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Thats our legend! (in my crying Terrell Owens voice). Hell yes!!

We can make every player in our programs history look horrible if you want to cherry pick stats based on one game. If you want to look at stats for all of his last season season here, Ali was our leader in assists, leader in PPG, leader in 3pt fg%, leader in FG% (excluding Freeman, Aziz, and a couple guys who hardly played), and leader in blocks outside of Aziz and Freeman.

Talented and proven MAC player? Yes I would take Ali back in a heartbeat. We'd be guaranteed to get much more out of him than we've gotten from a lot of our other transfers, because we've already seen what he can do with our own eyes. We should ask OU fans if they regret taking Jason Carter back.

Not to mention zero guarantee the match up would happen, and we could easily make the match up happen in any given year if the two coaches agreed to it...

Two ways to look at it - pay to play and get some more development for the young guys. However, there is no guarantee you get more than 1 game which makes it a giant waste in my opinion, though I'd love to see us play for my own personal benefit. The other option is to end the season now and focus solely on recruiting, which getting a good transfer or two is probably much vital to the future than getting guys an extra game or two of development.

Thanks. It can range so widely. Honestly if that is the case, much better than I would have thought.

Any estimate at all on the $$ involved ?

That’s good to hear. Dawson is really easy to root for. Someone on here mentioned he was considering transferring last offseason. Glad it doesn’t seem like he’s swaying on his decision to stay.

I have no idea what big players (relatively speaking) there would be for NIL, but if we want to stand any chance at all, some initiative needs to get rolling. Yes its football (so cue the jokes), but I saw DJ Irons today basically indicate nobody on the football team is getting anything.

Thats what happens when you take over a program like Buffalo who was having the success that they had under Hurley and Oats. Expectations are high and they fell down to a middle of the road MAC team.

Yeah, we'll see what we can do in the offseason, but on paper right now Toledo, OU, and Ball St look like the top 3 next year in no particular order. Kent has a lot of productivity to replace as you mention.

Tavari showed more as a true freshman than anyone I've ever seen as a Zip in the Groce era. Obviously he hit a freshman wall he couldn't quote seem to get over. Maybe he won't be ready to do what LCJ and X did in their upper classman/final seasons as a true sophomore (and that wouldn't be a fair standard to hold him to), but I sure as hell hope he stays. In addition to Clarke "being what he is", he also isn't consistent enough at making positive plays outside of his limitations like Tribble is. He has some games where he makes a good impact, but seems like its empty or negative minutes more often than not.

re Hankerson vs Hunter expectations. While Hunter was a very intriguing add to the team considering his size, shooting ability, and where he came from, my expectations for him weren't as high as Hankerson as he's younger and has played A LOT less ball. Hankerson was a proven top 1-2 player on his team and in the league. He averaged double digit points his prior two years at NIU having the first or second best defender on him. He was the 3rd guy here and his average dropped more than 2 points compared to his final season at NIU. Hankerson scored his 1000th collegiate point this season, along with X and Freeman. Hunter will never sniff that much. Regardless, its too bad any transfer gets 1 year with the program. The only one I recall coming in and lighting it up in year 1 was Xeryius (but even so Xeryius was with the program a year before he played). LCJ didn't look like the LCJ we know in his first year in the program, same with the other "hits"...Cheese, Banks, and even Castenada took a big step forward in his second year in the program.

In my opinion, the transfers of Ali and Aziz robbed this program from potentially taking a step forward. Dawson's injury also hurt as well. obviously. Hunter and Hankerson maybe didn't quite live up to expectations, but were solid overall. Not busts by any means like some others in the past. Hunter came along as the season went on, so hopeful for him in his senior season, but don't expect him to suddenly turn into a game changer . Though the goal is to win the MAC every year, I think we met reasonable expectations on the season. Kent and Toledo were clearly the favorites ahead of us considering what they had coming back. Thanks to X and Hank and best of luck moving forward. On to next year, I see us losing X and Hank and I'm worried. Continued development of Nate/getting Dawson back should fill the Hankerson void, but there is nothing close to replacing X's productivity unless Tavari can return to his form from the beginning of this season, quick. Frankly those expectations on a true sophomore are pretty unfair. There's also the elephant in the room as to what Freeman will do. If he moves on, it doesn't look pretty. We have a few guards who generally play good defense and find other ways to impact the game, but are straight liabilities on offense. I'm not sure having two of those type of players on the roster, let alone on the court at the same time is ideal. I'd also like to have faith in our redshirts this year, and while I'm probably missing something, being redshirted in the transfer portal era on a team with holes where the staff spends the majority of the season throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks doesn't look promising. We also have Darrion Baker coming in who looks impressive, he'll be a true freshman so it isn't fair to expect him to be anything other than a solid role player. To be a MAC contender next season (with Freeman), I feel we need to bring in a 7 footer for more size. A Deng Riak type is preferred so you can put them on the floor with Freeman, but beggars can't be choosers. We need more size however we can get it. Also going to need to bring in a scorer. Of course without Freeman..I fear we're a middle of the road MAC team (4-7 seed) next season unless Groce strikes gold in the portal. I'm just not seeing a promising season next year just rolling with returning what we are supposed to. I'd like think the staff thinks the same with only bringing in 2 HS recruits to replace our seniors. I'd expect a few other roster spots to open up, the staff needs to make the most of them.

Couldn't agree with both of you more.

This game is too big for a number of the guys.

Come on

Have to feel good about being down 4 after that horrible start. We took Kent's punch (and punched ourselves a little bit too), and Enrique isn't in foul trouble. Let's go!!

Unfortunately I'm not sure what else we have on offense. Shut down one of Freeman or X and let the other and the rest of the team beat you is the way to beat us. Haven't had the role players step up enough consistently throughout the year.

We're getting embarrassed in every facet of the game.

Nobody outside of X or Freeman showing up yet and Kent shooting well...not good. And Hankerson hits his 2nd 3 as I type

My wife made a comment last game about how grungy all of Kent's players look.

agreed. should have dunked it.

The goal for Kent is clearly to take advantage of our big guys guarding them on the switch.

Jacobs is still a punk a$$