Bear Down Wildcats

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:00 pm

Chicat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:42 pm So when recruits, their families, and/or their handlers were getting paid under the table we could bring in top-10 recruiting classes but now that the payments are out in the open we don’t have the money? Someone explain to me how that works.

Also, how is it that USC, a school where basketball is definitely second banana to their powerhouse football program, has a better NIL structure in place than Arizona where basketball is king but that fact is somehow no fault of Arizona’s? And please don’t look foolish by saying it’s because they are in the B1G because no money from the conferences can go to NIL funds.

We were bringing in Top 10 classes because the billionaire booster class (like Phil Knight) were not engaged in paying basketball players under the table. If he was then Oregon would have been hauling in Top 10 classes years ago. They are now that NIL is in effect.

Regarding USC/B1G please don't look foolish and tell me that you are not aware that NCAA schools are going to be engaged in revenue sharing (and B1G schools like USC have a hell of a lot more of that than the UA) beginning in 2025?

https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-settlem ... 358b9bb339

Lando05 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:47 pm

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:03 pm

Lando05 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 1:55 pm Smoke not good for Arizona.. Tommy needs to really change his high school recruiting approach. I had issues with Miller, he would never loose a recruit like this especially in the NIL era. Tommy needs to maximize our NIL resources, no reason we can't be top 15 in NIL at a minimum. This is Arizona we should be getting top 15 recruiting classes with a couple 5 stars. Not relying on the transfer portal and international recruits.

And how exactly is CTL supposed to "Maximize" our NIL?? Rob a bank???

The NIL he has is solely up to the alumni and thus far, they are not ponying up.

Miller would never have lost a recruiting battle like this with NIL. Tommy's high school recruiting sucks and our NIL not being in the top 15 in the country says to me we aren't maximizing it. That responsibility lays with Tommy. Go raise the money with the boosters and alumni. If a booster can ear mark $1 million for Love, i doubt it would be hard to make sure we raise enough to not loose any bidding war for the son of Gilbert Arenas. Terrible look for the program and another big domestic prep recruit miss by Tommy.

Chicat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:16 pm

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 4:00 pm

Chicat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:42 pm So when recruits, their families, and/or their handlers were getting paid under the table we could bring in top-10 recruiting classes but now that the payments are out in the open we don’t have the money? Someone explain to me how that works.

Also, how is it that USC, a school where basketball is definitely second banana to their powerhouse football program, has a better NIL structure in place than Arizona where basketball is king but that fact is somehow no fault of Arizona’s? And please don’t look foolish by saying it’s because they are in the B1G because no money from the conferences can go to NIL funds.

We were bringing in Top 10 classes because the billionaire booster class (like Phil Knight) were not engaged in paying basketball players under the table. If he was then Oregon would have been hauling in Top 10 classes years ago. They are now that NIL is in effect.

Regarding USC/B1G please don't look foolish and tell me that you are not aware that NCAA schools are going to be engaged in revenue sharing (and B1G schools like USC have a hell of a lot more of that than the UA) beginning in 2025?

https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-settlem ... 358b9bb339

You do know that the revenue sharing agreement isn’t in place yet, right? And that the schools get to choose what percentage of revenue goes to the student athletes? And that this doesn’t answer the football vs basketball question and in fact makes it more important because most of that revenue sharing will be going to the football team? And that you’re a freakin’ broken record?

As for your billionaire booster class take, how is it that you know their intentions now vs then? Before NIL the USC billionaire boosters were content to see their team lose recruits to UA? Or did they always get good recruits (Demarr Derozan, OJ Mayo, the Mobleys, the Stewarts, Harold Minor, Nick Young, etc) and you’re just talking out of your ass?

MrKyle wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:51 pm

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:34 pm

MrKyle wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:26 pm

84Cat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:03 pm Fuck, Arenas to USC

Yea that one is unreal - should have been in drivers seat for Gil's kid

Why should we have been in the drivers seat??? Other than, maybe, Louisville every other school that made his final list most assuredly had larger NIL packages for him. The kids are going to go where the $$$$$$$$ are.

