2020 Transfers

[Syajeulb]

Probably need a grad transfer at the off guard spot. Who is available?

It's not even a probably - if one of our wings goes down we're in big trouble.
Who is available is a good question. Not a lot of names we were originally connected to are still on the board. Maybe hilltop can provide some insight?
Good news is that with 3 scholarships open we've got plenty of space and PT available.

Where exactly is that playing time you mentioned coming from? Creighton has an 8-9 man rotation already set (depending on Jacob's health) even without Ty-Shon.

Rough estimate of what we're looking at right now:
1) Zegarowski (35), Mitchell (10)
2) Ballock (35)
3) Jefferson (28), Jones (24)
4) Mahoney (30)
5) Bishop (23), Kalkbrenner (10), Epperson (5)

Barring injury or Jones disappointing, Kerwin Walton would have had a tough time getting real minutes as a freshman.

If Jones is comparable to Mahoney in terms of first-year impact, Creighton doesn't NEED anything but depth. I'm sure other coaches have pointed that out when recruiting against CU and for better or worse Mac isn't going to lie to kids and promise them anything he can't give them.

Ideally, you'd like that depth to be someone who can step in for an injured rotation player and provide a comparable level of play. But highly-regarded freshmen who want to play right away and talented grad transfers with one year to play probably aren't going to sign up for a "break in case of emergency" role at a school like Creighton. That's the challenge facing the staff - you don't want to go into a season with just nine eligible scholarship players, but it's going to be difficult to land someone of comparable talent to the nine guys you already have.

Unless they find the absolutely right kid who has both the patience and talent to be what we want, I'd guess a Kelvin Jones stop-gap type transfer or a Jalen Windham lottery ticket type high school recruit plus hopefully another sit-out transfer is the most likely path to filling out the roster.

FWIW, Villanova had an 8-man rotation this year with five starters playing 30+ MPG. Bryan Antoine would have been the 9th guy but he was hurt and only played half the season and never got it going. They had 12 scholarships filled, one of which was used on a sit-out transfer and another on Ryan Arcidiacono's brother (an unranked recruit who played 20 total minutes this year).

Good take.

[Ethanfor3]

Probably need a grad transfer at the off guard spot. Who is available?

It's not even a probably - if one of our wings goes down we're in big trouble.
Who is available is a good question. Not a lot of names we were originally connected to are still on the board. Maybe hilltop can provide some insight?
Good news is that with 3 scholarships open we've got plenty of space and PT available.

Where exactly is that playing time you mentioned coming from? Creighton has an 8-9 man rotation already set (depending on Jacob's health) even without Ty-Shon.

Rough estimate of what we're looking at right now:
1) Zegarowski (35), Mitchell (10)
2) Ballock (35)
3) Jefferson (28), Jones (24)
4) Mahoney (30)
5) Bishop (23), Kalkbrenner (10), Epperson (5)

Barring injury or Jones disappointing, Kerwin Walton would have had a tough time getting real minutes as a freshman.

If Jones is comparable to Mahoney in terms of first-year impact, Creighton doesn't NEED anything but depth. I'm sure other coaches have pointed that out when recruiting against CU and for better or worse Mac isn't going to lie to kids and promise them anything he can't give them.

Ideally, you'd like that depth to be someone who can step in for an injured rotation player and provide a comparable level of play. But highly-regarded freshmen who want to play right away and talented grad transfers with one year to play probably aren't going to sign up for a "break in case of emergency" role at a school like Creighton. That's the challenge facing the staff - you don't want to go into a season with just nine eligible scholarship players, but it's going to be difficult to land someone of comparable talent to the nine guys you already have.

Unless they find the absolutely right kid who has both the patience and talent to be what we want, I'd guess a Kelvin Jones stop-gap type transfer or a Jalen Windham lottery ticket type high school recruit plus hopefully another sit-out transfer is the most likely path to filling out the roster.

FWIW, Villanova had an 8-man rotation this year with five starters playing 30+ MPG. Bryan Antoine would have been the 9th guy but he was hurt and only played half the season and never got it going. They had 12 scholarships filled, one of which was used on a sit-out transfer and another on Ryan Arcidiacono's brother (an unranked recruit who played 20 total minutes this year).

Thanks for that Jacob.

This has been a tough recruiting cycle for all the reasons you lay out above.

We have a roster that includes 8 experienced guys and 1 impact Freshman that all can and will play this year. Finding the top level guy that is good enough to earn minutes on that team while being willing to take on an understudy role (10 - 15 min) per game in hopes of being the guy the following year is camel through the eye of the needle stuff.

