Swan88

From three days ago: "there will be exciting debuts during the Boston Celtics’ upcoming 2023 Summer League run in Las Vegas, including the C’s 2023 second-round pick Jordan Walsh (Arkansas) and undrafted six-foot-seven guard signing Sam Griesel (Nebraska)."

“John Bol . . . has decommited from Florida . . . Multiple sources have told Swamp247 that the NIL aspects of Bol’s commitment became the focus in the weeks since his pledge, leading both sides to agree to part ways.”

Yeah. I still don't get why any of the guys we've been pursuing would have come here (that's, of course, easy to say, now that they haven't). Why would anyone with aspirations to play a lot jump into a place that doesn't have an immediate and pressing need? At the risk of using an example that could trash my theory, the Uhlis/Toussaint duo at point guard would be a perfect example.

On Jahvan Quinerly, Memphis is reported to be the initial leader. So, here are some tidbits from a Memphis message board: "Updated list of schools showing interest for Alabama transfer guard Jahvon Quinerly: Memphis Miami Auburn + more" "Miami is the NIL capital. It's over" "Wonder who the +more is. Prob some odd ball schools like Nebraska again."

And what college kid would abandon a $600,000 NIL for anything substantially less? Presumably, all the other players have NILs that are correspondingly high too. . . . and here's guessing that entering the portal may have resulted in a portal-exit NIL bonus on top of what already existed.

Those highlights are of an explosive 7 footer. Players like that don’t come around every day. Reel him in, Coach!!!

The same way this does: Remember when Tyronn Lue played well at Nebraska; and then played on two NBA Champion teams in his first three seasons; and then served as a Head Coach, leading his team to an NBA Championship in his first season; and then in each of the next two years, leads that same team into the NBA Championship Finals; and then goes to another NBA team as Head Coach, leading that team to its first Conference Finals appearance in franchise history?

So . . . we’ll find out if a team can buy its way to success?

Let’s figure out what this means. And whether it’s reliable. https://twitter.com/hilltop_hoops_/status/1666977182495965187?s=20 Spoiler alert: it looks unreliable. But Shark retweeted it!

Put another way, why would both Mongolian Mike and Brother Wilcher want to come here and compete with each other for point guard minutes? Or . . . if Hoiberg and Co. have the hypothetical privilege of choosing between those two point guards, which do they choose?

So . . . are we wanting a 6'8" point guard from Mongolia . . . or a 6'4" point guard that's newly available?

SHARK Retweeted Dustin Bleiweis @Dueycbb Mongolian Mike is such an athletic versatile player he would be a unicorn like addition to Pitt, would start immediately and has NBA potential, seems like Nebraska is recruiting him very hard and he is their number 1 target 11:10 AM · Jun 3, 2023 https://twitter.com/Dueycbb/status/1665028137543950342?s=20

Washut seems to think we are on the outside looking in on this one.

At least the tax payers voted for the bond. But even a 2.0% interest rate on $50 million is a million dollars every year on top of paying back the entire $50 million—that’s real money for any town. At least they managed a $13 million break—and that’s real money too. It’s sort of like student loans: they are painless to take out, but paying them back can be a real bear, if not impossible.

Here's from a public report on Illinois athletics dated January 5, 2022: The median accumulated debt for Big Ten schools grew from $133.3 million in 2014 to $164.5 million in 2019. Illinois’ debt problem is much worse. Our athletic department paid interest on facilities debt of $11.2 million (2014), $16.7 million (2015), $26.1 million (2016), $20.0 million (2017), $21.3 million (2018), and $22.7 million in 2019. Illinois’ 2020 NCAA financial statement reported total athletics-related debt of $315,822,286. Our athletically related facilities annual debt service was $21,564,413. Simply put, Illinois’ athletic program has been deeply mired in debt since 2014.

That’s impressive for NU!! No debt is a solid base for continuing the Trev-era redevelopment that is already underway in football, basketball and other teams. Can’t believe that Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Ohio State have that much debt—looks like some poor leadership got them in deep waters.

It’s better than living the dream: he never dreamed this.

Sam Griesel --> Ivan Drago:

Very cool!!