There are just need to find them. The staff did find Jefferson coming off his injury with little hype so we know it can be done. Not easy but very possible.
**** Official 2026 MBB Spring Transfer Portal Thread ****
- Thread starter LLCoolCY
- Start date
I am confident that TJ can keep guys, but I am nervous about money being offered based on what happened during FB portal season.
With returning players and recruits, I like where we sit. The big question for me is Williams- is he a 20mpg+ guard or is he closer to Dom Nelson? Also is Mitchell a washout or was this season a developmental year?
Will also be curious Momcilovic' role. Does TJ play him at more of a 4 like a Niang or Jefferson type offensive threat with ball in his hands more?
The biggest need in portal might be an athletic 6'6"ish who is a slasher, defense & rebound guy. Who can make 3's at respectable rate, if needed. aka Hogue
Green definitely needs to work with Buchanon and Pleta on post moves and high post shot (basically free throws) over summer.
With returning players and recruits, I like where we sit. The big question for me is Williams- is he a 20mpg+ guard or is he closer to Dom Nelson? Also is Mitchell a washout or was this season a developmental year?
Will also be curious Momcilovic' role. Does TJ play him at more of a 4 like a Niang or Jefferson type offensive threat with ball in his hands more?
The biggest need in portal might be an athletic 6'6"ish who is a slasher, defense & rebound guy. Who can make 3's at respectable rate, if needed. aka Hogue
Green definitely needs to work with Buchanon and Pleta on post moves and high post shot (basically free throws) over summer.
It wasn't a "find"; TJ had a relationship with Jefferson tracking back to his HS days. He was very much a target and known commodity to the staff.
Absolutely a relationship with TJ when Jefferson was in HS. Jefferson mentioned this in a recent interview about his decision to come Ames and it sounded like he wanted to come here as a freshmen but there wasn't room.
I'm gonna guess that Williams would move into more of a Heise role with more ball handling cause you're not not gonna play Yusef at point. Then you got DR-K that's Hasan Ward with a jump shot. Put him into the Jefferson spot and keep Buchanan and Pleta with their rotation. We'll have a better interior presence with those 3 than this year. That leaves finding a 6-6 to 6-8 guy that really needs to be athletic, get to the hoop kinda guy. You got Jackson Kiss or Xzavion Mitchell to choose from if you can handle slower footed on the defensive side but I bet we look for someone from a lesser conference that will take less money so that they can get coached into the next Jefferson. The Wiggins kid might surprise people too. Very offensive minded and hopefully can be coached into a defensive menace but that is tough to do the first year when you don't play hard defense in high school like Toure and Batemon both did. Batemon's high school coach really did a nice job with his defense and Toure is just something you can't coach into a kid.
I'm hearing about some guy named Jeff Joshuason
Will Buchanan and Pleta both be satisfied sharing minutes? Can Pleta develop into a 4, taking some Jefferson's minutes?
No that's Lamin Tipsey, an under the radar guard no one else values.
I think they will. I wish the coaches would give Pleta the green light to shoots 3's when he's wide open.
At least once. Let's see what happens.
Buchanan shot one. It didn't go in, but his motion looked good.
I'd settle for him shooting 15 footers when the guy guarding him sags way back in the paint. Need our bigs to be able to make a serviceable percentage of wide open, 15 ft jump shots to keep the lane open.
Yea I am just a bit concerned on what kind of money some of these schools would throw at momcilivic.... He is well known nationally now
I assume whomever we get will have the name Lincoln, Grant, Wilson, Hayes or Garfield.
True, they can offer but that doesn't mean he will take it.
If it's a big enough of a difference though... I wouldn't blame him one bit. He may never make any big money in the NBA... so get what you can now.
He's started at Duke, then University of Virginia, then Penn. Maybe Blake knows him. But he does go by TJ.....
