First portal commit
- Thread starter lobbybuu
- Start date
And someone from DePaul is saying…well probably get someone from UNLV
I really hate to break it to you, but we beat out other mid-majors who are pretty close to where we are competitively--mid-majors who didn't make the dance. Charlotte finished 3rd in the AAC, Santa Clara finished 4th in the WCC, Montana finished 2nd in the Big Sky, UNC Wilmington finished third in the CAA, WKU finished 3rd in Conference USA and danced last year. Marshall, UCSB, and Denver were all pretty poor last year, and I would assume that the trash fire that the Arkansas team was this year meant that the contact between them and Jaden was from Muss and not Cal. I think that the MWC is a better top to bottom conference than those others, but I think that there's a reason we're in the same lists as those other schools--because we have a lot more in common with them now, and we don't have an ace recruiter on the staff who pulls above our station--and our station has been boring, average basketball for a lot longer than Kev's been here.
If Jaden Henley is the commit, I think he's an okay get if he's going to be a bench piece who gets solid minutes with an eye for development. He's long, strong, and athletic, and has above average handles at his size and can use the dribble to create his own shot. He's a below average 3pt shooter, but I don't think DePaul did him any favors with a ton of open catch and shoot opportunities--he shot 37% as a freshmen for Minnesota. He's got poor defensive advanced metrics, but DePaul was perhaps the worst defense team in the college basketball last year. He also turns the ball over a lot and doesn't have a ton of variety in his move set.
Just look at his shooting metrics over his career.
FG% - 41.1%
3FG% - 31.5%
FT% - 71.2%
TS% - 50.6%
eFG% - 45%
He's a pretty close match for Luis Rodriguez
FG% - 40.5%
3FG% - 30.1%
FT% - 72.4%
TS% - 50.6%
eFG% - 47.1%
He's nowhere near the defender or rebounder that LuRod was, but LuRod also increased his careeer stats across the board in the MWC vs his time at Ole Miss, so maybe Henley's numbers will go up as he is coming from two years as a starter on bad teams in great basketball conferences. At the very least I don't think he'll be intimidated by playing in the MWC. How nice a player he ends up being will depend on his development and if he has the catch and shoot in his game that he showed at Minnesota is real or an illusion.
I"m a little concerned that this is our priority target/first wing signing. He's the 3rd best player from arguable one of the worst teams of the decade so far. I think some of Kruger's shortcomings have been in roster construction and talent evaluation, this would sort of fall into that area for me again.
Just look at his shooting metrics over his career.
FG% - 41.1%
3FG% - 31.5%
FT% - 71.2%
TS% - 50.6%
eFG% - 45%
He's a pretty close match for Luis Rodriguez
FG% - 40.5%
3FG% - 30.1%
FT% - 72.4%
TS% - 50.6%
eFG% - 47.1%
He's nowhere near the defender or rebounder that LuRod was, but LuRod also increased his careeer stats across the board in the MWC vs his time at Ole Miss, so maybe Henley's numbers will go up as he is coming from two years as a starter on bad teams in great basketball conferences. At the very least I don't think he'll be intimidated by playing in the MWC. How nice a player he ends up being will depend on his development and if he has the catch and shoot in his game that he showed at Minnesota is real or an illusion.
I"m a little concerned that this is our priority target/first wing signing. He's the 3rd best player from arguable one of the worst teams of the decade so far. I think some of Kruger's shortcomings have been in roster construction and talent evaluation, this would sort of fall into that area for me again.
Probably what all of those schools are saying about getting beat out by UNLV. I think most if not all of those schools have been to the NCAA tournament since UNLV has. UNLV is a nobody.
Was going to say the same thing. People need to get with reality.
Sadly, that’s where we’ve drifted down to … I see the schools that we are battling nowadays and it’s a bit depressing, even if you accept the reality of where we are. Seems like we replace marginal, lower impact, low consistency, one dimensional players with the same types of players. Doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results.
But it doesn’t have to be the reality if the admin would actually commit to winning. That’s the frustrating part. No buy in from the school.
I don't disagree. But that ship has likely sailed at least for the time being. Until UNLV gets serious about trying to compete at a higher level with NIL, it probably won't matter who the coach is.
Then the regular crowds of 2-4K … can’t blame the fans, really. If they aren’t going to put out a product … can’t expect fans to show up … they’ve ridden the coattails of past glory and capitalized on it, but that’s all dried up now.
It’s only been one football season of some success. If we have another … perhaps that’s where the focus/resources should shift … it should have happened awhile ago since it drives everything in college sports … but that’s more administrative shortsightedness.
