UGA Men’s Basketball
2024 Recruiting
SEC Basketball
Kentucky
Lexington Herald Leader: Kentucky is still looking for roster additions. A very big target could be available soon
https://amp.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-basketball-men/article275601816.html
Mississippi State
College Basketball
Thamel ESPN: How an unfinished TV deal led to an unexpectedly hectic first month for the new Big Ten commissioner
https://www.espn.com/college-footba...missioner-television-deal-coaches-uncertainty
Cincinnati
Cincinnati Enquirer: UC gets 7-foot transfer Aziz Bandaogo from Utah Valley
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sp...aogo-who-helped-beat-them-in-nit/70239822007/
Grand Canyon
Arizona Central: GCU digest: Former Georgia State G Collin Moore commits to Grand Canyon basketball
https://www.azcentral.com/story/spo...-player-to-enter-transfer-portal/70053909007/
Rutgers
NJ.com: How much NIL money does Rutgers need to be competitive? Collective leader shares educated estimate
“But in the wake of a major domino falling in Piscataway on Friday, with men’s basketball’s leading scorer Cam Spencer entering the transfer portal after receiving overtures of major NIL opportunities from other programs, the collective’s President elected to publicly put a price tag on what he believes the Rutgers athletics ecosystem must aspire to raise annually in order to retain its top athletes and be competitive in the four major sports of football, men’s and women’s basketball, and wrestling:
$10 million.
The number is a rough estimate based on conversations with Rutgers coaches, with whom the collective has a “very” open line of communication, and with people at other schools that the collective has relationships with, Newman said in a conversation with NJ Advance Media on Saturday.
The breakdown, he noted, is roughly $6-7 million for football — head coach Greg Schiano stated publicly last summer that the program needs “millions” to compete — with about $2 million needed for head coach Steve Pikiell’s program and the remaining pot split among Scott Goodale and Coquese Washington’s squads. And the money, Newman said, needs not only to come from the everyday fans chipping in monthly two-to-three-figure donations as KOTR members, but from individual deals from major donors and corporate sponsors as well.
“Folks have been asking us on a consistent basis ‘why haven’t we been more aggressive? Shouldn’t we have kept him?’ But bottom line is, what they’ve really been asking for is ‘how much money do we need?’ My answer to that question, normally, is ‘as much money as we or anybody else can raise or convince companies to get involved with.’ But if they need a number to shoot for, $10 million is a good number to shoot for,” Newman said. “If it is more than that, great, and if it is less than that, at least if we are bringing more in, that gives coaching staffs a chance to be more competitive and gives kids a chance to take advantage of their NIL, which we’re all about.
“That number is not meant to scare people,” Newman added. “This is pretty representative of what the world is right now. Coaches have to pick and choose and there may be situations where they have to let players go if they get really big offers. It is not surprising that someone who was the leading scorer on a Big Ten team, if he wants to leave during his graduate transfer year, he’s going to a) be attractive to other schools and b) command big dollars.”
Newman revealed that the collective has raised “about $1.5 million to date” in the year since it launched last spring, much of it coming from the successful Million Dollar Match campaign it ran in December and the “close to 1,000 members who give $10 or more per month.” But he notes that the money is not all in a general pot; much of it is earmarked for specific sports, and generally speaking, Newman said, “when the money comes in, the money comes out pretty quickly.”
In regards to the Spencer situation, Newman said KOTR was “as surprised as everybody else was” with the departure. Program great Geo Baker, who runs the “Knight Society” collective, tweeted Saturdaythat Rutgers “didn’t even get a chance to match the offer Cam was getting.” While Newman said he has no direct knowledge about that aspect of the situation, he said that KOTR did not have any conversation with the program about any recent offers the player received. He added that the program is aware of the pot of money available to them from the collective.
“We have a very open line of communication with coaches and staff, they know how much money Knights of the Raritan have available to them,” Newman said. “We collaborate with them on deals that make sense on the direction they want to go, but there is not like there is a ton of money sitting around, waiting for a particular player. It is much more limited based on the fact that folks have given primarily to football, some to men’s basketball, some to all sports, and we do our best to prioritize where that money should go. ... It is like managing a salary cap.”
Spencer’s stunning departure sparked a groundswell of conversation in Rutgers athletics circles, from social media to message boards and private conversations, about where the Scarlet Knights stand in the modern NIL world of college athletics. Based on conversations with coaches and experiences gathered in the past year of working in the space, Newman’s rough estimate is in the eight figures.
The $10 million is “not meant to scare anybody,” Newman said; it is just the reality of the situation.
“I think people, when they see that number, will say that fans can’t do all of that, and they are absolutely right,” Newman said. “It has to be a combination of what we do on the membership level, bigger donors that either come to us or go directly to student athletes, and corporate dollars. That’s a piece that’s been missing here that we are going to try and work on moving forward. We have some things planned for the fall that we’re working on right now.
