20-something game schedule. So we need a few more who won't have that same mindset. And some of that latter group will leave.

(03-23-2018 04:12 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 04:08 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 03:50 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  There seems to be what I think is a bit of a misconception among some on here. Specifically, I am talking about the idea that athletes are going to have the same level of reverence for that Rice degree that our most ardent non-athlete students have. I think it is absolutely fabulous to recruit athletes who value that Rice degree so much that they will stick it out through anything to get that degree. And I think those who do feel that way are admirable. But you're not going to get 15 basketball players or 85 football players or 20-odd baseball players who feel that way. Or at least if you do, that is going to be the aberration. That's just reality, and pretending otherwise is kidding ourselves.

Well, you only need 3-4 basketball players per year (assuming you spread the scholarships out). Are there really that few quality D-1 basketball players that also value a degree (acknowledging that the best ones are probably looking at Stanford, Vandy, etc.)? Not like we need 13 every year. Heck, even getting 2-3 every year would minimize the transfer issues.

We can probably get 2-3 each year. That's not enough bodies to make it through a 20-something game schedule. So we need a few more who won't have that same mindset. And some of that latter group will leave.

2 per year = 8 scholarships
3 per year = 12 scholarships

So if we get 2.5 every year who stick with Rice for 4 seasons (alternating 2 and 3 players), then use the remaining 3 scholarships on guys who either transfer away or grad transfers coming into Rice, I think Rice can have plenty of depth/bodies to be competitive.

Obviously, this ins't a math problem where things work out perfectly like that. But its something to shoot for.

We need to continue to think creatively. Maybe we tell recruits they stick it out for four years and score at least 1000 career points, and we retire their uniform number. Cashaw is in great shape. Ako Adams has a chance too.