We were really recruiting for depth and for the major holes we'll have to fill next year. It is unfortunate how it lays out right now, in that 1 injury in the back court and we're really, really thin.

Will be very interesting to see what additions the coaches come up with to fill the potential gaps.

[#RollJays]

Probably need a grad transfer at the off guard spot. Who is available?

It's not even a probably - if one of our wings goes down we're in big trouble.
Who is available is a good question. Not a lot of names we were originally connected to are still on the board. Maybe hilltop can provide some insight?
Good news is that with 3 scholarships open we've got plenty of space and PT available.

Where exactly is that playing time you mentioned coming from? Creighton has an 8-9 man rotation already set (depending on Jacob's health) even without Ty-Shon.

Rough estimate of what we're looking at right now:
1) Zegarowski (35), Mitchell (10)
2) Ballock (35)
3) Jefferson (28), Jones (24)
4) Mahoney (30)
5) Bishop (23), Kalkbrenner (10), Epperson (5)

Barring injury or Jones disappointing, Kerwin Walton would have had a tough time getting real minutes as a freshman.

If Jones is comparable to Mahoney in terms of first-year impact, Creighton doesn't NEED anything but depth. I'm sure other coaches have pointed that out when recruiting against CU and for better or worse Mac isn't going to lie to kids and promise them anything he can't give them.

Ideally, you'd like that depth to be someone who can step in for an injured rotation player and provide a comparable level of play. But highly-regarded freshmen who want to play right away and talented grad transfers with one year to play probably aren't going to sign up for a "break in case of emergency" role at a school like Creighton. That's the challenge facing the staff - you don't want to go into a season with just nine eligible scholarship players, but it's going to be difficult to land someone of comparable talent to the nine guys you already have.

Unless they find the absolutely right kid who has both the patience and talent to be what we want, I'd guess a Kelvin Jones stop-gap type transfer or a Jalen Windham lottery ticket type high school recruit plus hopefully another sit-out transfer is the most likely path to filling out the roster.

FWIW, Villanova had an 8-man rotation this year with five starters playing 30+ MPG. Bryan Antoine would have been the 9th guy but he was hurt and only played half the season and never got it going. They had 12 scholarships filled, one of which was used on a sit-out transfer and another on Ryan Arcidiacono's brother (an unranked recruit who played 20 total minutes this year).

Disagree Jacob. We need to have 13 starters ready to go.

[REALITY]

Probably need a grad transfer at the off guard spot. Who is available?

It's not even a probably - if one of our wings goes down we're in big trouble.
Who is available is a good question. Not a lot of names we were originally connected to are still on the board. Maybe hilltop can provide some insight?
Good news is that with 3 scholarships open we've got plenty of space and PT available.

Where exactly is that playing time you mentioned coming from? Creighton has an 8-9 man rotation already set (depending on Jacob's health) even without Ty-Shon.

Rough estimate of what we're looking at right now:
1) Zegarowski (35), Mitchell (10)
2) Ballock (35)
3) Jefferson (28), Jones (24)
4) Mahoney (30)
5) Bishop (23), Kalkbrenner (10), Epperson (5)

Barring injury or Jones disappointing, Kerwin Walton would have had a tough time getting real minutes as a freshman.

At this point, playing Mitchell or Marcus off the ball is not desirable. Mitchell doesn't have the jumpshot necessary right now and the very few minutes Marcus played off the ball with Mitchell at the point imo did not look good as the ball got "stuck" too easily. That's 5 minutes right there.

Jones only played 17 MPG at Memphis and you're really projecting him to jump right in at 24? Pretty much every transfer we've taken here has seen their minutes go down with the exception of Foster and Mo. I could see him at 20, I guess, but that's it without any sort of evidence that suggests to the contrary. That's 4 minutes.
Count in any foul trouble and that might be another 2-5 MPG and you've got around 15 MPG.
Now if Mac wanted to get really crazy, he could give Mitch a bit more rest and that'd be a few more minutes, so you could get about 17 to 20.

If Jones is comparable to Mahoney in terms of first-year impact, Creighton doesn't NEED anything but depth. I'm sure other coaches have pointed that out when recruiting against CU and for better or worse Mac isn't going to lie to kids and promise them anything he can't give them.

You said it yourself, it's an IF. Maybe Antwann is that good, but living up to what Mahoney did will be challenging to say the least.

