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MBBALL Portal Period Recap:

Grizfan-24

Grizfan-24

Well-known member
Staff member
So the portal hath closed and what the portal hath taken away it also giveth back.

Here are some numbers:
  • 45: Total Number of Days Open
  • 2,018: Total Number of players who submitted their name to the portal.
  • 1,050: The number of those players who have found a new home.
  • 34 : The number of teams who had 10+ players put their name into the portal
    • Arizona State (10), Arkansas (10), Canisius (10), Central Michigan (11), Chicago State (10), DePaul (12), Drake (12), Eastern Michigan (10), Florida State (10), Hampton (10), Houston Christian (10), IUPUI (12), Idaho State (11), Indiana State (10), Iona (10), Kansas City (10), Louisville (13), Maryland Eastern Shore (13), Mercer (10), Northwestern State (11), Rhode Island (10), Rice (10), St. Louis (11), Sienna (11), Southern Illinois (10), Stetson (10), Tarleton State (11), Texas Rio Grande Valley (12), University of Illinois-Chicago (12), UT-Martin (10), UT-San Antonio (13), Utah State (12), Washington State (12), Xavier (10)
  • 10: The number of schools who have replaced half of their scholarship roster through the portal:
    • California (7), DePaul (10), Hampton (7), Kentucky (7), Louisville (10), Memphis (7), Rice (7), USC (10), Utah State (7), Vanderbilt (7)
  • 35: The number of Big Sky Conference Players who put their name into the portal.
  • 12: The number of Big Sky Conference Players who have found a new home at the D1 level.
  • 4: The number of Big Sky Conference players who transferred to another school in the conference.
    • Miguel Tomley: Idaho State to Weber State
    • Austin Patterson: Sacramento State to Montana
    • Quinn Denker: Idaho to Northern Colorado
    • Kolton Mitchell: Idaho State to Idaho
Players are still free to transfer, but with greater restrictions and schools are still free to sign players as long as they have open roster spots.

The portal wasn't as hard on Big Sky Conference schools as some other conferences (WAC was absolutely decimated by the portal), but there are some teams who lost a lot of minutes, a lot points to the portal.

Most Minutes Lost to the Portal:
  1. Idaho State: 5,336 Minutes (78% of their minutes)
  2. Eastern Washington: 4,064 Minutes (65% of their minutes)
  3. Northern Colorado: 2,338 Minutes (36% of their minutes)
  4. Idaho: 2,144 Minutes (34% of their minutes)
  5. Sacramento State: 1,721 Minutes
  6. Montana State: 1,144 Minutes
  7. Montana: 868 Minutes
  8. Portland State: 600 Minutes
  9. Weber State: 462 Minutes
  10. Northern Arizona: 118 Minutes
Points Lost to the Portal: Total Points, PPG and Percentage
  1. Eastern Washington: 1,947 points (60.8ppg, 75%)
  2. Idaho State: 1,750 points (51.5ppg, 73%)
  3. Northern Colorado: 1,127 points (35.2 ppg, 43%)
  4. Idaho: 778 points (24.3ppg, 35.8%)
  5. Sacramento State: 673 points (19.8ppg, 29%)
  6. Montana State: 301 points (9.4ppg, 11%)
  7. Montana: 208 points (5.8ppg, 7.5%)
  8. Portland State: 196 points (4.0ppg, 5.5%)
  9. Weber State: 113 points (3.6ppg, 4.5%)
  10. Northern Arizona: 18 points (.56ppg, .8%)

The graphic sort of quantifies below which teams benefited the most from the portal:


https://twitter.com/x/status/1786062575198773351

The only issue is that only cover D1 transfers and there are a few omissions here and there. This is the data table: SBU Unfurled You can sort the table by conference, but in terms of Net here is how the conference stood:

Big Sky Net Ranking: (D1 Rank), School, OVR, Net G/L
  1. (30) Idaho: 6.4 (-100.2)
  2. (41) Montana: 3.4 (83.8)
  3. (73) Weber State: -.9 (-1.6)
  4. (74) Portland State: -1.2 (-38.6)
  5. (76) Northern Arizona: -1.3 (-8.9)
  6. (95) Montana State: -3.4 (-64.7)
  7. (202) Northern Colorado: -11.5 (-11.7)
  8. (226) Sacramento State: -13.0 (-154.5)
  9. (334) Idaho State: -29.2 (-342.3)
  10. (351) Eastern Washington: -30.4 (-320.2)
The additions that I liked the most:
1. Miguel Tomley- Weber State (Idaho State)
2. Jensen Bradtke- Montana (Saint Mary's)
3. Jack Payne-Idaho (Colorado State) - The site absolutely loves this add.
4. Taeshaud Jackson Jr.- Northern Colorado (VMI)
5. Quenten Meza- Idaho State (Wofford)

