TJ's transfer portal hit rate

Irish1

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Coaching in this day and age has taken some great coaches out. Trying to build teams through NIL and transfer portal, it's all so complicated. TJ will go down in history as one of the greatest coaches of the Era as he found a way to work WITH the system with a smaller budget than most and with a completely collapsed program when he took it over.
Personally, I think he is an all around GREAT coach. But how we measure coaches these days has certainly changed, compared to the past, and TJ has risen to the top..........IMO
 
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NENick

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Went back to review the ESPN 100 best transfers list from preseason. Jefferson was in a large grou of others, listed after the top 100! No other Cyclones to be found.

Maybe as individuals Jefferson, Jackson, Heise and Chatfield weren't highly thought of, but as a group I can't imagine a more successful transfer haul.
 
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CyberJJJ

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Went back to review the ESPN 100 best transfers list from preseason. Jefferson was in a large grou of others, listed after the top 100! No other Cyclones to be found.

Maybe as individuals Jefferson, Jackson, Heise and Chatfield weren't highly thought of, but as a group I can't imagine a more successful transfer haul.
We have more talent than some realize, but TJ doesn't get enough credit for both overall roster construction as well as the ability to create a culture that gets the whole to be even more than the sum of the parts.
 

NWICY

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I don't know what our guys are getting paid and don't really want to. But TJ does a heck of a job bringing in people who buy into the system and gel together, you listen to the post game interviews and it is all about the team and the next game and next goal.
He does a heck of a job making all these pieces come together and keep it going the right direction.
 

Sigmapolis

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NOT SOLD ON JEFFERSON!

Don't trust the guy.

Why?

Too smooth. Too strong. Too composed, Too skilled. Too ruthlessly efficient. Too ice cold and calculating.

Might be one of those AI cyborgs we keep hearing about that is hell bent on world domination.

26100.gif

You may be onto something. He doesn’t smile.

smiling.gif
 

cyfan92

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Would love to see TJ's center strategy evolve into recruiting either two types: Shooters or extreme athletes.. Extreme athlete like Cam Lard, Hasan Ward who is a difference makers on defense, plus out jump anyone for blocks and rebounds. Shooters and playmakers like Jefferson, Jaz Kunc, and Tre King can stretch the floor by making defenders guard them away from the basket and are decent to good passers. Sure you want both, but ISU can't pay to afford lottery picks in the front court.

Centers like Jackson, Chatfield, BRE, Solomon Young, and George Conditt are not Elite Eight or Final 4 big guys... They don't stretch the floor, can't pass, and don't make other teams afraid of driving the paint.. Go watch Auburn, Duke, Alabama, and other 1 seeds.. Their big guys are either high end athletes or great shooters who can space the floor. Maybe this isn't possible given ISU's recruiting budget, but I'm tired of wasting good guard play to teams with centers that limit our offense or make our defense supreme
 
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Cloned4Life

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Would love to see TJ's center strategy evolve into recruiting either two types: Shooters or extreme athletes.. Extreme athlete like Cam Lard, Hasan Ward who is a difference makers on defense, plus out jump anyone for blocks and rebounds. Shooters and playmakers like Jefferson, Jaz Kunc, and Tre King can stretch the floor by making defenders guard them away from the basket and are decent to good passers. Sure you want both, but ISU can't pay to afford lottery picks in the front court.

Centers like Jackson, Chatfield, BRE, Solomon Young, and George Conditt are not Elite Eight or Final 4 big guys... They don't stretch the floor, can't pass, and don't make other teams afraid of driving the paint.. Go watch Auburn, Duke, Alabama, and other 1 seeds.. Their big guys are either high end athletes or great shooters who can space the floor. Maybe this isn't possible given ISU's recruiting budget, but I'm tired of wasting good guard play to teams with centers that limit our offense or make our defense supreme
A few things.

Jefferson is legit. A better class of players than literally everyone else you listed. So whatever TJ did to secure him, he needs to keep doing that.

We went hard after William Kyle in the Portal, who is somehow an even more athletic Hasan Ward. I hope we try to go after him again, because I agree we need MUCH better athletes. Queue the idiots who will just spout his lack of stats from UCLA and not consider how he’d mesh into a TJ defensive scheme.

I do think Jackson is formidable, but just not consistent enough in long enough stretches.
 
