The Kentucky Kids do TV commercials for the Stud farms
Rick’s Targets
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
you are a sick man
L J S A
Well-known member
Won't matter much because if the staff pulls off the Mgbako Miracle I feel like the staff could reel in a big name guard for a visit.
Rocket
Well-known member
NIL isn't even remotely related to signing an NBA contract which contractually binds a player to a team for a specific period of time. NBA players who are in the superstar class sign marketing contracts totally unrelated to their team contracts for their "name, image and likeness" that are used to market products or services. Their names and images are established in the marketplace and are no different than celebrity endorsements.
High school basketball players and the vast majority of college portal transfer applicants have ZERO established marketability. Let me repeat that ZERO MARKETABILITY.
If I posted the pictures of 50 of the 1500 players in the portal, I would bet your social security check that not one player would be recognized unless you followed the player at his specific school.
So, how is the "marketing value" of a Noah Thomasson established for competitive bidding? While Niagara fans may be familiar with his name and image, is the average resident of Pittsburgh, U.S.A. even vaguely aware or cares who he is??
If Mike Maher's nephew had a choice of playing for a loser coach at Pitt for $30,000 NIL or $20,000 at St. John's and be coached by a coaching legend, Mike would tell him to "go for the money". If, theoretically, a player chooses to sign with a school and coach where he can best learn his trade, why is MONEY , and miniscule $ for the most part, a deciding factor? One can understand the difference if the player were previously nationally established and NBA lottery material. But Noah Thomasson??
Hence, that's where a coach like Rick Pitino knows when to separate the wheat from the chaff. While the player is a legend in the making "in his own mind", Rick Pitino has to weigh his offer versus other future player's value to "his team".
An example would be Gardner. A 4* decom from a Rick Pitino team in the Big East who may get a few thousand bucks more playing in Phoenix in a one bid conference.
Mommy may have told her man-child to go for the money but that greedy shortsighted advice is only advisable for true future stars and the 1% that really have any hope to ever wear an NBA uniform.
Fair enough, and some of the decisions these kids make will no doubt be very short sighted, but when all is said and done, does that automatically mean that Noah(for instance) is going to be a bad teammate? Not sure that taking advantage of the system makes you a bad person. And rest assured, Rick is still going to have to deal with at least some kids who are only coming here because we're offering the most $.
I think I mentioned something like this previously.... Players like Nick Timberlake and the likes know they aren't gonna play in the NBA, so they're trying to leverage for for big NIL payday$. Players of his ilk can be rather valuable for a collegiate team, but they're more than likely headed abroad to play professionally. Some coaches, presuming Pitino is one, doesn't and will not give those particular players what they want (ie, separating the wheat from the chaff).
I agree re: someone like Gardner should've placed his faith into Pitino instead of possibly chasing a few bucks more from another school. In the long range, I think Gardner would've greatly benefited if he'd came aboard.
I still believe Pitino and staff are shrewdly and wisely going about their business in how they're gonna fill the roster for the '23-'24 season.
Agree 100% that the the NIL-SSS craze is insane, but markets don't have to make sense to thrive. The dot.com bust and the subprime mortgage debacle are two great recent examples.
These players have been under the NCAA's thumb for decades, that they're piling into this surprise 'gold rush' to seize the day with both eyes shut.
It's human nature, Can't blame them but hope that as many as possible weight other factors besides the baskets of Benjamins.
Boo Harvey
Well-known member
Or perhaps Mr. Realistic
Rocket
Well-known member
I never characterized Noah or any recruits as a "bad person". Remember, we're not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for the VAST majority of these guys.
The issue of the amount of NIL compensation has become an issue of a player's priorities. The amount of a player's NIL compensation vis-a-vis his teammates can also become a divisive factor that affects team chemistry which ultimately affects team culture which Pitino is trying to change.
An example from our own team would be the NIL value of a Posh Alexander versus that of a Joel Soriano. While Posh likely had the highest NIL value on the team in October 2022, by February 2023 the ROI on Posh would have been a negative value compared to Soriano.
In my opinion, the arbitrary amounts being payed in NIL are a no different than paying bribes to players and their associates in order to play at a particular school because the vast majority of players and their images couldn't be picked out of a police lineup.
The system is officially broken.
I will forever root for the FDU's of college basketball from here on.
would love for both to sign we us...was just about to do that!
Lol.
Interesting, has Luis slipped away?
Like both these players, though.
Rocket
Well-known member
A market with a negative return doesn't thrive. It ultimately fails.
There really is no gold rush. The vast majority of NIL money is almost laughable. While the NIL is supposed to be unrelated to the college that the player is playing for, if Brony Mahoney was going to wear an Incarnate Word jersey versus wearing a Kentucky jersey, his image would be almost unmarketable. THAT is the reason the top 25 players will always wear a Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA or or similar power 5 school jersey.