Honorable Mention: Kai Johnson (Montana (WWU), Quinn Denker (UNC (Idaho), Nigel Burris (WSU (USU), Jabe Mullins (Montana State (Wazzu), Isaiah Brickner (Idaho (Marist).

I think schools are getting much better at recruiting the portal. Northern Colorado has owned it the past few years but other teams are catching up fast. The most adept additions to their squad probably falls to Weber State, followed by Montana and Northern Colorado. Idaho might have got the highest celiing guys in the portal (MItchell, Payne) but has a long way to go. Montana absolutely needed to win the portal considering they needed to replace so many non-portal minutes that left the program this year. Idaho State and Eastern Washington have a ton of work to do before the spring signing period closes. A LOT OF WORK. Right now things aren't looking that great. They need to get some more guys through the door.

Way too early conference rankings:
  1. Weber State
  2. Montana
  3. Montana State
  4. Idaho
  5. Portland State
  6. Northern Colorado
  7. Sacramento State
  8. Northern Arizona
  9. Idaho State
  10. Eastern Washington
Anyway, that is all I have.
 
Nice work GF-24. Guess I have a slightly different opinion than you on who the best portal addition was for the Griz. I thought Malik Moore was our best get. I really like all 4 of the guys (so far) that we've brought in, but I think Moore is a gamer. It was tough recruiting battle too as he had a lot of interest from a bunch of schools. Johnson and Bradtke were also great pickups and Patterson is a great depth piece as well. I'll be very curious to see who else comes into the program with these final 2 spots. I see Unfurled has UM ranked as the highest Big Sky program in terms of upgrading talent in the portal so that's good to see. I think all 4 guys that came in have a chance to really contribute next year. Still some work to be done, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

Also Eastern has brought in 3 JUCO guys so far just so everyone is aware of what Dan Monson's tactics are right now. I think he may have gotten a D1 guy as well but I don't remember who it was or what school he came from.
 
Griz til I die said:
Nice work GF-24. Guess I have a slightly different opinion than you on who the best portal addition was for the Griz. I thought Malik Moore was our best get. I really like all 4 of the guys (so far) that we've brought in, but I think Moore is a gamer. It was tough recruiting battle too as he had a lot of interest from a bunch of schools. Johnson and Bradtke were also great pickups and Patterson is a great depth piece as well. I'll be very curious to see who else comes into the program with these final 2 spots. I see Unfurled has UM ranked as the highest Big Sky program in terms of upgrading talent in the portal so that's good to see. I think all 4 guys that came in have a chance to really contribute next year. Still some work to be done, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

Also Eastern has brought in 3 JUCO guys so far just so everyone is aware of what Dan Monson's tactics are right now. I think he may have gotten a D1 guy as well but I don't remember who it was or what school he came from.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I love the Moore addition and probably has the most day 1 ready skill set to play. I think Moore slots in as a SG/SF, but what I wonder about is what the back court looks like. There are eight guys to slot among three positions and at this moment I can reasonably assume Williams is one, but beyond that its a coin flip. I get a bit of information overload when considering the potential permutations for the three wing primary players.

Guys who can play PG: Whitney (Sr), Johnson (Sr), Williams (So.) Henderson (So.)

Guys who can play SG: Williams (So.) Dargan (Jr.) Thompson (Fr.) Patterson (Sr.) Moore (Jr)

Guys who can play Wing: Williams (So.), Dargan (Jr.) Moore (Jr.) Thompson (Fr.), Davidson (RS Fr)


My love of the Bradtke signing has more to how many boxes he theoretically checks that Montana didn't have at all last year. It is a flip of a coin if he's got the goods, but he's a big add. Jones has left (wasn't a true post), and that leaves just two true post players in the program. Sawyer and Bradtke. Davidson can play some stretch 4, but he wasn't a pure post player in HS more of a 3/4 type kid.

