re: MBB Offseason '25 Transfer Portal Tracker

Wow you saw all of that? I saw an instant turnover waiting to happen. Trips and falls over his own feet 2-3 times a game. Absolutely zero shooting touch. One one of the worst shooting PG I’ve seen in a long time!!

I just don’t see it with Givens either. Best hope is he takes a jump from year 1 to year 2 similar to Tim Quarterman.

No one should give up on a top 100 player after 1 season who came into an awful situation with little talent around

He didn’t shoot well this year but he has a beautiful shot.

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Wow you saw all of that? I saw an instant turnover waiting to happen. Trips and falls over his own feet 2-3 times a game. Absolutely zero shooting touch. One one of the worst shooting PG I’ve seen in a long time!!

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I'm trying to think of all the players you probably trashed after their freshman year

garrett temple
tim quarterman
skylar mays
brandon sampon


and you probably thought Bo Spencer was next

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There’s a reason he was strictly a facilitator in high school!

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He hit 6 three pointers in his team's championship game.

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watched a couple of his high school games on tv. He did no scoring those games, strictly passed the ball. If he couldn’t shoot/score in high school, what makes you think he’ll all of sudden figure it out in the toughest basketball league in the country ??

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Dude are you serious? He played on the best high school team in the country, what’d you want him to do when he had Cooper Flagg, Derick Queen, Liam McNeely, and Asa Newell, In case you didn’t know that’s four 5 stars and all have a chance to be lottery picks.

According to you he couldn’t score yet in the high school National Championship game he scored 24 point leading the game. He also shot 41% from 3 his senior year.

Pretty ridiculous take to think that a 20 year old who has played one season of college basketball can’t develop. Not everyone comes in and is a star day one.

Give him some talent around him and I guarantee you his numbers improve.

This board took a significant hit on 1/11/25

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Please explain to me WHAT upside you saw ?? I’ll hang up and listen

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You guys drastically overvalue or overrate incoming Freshman. Givens was the 61st ranked player in his class, that isn't supposed to be a guy that comes in and has a positive impact year one, it's a developmental prospect.

The six guards/wings ranked ahead and below Givens by On3 averaged 3.2 pts, 1.2 rbs, .62 asts, and .57 turns per night on 35.6% from the field.

You don't recruit guys like Givens for now, now you certainly hope they can contribute now, but you recruit them to get them into your program and develop them over two to three seasons.

Well yeah he was playing on one of the greatest high school rosters talent wise. All of those guys starting were averaging at least 10 points last year as college freshman. He didn’t need to score with guys like Queen and Flagg in the floor. But if you look at some of his AAU footage he took on more of a scoring role.

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Skylar Mayes was bad his first year and look how he developed. Not every player is going to be a seasoned, SEC ready transfer. You still need some young HS talent that will develop.

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I'm not completely agreeing with the guy completely bagging on Givens, but I agree with him way more than some of you are trying to make these ridiculous comparisons.

Skylar Mays was a very solid freshman. He had a 15.3 PER. Curtis Givens had a 4.7 PER, they are on 2 different planets.

Givens is the worst player I've seen at LSU suit up and play significant minutes for us over the last decade or so outside of maybe Justice Hill (in 2023). He literally didnt do anything well this past year. Not a single thing. He was very bad in most aspects as well, which isnt good. Normally a guy who plays significant minutes for us might have 1 redeeming quality but I honestly didnt see any with Givens. freshman Eric Gaines was an atrocious offensive player but his defense was amazing and thats why you could see why he got minutes that year.

Just to show what Givens was able to accomplish this year, this is Torvik's stats on him in comparison to every SEC player who played at least 40% of the team's available minutes in conference play only.

Adjusted PORPAGATU = -0.5, yes that's a negative, which ranked 110/110 players. He was 1 of only 2 players in this to have a negative PORPAGATU, meaning a "replacement level" player would have been better than him

BPM = -4.1, yes, again, a negative number, which again ranked 110/110 players in the SEC. He was 1 of only 7 players to have a negative here and way WAY worse than the 2nd worst guy who had a -2.2.

Offensive Rating = 74.9, 110/110 players once again, 2nd worst was MUCH higher at 83.3...making him by far the worst offensive player in the conference by a longshot (who played significant minutes)

Defensive Rating = 104.9, 103/110 players. Holy crap he wasnt dead last in something! Not a great look to be by far the worst offensive player i nthe conference but bottom 10% in defense as well. Worst on LSU's team in this respect as well.

Was an average/below average rebounder for a guard basically and his assist rate was way lower than Sears, Cam Carter and even with Dji Bailey on our own team. He shot 29% from 2 (I didnt even think that was possible to be that bad from 2) which was obviously worst in league by a bunch and 25% from 3 which doesnt seem nearly as terrible as the 29% from 2 but is pretty awful for a guy who launched about double the amount for 3 vs. 2 (in league play).

Any player can improve, we've all seen it, but Givens has a long long long long long way to go compared to anyone else I've seen suit up for us and played significant minutes. I hope I'm wrong but I think playing alongside a bunch of superstar high school players really distorted his true ability in terms of how it translates to this level of basketball.

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Just to show what Givens was able to accomplish this year, this is Torvik's stats on him in comparison to every SEC player who played at least 40% of the team's available minutes in conference play only.

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EM rankings standardized cutoff is 500 possessions. The SEC had 140 players in that category. Givens ranked 140. He has to improve drastically next season for LSU to have any shot at the NCAA.

Robert Miller is LSU's highest-rated returning player at 118 in the SEC. Obviously, Reed would have rated out higher if he had not gotten injured.

CMM went into the portal season with only one returning legit starter, Reed. So far, he's added one starter who will be a huge upgrade on the scoring side. There is still a lot of work to do.