Might as well start a thread \ Verbal Commits keeps track
Bobby Durkin from Davidson and from suburban Hindsdale Illinois entered today...would we be interested?

I have a fear our team is going to be decimated by graduation and transfer within the next month.

That is a legitimate fear....but let's get used to it. We are a mid major - and the system is set up for mid majors to get poached and gutted. We have been very lucky to not be impacted the last couple years - but that luck could end this off season. Let's hope not.

Interest in Durkin? Not me personally....but it wouldn't surprise me. We recruited him out of High School, but I think his overall performance has been a little disappointing. Doesn't seem to have an all around game. But as a 6'7" 3 point shooting specialist, he will draw interest from schools bigger and better than Davidson.

25 players from the A-10 already in the portal

Durkin will get power 5.

For our key guys (Dawson, Miles) I think it’s really just going to depend on what they want. If they want to get their bag at a P5 they should have opportunities to do that. But if they stay they’ll be the focal points the offense who 1) start every game, 2) get a majority of the minutes at their position.

Sometimes leaving works out, but often it doesn’t. Two examples at Kansas from just this year. Zeke Mayo started nearly every game for Kansas this year and was their second leading scorer (14.6ppg) behind only Hunter Dickinson after transferring up from South Dakota State. AJ Storr transfer from Wisconsin, only started 4 games, and averaged 6.1ppg.

Or another cautionary tale? Go take a look at Joseph Yesefu’s career after leaving Drake in 2021.

I read over 500 kids hit the portal by 2pm today, and this first day is long from over

well if this years NCAA is an indicator NIL is a major failure. Only 4 conferences represented! Is this the end of the mid-major? We buy presidents, we buy justices and we buy basketball teams....but frankly they may have jumped the shark...I have probably watched my last game in the tournament...nobody for me to root for or against (I would always watch if there was a chance I could watch nd loose) .

To follow your point Nate, Jason Williams had the following to say yesterday morning. Don’t think he is off the mark at all. It will be a struggle for mid majors from here on out, just the nature of what is evolving in the sport.

https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/44384041

While I agree that it won't be as easy for mid majors going forward, I think people are putting too much weight on this one year. Last year, NIL was in full existence and we had Oakland beat Kentucky, Yale beat Auburn, Duquesne beat BYU, James Madison beat Wisconsin. There have been other years in the past dominated by power conference teams. Sometimes, it just shakes out like that.

It is concerning though. Saw that over 700 players entered the portal, which represents 1/8 of all D1 players. That is INSANE for just the first day of the portal opening.

Sadly, the NCAA has its hands tied. They had the rule that you could only freely transfer once and if you did it again, you had to sit a year. That would hamper things a bit, but of course, big schools sued over that rule and it was struck down in federal court. I think congressional action is the only hope (which is a scary thought itself...).