With/without agents doesn’t really mean anything (you technically can still come back with an agent). I know Oturu has an agent, no idea about Carr. I would be absolutely shocked if Oturu came back to school.
Fair enough. I am still stock up on that program overall, at least in terms of talent level. Really impressed with their last two recruiting classes
Who is the Chetmaster? I think they will be pretty bad if Carr and Oturu are both gone, even with a handful of MM transfers.
Carr is almost certainly coming back fwiw. I know people within the Minnesota program.
Chet Holmgren but I got too excited. He won’t be in college yet.
Also he hasn’t even committed to Minnesota yet.
Chetmaster.
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Chet Holmgren is uncommitted and a 2021 guy. Just because he’s from Minneapolis doesn’t mean he’s going to play college ball there.
Yea like I said the power of Chet just overtook me, I couldn’t control myself
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Luka Garza to Test NBA Process
IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa junior Luka Garza announced Friday that he will test the 2020 NBA Draft process while maintaining his NCAA eligibility. The 6-foot-11, 260-pound center plans to go through the process without an agent.
“This year was one I could never have imagined,” Garza said. “None of the awards or accolades could have happened without the University of Iowa, my coaches, and my teammates. Choosing Coach McCaffery and Iowa was the best decision I have ever made. With that said, after meeting with my family and coaches I have decided that I will be declaring for the 2020 NBA Draft, and throughout this process I will be keeping my eligibility.
“The NBA has been my dream since I started playing basketball as a kid and I’m going to do everything I can to pursue that. If it ends up not being the right time to make the move to the NBA, I’m excited about the potential of what my senior season as a Hawkeye could have in store. Thank you to Hawkeye Nation for this unforgettable journey thus far. Go Hawks!”
Garza had a historic season leading the nationally-ranked men’s basketball team to 20 victories and a likely NCAA Tournament berth. A unanimous consensus first-team All-America selection, Garza became the first Iowa men’s basketball student-athlete to earn National Player of the Year distinction (Sporting News, Basketball Times, ESPN, FOX, Stadium, Bleacher Report). The junior center was also named the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year, USBWA District VI Player of the Year, and Big Ten Men’s Basketball Player of the Year.
“Luka was one of the top players in the country last season and going through the NBA Draft process is something that he should absolutely do,” said Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery. “We fully support Luka in the pursuit of his professional goals. This process is extremely valuable in gathering information from NBA personnel. My staff and I look forward to supporting Luka throughout the process.”
Garza finished the 20-game conference schedule averaging 26.2 points per game, becoming the first player to average at least 26 points in Big Ten play since Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994. Garza scored a school-record 740 points this season, breaking the program’s 50-year old record previously set by John Johnson in 1970. Garza became one of three Big Ten players to ever to total 740+ points and 300+ rebounds in a single season. He scored 20 points or more in a school-record 16 straight Big Ten games, the longest streak by any player in the Big Ten since Ohio State’s Dennis Hopson (16) in 1987.
Garza ranked second nationally in 20-point games (25); third in total field goals made (287), fifth in scoring (23.9), 19th in double-doubles (15), and 34th in rebounding (9.8). Garza produced against top competition all season, averaging 26.7 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks in 12 contests against AP ranked opponents, including recording 11 straight 20-point performances.
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Minnesota fans are starting to really take notice of how much high school talent is in the state and how few Pitino has been able to get to stay home. Coffey and Oturu have been his two biggest gets. Holmgren would be huge for him, but I don’t know if he’ll have his job past this year for it to even matter.
pitino’s demise has been presumptive for at least 4 years
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I have no idea how he’s kept his job this long. I think this year would have been it if the epidemic hadn’t happened.
MichiganMan2424 mentioned in another thread that OSU got a new transfer, and I agree with him that it is a fairly “uninspiring” get. Maybe they see shooting potential in him, need depth, who knows. Im curious what people think about OSU heading into next season. Seems like they lost a ton, like really, a lot. Thoughts?
C.J. Walker, Duane Washington, Kyle Young, E.J. Liddell, Justin Ahrens, two very nice transfers in Seth Towns and Justice Sueing, a solid transfer in Abel Porter.
They did lose a lot, but I would expect them to be in the top half of the Big Ten.
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I think they’ll be slightly better than the 2018-2019 OSU team. That team finished 8-12 in the B1G, was an 11 seed, and won 1 tourney game. I’d expect next year’s team to finish around .500 if not slightly higher, be closer to an 8/9 seed, and potentially win a game in the tourney.
Holtmann generally has made his teams better than the sum of their, but not so much so that they end up being title contenders. Next year’s team has a bunch of solid players, but not many players who seem like they’ll end up being elite players. To address the players Pittsnogled listed:
C.J. Walker was slightly more efficient last year than he was on FSU, but on lower usage. Most of that was driven up by his AST rate going up, which we’ll see how that is with no Wessons or Muhammad now.
Kyle Young is a hyper aggressive glue/scrappy guy who can’t do much on offense besides get put backs.
Ahrens has played around 20% of in 2 seasons and is JAS.
Liddell and Washington both seem like guys who could improve next year and be pretty good players.
Towns could be really good, or struggle with the jump up competition without playing for 2 years, or he could continue to be injured and not play.
Sueing was a solid scorer and rebounder at Cal but not a good shooter. And his 2 years in the Pac-12 were years when the league was, from efficiency standpoints, at the level of the AAC or MWC. So despite coming from Cal he’s basically transferring from a mid major to high major.
Their other two transfers, Sotos and Porter, are guys who would be best suited as backups at the P5 level.
OSU has some variance with guys like Towns, Washington, Lidell and Sueing. So they could move off of the 8/9 area (either up or down) depending on how these guys play. But unless everyone hits and I’d the best version of themselves that OSU expects, I don’t see OSU being a major factor nationally or even in the conference title race next year.
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With Maryland missing on all their transfer targets, their roster right now is:
PG - Ayala - Dockery - Smart
SG - Morsell - Smith - Hart
SF - Wiggins
PF - Scott
C - Tomaic - Mariol
Only 10 scholarships used right now. Gonna be UGLY
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They’re in the final group for Adama Sanogo, a top-50 C reclassifying to the 20 class. But he is supposedly a Seton Hall lean.
As it stands today, Torvik projects them to finish 91st overall at 13-18 (6-14). That feels like an outlandish worst-case scenario but if they don’t get a transfer big they could very well miss the tournament.
@umhoops any interest in doing an article that ranks the B1G based on talent, after the rosters are more settled? I think it’d be an interesting exercise that’s a little different than ranking the conference based on how good the team will be/how they will finish in conference standings. I like trying to think of who has the most talented rosters, but hard to separate it from how well the players fit together and how good this coach is.
Will definitely do something like that once the rosters are more settled. Really tough in the middle of the NBA process though.
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Sounds like something to look forward to around Halloween 