re: MBB Offseason '26 Transfer Portal / HS Tracker

is it wadley? hes supposed to commit tonight

topic is basketball don't do this in every thread

I don’t know who, but I was told its a big time player. Will leak tomorrow.

Would be nice for everyone to stay on topic here.

A couple of things. Wade didn't have the advantage of a pretty good roster. He didn't have a stacked transfer class. He didn't have time on his side. What he's doing is a gamble. It's calculated.

His coaching history (Xs and Os) can be questioned. His roster building and scheduling has been pretty elite. This is a new world. Does it suck to lose players to aTm and UH? Yeah. Is it possible he miscalculated? Maybe. It's better to pay a player who actually plays the whole season...might be part of it.

Whatever he's doing deserves some grace and some latitude. Let it play out. He and his staff's jobs and reputations are on the line, not any of ours.

I believe he's going to make the most of this and do whatever he can to put a winner on the floor. If he manages to do that in year one with these challenges, the future is brighter than ever.

Ok, now i may have to call a doc, because this erection will last over 4 hours

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So with just the reality of the pairing without stats first. You have a 6’0 170lb guard in Thomas from UNLV a once proud program that has fallen on hard times. He was the leading scorer on one of the worst offensive teams in college basketball. He is not athletic for his small stature. Is best described as the liability of liabilities on defense. Then you pair him with Mackinnon who is a 6’5 190lb flame throwing guard coming from Elon and Portland. He is not athletic nor does he play bigger than his size. But he is even more anemic on defense than Thomas but cant use being 6’0 160lb for an excuse. They both averaged 15ppg and about 2.5 boards, Thomas put up really good assist numbers and is pretty good in space and pace. However when they stepped up into SEC play their numbers drop like a rock. Their EFG went down a lot, in conference play Mackinnon shot under 40% from the field. But both had their 3pt percentages get a lot worse with usage factored in, so Mackinnon in non con shot about 38% that’s pretty good. In conference it drops to 33%, Thomas 3pt% stayed about the same regardless but both shot more in the SEC. But both shoot great from the FT line in SEC play, neither one of them get to the line though. And of course most SEC players numbers and advanced metrics will generally take a hit, step up in competition, more true road games, and generally more focused and prepared scouting. But Thomas and Mackinnon’s drop way more compared to not even every backcourt in the SEC just the bottom 5 teams ahead of us. The 5 schools ahead of us in the standings they are bad teams but atleast they had competent backcourts. Every one of them has larger tandems in size, more athletic, more experienced as in if they were transferred they came from big programs. Couldn’t be much worse defensively than Thomas and Mackinnon but not only are those 5 backcourts better defensively they aren’t so bad that most teams best day offensively is against them. 4 of those 5 teams backcourts had their best SEC single game performances offensively against LSU. But again he did it for 3 years. Like we just got Bashir who is a 6’7 guard from Kansas State. I mean that alone is enough.

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Great post for all the Thomas fluffers we have on the rant. He’s decent but he’s no where near elite like most think. Doesn’t have the quickness or skill of say a Tremont Waters to offset his lack of size.

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The insinuation from some people that Dedan Thomas is not a high level power conference guard is pretty funny.

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He wasn’t big enough nor and more importantly he was NOT athletic enough to play with the top guards. As coasttiger commented every sec game he played in the opposing teams guards had their best days.

And his last year we had an elite defensive team. He can win in multiple ways

Being good at both is brag worthy, not just one. There is enough data that shows hardware-winning teams are generally elite at both.