Thank goodness the NFL doesn't have a transfer portal...

[Jetsfan80]

...The Jets wouldn't be able to field a team if it existed.

 

 

https://deadspin.com/the-entire-lsu-basketball-team-is-gone-1848742117

The entire LSU basketball team is gone

New coach Matt McMahon will be building from scratch after taking over for Will Wade

By

Grace McDermott

Saturday 2:42PM

Alerts

 

Matt McMahon will have his hands full at LSU.

Image: Getty Images

 

Sanctions are coming, Will Wade is gone, and the Tigers aren’t sticking around to find out what it looks like. LSU basketball might not be receiving the death penalty from the NCAA for their former coach’s infractions, but the team itself has sent the program into a virtual death spiral.

With the departure of sophomore Mwani Wilkinson, every single scholarship member of the 2021-22 LSU men’s basketball team is gone, declaring their intention to enter the NBA draft or brave the ever-filling transfer portal. In the weeks after Wade’s firing, the roster emptied one by one, with 10 of the 12 scholarship players opting to try to play elsewhere in the NCAA and two going pro. The only roster members remaining in the carnage are four walk-ons.

The Tigers, often middling in their conference, ended up fifth in the SEC this year before dropping a first round tournament game to Iowa State under an interim coach. Newly hired HC Matt McMahon, who has coached mid-major Murray State for the past seven years, will have the unique challenge of building a program essentially from the ground up — honestly, he’ll be building from the basement up, as LSU also lost the commitment of all of its 2022 recruits following Wade’s departure, as well as their single committed 2023 recruit. Ground level is too generous a term.

Now less than two weeks out, national signing day quickly approaches, and McMahon’s hands are practically empty at the moment. Oklahoma State, another program implicated in the FBI probe, lost postseason eligibility one year, and you can’t blame the incoming kids for seeing what’s right in front of them.

The good news for McMahon is that the ease with which his current players are entering the transfer portal will go the other way, and he may be able to pick up some experienced upperclassmen from the portal to fill out a roster that has tumbleweeds rolling through it at the moment, and reportedly already has convinced several of his former Murray State players to transfer to LSU. But there’s no escaping the seven Level I violations that the NCAA is still investigating against the men’s basketball program after Wade allegedly paid recruits and their families as an incentive to enroll.

This is an unprecedented mass departure, effectively a self-inflicted penalty decided by the players and made manifest by their actions. The players are looking out for themselves and using the autonomy and freedoms granted by the transfer portal’s relaxed rules — as they ought to be. And they’re also punishing LSU to a level that even NCAA sanctions might not be able to replicate. You can come back from a postseason ban or a $10k fine, but coming back from something like this? Good luck to Matt McMahon — he’s going to need it.

[Dcat]

wow.  I don't blame those kids for racing to the portal!

[bitonti]

Thank goodness the NFL does not have relegation we'd be rooting for a team playing in the MAC

[Jetsfan80]

22 minutes ago, bitonti said:

Thank goodness the NFL does not have relegation we'd be rooting for a team playing in the MAC

At least @Barry McCockinner would have some fun with it every time we'd face Ball State.  

Also, Eastern Michigan is located in Ypsilanti, so @T0mShane would have some opportunities to hang out with Adam Gase.

The more I think about it, the more I would fully support relegation to the MAC.

[Fantasy Island]

Only one man can close those portals:

[JiF]

Can you blame them?  Who knows how much a "big ass offer" is but you have to assume this has to do with none of these guys are looking to take a pay cut.  They were getting paid top dollar under Wade.

 

[Larz]

Yeah students should be forced to stay at a school because sports 

 

[Jetsfan80]

26 minutes ago, Larz said:

Yeah students should be forced to stay at a school because sports 

 

I’m not being critical of the transfer portal.  Freedom of movement is a net positive for the college kids.  I was merely trying to make a joke at the Jets’ expense, which evidently fell flat.  

[Hal N of Provo]

On 4/6/2022 at 1:02 PM, Jetsfan80 said:

I’m not being critical of the transfer portal.  Freedom of movement is a net positive for the college kids.  I was merely trying to make a joke at the Jets’ expense, which evidently fell flat.  

I worry the NFL isn’t far behind the NBA with players dictating moves