Griffin 👋🏻

[goveybaseball]

See ya Griffin! Glad he’s transferring.
4 rebounds and 1 assist a game and lived at the
three point line when he was an amazing athlete.
What an underachiever he is.

[uiclaflame]

While I'm not too bummed to lose him from a pure performance standpoint, it does suck to lose one of our Chicagoland guys. After seeing St. Peters make a run with mostly NJ/NY guys - made me wish we could build via mostly local guys!

[UICJohn]

I believe we only have 5 total players (4 returning and 1 incoming Freshman) on scholarship next year. We are now losing 3 total players to transfer.

I sure hope that the next news we get is some signings and impactful ones at that!

[goveybaseball]

What percentage of kids that Yak has brought in
so far transferred? 75%? Anyone else getting worried about
this coach besides me?

[UICJohn]

It’s a good percentage for sure. Can’t really hold all of them against Coach as at least one of the years the recruiting was all done virtually. When we signed Mitchell and Ferguson (his first year) that had to all be done via Zoom platforms.

Now, I have no clue what the reasons are in many of these, this transfer included. We need talented players but also players that fit what we are trying to do. Maybe that wasn’t working here. Maybe Coach and staff was Zion a different way than he saw his own game. Again that’s all speculation. I am hoping this year and moving ahead as we are mostly all back in person that we know our athletes and they know us (our staff and program).

Another added thing - feeling like it would be easier to develop strong ties with local players. Jalen Johnson, our lone recruit at the moment, is from our neighbor Indiana so local enough for me.

[Big D]

Mar 28, 2022 14:22:11 GMT -6 goveybaseball said:

What percentage of kids that Yak has brought in
so far transferred? 75%? Anyone else getting worried about
this coach besides me?

Let’s take a closer look.

20-21:
- Kirk (played 1 season, left early)
- Commander (played 1 season (very few games), left early)
- Mitchell (played 1 season (maybe half?), left early)
- Jalen Johnson (here for 2 seasons (played very few minutes), left early)
- Treavon Martin (here for 1 season (barely saw the floor), left early)
- Demetrius Calip II (here for 1 season (barely played), left early)
- Zion Griffin (here for 2 seasons, left early)

21-22
- Marcus Larsson (1 season, basically injured all year, left early)
- Brandon Battle (1 season, barely played, exhausted eligibility)

Of his other 6 recruits, I’d say Jace, Skobalj, Franklin, KJ, and Warren were hits and TBD on Brownell.

So minus his son and walk-on Bowditch, of the 12 recruits that had the chance to leave early, 8 of them have (so far). Every single player from Yak’s first class (which was big) left early. I’d classify 4 recruits as just flat out recruiting mistakes/misses (Johnson, Martin, Calip, and Battle), and 3 others were injured and/or out for most of their time here for personal reasons (Mitchell, Commander, Larsson).

In short, we have not recruited well at all, imo, and the results speak for themselves.

I think coach and Zion just aren’t on the same page, and Yak pretty much said that during one of his postgame interviews. Zion wants to shoot. Coach wants him to play closer to the rim. I’m sure there was some friction there. I think Zion is a bit overrated. He is a decent shooter and can finish at the rim when he’s in there, but his footwork just seems bad to me. Very out of control and a poor defender. He was barely effective in the HL, so I doubt he’d do anything in the Valley. With that said, I still wouldn’t mind having him finish up here. Oh well. Now coach has to fill 8 more spots! I feel like that’s a problem for multiple reasons. One, we’ll be writing off next year due to no chemistry. Two, when you need that many, you have to be somewhat desperate, and will end up taking more Demetrius Calips, more Jalen Johnsons, more Brandon Battles. This staff’s track record with recruiting has been bad so far, so we’re likely going to end up with a few duds here next season. We seem to be severely mis-evaluating talent, and are taking players that don’t fit the system.

With all this said, we’ve been garbage for two years and we all know that this team needs a serious house-cleaning going into the Valley. Looks like that’s going to happen.

[UICJohn]

A few things come to kind:

1) With our recruiting, I wonder how much falls on the Assistant Coaches. Coach Yak is a local guy (and so is Coach Brown) but we aren’t in on many local guys. Are we still trying to figure out what we even want player wise?

2) With 8 spots to fill we can offer Chicago, UIC, the MVC, and also playing time. I also hope with 8 spots we have to at least hit on half.

3) Maybe with the MVC move and also entering year 3 - a critical year - and also able to recruit in person, part of the reason we are cleaning house on our end.

[Chuck A]

Are you kidding me? Of this list, Kansas City would be the best choice for Zion. They've got a good coach who would probably use him correctly. But with this list, he could've stay with UIC.

[bigsaltine]

I’m convinced it’s just a usage issue he has with Coach Yak. He doesn’t want to play inside as much. Obviously none of these schools are an upgrade, with the exception of MAYBE Dusquesne which is A-10.