“People get very upset, obviously, when the leading scorer of the basketball team decides to go somewhere else. Realistically, that’s just part of NIL these days. Schools are making offers to student athletes at other schools, apparently, and the numbers are very high. If you treat this as pro teams having a salary cap and coaches having to manage to those dollars, that’s really the situation that coaches are in right now.
“When you have 85 football players, the number is really high. When you have 12-13 men’s basketball players and some of them are going to command big dollars, and even the ones that you think won’t are getting nice offers. If you start doing the math, you can see where that number adds up pretty quickly. Coaches have to make decisions based on not only one player, but based on the whole team and players that aren’t on the team yet. When we look at the numbers and talk to coaches, that $10 million a year seems to be a number that is worth aspiring to. Not sure we can all get there, but that’s a number will probably help people have an understanding of what the situation is.”
https://www.nj.com/rutgers/2023/05/...llective-leader-shares-educated-estimate.html
Wake Forest
West Virginia
West Virginia Sports Now: West Virginia Basketball Searching For Depth in Transfer Portal
https://wvsportsnow.com/west-virginia-basketball-searching-for-depth-in-transfer-portal/
NBA
The Athletic: The anti-super teams: Nuggets, like Heat, refreshing reminder titles can be won by collectives
https://theathletic.com/4538645/2023/05/21/nuggets-heat-lakers-celtics-nba-anti-superteams/?amp=1
Boston
Boston Sports Journal: NBA Notebook: Joe Mazzulla getting used to NBA Playoff coaching criticism
https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com...a-getting-used-to-nba-playoff-coach-criticism
Denver
Colorado Springs Gazette: Jamal Murray's start, Nikola Jokic's finish give Denver Nuggets 3-0 series lead over Los Angeles Lakers
https://gazette.com/sports/denver-n...cle_7fea0d73-fbd1-5396-8982-4478daf7899c.html
LA Lakers
Washington Post: The Lakers’ party is winding down and a big bill is about to come due
“Though they already have committed more than $87 million to James and Davis for next season, the Lakers must pay whatever it takes to retain Reaves, otherwise they risk slipping back out of the playoff picture.
Retaining Reaves will probably mean that there isn’t enough money available to keep everyone else in town, and the Lakers will have few avenues to add significant talent because they have already sent out most of their future draft assets in past trades. That’s too bad, because Jokic has exposed Los Angeles’s need for another big man to lighten the physical toll absorbed by James and Davis…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/05/21/lakers-free-agents-nuggets-game-3/
Miami
San Antonio
2024 Recruiting
SEC Basketball
Kentucky
Lexington Herald Leader: Kentucky is still looking for roster additions. A very big target could be available soon
https://amp.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-basketball-men/article275601816.html
Mississippi State
College Basketball
Thamel ESPN: How an unfinished TV deal led to an unexpectedly hectic first month for the new Big Ten commissioner
https://www.espn.com/college-footba...missioner-television-deal-coaches-uncertainty
Cincinnati
Cincinnati Enquirer: UC gets 7-foot transfer Aziz Bandaogo from Utah Valley
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sp...aogo-who-helped-beat-them-in-nit/70239822007/
Grand Canyon
Arizona Central: GCU digest: Former Georgia State G Collin Moore commits to Grand Canyon basketball
https://www.azcentral.com/story/spo...-player-to-enter-transfer-portal/70053909007/
Rutgers
NJ.com: How much NIL money does Rutgers need to be competitive? Collective leader shares educated estimate
“But in the wake of a major domino falling in Piscataway on Friday, with men’s basketball’s leading scorer Cam Spencer entering the transfer portal after receiving overtures of major NIL opportunities from other programs, the collective’s President elected to publicly put a price tag on what he believes the Rutgers athletics ecosystem must aspire to raise annually in order to retain its top athletes and be competitive in the four major sports of football, men’s and women’s basketball, and wrestling:
$10 million.
The number is a rough estimate based on conversations with Rutgers coaches, with whom the collective has a “very” open line of communication, and with people at other schools that the collective has relationships with, Newman said in a conversation with NJ Advance Media on Saturday.
The breakdown, he noted, is roughly $6-7 million for football — head coach Greg Schiano stated publicly last summer that the program needs “millions” to compete — with about $2 million needed for head coach Steve Pikiell’s program and the remaining pot split among Scott Goodale and Coquese Washington’s squads. And the money, Newman said, needs not only to come from the everyday fans chipping in monthly two-to-three-figure donations as KOTR members, but from individual deals from major donors and corporate sponsors as well.
“Folks have been asking us on a consistent basis ‘why haven’t we been more aggressive? Shouldn’t we have kept him?’ But bottom line is, what they’ve really been asking for is ‘how much money do we need?’ My answer to that question, normally, is ‘as much money as we or anybody else can raise or convince companies to get involved with.’ But if they need a number to shoot for, $10 million is a good number to shoot for,” Newman said. “If it is more than that, great, and if it is less than that, at least if we are bringing more in, that gives coaching staffs a chance to be more competitive and gives kids a chance to take advantage of their NIL, which we’re all about.