They are going to have to find another post add. Bradtke could theoretically be a bit of a risk (has zero PT in D1), and it wouldn't surprise me they aren't trying to bring in a big with some actual D1 time. There are still some names out there that present solid options primarily as a defender/rebounder. Because I really do have concerns about whether Sawyer can really play the type of defense that Travis likes and whether he's a 30 mpg type of guy. That is the another reason I liked the Bradtke signing because I think he could unlock Sawyer's true skill as a 5 not as a 4.
 
I think what we will see (are seeing???) is that the rich get richer as far as talent goes with the portal. Eventually we will see more and more the big times schools winning tourney games and less Cinderella magic to the final 4. It's tough to have a senior laden team...or will be...from a smaller school play well as a TEAM and make a run.
 
Grizfan-24 said:
Agreed. I love the Moore addition and probably has the most day 1 ready skill set to play. I think Moore slots in as a SG/SF, but what I wonder about is what the back court looks like. There are eight guys to slot among three positions and at this moment I can reasonably assume Williams is one, but beyond that its a coin flip. I get a bit of information overload when considering the potential permutations for the three wing primary players.

Guys who can play PG: Whitney (Sr), Johnson (Sr), Williams (So.) Henderson (So.)

Guys who can play SG: Williams (So.) Dargan (Jr.) Thompson (Fr.) Patterson (Sr.) Moore (Jr)

Guys who can play Wing: Williams (So.), Dargan (Jr.) Moore (Jr.) Thompson (Fr.), Davidson (RS Fr)


My love of the Bradtke signing has more to how many boxes he theoretically checks that Montana didn't have at all last year. It is a flip of a coin if he's got the goods, but he's a big add. Jones has left (wasn't a true post), and that leaves just two true post players in the program. Sawyer and Bradtke. Davidson can play some stretch 4, but he wasn't a pure post player in HS more of a 3/4 type kid.

They are going to have to find another post add. Bradtke could theoretically be a bit of a risk (has zero PT in D1), and it wouldn't surprise me they aren't trying to bring in a big with some actual D1 time. There are still some names out there that present solid options primarily as a defender/rebounder. Because I really do have concerns about whether Sawyer can really play the type of defense that Travis likes and whether he's a 30 mpg type of guy. That is the another reason I liked the Bradtke signing because I think he could unlock Sawyer's true skill as a 5 not as a 4.
Click to expand...
We will have to wait and see once he gets on campus, but Bradtke looks very slim in photographs/tape. He may end up playing as a stretch 4 with his shooting ability as well (no one knows at this point). I completely agree that we need another 5, preferably 6’10+ 230+

*I haven’t seen Bradtke in person, he may be strong/sturdy enough
 
Idaho State is just about done. They have one open scholarship, which will go to a post player. Here is what their roster looks like now:
PG—Dylan Darling, transfer, Wazzu. Quinten Meza, transfer, Wofford.
2G—AJ Burden, returning letterman; Jaedyn Brown, redshirt freshman; Cam Slaymaker, D2 transfer; Jake O’Neil, transfer, College of Idaho.
SF—Isaiah Griffin, returning starter; Joey Madimba, JC transfer; Cheik Sow, JC transfer.
PF—Blake Daberkow, JC transfer; Andrew Greene, JC transfer.
C—Evan Otten, redshirt freshman.
Kiree Huie, who started at PF last year, is still in the portal and there is a chance he may come back and take the last available scholarship. If not, ISU is still in the hunt for an experienced post player.

None of us know how this team willl come together, but the four portal transfers and the JC signees all have respectable resumes and this team will at least be deeper than last year, if not better as well.
 
Going over all of the rosters in the BSC, all of those with openings are now looking for post players. There are a lot of post players left in the portal, but not a lot of quality. Those with skills will likely be picked up by the high majors who are still looking.

I don't know the amounts involved or the schools making the offers, but all three of our returning starters had NIL offers on the table before the dust had settled in Boise. I also heard that three of NAU's starters had similar offers. The fact that those players chose to stay put, says something about the situations at WSU and NAU. I think that EWU would have kept most of their guys if their coach had not left. UM also has a sound program and kept their best returning talent. UM's big losses were to graduation.

If I had to make a wildass guess at how it will all turn out, as far as strength of roster, and taking into account how it ended, Here is how I would rank things.

1. MSU
2. UM
3. WSU
4. UNCo
5. ISU
6. NAU
7. EWU
8. PSU
9. Sac
 
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