re: MBB Offseason '26 Transfer Portal / HS Tracker

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If they didn't come to an agreement with the guys wanting to leave it must have been for a good reason.

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Well, the issue becomes you are then at the mercy of who does or doesn’t enter the portal. Next thing you know you’re catching a plane to Europe to find talent

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Isn’t everyone at the mercy of who does or doesn’t enter the portal? What if a coach thinks he can get better players in Europe?

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Everyone is, just at varying levels. I mean you just said this in your next sentence.

If you have 9 spots to fill vs a handful, your approach will be different and the impact of not landing guys you really want will be felt. Same applies if it’s a down year, like this one.

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I mean it’s not like McMahon recruited very well. If he did, then he’s clearly not the coach some on here make him out to be

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What’s McMahon have to do with anything? Why is he even brought up still?

Assuming players aren’t good cause they were on a bad team is short sighted & just kind of ignorant, actually.

Not interested the playing the semantics game. We can get it out the way that McMahon was a shitty coach and his rosters were poor. But Just because the roster was “bad” doesn’t mean there aren’t good players to take from it.

Losing your guards to Houston & Texas A&M and turning around and signing Michigan St’s backup PG for $2mil does not seem like a planned thing to me, but hey, what do I know? And I like Ugo. But that really needs to hit at this point.

It’s weird that you guys keep saying this. Good player sure but he wasn’t a top 4-5 SEC guard last year so how is he a “High level power conference guard”? Some of you guys were saying he was better than Acuff before he was injured, that’s crazy.

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It’s weird that you guys keep saying this. Good player sure but he wasn’t a top 4-5 SEC PG last year so how is he a “High level power conference guard”?

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The fact there were other good guards in the league doesn't make Thomas any worse. Ugo wasn't a top 20 PG in the Big 10, what's make you think he's better?

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Some of you guys were saying he was better than Acuff before he was injured, that’s crazy.

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Who is "you guys"? I certainly never said or thought that.

Yes, other players being better means he was worse than they were.

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Yes, other players being better means he was worse than they were.

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You're either being purposefully obtuse or you're just retarded. I'm leaning towards the latter.

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Are you saying they weren't SEC level players? Or just not a good fit together in CMM's "system" (such as it was)?

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No I am saying that if any SEC coach would have chosen those two or similar players as their backcourt. As in both are SEC caliber players, Thomas would probably be a really really nice 7th man or first guard off the bench of an SEC team that is looking to go to the tournament, and probably could start at 7 or 8 SEC schools, but if you have him out there his running mate can’t be a Max Mackinnon you have no chance to be competitive. Flip side you get Max Mackinnon, probably a firecracker bench role player that brings instant offense on most SEC teams minus the top 2-3. But you cannot have those two together. It doesn’t matter the system. So regardless of what I think about each one individually, maybe on a different team with a complimentary backcourt player not only would they have done better but reached another level and figured out how to contribute to winning SEC basketball. Neither IMO are good enough where you build a backcourt around them.

Context matters as well:

Year 1: Backcourt of 6’2 Cam Hayes (NC State transfer) 6’2 Trae Hannibal (Murray State transfer) and 5’11 Justice Hill (Murray State transfer). You bring in very undersized, unathletic, mid major experienced players, that are not good defenders individually and if they play need help. They each need high usage rates with the ball to get anywhere near net positive ratings.
Team goes 2-16 in SEC play and finishes dead last.

Year 3: Bring in 5’10 Jordan Sears (UT-Martin transfer) 6’3 Cam Carter (Kansas State transfer)

Pretty much same deficiencies as the year one backcourt. Yeah Carter came from the Big-12 , played bigger than 6’3, so instead of 5 outright player traits he didn’t have, that no player will overcome in 5 months Carter was only lacking 3. Team goes 3-15 in SEC play and oh goodie they are improving they finish second to last in the SEC.

Year 4: Brings in Thomas and Mackinnon, undersized, unathletic, inexperienced, horrible defenders, that really only bring net positive value with the ball in their hands on really bad teams.
Team finishes 3-15 and dead last in the SEC.


It’s not working. No other SEC team did that. The other bottom dwellers have backcourts with experienced high major recruits or transfers. Of the 5 worst teams in the SEC only one had a backcourt where both were under 6’3. Even other bad SEC school the bottom 5, had backcourts with guys that had played at Ohio State, Miami, Texas Tech, and other big schools, athletic, 6’6 to 6’7 and better defenders than offensive players in the SEC.

In Year 2: Brought in a 6’5 guard from Vanderbilt that had some defensive chops, efficient offensive scorer, and played bigger than his height and weight. When Cook was on the team he had transferred in from Tulane but had played at LSU already, even at 6’0 was very athletic for his height, not a great defender but you had Mwani Wilkinson at 6’5 who was a very good defender, really athletic, and a 6’8 bean pole in Tyrell Ward that had no polish offensively but could guard 4 positions and was an athletic freak. The team goes 9-9 and is competitive.