PSU BBall: Rasir Bolton enters transfer portal
- Thread starter Lion8286
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Except that we have had coaches actually MAKE the tournament. Not Pat.
Even the most ardent supporters of Pat (myself included) are done at this point.
Problem is, I see no likelihood the next hire does anything better. The school isn’t going to spend for someone big. The facilities will still suck. The program will still be underfinanced compared to our peers. So we’re just going to reshuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. We have to though, because everyone leaving or decommitting makes clear that nobody trusts Pat will be around, so he’s now toxic.
Maybe someone catches lightning in a bottle for a season now and then. That’s the best we can hope for but it’s a step up from what we have now.
Wb, I agree 100% with every sentence in your big paragraph except the last. But not sure the reason why the last decommitment and this transfer are occurring.....they both could honestly have NOTHING to do with Pat.....but I agree, especially as a prospective recruit, that Pat’s days are numbered one way or another.
What is so difficult to understand is why the transfer portal has been made so - geez, can I use the word - liberal. It's out of hand.
Great idea. blame the Coach because a player who is a backup and grades out as a backup is leaving. Personally, i believe Bolton (and family) is listening to a bunch of poppycock. The grass is not always greener. He'll transfer, sit out a year (soph) and ride the bench in some forgotten school in the far reaches of the forest.
True, but it's hard to remember a time when it wasn't broken. This is just quintessential Penn State basketball. I'm convinced it will never amount to much of anything.
- How do you know that Bolton graded out as a career backup?
- Isn't it the coach's job to recruit kids that will ultimately contribute as starters?
feel like this is the best assessment i've seen. Dude has put in major work, I absolutely hate to see him fail. But he is failing, sadly.
It just seems clear to me that when 1 guy leaves and 2 commits decommit, it's over. That's 3 players expected to be on the team and contributing next year that said nevermind. It appears Bolton was gone whether Chambers had a 10 year deal or not, but the decommits I think speak directly to a lack of faith that Chambers will be around going forward.
It's a shame. I have a feeling everyone bitching about Chambers now will long for our days of moderate competitiveness in a couple years. Hopefully I'm wrong.
I believe Pat is sn honorable man and honorable men have little coaching value in today's world of NCAA basketball and football. They should call the top 25 in both sports the "toxic 25" because, to a greater or lesser degree, virtually all of them are. What's sad is that most fans don't care. They would rather cheat a little, or a lot, and be part of March Madness or the football playoffs than be relegated to the CBI or the Quick Lane Bowl.
It’s very unusual that a player playing 25-30min on a B1G basketball team would choose to transfer, particularly if you’re prospects are looking up and you have a chance to be a big fish in a little pond. He’ll either play fewer minutes at a better program or we’ll never hear from him again. While I’d be the first or second to show Chambers the door, something is off. Grades?
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anon_1eeb2b426hv3y
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He has put up a monumental effort. And I’m still not convinced he’s part of the problem. Even still, It’s hard to argue that change isn’t needed.
My problem is if there needs to be a coaching change to get this program off the toilet it needs to be a coaching change plus [other]. If PSU knows what other is, why hasn’t it been tried before firing a guy who kept up his end of the bargain.
Pat’s problem is PSU hasn’t done [other] and fair or unfair he seems to be running, or has ran, out of time. At this point it’s gonna be hard to sell the program to quality recruits.
EDIT: my sentence above pre-supposed he’ll be fired. I doubt that will happen soon. The focus is on where PSU is the problem [other], not the coach. Seems to me, those who haven’t given up on PSU BB are in the minority that includes the coach.
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i think Pat's a really stand up guy and has done as best he could. PSU basketball is a tough sell, no doubt and he brought some good players here. A few years ago our football program was given up for dead by a lot of people and look where we're at now. This is not rocket science, bring in an up and coming coach that relates to kids and know hows to motivate them, and pay him enough dollars to come here. We are PSU for goodness sakes. What a good athletic director could do for this school is mind boggling
I’m chambers fan but he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. It sucks trying to work without money and expect A+ results although it’s clear nobody cares about the end product.
He’s digging a trench by hand around a capable excavator while Sandy stands there and watches while holding the keys. It’s asinine.
He’s digging a trench by hand around a capable excavator while Sandy stands there and watches while holding the keys. It’s asinine.
FTR - only one of the decommits was for next year, the other was two years away.
The problem is even if a program doesn’t cheat, everyone thinks they do (as your post proves). There may actually be programs out there doing it right and having some success, but the assumption is that everyone cheats. I don’t agree with that...I think there are many coaches out there that are obsessive about the rules and sticking to them and I don’t think all of those coaches are not successful. For the most part, the same relatively small number of programs are having unreal success with an occasional outlier having unreal success for a brief time as well...but let’s accuse everyone. It seems pretty easy to me who should be targeted for cheating.
True. If the barometer of success is making the tournament as a head coach once every eight years, our standard for a coach is extremely low. I truly believer Chambers walked into an awful situation and built the program the right way. I don’t think any one would debate that his recruiting was fantastic in comparison to program history. It did lead for sustainable winning above the awful norm over the history of the program. With that said, he’s had some operational and coaching issues that resulted in too many losses with too much talent over the last few years. He’s still a much better option than DeChellis and Dunn or a hire that would be similar. At this point, you need to roll the dice. This season is going to be a disaster. I wish the administration would actually invest money in the program.
While I am not going to sit here and defend the basketball program, (although I do like Chambers) tying the decommitments into the transfers ignores some of the facts. The guy who decomitted for next year (McKoy) had his recruitment blow up late. He decomitted from PSU and was immediately offered by NC State, then within weeks offered by UNC and UVA. He has since committed to UVA. Losing a recruit to the NC winner or in-state powerhouses is nothing new to PSU. It is not like we are going to sneak down into NC and grab a player they want. Reminds me of the Justin Fields situation a couple years ago. Identify the talent, get the commit early, and hope you hold on. A guy transferring from a basketball program is also not a big deal. Unfortunately, PSU does not have the depth to absorb these losses.
