Jamarques Lawrence is N

Damn.

Someone had to approach him with a bigger NIL offer right? 

11 minutes ago, B-town hoopsfan said:

Someone had to approach him with a bigger NIL offer right? 

Can you talk dollars elsewhere, prior to entering the portal?  Isn't tampering a thing?

1 minute ago, Huskerpapa said:

Can you talk dollars elsewhere, prior to entering the portal?  Isn't tampering a thing?

You say that like Nebraska hasn't tampered with anyone 

4 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

 

You say that like Nebraska hasn't tampered with anyone 

Well true; but AD's don't count.

19 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Can you talk dollars elsewhere, prior to entering the portal?  Isn't tampering a thing?

I do not believe tampering is a thing. No way to police it.  What id be more interested in is how many players never receive whatever NIL they were promised 

2 hours ago, B-town hoopsfan said:

I do not believe tampering is a thing. No way to police it.  What id be more interested in is how many players never receive whatever NIL they were promised 

As far as football, I recall Matt Rhule made a big deal out of teams like the U doin' that quite a bit.... not sure how rampant that is, I'd imagine the word gets out, in a hurry!

9 hours ago, B-town hoopsfan said:

Someone had to approach him with a bigger NIL offer right? 

JLaw is 431 is Torvik portal rankings. You can argue that's way too low, but it makes it pretty clear that he didn't get a money bag thrown at him. He's leaving because either he wants to play closer to home or he doesn't see his role expanding with the players we're recruiting.

He's very valuable to us, but he's not a very shiny new toy to other programs.

9 minutes ago, Chuck Taylor said:

JLaw is 431 is Torvik portal rankings. You can argue that's way too low, but it makes it pretty clear that he didn't get a money bag thrown at him. He's leaving because either he wants to play closer to home or he doesn't see his role expanding with the players we're recruiting.

 

He's very valuable to us, but he's not a very shiny new toy to other programs.

It also shows me that portal rankings aren’t the most meaningful. A lot of players leaving because they weren’t in a situation that allowed them to showcase their talent. Like Lawrence, who played out of position this year because we needed him to. His ranking is grossly deflated because of that. I’d take his re-commitment in a second and he would likely be the lowest rated player from the portal we get.

Just now, Chuck Taylor said:

JLaw is 431 is Torvik portal rankings. You can argue that's way too low, but it makes it pretty clear that he didn't get a money bag thrown at him. He's leaving because either he wants to play closer to home or he doesn't see his role expanding with the players we're recruiting.

 

He's very valuable to us, but he's not a very shiny new toy to other programs.

If it is true that the staff didn't expect or want JL to leave, I wonder if this is a case where the door will be left open for him to "re-commit" to Nebraska if he doesn't get the offers or attention he wants out of portal. I can think of quite a few players at other schools that happened with last year.

2 minutes ago, Vinny said:

It also shows me that portal rankings aren’t the most meaningful. A lot of players leaving because they weren’t in a situation that allowed them to showcase their talent. Like Lawrence, who played out of position this year because we needed him to. His ranking is grossly deflated because of that. I’d take his re-commitment in a second and he would likely be the lowest rated player from the portal we get.

I agree. I just don't think he was lured away by bags of money, because he wouldn't appear that impressive to a program that had bags of money. His departure is more likely due to displeasure over his role next year or some other factor.

Just now, Vinny said:

It also shows me that portal rankings aren’t the most meaningful. A lot of players leaving because they weren’t in a situation that allowed them to showcase their talent. Like Lawrence, who played out of position this year because we needed him to. His ranking is grossly deflated because of that. I’d take his re-commitment in a second and he would likely be the lowest rated player from the portal we get.

He did play out of position for much of the year, but I'd argue he was allowed to showcase his skillset more so at Nebraska than he would just about anywhere else with our style of play and the freedom he was given. I just imagine him at another school in the same (or lower) tier as Nebraska. Where he'd probably get on the court because of his defense and effort, but may be a stand in the corner, yellow-to-red light off-ball guy on offense. At many other programs if you aren't "the guy", or one of the two "guys", you aren't allowed to play the way Hoiberg coaches his guards to play. Villanova would be a good fit. If he doesn't find an offense that fits him, might as well just stay here. 

I keep going back to the year-end interviews.  These interviews supposedly involve projected future roles along with expectations for improvement of skills, conditioning and the like.

So I go back to a question of whether or not we provided a push to the players to exit the program?  Perhaps not an overt push; but a push nonetheless.

I can envision the discussions with every player that has departed, as well as the few that have stayed so far.  And if they went as I have envisioned, then I am not as shocked by the departures.  Just saying.

It would be interesting on how many players leave because "the grass is always greener" but find out that it's not and wished they would have stayed where they were at.

1 minute ago, Huskerpapa said:

I keep going back to the year-end interviews.  These interviews supposedly involve projected future roles along with expectations for improvement of skills, conditioning and the like.

So I go back to a question of whether or not we provided a push to the players to exit the program?  Perhaps not an overt push; but a push nonetheless.

I can envision the discussions with every player that has departed, as well as the few that have stayed so far.  And if they went as I have envisioned, then I am not as shocked by the departures.  Just saying.

I would be shocked if the coaching staff tried to "push" or "nudge" JL out.  After JL's departure, NU now has 6 open scholarships.  Fred may be able to find a couple nice additions that are an upgrade to the team, but there is almost no chance that he lands 6 players of higher caliber than JL.  And logic dictates that if he can't get all 6 better than JL, then there is no reason to push or nudge someone like JL to leave.  For instance, let's say the staff is able to land 3 players better than JL, but the other 3 are worse than JL.  Why would the staff want to the net result to be worse?  Why not just sign the 3 upgrades and keep JL who is (probably) far better than the 6th player signed out of the portal?