His offensive 40 minute stats were very much like Rodriguez. Except Henley shot 38% from three compared to Louis 31%. On the down side he almost assuredly is not the defender that Rodriquez was. Looks like he can create his own shot.
I disagree. The NIL budget we have is probably on par or better than most G5 competition. What exactly does "compete" mean? We haven't been to the NCAA tournament in 12 years, haven't won our conference in 2 decades, last won the MWCT in what 2008? We have more than enough money in NIL to do that.
Nothing matters pre-NIL moving forward bro. And that depends on what your expectation of being competititive is. If that's being able to beat out CSU or Reno for a recruit, then I'm sure you're happy.
The fact of the matter we are a G5, we aren't going to be able to compete with most P5 schools.
But we are competitive within the MW, with the highest NIL budget in conference.
We showed that we could compete in conference last season, but didn't do well enough the entire year.
Now we have some dudes to replace for sure with holes left over even from last year.
But with returning players, the model is built for them to improve. Because they almost always do.
I like that we will have the best retention this next season that CKK has had to date. We also had our most effective defense last season, hopefully we can build on that and *gasp* build out the offense a bit more.
Yeah not impressive, he better have more than this and the equivalent lined up otherwise he should just hire LinkedIn right now for their resume review services.
You will not need to worry so much about shifting resources if the football team continues to improve. Even at $400 on average per season (including tickets, parking, food, etc.), for ever 10,000 new fans, UNLV brings in another $4,000,000. I can easily see UNLV jumping from 25K to 35K+ within 1-2 seasons if the program continues to improve.
If it is Henley, UNLV would be his 3rd school. He played his freshman year at Minnesota before transferring to DePaul for his sophomore year. Fun fact, Henley started for the Gophers in November of 2022 when they played the Rebels at the T&M and played 28 minutes, had 5 rebounds and scored 5 pts in their loss to the Rebs.
Ok.. So we got a bench guard, now we need a starting Guard and a Starting 5, and a couple backups.. Whose next, lol
We need a starting 2 and a starting 3 and a backup PG so DJ doesn’t have to log so much PT!
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Not sure it needs to be exciting... That hasn't worked for us so far... maybe it just needs to be a good combination of players that don't necessarily move the meter but make the team as a whole better than the last. I'm mean that's basically how they do it at other MWC schools that go dancing...
Henley at the very least fills in wing depth, which was going to be a an issue and losing two of those wing options means you need depth. It is a need, but we also need a shooter, a ball handler and a 3 & D guy who can come out and be a threat on some of those screen games. And the bench needs a player who can come in and get you buckets.
I think if you gave me my choice of Nowell or this kid, I think this kid has a better skill set than Nowell, so for me that's an upgrade. I'm a little annoyed that our first signing is our third most important need at most, but what are you gonna do?
Oh no what are we gonna do, CKK? Let's rescheduled Dayton and get Memphis to visit. That's because Kevin is nervous about his team's abilities.
Rather underwhelming to state the very obvious. Not a great start. Sure hope the best is yet to come.
A bunch of scrubs at this point.
I think Tripoda1 won post of the year.
Luis Rodriguez..NBA body, glass heart
We are the Nobody these days
guys just tap out, we are gonna be so bad.
DTJ and Whaley..everyone else just sucks beyond suck.
Just let it play out and see what kind of roster CKK ends up with. I don't think this is a bad pick up as long as he plays hard, plays unselfishly and doesn't going around driving drunk and crashing into people. Joshua Jefferson and a legit starting shooting guard would be great. Still need a back up point guard too.
I’d add another “creator type” at the 3 too and let this kid and that player fight it out for the starting spot!
Not a 3 but it took me 30 min to find these two guys that are listed at point guard in the portal.
Vasean Allen(old dom, freshman) 17ppg, 6rpg, 3apg - dismissed from team in Jan for conduct unbecoming yada yada. Had 6 20+ point games with highs of 30, 28, and 27.
Eric Acker(vmi, freshman) 13ppg, 4rpg, 4apg - rookie of week 3x but only shot 28% from 3.
Not sure if there's any interest either way, just pointing out if I could find a couple of viable options just messing around for half an hour I think the staff should be more than prepared with a lengthy list of players so we shouldn't get too discouraged early on.
Finding them and landing them are different things. Considering where we were a year ago things are much more quiet and slow.
We don’t really need a scoring PG, just someone that can take care of the ball, be a caretaker for a few minutes for DJT to get a breather or another option in situations where unlv is being pressed.
I’d take Cvijanovich as a backup. Don’t make mistakes, buy 8 minutes per game.
