Well stated. I miss the days of committed coaches and 4 year players. That being said, this is the current state of college athletics with transient coaches and athletes.
As for the portal, I tend to like it when good players come to the team I am rooting for and don't like it when they leave!
That convincing becomes easier when they sit for a year or two and come to the realization that they're never going to be "the guy" at their P5. That's the beauty of the portal. It's much easier to convince that 20 year old after he figures out that he's not the end all be all than it is to convince the same kid at 17 or 18 when he's been the top guy in his geographic area and had smoke blown up his keester for 2 or 3 years by all those around him.
I'm a little conflicted on this one. I want him hitting the ground with his feet running for the Zips and don't like that being potentially pushed back. On the other hand I like his sense of commitment. Hopefully, he can strike a happy medium and do both jobs.
I think they both fall into the description Groce gave of Dawson in the post-game last week as an example to younger kids of how you can earn minutes in ways other than scoring. I think they're more relied on to be productive through things like defense, rebounds and getting on the floor for loose balls than they'll ever be relied on for scoring and when they can contribute with offense like they have recently it will be a real bonus. If I had to pick two guys to accompany me into a fight from that squad, those would be those two gritty guys.
I like how Groce essentially characterized the Florida trip as a positive in that it exposed their weaknesses, showed them what they had to work on and brought some humility.
The reality of college sports is that the P5 teams poach talent from lesser conferences. Who knows if Mumpfield would have stayed if the Zisp were successful. Good luck to him. With regard to Gibson, I'm not going to lose any sleep on that one. He looked good at times but at others showed why his best offer was from Chattanooga. I'm trusting Moorhead will bring in a P5 recruit transfer equal to or better than Gibson.