re: Justice Williams to the Transfer Portal

quote:

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This applies to the majority of our team. Just stop.

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It would only apply to the following:

Miller
Coleman
Hill
Hannibal
Fountain
Hayes

Technically that is only 6 of the 13 scholarship players from this past season (considering KJ Williams is out of eligibility). It also doesn't apply to grad transfers. Hill and Hannibal just finished their 4th seasons of college basketball. I don't know if they are on pace to graduate this spring or summer. Given that Hill and Coleman both would presumably need a waiver to be eligible next season (if they aren't grad students), they must feel reasonably confident they will be eligible to play next season despite the NCAA rule.

As of now, Hill and Coleman are in the portal from that list. Justice Williams and C. Williams (Jesus, was LSU's team a Williams family reunion last year?) are as well. That is 5 players leaving once you add KJ. So while that is obviously not 9 new players, the number is continuing to increase. I could see a point where LSU has to replace 7 (maybe more) guys considering there are 4 more players who can transfer without penalty (Wilkinson + the 3 Freshmen).

That's why the "he had to replace his whole roster!" excuse never really carried much weight. That's the reality of college basketball today. While bringing in 9 new players is probably on the high end of the curve, it's not uncommon to see teams having to bring in 7-8 new players. Alabama had 8 players from last year's team leave. They brought in 7 new players (3 transfers; 4 HS signees). Arkansas had 10 players to replace from last year's team.

The reality of college basketball is coaches are essentially have to largely rebuild teams year after year. The coaches who will be successful are the ones who can do it year after year. The one's who can't won't find consistent success.