I didnt know it was coming
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Ugggghhhh! Stay! Get your jersey retired!
Under the current form of college hoops, it should be assumed any All MAC player (even honorable mention) will not be returning to the MAC if they have eligibility left. And this isnāt unique to the MAC, the SoCon is also returning zero All league/honorable mention players.
Weāll see if Skaljac breaks that trend or not. So far, Simmons is the only All MAC/mention level player to say heās returning, but lets see if he actually hits the portal tomorrow or not.
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I expected this but still sad to see. Just adds to what has already been a shitty Monday for me.
Not surprised. Lots of $ is being thrown at athletes
Worst birthday gift ever. Itās also apparently Tyler Robbinsā birthday, per social media, so we can share the worst birthday present.
I hate this system. That said, I am not able to have any ill will toward Eian. The dude did too many great things while representing Miami.
I knowā¦ 
I have zero ill will to any of these players. Menās or womenās.
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I look at the new reality this way: as a coach you have to figure you will have no player more than 2 years. And if you donāt play your freshman, it is likely only 1 year. The era of developing players is gone. Your roster will essentially turn over every 2 years, or quicker.
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Wait, you wanted South Carolina to win? 
I was hopeful, borderline naive, and way too optimistic given the realities of the situation. The story of everyone or almost everyone returning was just too good to pass up, and while this one stings more than others, I donāt feel foolish for believing it.
I still want to bet on coach, culture, playing style, vibes, school, and campus. At some point, the portal and financial chaos will level out, and these are the things that will still be an advantage.
We are still in the eye of the storm, and our boat is in better shape than mostā¦today at least
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On the flip side, Iām excited to see who transfers in.
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I knew we had no chance to keep Byers, but Iām with you on Elmer mostly because he only had one year left and was hoping whatever we could piece together for him would at least be marginally competitive.
His backdoor slam to bury SMU will forever be imprinted on my brain.
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The current system sucks more each passing day.
Schools, like Miami, search for, discover, recruit, sign, train, improve (sometimes very substantially), then have to sit and watch their very best handiwork walk out the door (either on their own or nudged by a āsports agentā), and then have to go through the same process over again whether at the high school or portal level.
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Just because they are in the portal does not always mean that they leave. They could be testing the market. Hopefully they stayā¦
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There is always that hope.
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Last year Steele said his philosophy was you are either in or out. He didnāt believe in bidding wars and if a player was going to enter the portal, they were not going to be coming back.
A year is a long time as college sports continues to evolve and so I wonder if that is still his stance. Obviously football operates differently with Decker saying Miami offered to match TTUās offer for Trick. I wonder if similarly, this is a chance for Elmer to see what his market value is and there could be an offer to match, but I am very pessimistic we will be in position to match offers. The amount of money being talked about just for rotational power/A10 offers is staggering, not even talking what starters can command.
I expect Byers and Elmer will both individually get offers that rival our entire roster spend last year. Hopefully this year sees a substantial bump, but not sure we are going to be in the same realm still to compete for all MAC retention.
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On the Field of 68 calls Travis has said he doesnt take people back that enter the portal.
Now I will grant you that Chuck Martin had a similar stance years ago and changed it to accommodate his QB
But Steele gave a pretty direct example on the call- so I think he meant it
The longer it took, the more I figured he was gone. Weāll never know the whole story but I wonder if it was simply dollars. Seems like the most likely scenario, but maybe there were other things at play.
The Steele piece of this is odd it me too. If Billy Donovan takes UNC, they coaching cycle is over. What is the hold up with the extension? Thereās no downside to him signing it and making an announcement. Doesnāt stop him from taking another job later. Unless, to the point someone made before, our inability to retain anyone has him re-thinking the whole idea of being a mid major head coach.
Regardless, this is a kill shot. Roughly the equivalent of losing Suder last year. Our best all around player. Not that thereās no hope for next year, but weāre now in a position (unlike last year) where we have to do some serious portal shopping and hope we nail it (like we did with Suder, Woolfolk and Craft.) A
As far as EIan goes, no ill will. Great kid who was apart of multiple iconic Miami basketball plays. I naively thought we had a shot at keeping him initially, Mainly based on his comments after last year and what we may have been able to pay him. Foolish on my part. All that being said itās going to be a real kick in the dick when he lands at UC or X.
I do think this warrants a larger discussion about what our NIL priorities should be. Iāve loved Miami football since I was a child, but weāre dropping 8-10 million on the roster so we can go 9-3 and maybe be in the MAC championship game, and possible go back to the Arizona Bowl? We saw the impact a really good basketball team had on the schoolās profile. Football will never be able to touch that. Could we have kept Elmer if weād used our resources a little more wisely? Weāll never know, but something Iām thinking about now. Iāll also add that if we go 8-4 or worse in football after losing our entire basketball roster, Iām going to be furious.
Last domino to fall now is Skally. And Ipsaro/Almar I guess. Right now, based on the way things are going, Iād guess Skaljac is gone too. No inside info, just a feeling based on the way things are trending. I hope Iām wrong.
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I disagree on football. I think it will ultimately be easier to compete in football than basketball because of the number of players you need and have and how much if it is a team game.
Basketball culture seems to be most teams lose half of their players to the portal