Nojus Indrusaitis Enters the Transfer Portal

[PantherCyclone]

You just have to remind yourself that players have 4-5 years to maximize their earning potential. They won’t make that from the bench. Like it or not, it’s the way it is. Most of these guys will never play pro ball, even less will not make a ton of money playing pro ball.

So you don’t play a lot as a freshman? Thats a year of earning power you lose. So, even though I’m not a fan of it, I get it and have come to accept this is the way it is.

I think another thing to consider is that the old model of waiting your turn doesn’t exist anymore. These kids aren’t just risking losing playing time to underclassmen - they are also losing time to transfers. Timing is also important. You can’t wait to see what the coach is going to bring in from the portal, either – If you don’t get your name out into the transfer portal early enough, you might be left without a home.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I was looking back at TJ's high school recruiting using 247's national composite rankings and their freshman production.

2021: Tyrese Hunter #37 ranking, played 32 minutes as a freshman, very productive.

2022: Watson, Lipsey, & King all ranking outside the top 150. Lipsey played 30 minutes a game and was very productive, as has been well documented his recruiting ranking was skewed by an injury in high school.

2023: Momcilovic #40 ranking, played 30 minutes a game and was very productive. Biliew #12 ranking and wasn't productive. Rock #83 ranking, but reclassified and redshirted. Fish and Hamilton ranked outside the top 150.

2024: Indrusaitis #74 ranking, not productive as a freshman. Pierce outside top 150 and left before the season.


So in summary they have gotten a lot of production out of every top 50 guy except Biliew. Everyone outside the top 50 rankings hasn't contributed as a freshman and ultimately transferred, which isn't uncommon in the current college basketball environment. For next year Batemon is ranked #53 and the others are outside the top 100. Pleta can probably be considered more of a transfer given his age and professional experience.

The obvious solution to this is to get all top 50 guys

 

[Cyinthenorth]

I never understood why Rock came in early and lost a year while he filled out his body. Maybe TJ is ahead of the game and his strategy is bringing in highly rated HS recruits, treating them well while here and then bringing them back in a couple of years later after they get experience and become mature men. An example would be Gilbert of this strategy. For other CF old timers, it was always my understanding that Duane Crutchfield and Tinsley were placed in Jucos by ISU coaches and told a scholly was waiting for them. Bill Snyder used that strategy at KSt to build his program.

We'll probably know by next year if we're going after Jelani Hamilton in the portal. He had a pretty good year at Georgia State.

 

[isucy86]

The upsets in the last 4 Tourneys that I listed in my earlier post would seem to show otherwise with regards to talent gap in the NIL era. Other than this Tourney, the last 4 since NIL have featured major upsets where much lower seeds took down a big dog. And that was for 4 Tourneys straight leading to this year's which has been largely chalky.

I can't remember any Tournament stretch in the past where those types of upsets occurred that often in consecutive years. 1's, 2's & 3's losing used to be incredibly rare. Now it happens fairly often. That would seem to indicate more parity across all of college hoops.

And a bonus to more 15's beating 2's for ISU fans is that hopefully we'll never have to see the clip of the Hampton coach celebrating after that loss ever again!

Time will tell.

But the NIL situation today is far different than 2 years ago. And with the House Settlement- the money gap between P5 and the rest in hoops will only get bigger. So if a player has success at any level, there is another coach/school willing to raise their NIL $. Going to be tough for mid-majors to create talented depth and experience.

 

[AuH2O]

Time will tell.

But the NIL situation today is far different than 2 years ago. And with the House Settlement- the money gap between P5 and the rest in hoops will only get bigger. So if a player has success at any level, there is another coach/school willing to raise their NIL $. Going to be tough for mid-majors to create talented depth and experience.

I have been wondering how this will shake out in the future.

I could definitely see some guys in their last years taking more money on a team with lots of cash, even if it means a smaller role or fewer minutes to maximize income, particularly if they aren't NBA guys.

There may be a few teams that can just overwhelm enough guys with cash that they can buy insane amounts of depth.

On the flip side, there are probably guys that take less money immediately to go to a team where they can have a larger role, and increase future earnings potential. So you might see some pretty good Fr. playing at mid-majors to prove themselves and cash in the next year by moving up.

I also think you'll see the teams with less money like ISU pay to basically get their rotation then roll the dice on injuries and/or hope an unproven Fr. can contribute. I just don't think ISU can afford to distribute NIL to guys that they aren't pretty sure are going to be rotation guys.

 

[David Freshman1982]

I like the idea of a modified "farm system" model for the small schools and even mid-majors, funneling to the P4 schools. There's no reason it couldn't work on both ends, for the smaller school and the bigger school, if properly implemented. And there's no reason why the smaller school couldn't be a perfectly competitive team in a given year with the big boys, if their talent mix hits right that year. "Hoosiers" movie analogy.

It would be the job of the P4 school to run the HS recruiting and direct the freshman to their feeder program, with the option of keeping the freshman for themselves on occasion. The feeder school gets the advantage of a better recruiting pool, bigger national reach, and of course, $$$.

 

[BigBake]

This one hurts, I didn't expect him to play this year but saw quite a bit of potential.

My gut tells me this kid will be starting on a NCAA tourney team and we'll all be watching him play saying "damn, what if he stayed". Can't remember name off top of my head but there was a player who wen to Oregon and was a stud.

 

[Cyclonefan710]

This one hurts, I didn't expect him to play this year but saw quite a bit of potential.

My gut tells me this kid will be starting on a NCAA tourney team and we'll all be watching him play saying "damn, what if he stayed". Can't remember name off top of my head but there was a player who wen to Oregon and was a stud.