13 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

I keep going back to the year-end interviews.  These interviews supposedly involve projected future roles along with expectations for improvement of skills, conditioning and the like.

So I go back to a question of whether or not we provided a push to the players to exit the program?  Perhaps not an overt push; but a push nonetheless.

I can envision the discussions with every player that has departed, as well as the few that have stayed so far.  And if they went as I have envisioned, then I am not as shocked by the departures.  Just saying.

That's how I see it also. Maybe not a push but "this is the ceiling of your role here in the program." Lawrence taking so long tells me he was debating it for a while and torn on it. It'll be very interesting where he ends up. 

28 minutes ago, kldm64 said:

It would be interesting on how many players leave because "the grass is always greener" but find out that it's not and wished they would have stayed where they were at.

I’d guess >50% for sure. The successful transfers get all the attention, but seems like for every successful one there are 4 players who aren’t in the rotation at their new school. Everything goes in cycles and I do believe the newness of the portal will wear off and the negative side of it will come to light eventually. 
 

Pretty soon the “new thing” that wins out for both players and coaches will be consistent player retention. 

1 minute ago, NUdiehard said:

 

I would be shocked if the coaching staff tried to "push" or "nudge" JL out.  After JL's departure, NU now has 6 open scholarships.  Fred may be able to find a couple nice additions that are an upgrade to the team, but there is almost no chance that he lands 6 players of higher caliber than JL.  And logic dictates that if he can't get all 6 better than JL, then there is no reason to push or nudge someone like JL to leave.  For instance, let's say the staff is able to land 3 players better than JL, but the other 3 are worse than JL.  Why would the staff want to the net result to be worse?  Why not just sign the 3 upgrades and keep JL who is (probably) far better than the 6th player signed out of the portal?

Again, it may not have been an overt push.  It may have been that he was told that the PG experiment was not as successful as needed, plus we have Ahron and a new portal PG coming in, so we should be solid.  So we will move you back full-bore to the off-guard role.  You will complete for time there with Brice (who will split his time like last year), Jankowski (have you watched that kid JLaw?), and a yet to be determined portal transfer, if a quality player becomes available.  But dude, you really improved your shot during the season, we think with continuing improvement, you will be a dawg for us next year.

So if you are JLaw, do you test the waters, or do you go in the off-season full of piss and vinegar and compete for time?  

I personally come back; but if handlers are saying, dude that is disrespectful, we can get you guaranteed time and $$$$ elsewhere, then perhaps, he follows the path of many, many others.

10 hours ago, B-town hoopsfan said:

I do not believe tampering is a thing. No way to police it.  What id be more interested in is how many players never receive whatever NIL they were promised 

I am unaware of an actual prohibition on “tampering” in the Big 10 or other college conferences but would be interested to hear otherwise.  I expect that contact with other team’s players by another team, to encourage a transfer, is considered unethical in a general sense, but not strictly illegal or in violation of specific conference  rules.   And contact by a booster for another team (for an NIL deal) is now basically fair game because the booster isn’t governed by conference rules.  By comparison the NFL, NBA and other pro leagues have rules in place that prohibit tampering by other teams within the league.  Also, since pro players have contracts it is potentially illegal for anyone to encourage a player to break that contract (I.e., tortious interference with contractual relations). 

I’m a little surprised that both Wlicher and Lawrence left with Tominaga graduating.  I figured they would be ready to battle it out for the role of primary shooter.  Hopefully that means we have some options lined up for that role.

13 minutes ago, hhcmatt said:

I said this in the other thread but you have to wonder either what we have lined up or what we think we have lined up for guys out of the portal because we're a school that all of a sudden has added winning to everything else we have to offer.  As much as JL would have a role on this team next season we absolutely have to be recruiting over him.  Seems like a guy after his first couple of years here who would look at a smaller school and less NIL in exchange for a situation where he's the priority. 

Would love to know how the coaches feel about Jano and Frager. Are they rotation guys as freshman? Assuming Jano will be but maybe they are higher in Frager than we think

39 minutes ago, millerhusker said:

I’d guess >50% for sure. The successful transfers get all the attention, but seems like for every successful one there are 4 players who aren’t in the rotation at their new school. Everything goes in cycles and I do believe the newness of the portal will wear off and the negative side of it will come to light eventually. 
 

Pretty soon the “new thing” that wins out for both players and coaches will be consistent player retention. 

Couple of points on the portal:

1. The vast majority are moving down, not up, and I'd guess most of them are happy with their increased playing time. They might be less happy if they see the team they left had an injury or suspension that would have meant more playing time if they had stayed, but generally they'd be moving to a situation where they were wanted. 

2. The portal has put a head count on transfers and makes it seem like it's exploding now, but teams were losing a couple of players a year before NIL. 

17 minutes ago, Chuck Taylor said:

The vast majority are moving down, not up

I have nothing but a feeling, but I feeeeeel this can't be true. Gotta be closer to 50/50 right?!? Like we have 6 open spots. Presumably they will all transfer down/laterally. And we'll fill 6 open spots. From guy moving up/laterally. Make it make sense! 

Because I have no idea I ask: At what point does a scholarship terminate when a player enters the portal? Does just entering it free the school from its scholarship obligations or do those only end when a player signs with another school? If, for example, JL had a change of heart and decided Nebraska was still where he wanted to be, can he just shut the portal door with his scholarship still in effect or would the school need to reinstate him?