Wake up folks, this is NOT 2013. We are not going to be signing Top 10 recruiting classes every year in the NIL era. We are not going to consistently out-recruit SEC/B1G schools that have tens of millions more $$$revenue$$$$ and significantly more NIL to dole out than we do.

I know you've been tooting the NIL horn for a while now - does it play a part, absolutely.

I'm sure you also know why we should have been in the drivers seat for him being who his dad is and what he meant to our program as well.

I'm not expecting us to stack up 5 star after 5 star either, but this is a kid we should have went all-in on. Unless we are ending up with Peat/Burries both and he was the odd man out.

If we've got donors earmarking $1mil for caleb love but we can't put together a solid package for a top prospect (who is the son of a UA great bball player) then CTL is struggling to do his job of selling the program/NIL to our donors.

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 5:43 pm The revenue sharing is in place for 25......which Alijah Arenas will benefit from. And you do realize (probably not) that the power conferences are certainly going to revenue share with the money making sports (footbal & basketball)??? And that you are pretty much clueless???

Regarding Pre-NIL, Power schools like USC always out recruited us........they had better facilities, a winning , and a school located near the beach. Obviously you have been clueless for years. Try and keep up.

Chicat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 6:10 pm

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 5:43 pm The revenue sharing is in place for 25......which Alijah Arenas will benefit from. And you do realize (probably not) that the power conferences are certainly going to revenue share with the money making sports (footbal & basketball)??? And that you are pretty much clueless???

Regarding Pre-NIL, Power schools like USC always out recruited us........they had better facilities, a winning , and a school located near the beach. Obviously you have been clueless for years. Try and keep up.

You are precious.

Boring, wrong, stubborn, pedantic, and non-sensical… but most of all precious. Going back to ignoring your histrionics now Chicken Little.

Beachcat97 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:19 pm

84Cat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:03 pm Fuck, Arenas to USC

This one hurts.

AZCatGirl wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 7:47 pm Yeah, I'm not getting the meltdown on social media over not getting him. I think people are thinking back on Gil's past with rose colored glasses a bit.

Lando05 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:01 pm

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:56 pm

Lando05 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:47 pm

dmjcat wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:03 pm

Lando05 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 1:55 pm Smoke not good for Arizona.. Tommy needs to really change his high school recruiting approach. I had issues with Miller, he would never loose a recruit like this especially in the NIL era. Tommy needs to maximize our NIL resources, no reason we can't be top 15 in NIL at a minimum. This is Arizona we should be getting top 15 recruiting classes with a couple 5 stars. Not relying on the transfer portal and international recruits.

And how exactly is CTL supposed to "Maximize" our NIL?? Rob a bank???

The NIL he has is solely up to the alumni and thus far, they are not ponying up.

Miller would never have lost a recruiting battle like this with NIL. Tommy's high school recruiting sucks and our NIL not being in the top 15 in the country says to me we aren't maximizing it. That responsibility lays with Tommy. Go raise the money with the boosters and alumni. If a booster can ear mark $1 million for Love, i doubt it would be hard to make sure we raise enough to not loose any bidding war for the son of Gilbert Arenas. Terrible look for the program and another big domestic prep recruit miss by Tommy.

So you believe that UA football/basketball coaches are now responsible for fund-raising in addition to coaching??? I think you are in for a very hard reality check. UA Alumni have never been in the top 40 (or 50 for that matter) when it comes to donating to the athletic dept. I remember a statement that Mike Stoops once made:

"We may have got it as good as it can get. You have to be realistic with what your expectations are and you should have high expectations, I certainly did. But what you're capable of and what the circumstances that are dealt to you, it's hard to achieve those big goals of winning a championship there," Stoops said of his time at Arizona. "There's a reason they haven't won a championship at Arizona and it's not bad coaching or bad players. You can blame it on anything you want, football and championships are about commitments made university wide. It's a commitment made to winning, not at all costs but there is a cost.

"When you don't have a football facility and every Mountain West team has one and you don't, that's a problem. We were playing at a BCS level and I feel like I was fighting with a toothpick and they've got a bat."