Ideally, you'd like that depth to be someone who can step in for an injured rotation player and provide a comparable level of play. But highly-regarded freshmen who want to play right away and talented grad transfers with one year to play probably aren't going to sign up for a "break in case of emergency" role at a school like Creighton. That's the challenge facing the staff - you don't want to go into a season with just nine eligible scholarship players, but it's going to be difficult to land someone of comparable talent to the nine guys you already have.

Unless they find the absolutely right kid who has both the patience and talent to be what we want, I'd guess a Kelvin Jones stop-gap type transfer or a Jalen Windham lottery ticket type high school recruit plus hopefully another sit-out transfer is the most likely path to filling out the roster.

Unfortunately, I think you're right as to who will fill up the roster. It's pretty late in the transfer window and class of 2020 recruitment period.

FWIW, Villanova had an 8-man rotation this year with five starters playing 30+ MPG. Bryan Antoine would have been the 9th guy but he was hurt and only played half the season and never got it going. They had 12 scholarships filled, one of which was used on a sit-out transfer and another on Ryan Arcidiacono's brother (an unranked recruit who played 20 total minutes this year).

Well yeah, who else on the roster would have been able to get more minutes? And besides, that's just the way Jay runs things. He's been extremely lucky to avoid major injuries for the most part, the exception being the year they lost Booth for the season. Had Jay had filled up his roster with more rotation caliber wings, they might well have won the championship...

Disagree Jacob. We need to have 13 starters ready to go.

Nice work taking my comment out of context. I never said anything like that. We need another wing at the very least in case of emergency (though I think there are more minutes to play with than Jacob thinks), I would have preferred Kerwin but a good grad transfer would suffice. Kerwin, though, would have been a multi-year guy and helped long term which a grad transfer wouldn't.

[White&BlueDude]

It's not even a probably - if one of our wings goes down we're in big trouble.
Who is available is a good question. Not a lot of names we were originally connected to are still on the board. Maybe hilltop can provide some insight?
Good news is that with 3 scholarships open we've got plenty of space and PT available.

Where exactly is that playing time you mentioned coming from? Creighton has an 8-9 man rotation already set (depending on Jacob's health) even without Ty-Shon.

Rough estimate of what we're looking at right now:
1) Zegarowski (35), Mitchell (10)
2) Ballock (35)
3) Jefferson (28), Jones (24)
4) Mahoney (30)
5) Bishop (23), Kalkbrenner (10), Epperson (5)

Barring injury or Jones disappointing, Kerwin Walton would have had a tough time getting real minutes as a freshman.

At this point, playing Mitchell or Marcus off the ball is not desirable. Mitchell doesn't have the jumpshot necessary right now and the very few minutes Marcus played off the ball with Mitchell at the point imo did not look good as the ball got "stuck" too easily. That's 5 minutes right there.

Jones only played 17 MPG at Memphis and you're really projecting him to jump right in at 24? Pretty much every transfer we've taken here has seen their minutes go down with the exception of Foster and Mo. I could see him at 20, I guess, but that's it without any sort of evidence that suggests to the contrary. That's 4 minutes.
Count in any foul trouble and that might be another 2-5 MPG and you've got around 15 MPG.
Now if Mac wanted to get really crazy, he could give Mitch a bit more rest and that'd be a few more minutes, so you could get about 17 to 20.

If Jones is comparable to Mahoney in terms of first-year impact, Creighton doesn't NEED anything but depth. I'm sure other coaches have pointed that out when recruiting against CU and for better or worse Mac isn't going to lie to kids and promise them anything he can't give them.

You said it yourself, it's an IF. Maybe Antwann is that good, but living up to what Mahoney did will be challenging to say the least.

Ideally, you'd like that depth to be someone who can step in for an injured rotation player and provide a comparable level of play. But highly-regarded freshmen who want to play right away and talented grad transfers with one year to play probably aren't going to sign up for a "break in case of emergency" role at a school like Creighton. That's the challenge facing the staff - you don't want to go into a season with just nine eligible scholarship players, but it's going to be difficult to land someone of comparable talent to the nine guys you already have.

Unless they find the absolutely right kid who has both the patience and talent to be what we want, I'd guess a Kelvin Jones stop-gap type transfer or a Jalen Windham lottery ticket type high school recruit plus hopefully another sit-out transfer is the most likely path to filling out the roster.

Unfortunately, I think you're right as to who will fill up the roster. It's pretty late in the transfer window and class of 2020 recruitment period.