You might want to check overall records of past coaches compared to Pat before you state he had sustainable winning above the awful norm of the past.
Not saying cheating doesn’t exist, but the main issue with PSU hoops is the administration does not spend money. We are last in the B1G in expenditures and millions behind the next to last school, Rutgers. PSU needs to triple their budget if they want to be competitive annually. Sandy does not care about men’s basketball. Neither did any of the prior ADs. Nebraska’s AD changed the culture there and we need a maverick like him to do so here.
If Lamar doesn’t return, they will be lucky to win one B1G game. The cupboard will be bare and the new coach will have nothing to work with in 2020. Of course, if we spend $5 million on a coach, none of that matters and change would literally occur overnight from a recruiting and transfer in perspective. It’s a pipe dream to even think this has a possibility of occurring, but we can certainly be competitive in hoops if the university decided to spend money.
Some fans may expect A+ results. I would say most don’t although their expectations are higher than Sandy. Sandy expects C results and pays for F results. Great value.
One difference between Fields and McCoy is that McCoy was signed and a few months from enrolling. PSU voluntarily let him out of the commitment. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, which can be debated, but how often do we see signed recruits back out shortly before they are set to enroll?
Good point. But what choice did PSU really have. Force him to maintian his commit and just sit out the year before "transferring?" I wish he would have wanted to stay and help build the program, but hard to argue when the choices are NC St, UNC, and UVA. Had he gone to a mid-major, different story.
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I don't; it was supposition on my part based on knowledge of current roster. Sure is the Coaches job to recruit kids that will ultimately contribute as starters. Maybe we can land a Lew Alcindor, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Bill Russel but today they are one and done. It is a different landscape. If you don't play me as I want then I will transfer.
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anon_1eeb2b426hv3y
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agreed. Except the “expect A+ results” part. Anyone who expects that hasn’t been paying attention for a long time.
I am not suggesting everyone opens up suitcases full of cash, but I think cheating is rampant. It's just a matter of degree.
From the professor that gives a break to keep a kid eligible to an assistant that knows a booster is paying a kid's family and turns a blind eye, cheating is virtually everywhere. Even Stanford, the paragon of virtue in college athletics, was found guilty of NCAA rules violations in its football and softball programs in 2016. For decades I preached the same sermon you are, but no longer. I wish it were true but I no longer buy it.
Sorry, but i’m tired of hearing about Chamber’s hands being tied by the budget, the BJC, yada, yada, yada. There’s are tons of mid major schools in the NCAA that don’t have the budget and all the positive intangibles that Penn State has.
Let’s look at say a Murray State, a school that has made the tournament 4 times during the Chambers era It’s a school in the middle of nowhere in KY. They play at an smaller, 8,600 seat, 20 year old arena. They spend less than $2 million on basketball, almost 3 times less than Penn State’s current spend. They also don’t play in a conference with its own TV network where just about every game is nationally televised.
Murray State is just one example of a school that has achieved consistent success in basketball, with less investment than Penn State. While we clearly need improvement made to the BJC and a larger operating budget, first and foremost we need a coach that can recruit a high level of talent to Penn State. Sandy, please, please, please spend some of that $5+ million of profit Penn Sate makes on its basketball program and go hire that kind of coach.
Let’s look at say a Murray State, a school that has made the tournament 4 times during the Chambers era It’s a school in the middle of nowhere in KY. They play at an smaller, 8,600 seat, 20 year old arena. They spend less than $2 million on basketball, almost 3 times less than Penn State’s current spend. They also don’t play in a conference with its own TV network where just about every game is nationally televised.
Murray State is just one example of a school that has achieved consistent success in basketball, with less investment than Penn State. While we clearly need improvement made to the BJC and a larger operating budget, first and foremost we need a coach that can recruit a high level of talent to Penn State. Sandy, please, please, please spend some of that $5+ million of profit Penn Sate makes on its basketball program and go hire that kind of coach.
The transfer portal isn’t really something that provides a new route to leave. It’s really just classified ads showing the people who are thinking of leaving. I don’t think the transfer portal is a bad thing. The NCAA’s haphazard rules and decisions RE immediate eligibility are definitely a bad thing.
I’m not sure this is the death knell for the basketball team. But it sure isn’t a good thing. You have a coach who has done very little in terms of results in his time at PSU and now you have a starter transferring. This isn’t like football where we have a 3 or 4 star waiting on the sideline. The cupboard is pretty lean in terms of talent as far as the basketball team goes.
I’m not sure this is the death knell for the basketball team. But it sure isn’t a good thing. You have a coach who has done very little in terms of results in his time at PSU and now you have a starter transferring. This isn’t like football where we have a 3 or 4 star waiting on the sideline. The cupboard is pretty lean in terms of talent as far as the basketball team goes.
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anon_1eeb2b426hv3y
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Penn State is tasked with competing in the BigTen conference. Murray state has an easier road to the tourney and doesn’t have as big an automatic payoff just for putting a mediocre team on the court in a crappy arena.
Going by the letter of many of the dumb NCAA rules, then yes, many teams cheat. But in terms of doing things to gain a competitive advantage I don’t think they do. Many of the NCAA violations on schools are for things that have nothing to do with getting them better players.
I think that’s comparing apples to oranges. PSU’s roster last year would be a top 2 or 3 team in the league and they would consistently be at the top of the Ohio Valley. I would also make an assumption that Murray St spends similarly to the other teams in the conference. MSU spends quadruple PSU so it’s all relative.
