2026 Transfer Portal (MIAMI NEWS ONLY)

Men's Sports Men's Basketball
309

JFC drama queen

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310

Time to wait and see what happens. I trust Coach Steele and his staff will make the right decisions in both the portal and recruiting.

311

the portal taketh but the portal also giveth

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312

Last year three players in portal. This year likely the same. Stinks about Elmer, but we definitely need more size. Didn’t really lose much in shooting and we gain so much more once Evan is healthy.

313

I have no idea how to assess this environment, but it seems encouraging that even with three rotation players in the portal, Miami will have more returning players than most other MACTION. The pressure to go test the waters is high, and simply holding onto two-thirds of your current roster after a successful season may be a win these days.

314

Exactly. Went undefeated this season after three portal transfers last season. And folks on here were just as concerned then as they are now.

Need to keep pushing those NIL funds though.

315

Except that Robbin’s, Waltz and Stowers are still mostly question marks.

316

Disagree about Robbins. But always question marks. I trust Steele as a talent evaluator.

317

I can’t speak for everyone else, but I wasn’t that worried about last years departures. Cooper, whose departure I believe was mutual, was really only a starter in name only. Potter (the one that hurt the most) but was our backup center. And Kraft. Hurt, but was a zero on defense and we had an obvious replacement. We also retained Suder and Elmer.

This year’s losses are more impactful one, because we’re just losing better players, and two, we’re losing Suder and Woolfolk (2 of our top three players by the metrics) to graduation.

To be clear, I don’t’ think the sky is falling. Assuming Skally, Ipsaro, Kirby and Atlason are back, along with the other true freshmen, we’re in much better shape than basically the entire MAC and I trust this staff to evaluate in the portal (though rebuilding our entire frontcourt does suck). But saying last years portal losses are comparable to this year’s I think is a little misguided.

318

Not sure what they mean by personal factors

https://x.com/mactionmaniacs/status/2041583747691172074?s=46&t=bx1SrmhibOGwaCYl45Pdxg

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5176350/derek-vorst

319

A little bit of digging and it appears his girlfriend is at Miami.

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320

8 points and 4 rebounds per game. As someone mentioned…”Miami can do better.”

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321

ChatGPT is writing them

322

Can’t teach height, though.

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323

Indeed.

324

I watched him play several times in high school. I was not impressed. Perhaps he has developed. He was injury prone.

325

Not necessarily what I recall (Cooper’s departure was met with the same or similar reaction as Perry) with respect to Potter and Craft, but history is rewritten every day.

Regardless, I am much less concerned about the future this year after seeing Steele consistently reload with even better talent each season. Candidly, I think outside of Elmer, the biggest losses would have been Ipsaro (I’m certain he’ll be fully healthy), Skally and Kirby.

Byers is a good player, but I’m fairly certain Miami can find a superior replacement. If can gain interior scoring and defense then this squad should easily be back in the NCAA Tournament (of course, no one knows how other teams will look).

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326

I mean, we’d have to go back and look, but my memory is that the consensus around Cooper was good luck, but you’re our third best pg. If someone was sweating that loss they don’t know ball.

My point is more we’re losing better players to the portal this year and we don’t have the cushion of Pete Suder to fall back on.

I’m not doom and gloom. I trust the staff and I do agree that while losing Byers hurts it does allow us to potentially get better on defense (Brant was constantly defending out of position). We also have players who possess a similar skill set already on the team. And overall, if the existing roster stays as is, we have a strong nucleus.

All I’m saying is I think it’s important to be realistic about what we’re losing. Our best offensive player. Our best defensive player. Our best two way player and a player who was our leading scorer for most of the season. Doesn’t mean we won’t be good next year. I think we will be. But we have a lot more work to do in the portal this year than last year because (in my view) the losses are much greater. We’ll see.

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327

If we had a coach who coached or played there then maybe that’s what they mean. If only we had that….

Edit. Oh snap. We have that!

328

He has had significant injury issues as well. We can hopefully do better.