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/111 ... nt-matters

If you don't think it's thier job to maximize NIL, booster donations, and any other way to improve the program I don't know what you think being the head of a program like Arizona basketball means.

We have a top 8 college basketball program there's no excuse for we can't have a top 15 NIL. Before NIL was even legal Miller sure pulled it off because he maximized the resources available to him with Arizonas brand and alumni. Tommy hasn't done that yet and he better figure it out quickly.

gronk4heisman wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:27 am The NIL talk is stupid and old and repetitive, especially when the recruits own dad said during the recruitment regardless of the numbers being thrown around the Arenas name at Arizona is going to make for more NIL opportunities and money in Tucson than anywhere else. If we were talking Brayden Burries maybe you could do your same old song and dance, but not with this recruitment. This recruitment boils down to Tommy not prioritizing Arenas and showing him enough love, maybe due to him preferring Burries or maybe due to his recruiting style.

gronk4heisman wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:27 am The NIL talk is stupid and old and repetitive, especially when the recruits own dad said during the recruitment regardless of the numbers being thrown around the Arenas name at Arizona is going to make for more NIL opportunities and money in Tucson than anywhere else. If we were talking Brayden Burries maybe you could do your same old song and dance, but not with this recruitment. This recruitment boils down to Tommy not prioritizing Arenas and showing him enough love, maybe due to him preferring Burries or maybe due to his recruiting style.

dmjcat wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 9:50 am

gronk4heisman wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:27 am The NIL talk is stupid and old and repetitive, especially when the recruits own dad said during the recruitment regardless of the numbers being thrown around the Arenas name at Arizona is going to make for more NIL opportunities and money in Tucson than anywhere else. If we were talking Brayden Burries maybe you could do your same old song and dance, but not with this recruitment. This recruitment boils down to Tommy not prioritizing Arenas and showing him enough love, maybe due to him preferring Burries or maybe due to his recruiting style.

You keep right on living in that fantasy world of yours.

In another 4-5 years after you watch all of the top prospects in basketball & football head off to the power conferences (who have the money) maybe reality will finally dawn on you.

I'm not holding my breath.

Have a nice weekend.

mofo wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 2:59 pm Wasn't very long ago during the Deandre Ayton/Nico Mannion years that it seemed most people here were over 5* recruits and wanted 4* guys who would play team ball and stay a few years. The grass is always greener!

AZCatGirl wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 7:47 pm Yeah, I'm not getting the meltdown on social media over not getting him. I think people are thinking back on Gil's past with rose colored glasses a bit.

Also, did anyone think we'd be 8-1 in the Big 12 with this lineup? Not saying we should do the OKG thing like Football, but it's not like highly rated kids guarantees you success. As long as we don't lose out on all the highly rated kids we'll be okay. I think Tommy has earned some trust at this point.

Winger wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 8:32 am

AZCatGirl wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 7:47 pm Yeah, I'm not getting the meltdown on social media over not getting him. I think people are thinking back on Gil's past with rose colored glasses a bit.

Also, did anyone think we'd be 8-1 in the Big 12 with this lineup? Not saying we should do the OKG thing like Football, but it's not like highly rated kids guarantees you success. As long as we don't lose out on all the highly rated kids we'll be okay. I think Tommy has earned some trust at this point.

100

I don’t know about every booster but there is a subset of Arizona hoops boosters who aren’t and have never been stoked on collectives and NIL. They can’t see the return on their investment, they aren’t sure how much goes to the players, revenue sharing is on the horizon, and importantly they believe this current system is to be short lived. Further you have the free transfer era coupled with lack of contracts to lock up the Arenas of the world who are free to bail on you (and your investment) after 1 season even if they don’t go the League. And the record clearly shows that there aren’t than many Cooper Flag’s in the world (making FFs and winning natties on the backs of 5-star freshmen mostly ended a while ago).

Imv the tract record on elite level recruiting the in the NIL era is spotty. How are Rutgers and BYU doing? Even Arkansas is struggling. Duke still has Nike feeding multiple 5-stars to it just about each class and is an exception but that seems to be about it. Mussleman stinks is a bad dude and will fail at SC, I’d put big money on that.

