He signed with Providence after making his only campus visit there.

Here’s an announcement from Providence that contains some fun highlight material of his Chicago State play.

https://theprovidencecrier.com/2024/04/2...ing-guard/

Still declared for NBA draft as well.

The good news for us short term is that there is a ton of talent in Chicago. And Spinelli is from Boston, so he should have connections in the NEC market.

Per Verbal Commits-

Jahsean Corbett is headed to Duquesne.
Brent Davis is following Coach Gillion to Long Island.

Coupled with Cardet, those are 3 staters.

Remaining in the portal are:

Cam Jernigan
Noble Crawford
AJ Neal
Ked Green

On the roster, not in the portal and appear to be returning are:

Greg Spate, Soph. 1 start in 19 games played, 1 ppg, 1 rpg
Deshawn Jean-Charles, JR. 15 starts, 24 mpg, 5 ppg, 3 rpg
Tristan Arnault, JR 25 games played, 10 mpg, 1 ppg, 1 rpg
Alex Raiford, Soph. 8 mpg in 7 games, 3.5 ppg, 2 rpg
Tehshaundre Cole, JR. 8 mpg in 8 games played, 2.5 ppg, 2 rpg

Jean-Charles is not my favorite player, but if he returns, he has lots of court time and was a half time starter, although his starts and minutes diminished later in the season. Still a good sized and athletic player. If they can keep him in his element, he’s a very capable player.

Tristan Arnault is a decent little point guard. Not a big scorer, but did play a fair amount last season. He’s careful with the ball and a team player. Had 30 assists to 20 turnovers. Good defender, lots of hustle.

Tehshaundre Cole is a very exciting player who was extremely limited by injuries last season. But I really liked what I saw. He’s a big body, very strong and can handle the ball. I’m not sure what his ideal spot is. Probably a slightly undersized, but strong 4.

Alex Raiford had limited court time. Too many guards were ahead of him on a very guard heavy team. Possibly more capable than we know. He’s a good shooter, although with limited chances. 50% from the field, 44% from 3, 90% from the line. Very limited turnovers. Those are promising numbers.

Greg Spate is another player who got buried in the depth chart. Did play in 19 games with 1 start. Not sure what to make of him. Didn’t get a lot of stats in his court time. 6’7” but not a big body player. Was a true Freshman last year, so should fill out and bulk up a little as time goes on.

The transfer portal closed on May 1, so I believe we now know all of the players who may transfer.

Everyone in has been mentioned and no new names appeared last second.

It will be interesting to see who can be “rerecruited” to play for Chicago State next season, but entered the portal just in case they did want to transfer.

Wesley Cardet Jr, Brent Davis, and Jahsean Corbett have already signed with other schools, but the rest remain in question.

On the last day of the transfer portal being open, Matt and Ryan Bewley entered it.

That’s odd to me. I see no path forward for them to be eligible to play in college. I thought the options had all been explored and denied.

But this is the NCAA. No doubt they will turn up on some P6 roster in the fall and be immediately eligible and playing. That would not surprise me a bit.

As unfair as it seems, I truly see that happening. Otherwise, why bother being in the transfer portal since it’s already been determined they are considered professionals and have taken money for playing.

The good news is, no one else slipped in at the last minute, so all others I’ve listed are the final group of potential transfers.

Apparently Verbal Commits enters information a little late, because another player is now showing in the portal. I thought all would have been listed by yesterday.

Tristan Arnaud played in 25 game and got about 10 minutes per game, but mostly in garbage time an in unimportant games. He averaged 1.2 ppg.

That makes 10 players in the transfer portal, including the 2 Bewleys who did not play.

With 3 having announced their destination, now it’s the waiting game to see who comes back and who ultimately transfers.

If Verbal Commits is correct, and if I’m reading it correctly, it appears that both Noble Crawford and Cameron Jernigan are out of the portal now and are staying at Chicago State. At least that what it looks like to me.

This is good news. Those were 2 guys who played a lot last season. Crawford was more of a known commodity as he came over from LIU and had at least a solid year of D1 experience under his belt.

Cam Jernigan was a more fluid situation. He had been at Tarleton, and then a Juco, but didn’t have the D1 experience. He came a long, long way last season and really developed by late in the season. He still has work to do, but he’s a good one to have around. He’s also from the Chicago area, so hopefully he can help draw more.

Both of the guys are real leapers and can block shots. Both are quick off the floor too. The nice thing about guys like that, they may only get a block or two towards the beginning of the game, but that sticks with the guys on offense and can create a little hesitation the rest of the game. That can help the team defend the rest of the game too…knowing they may get stuffed out of nowhere and never saw it coming, like happens with both of these guys.

What excites me about having these guys back is that brings consistency to the program and with a new coach, he will have to adapt to them a little too, instead of a totally new team all trying to adjust to a new coach. Spinelli knows these guys and can adapt the new players into the known skills already there. Just smooths the transition. A totally new team with virtually every player trying to learn a new system is rough, so the more returners the better, particularly when an assistant becomes head coach like happened here. Gives the team more of a fighting chance to pick up where they left off, which is rare with a new coach in place.

It’s also great that these guys are staying with Chicago State beyond the coach who recruited them. If he was literally the only reason they were there, and nothing but him was good, they would be gone. So Chicago State has that as a plus mark in my eyes. The program needs some continuity beyond simply one coaches connections and personality/style.

Regarding the above mentioned players-

Noble Crawford played 25 min per game with 19 starts, scored 8 ppg, about 5 rpg, 2 steals and I block

Jernigan started 21 games, but only got 15 mpg. Had 4 points per game, but 8 ppg the last 6-7 games along with about 27 minutes per game during that time. 4 rpg. Single handed kept Chicago State in the game at Eastern Kentucky and scored about 8 straight points when the team wasn’t playing well.

About half his minutes and production were in the last quarter of the season, which bodes well. He really looked good during that time.