“That number is not meant to scare people,” Newman added. “This is pretty representative of what the world is right now. Coaches have to pick and choose and there may be situations where they have to let players go if they get really big offers. It is not surprising that someone who was the leading scorer on a Big Ten team, if he wants to leave during his graduate transfer year, he’s going to a) be attractive to other schools and b) command big dollars.”
Newman revealed that the collective has raised “about $1.5 million to date” in the year since it launched last spring, much of it coming from the successful Million Dollar Match campaign it ran in December and the “close to 1,000 members who give $10 or more per month.” But he notes that the money is not all in a general pot; much of it is earmarked for specific sports, and generally speaking, Newman said, “when the money comes in, the money comes out pretty quickly.”
In regards to the Spencer situation, Newman said KOTR was “as surprised as everybody else was” with the departure. Program great Geo Baker, who runs the “Knight Society” collective, tweeted Saturdaythat Rutgers “didn’t even get a chance to match the offer Cam was getting.” While Newman said he has no direct knowledge about that aspect of the situation, he said that KOTR did not have any conversation with the program about any recent offers the player received. He added that the program is aware of the pot of money available to them from the collective.
“We have a very open line of communication with coaches and staff, they know how much money Knights of the Raritan have available to them,” Newman said. “We collaborate with them on deals that make sense on the direction they want to go, but there is not like there is a ton of money sitting around, waiting for a particular player. It is much more limited based on the fact that folks have given primarily to football, some to men’s basketball, some to all sports, and we do our best to prioritize where that money should go. ... It is like managing a salary cap.”
Spencer’s stunning departure sparked a groundswell of conversation in Rutgers athletics circles, from social media to message boards and private conversations, about where the Scarlet Knights stand in the modern NIL world of college athletics. Based on conversations with coaches and experiences gathered in the past year of working in the space, Newman’s rough estimate is in the eight figures.
The $10 million is “not meant to scare anybody,” Newman said; it is just the reality of the situation.
“I think people, when they see that number, will say that fans can’t do all of that, and they are absolutely right,” Newman said. “It has to be a combination of what we do on the membership level, bigger donors that either come to us or go directly to student athletes, and corporate dollars. That’s a piece that’s been missing here that we are going to try and work on moving forward. We have some things planned for the fall that we’re working on right now.
“People get very upset, obviously, when the leading scorer of the basketball team decides to go somewhere else. Realistically, that’s just part of NIL these days. Schools are making offers to student athletes at other schools, apparently, and the numbers are very high. If you treat this as pro teams having a salary cap and coaches having to manage to those dollars, that’s really the situation that coaches are in right now.
“When you have 85 football players, the number is really high. When you have 12-13 men’s basketball players and some of them are going to command big dollars, and even the ones that you think won’t are getting nice offers. If you start doing the math, you can see where that number adds up pretty quickly. Coaches have to make decisions based on not only one player, but based on the whole team and players that aren’t on the team yet. When we look at the numbers and talk to coaches, that $10 million a year seems to be a number that is worth aspiring to. Not sure we can all get there, but that’s a number will probably help people have an understanding of what the situation is.”
https://www.nj.com/rutgers/2023/05/...llective-leader-shares-educated-estimate.html
Wake Forest
West Virginia
West Virginia Sports Now: West Virginia Basketball Searching For Depth in Transfer Portal
https://wvsportsnow.com/west-virginia-basketball-searching-for-depth-in-transfer-portal/
NBA
The Athletic: The anti-super teams: Nuggets, like Heat, refreshing reminder titles can be won by collectives
https://theathletic.com/4538645/2023/05/21/nuggets-heat-lakers-celtics-nba-anti-superteams/?amp=1
Boston
Boston Sports Journal: NBA Notebook: Joe Mazzulla getting used to NBA Playoff coaching criticism
https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com...a-getting-used-to-nba-playoff-coach-criticism
Denver
Colorado Springs Gazette: Jamal Murray's start, Nikola Jokic's finish give Denver Nuggets 3-0 series lead over Los Angeles Lakers
https://gazette.com/sports/denver-n...cle_7fea0d73-fbd1-5396-8982-4478daf7899c.html
LA Lakers
Washington Post: The Lakers’ party is winding down and a big bill is about to come due
“Though they already have committed more than $87 million to James and Davis for next season, the Lakers must pay whatever it takes to retain Reaves, otherwise they risk slipping back out of the playoff picture.
Retaining Reaves will probably mean that there isn’t enough money available to keep everyone else in town, and the Lakers will have few avenues to add significant talent because they have already sent out most of their future draft assets in past trades. That’s too bad, because Jokic has exposed Los Angeles’s need for another big man to lighten the physical toll absorbed by James and Davis…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/05/21/lakers-free-agents-nuggets-game-3/
Miami
San Antonio