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Clonefan32

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Would love to see TJ's center strategy evolve into recruiting either two types: Shooters or extreme athletes.. Extreme athlete like Cam Lard, Hasan Ward who is a difference makers on defense, plus out jump anyone for blocks and rebounds. Shooters and playmakers like Jefferson, Jaz Kunc, and Tre King can stretch the floor by making defenders guard them away from the basket and are decent to good passers. Sure you want both, but ISU can't pay to afford lottery picks in the front court.

Centers like Jackson, Chatfield, BRE, Solomon Young, and George Conditt are not Elite Eight or Final 4 big guys... They don't stretch the floor, can't pass, and don't make other teams afraid of driving the paint.. Go watch Auburn, Duke, Alabama, and other 1 seeds.. Their big guys are either high end athletes or great shooters who can space the floor. Maybe this isn't possible given ISU's recruiting budget, but I'm tired of wasting good guard play to teams with centers that limit our offense or make our defense supreme

I totally agree, especially if we are going to run high ball screens/handoffs. You couldn't guard it the way we are being guarded with Hasan on the floor. If you hard hedge and double that's a drop off, one dribble dunk every time. Or if you recruited someone with touch, that's a wide open 8 foot jumpshot. But with our current bigs that's a drop off and a slow post move that gives them time to recover.
 

cyfan92

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A few things.

Jefferson is legit. A better class of players than literally everyone else you listed. So whatever TJ did to secure him, he needs to keep doing that.

We went hard after William Kyle in the Portal, who is somehow an even more athletic Hasan Ward. I hope we try to go after him again, because I agree we need MUCH better athletes. Queue the idiots who will just spout his lack of stats from UCLA and not consider how he’d mesh into a TJ defensive scheme.

I do think Jackson is formidable, but just not consistent enough in long enough stretches.

Grant Basile for the 2022/23 season was another miss.. He was really good at spacing the floor, shot 39% from three at Va Tech
 

Gibbon

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Jackson is an above average big man. He's not a stretch 5 or a perimeter defender, but March is won by good guard play and he is more than capable of anchoring the frontcourt of a Final 4 caliber team. Our guards going ice cold (minus Tamin) is the reason we're in this awful slump. His biggest issue is that he is truly a large man and can't play all out for >20mpg.

Chatfield is a depth piece who should only be averaging <10mpg, but because we need to rotate Jackson out we need to rely on him for probably too many minutes.
 

rosshm16

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The Jackson criticism (in general, not targeting anyone specifically in this thread) I think is overblown. Compared to his stats at Charlotte last year, his per-minute scoring, rebounding, and shot-blocking stats are better this year against better competition than he saw in the AAC, and his field goal and free throw shooting are both a tick better. He's had some stinker games and some head-scratcher plays for sure but overall numbers-wise at least I think he's been a good player for us.
 

Cloned4Life

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The Jackson criticism (in general, not targeting anyone specifically in this thread) I think is overblown. Compared to his stats at Charlotte last year, his per-minute scoring, rebounding, and shot-blocking stats are better this year against better competition than he saw in the AAC, and his field goal and free throw shooting are both a tick better. He's had some stinker games and some head-scratcher plays for sure but overall numbers-wise at least I think he's been a good player for us.
Yeah I think he's for sure been formidable. He could really use an offseason of skill development. He doesn't have a ton of moves in the post, and the ones he does have, are rather slow. He is a huge person but is struggling to finish over athletic defenders. The tape from Charlotte showed he had somewhat of a jumper and a potential for a midrange threat, and he literally hasn't been given an opportunity to do that at all, which I do not understand. He's given some really nice stretches and when he asserts himself and is actively aggressive rebounding, he can be pretty physically impressive/dominating. Other times, he's just a 'guy' out there.
 

rosshm16

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I'd give basically all our transfers so far a grade somewhere from B (fine) to A+ (outstanding) relative to my expectations for them, with the below exceptions:

Shoon: C, he was adequate overall but was just way less active and effective than I was expecting from his size, length, and A10 stats. Seemed like he was maybe working around a minor injury the whole year.

Chat: C, didn't expect much from him and he has shown flashes of being a great contributor, but we just have too many guys giving near-zero on offense and he hasn't shown he can compete well against Big 12 competition yet.

Heise: F, same story as above for Brandt but my expectations were a lot higher.

Pav is the only other transfer I'd consider a bad grade on, but I really didn't expect much from him, with his size and the level he was transferring from, my expectations that he'd be a good Big 12 rotation player were not high. So maybe he was a "bad" one in the sense that why not give that spot to someone more suited for this league, but who knows what the other options were and if they'd have been any better.

Pretty good hit rate if you ask me.
 
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