FWIW, Villanova had an 8-man rotation this year with five starters playing 30+ MPG. Bryan Antoine would have been the 9th guy but he was hurt and only played half the season and never got it going. They had 12 scholarships filled, one of which was used on a sit-out transfer and another on Ryan Arcidiacono's brother (an unranked recruit who played 20 total minutes this year).

Well yeah, who else on the roster would have been able to get more minutes? And besides, that's just the way Jay runs things. He's been extremely lucky to avoid major injuries for the most part, the exception being the year they lost Booth for the season. Had Jay had filled up his roster with more rotation caliber wings, they might well have won the championship...

Disagree Jacob. We need to have 13 starters ready to go.

Nice work taking my comment out of context. I never said anything like that. We need another wing at the very least in case of emergency (though I think there are more minutes to play with than Jacob thinks), I would have preferred Kerwin but a good grad transfer would suffice. Kerwin, though, would have been a multi-year guy and helped long term which a grad transfer wouldn't.

Your assessment is pretty bleak in thinking that no one on our roster is making any improvements in their game during the off-season. Almost every player under Mac makes considerable strides year by year and almost no one has a regression. Mitchell's focus is no-doubt on the offensive end, Bishop adds a jump-shot, Jones has had a year to develop in the offense as well.

These minute holes you've hypothetical'd become much smaller when you account for the progress our roster will have going into the new season.

[#RollJays]

Shereef averaged 14 mpg last year with Marcus averaging 35. Shereef is easily going to play 10 mpg this year. The fact is that we don't have a bunch of PT available. Marcus is a scoring PG, he can play off the ball better than any PG we've had here.

I have a hard time seeing Epperson only playing 5 minutes per game if healthy. Even if Jones only plays 10-15 mpg, those other minutes are going to go to Denzel, DJ or Bishop. We aren't Kansas. We aren't Duke. It's hard to sell 10-15 minute roles to top 100 kids and top tier grad transfers. That's not settling as a program, that's just the way it is. It would be nice to add another 2 guard to the mix but they aren't going to walk into starter level minutes. We are screwed every year if our top player gets hurt.

We need to find another sit out player for sure and then see what we can do to land a depth player at the 2. Also another 3/4 stretch forward type player would be ideal.

[bluejayb13]

It's a tough spot to be in for impact recruits. Unfortunately though, the minutes will likely end up being there for someone at some point in the season. You can't plan on it, but it's been 4 straight seasons we've had a rotation player(s) go down for a significant portion if not all of the season.

[#RollJays]

It's a tough spot to be in for impact recruits. Unfortunately though, the minutes will likely end up being there for someone at some point in the season. You can't plan on it, but it's been 4 straight seasons we've had a rotation player(s) go down for a significant portion if not all of the season.

The Mintz and Epperson injuries were easier to overcome. Those were rotational players. Mo Watson and Krampelj's injuries were devastating. Losing your most important player is almost impossible to overcome.

[bluejayb13]

It's a tough spot to be in for impact recruits. Unfortunately though, the minutes will likely end up being there for someone at some point in the season. You can't plan on it, but it's been 4 straight seasons we've had a rotation player(s) go down for a significant portion if not all of the season.

The Mintz and Epperson injuries were easier to overcome. Those were rotational players. Mo Watson and Krampelj's injuries were devastating. Losing your most important player is almost impossible to overcome.

Right. Just pointing out that in terms of minutes, they will likely be available for a decent chunk of the year. You just obviously can't use it as a recruiting point.

[gtmoBlue]

Great discussion. Too bad about KW not coming in. It has been a surprise how things have worked out at the SG, who'd a thought that's where we would wind up short. Great inputs by Jacob and others.

However, no need to rush out and throw away scholies on just any transfer kids. Perhaps AOC will get eligibility for this year. But, more importantly...

We already have a utility player! If we have 3 open scholies, give 1 to SG Sami Osmani. Save the other two scholies for 2021's class. Sami is smart, sneakily athletic, good BBIQ, and is a great shooter. He is additional depth at the SG. Sami will fill those utility 10-15 minutes and be demanding more with his play. IMO he's a better fit/shooter than Jalen was. Funny how folks forget we brought him onto the Hilltop. Kid may well develop into another Nate Funk/Justin Carter type of guy for us.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/12/21 ... basketball

Rhodes believes Osmani is the type of player every college coach is looking for.

“He should be getting more attention, there’s no doubt about it,” Rhodes said. “The kid’s a winner, and he works his tail off. He’s not going to stop working, and he’s just got something that you can’t teach.”

Jays are in good shape and far from needing to "panic-buy" transfers. Of course, if an excellent fit pops up, we have the room for it.