Maybe, but he didn’t Look that close to being able to contribute meaningful minutes this year. He looks like someone that could develop and contribute his Jr or Sr year. Perfectly fine seeing someone like that leave. Don‘t need to waste roster spots on players who are more than a year away from being ready.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Maybe, but he didn’t Look that close to being able to contribute meaningful minutes this year. He looks like someone that could develop and contribute his Jr or Sr year. Perfectly fine seeing someone like that leave. Don‘t need to waste roster spots on players who are more than a year away from being ready.

I really disagree with this take. There is 15 schollies for basketball. TJ plays an 8 man rotation. What is wrong with using one of the 7 other schollies to try and retain some of these freshmen and let them develop?

 

[WastedTalent]

I really disagree with this take. There is 15 schollies for basketball. TJ plays an 8 man rotation. What is wrong with using one of the 7 other schollies to try and retain some of these freshmen and let them develop?

Who says they want to stay and develop? These kids want to play. I can't blame them

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Who says they want to stay and develop? These kids want to play. I can't blame them

Yeah if they are dead set on leaving for playing time, I get it as well.

I wouldn’t say “I’m perfectly fine letting them leave. Don’t need to waste a roster spot on them.” I really disagree with that mentality because these freshmen leaving snakebit us this year and could hurt us more in years to come

 

[isucy86]

I really disagree with this take. There is 15 schollies for basketball. TJ plays an 8 man rotation. What is wrong with using one of the 7 other schollies to try and retain some of these freshmen and let them develop?

I didn't total follow. But Williams & Blum talked about in their recent podcast.

If ISU adds scholarships beyond 13 for MBB, then ISU would need to add corresponding scholarships to women's team(s).

Also they mentioned the cost of each incremental scholarship (est. $60K each for full cost) impacts our revenue sharing calculation and reduces the ISU's NIL monies. Coaches would rather have the NIL money to sign impact players than end-of-bench players.

Developments a nice word. But, if players can't develop from practicing and getting instruction every day with the team for a year or two, I don't see how 10mpg or sitting at the end of the bench is going to be a difference maker.

With the portal, another coach and team is developing the players. TJ, staff and Iowa State are then taking their development and exposure to a new level.

 

[NoCreativity]

This one hurts, I didn't expect him to play this year but saw quite a bit of potential.

My gut tells me this kid will be starting on a NCAA tourney team and we'll all be watching him play saying "damn, what if he stayed". Can't remember name off top of my head but there was a player who wen to Oregon and was a stud.

Richard Armadi? I think he was the one who Fred let go when we singed DeAndre Kane.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

I didn't total follow. But Williams & Blum talked about in their recent podcast.

If ISU adds scholarships beyond 13 for MBB, then ISU would need to add corresponding scholarships to women's team(s).

Also they mentioned the cost of each incremental scholarship (est. $60K each for full cost) impacts our revenue sharing calculation and reduces the ISU's NIL monies. Coaches would rather have the NIL money to sign impact players than end-of-bench players.

Developments a nice word. But, if players can't develop from practicing and getting instruction every day with the team for a year or two, I don't see how 10mpg or sitting at the end of the bench is going to be a difference maker.

With the portal, another coach and team is developing the players. TJ, staff and Iowa State are then taking their development and exposure to a new level.

That’s fair. And if they only carry 10 scholarship players, then I’d agree with you. However if they carry more than that (which I suspect they would) there’s still room and value for Nojus if you could talk him into staying.

 

[isucy86]

That’s fair. And if they only carry 10 scholarship players, then I’d agree with you. However if they carry more than that (which I suspect they would) there’s still room and value for Nojus if you could talk him into staying.

Agree on Nojus, I eventually think his offense will be fine. For ISU's defensive system, not sure.

It would be interesting to see the internal working of NIL on a roster and player by player NIL $. In the portal/NIL era maybe it's more than talking a kid into staying. Could it be contingent on agreeing next year's NIL $. And with the NIL market on the upswing, there might be some differences of opinion between player and coaches.

 

[CycloneErik]

The obvious solution to this is to get all top 50 guys

Top 25. Gotta have standards

 

[MTCyclone43]

I honestly don't blame guys for leaving if they're not getting PT. You only get 4-5 years to play college ball, and I would be pissed if I had just 1 year wasted sitting the bench

I believe the NCAA is wanting to stream line the eligibility process and just adopt a 5 year eligibility- period. That would do away with the whole red-shirt for injury or to develop.

 

[MTCyclone43]

Cruff is about to do the same as well.

Hopefully in a Cyclone jersey and not a Purdue jesey.

 

[MTCyclone43]

I’m not saying it will be easy. But it has to get better to sustain success imo. Losing all these freshmen already snakebit us this year and hopefully doesn’t catch up with us next year

"Snakebit" is a program getting to the round of 32? If so, I will need to adjust my expectations moving forward.

 

[MTCyclone43]

Another thing worth pointing out...these guys have very few guarantees.

Look at the guys who made decisions based on coaches and then the coach decides to leave the next year.

Or their after-college plans. People like to give them a hard time for not being "real" students, but plenty of them are. Conditt was convinced to come to ISU because he was into the engineering program. No one should ever transfer because a degree program at another school is interesting?

Iowa's football program was in hot water for poor treatment of Black athletes. Whether a person believes it or not, surely we can all admit that any program could have a similar issue- something toxic that makes it a miserable experience, that they couldn't have seen before landing on campus.

the NCAA used to control *everything* in these kids' lives, while people like Bill Self got to break the rules with no consequence (and get rich doing it). Reforms started when athletes began speaking out about how they went to bed hungry sometimes, but the NCAA prevented them from earning money or accepting help.

Yes, this has changed so much about college athletics. But the balance of power was so so so far from fair that I don't understand how people see the shift so negatively.

I would like to add, the amount of money made by everyone involved with NCAA athletics is staggering. The student-athlete deserves a cut of the pie.