What is happening for the other 95% of college players is chasing fools gold because they are and will forever be marginal talents. I can understand loving the game so much that a player enters the market for playing time.
But for that 95% the amount of NIL is negligible.
I'll leave this subject with an example. Last season a neighbor's grandson transferred from a top 100 D1 school to a school in the 200 rating academically to play more minutes and get more NIL. He got around $10,000 in NIL
which was up $5,000 from the school where he was a bench player on for 3 years. He became a starter. In the 8th game of the season he tore a tendon and never made it back to play significant minutes. Kid was a good student but instead of a degree from say Northeastern he now has a degree from an average college. To me, that's
happening way too much these days leaving academics as a low factor in the decision.
I agree with you, but, while it may indeed be fool's gold from a career standpoint for players other than those able to play pro, say in Europe, these guys are chasing Benjamin's rhat do buy real 'stuff'.
Let's hope the NIL-$$ craze morphs into a more sane version in the years ahead---maybe driven by market realities like getting 'paid' commensurate with one's contribution to the team.
Dan V
Well-known member
Boosters always paid players before NIL without any ROI. They will continue to do so now that it’s legal. That’s all there really is to it. The minute this benefits SJU no one will have an issue with it. Pitino seems to have gotten the top booster for SJU on board so it looks to be moving in the right direction. Everyone on here is old enough to know that money makes the world go round. A lot of these guys don’t come from money like that so 10k/20k is a pay day for them.
St. John’s will be hosting five-star wing Mackenzie Mgbako of Roselle (N.J.) Catholic on an official visit Friday and Saturday, a source confirmed.
The 6-foot-8 Mgbako, a consensus top-10 prospect in the country, signed with Duke, but got out of his National Letter of Intent after multiple players at his position passed on the NBA to return to school at the ACC powerhouse.
Pitino and his staff already had made an in-home visit with Mgbako and there is confidence they have a legitimate shot at landing him.
St. John’s is looking for a forward capable of stretching the floor to pair with Joel Soriano.
The Red Storm have five open scholarships remaining, and have been active with a number of targets, such as four-star high school wing Brady Dunlap, Oregon State transfer Glenn Taylor Jr. and Massachusetts transfer R.J. Luis. All three visited in the past week.
nypost.com
The 6-foot-8 Mgbako, a consensus top-10 prospect in the country, signed with Duke, but got out of his National Letter of Intent after multiple players at his position passed on the NBA to return to school at the ACC powerhouse.
Pitino and his staff already had made an in-home visit with Mgbako and there is confidence they have a legitimate shot at landing him.
St. John’s is looking for a forward capable of stretching the floor to pair with Joel Soriano.
The Red Storm have five open scholarships remaining, and have been active with a number of targets, such as four-star high school wing Brady Dunlap, Oregon State transfer Glenn Taylor Jr. and Massachusetts transfer R.J. Luis. All three visited in the past week.
Mackenzie Mgbako generates buzz for upcoming visit to St. John’s
In his tenure as St. John’s head coach, Rick Pitino so far has mostly landed complementary players, ones who can be productive, but have not generated national buzz.
nypost.com
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First let me congratulate you ( my inner kranmars ) on paragraphs !
I don’t think for a second we are getting outbid by 10k on the kids so far. Not even close especially the transfers and NiL money is blowing up this year
So for example if my nephews went to a school for 3 or 4 years and hadn’t been getting much NIL and all the sudden for 1 more year he could get several hundred k for his last year Vs not nearly as much here I’m telling him as his financial advisor uncle to take the money
I don’t think for a second we are getting outbid by 10k on some of these kids I think it’s virtually a bidding war
Doesn’t mean we won’t get players but the game and environment has changed legally
Panther sent me an article to put up here like 3 weeks ago that Miami’s NIL last year was 2.2 million
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$10K/$20K pay day ?
I am not sure you appreciate how much N$L money is being paid to these kids this off season.
The UCLA N$L is reported to be paying each of the 13 scholarship players on its mens roster a minimum of $100,000 per year. One ACC team reportedly paid each player a minimum of $60K this past season. One ACC starter last year recently transferred and received $625,000. One UMiami starter this year was reported to have received $800,000 to transfer to Miami, and so on, and so on.
If N$L was only $10K/$20K payouts then Pitino would likely already have a full roster. My understand that Pitino is competing in the N$L sweepstakes with an underfunded account. No angel (a/k/a “Mr. Green”) has yet arrived with a big check.
The N$L payments have spiked this season. Hey, the salaries of D1 coaches have spiked, so don’t begrudge the athletes for taking what is available.
Umm. Both of them.