It’s been more difficult this season due to our lousy OOC performance but, heretofore, with the exception of NCAA Tournament performance (which admittedly is a big deal), Lloyd has won enough games at Arizona imo to allow for letting the leash out on his recruiting some.

And, let the record show, Miller — in a vastly different and more easy to navigate environment — got 0 Final Fours from his 5-stars and I would argue that his panic-reaching for Ayton (am biased here because I always believed his recruitment was a giant mistake) and the rest after the glow had come off of his program on the recruiting trail (the Kobe and Alkins reaches were your 1st clue) 1) ended his tenure and 2) just about destroyed our great program.

This story — Lloyd’s recruiting, NIL, transfer era — continues to be a work in progress imo and is TBD.

Beachcat97 wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 3:37 pm I disagree on Musselman. That's a pretty good hire for USC.

Winger wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 4:34 pm

Beachcat97 wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 3:37 pm I disagree on Musselman. That's a pretty good hire for USC.

I can't stand Mussleman. Personal issues at play here. I can't be objective. But I'd bet big money he won't make it long term at SC. He either will get lucky and pull a Fisch after a season or 2 or he will burn out and fade away like he did at Arky (and bail right before getting canned, again). He is 13-8 and 5-5 to date this season FTR with zero quality OOC wins.

dmjcat wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 12:18 pm Koa Peat broke his hand and is done for this season

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 851418007/

dmjcat wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 12:18 pm Koa Peat broke his hand and is done for this season

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... 851418007/

Frybry02 wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:28 pm I am beginning to think next year’s roster is going to be without Peat, Bryant, and Burries. Scary to think what roster may end up looking like.

Frybry02 wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:28 pm I am beginning to think next year’s roster is going to be without Peat, Bryant, and Burries. Scary to think what roster may end up looking like.

GTownCat wrote: Fri Mar 14, 2025 12:34 am

Frybry02 wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:28 pm I am beginning to think next year’s roster is going to be without Peat, Bryant, and Burries. Scary to think what roster may end up looking like.

Serious inquiry but I wonder if the likes of Hurley returning for another season has anything to do with landing Peat

Frybry02 wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:28 pm I am beginning to think next year’s roster is going to be without Peat, Bryant, and Burries. Scary to think what roster may end up looking like.

Fishclamps wrote: Fri Mar 14, 2025 10:03 am

Frybry02 wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:28 pm I am beginning to think next year’s roster is going to be without Peat, Bryant, and Burries. Scary to think what roster may end up looking like.

Am I missing something? Why think that?

GTownCat wrote: Fri Mar 14, 2025 12:34 am

Frybry02 wrote: Thu Mar 13, 2025 6:28 pm I am beginning to think next year’s roster is going to be without Peat, Bryant, and Burries. Scary to think what roster may end up looking like.

Serious inquiry but I wonder if the likes of Hurley returning for another season has anything to do with landing Peat

VegasCatFan wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 3:31 pm I know we went after Dedan Thomas when he was in high school but lost out on him to UNLV, his hometown school. They fired the head coach at UNLV the other day. The headline online from the newspaper says UNLV might lose star guard to transfer portal.

He's a 6'1" sophomore guard, averaged 15.6 points and 4.7 assists. If he does leave, I wonder if we'd have interest in him again. Could be a great back-up to Bradley for a year before taking over the reins as a senior.

dmjcat wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 4:15 pm

VegasCatFan wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 3:31 pm I know we went after Dedan Thomas when he was in high school but lost out on him to UNLV, his hometown school. They fired the head coach at UNLV the other day. The headline online from the newspaper says UNLV might lose star guard to transfer portal.

He's a 6'1" sophomore guard, averaged 15.6 points and 4.7 assists. If he does leave, I wonder if we'd have interest in him again. Could be a great back-up to Bradley for a year before taking over the reins as a senior.

Chicat wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 9:06 am If Jaden and KJ stick around, they are our starting guards next year.