Might as well be the starter for this thread... Take emotion out of this for a second and look at UDs roster for 2025/26. Assuming nothing changes at the coaching level.
This year there were 13 scholarship players and a bunch of walk-ons.
- For sure five players end eligibility (Santos, Key, Cheeks, Posh and Uhl)
- It now seems as though Mali is leaving (Thank you IHSgolf19 and others)
- Now Isaac Jack leaving :-( - (I really thought he would stay to get his degree and back up L'Etang) -
- From reports and accounts no walk-ons excelled enough to join the scholarship ranks or entertain transfers, so assume they stay the same.
This leaves six players from the 2024/25 roster to consider.
- Bennett – From all accounts he likes UD and has done reasonably well. – STAYS
- Simon – I like Simon and see long-term potential; Grant seems to like him too. Not knowing what his UD campus life experience is, but he and Allen seem to be tight??? – GIVES IT ONE MORE YEAR
- Allen – He has invested two years to UD and UD has invested two years in him. Assuming he was smart enough to focus on academics these last two years and is headed to graduating early – GIVES IT ONE MORE YEAR
- Mousa – Well he can’t be happy with this year. Grants style does not seem to mesh with his abilities. – TRANSFERS (first to San Fran then to Utah)
- Jack – He and his family seem to have a good grasp of life. He seems realistic and accepting of his role and playing time etc. If AG wants him back he – STAYS - ooops Transfer (This did not age well)
- L’Etang – Hand him a copy of Obi and Duece’s biographies. He knows what he needs to do (weights and steaks). – STAYS
- Conner – This might be the most difficult one. He got in games but I cannot imagine he is happy with the results. He is local and transferred home. Where would he go? – STAYS
Two incoming freshmen: Friery and McKie
This leaves AG and staff with FIVE Scholarships and at least two starting spots (#2 and #3) and A LOT of points to replace. Grab the popcorn. THOUGHTS???
Even if you penciled in Bennett and L'Etang, you'd have at least 3 starting spots. Not one of the players you mentioned outside of those two is starter material.
Conner's younger brother signed with Wright State...if he leaves UD he could pull a Doliboa and transfer to play 1 year with his brother.
There’s a possibility there are 7 scholarships available next year since the NCAA is likely to do away with current 13 scholarship headcount limits. The proposed scholarship/roster limit being 15 for the 2025-2026 basketball season. But of course that was not finalized before the transfer portal opened today.
We really need to focus on retaining Bennett and Letang. If we can do that we might be able to build around them enough to having something viable. Conner and Simon proved themselves to be pretty serviceable especially toward the end. Jack was playing very well after he recovered from the surgery. Personally I really hope Jack stays.
Mousa and Allen are huge question marks so I don't really know what to say about them.
Your definition of serviceable and mine are so far apart, there's literally no bridge that could be built between them. Conner just played his 3rd year of college basketball, plays poor defense, and apparently has extremely limited offensive capabilities, and doesn't rebound. Simon, despite sitting a year, has shown no measurable offensive capabilities. While you need bodies to fill out the roster, they would be far down the food chain for me until proven otherwise.
Frenchie and Bennett are the only two that are likely to make an impact next year or the only two who showed any potential to make an impact. All the others are a roll of the dice. Would they put up numbers if given the opportunity? Maybe. Do they do what it takes in practice and behind the scenes? Who knows. Would they do better with a different role and supporting cast?
Bennett can be that guy if he isn't surrounded by other undersized guards. Frenchie is still a freshman and throwing him to the wolves would be the same as what people said about Trey. The upside is there and the likely freshman to sophomore transition will happen. I'd take Bennett's defense, effort, and heart any day of the week.
I don't get a real good feeling about the other guys for good reason. They simply underperformed the majority of the time. Obviously staff thought the same as they only played their canned substitution patterns and were never worked into any playable rotations or games plans. Even if they had some game, the lack of opportunities will send them packing and using their eligibility where they can either play or be a part of a contender and come off the bench.
We should be approaching next year with the thought that L'Etang is the only returning starter. Every other player on the roster should be recruited over. I would love to have Bennett back but would much rather he be a spark plug off the bench. I'm fine with any (but not all) of the others coming back as long as they are bench depth.
With 2 now in the portal, I expect a minimum of 2 more.
I just hope if the rumored locker room issue was true that at least one of them is gone. 🙄
Just speculation but I don't see any sure thing to return. I think L'Etang and Bennett are likely. Allen is a complete unknown. And the remaining 3 are more likely to leave than stay so 2 seemed a reasonable number in the current environment. Again... nothing I heard; just speculation.
I see it the same as you. We talk about the value of players, and we tend to ignore what players value. It over simplified things to suggest that players just commit wherever the most money is. We think it’s extraordinary when someone doesn’t put money first. We quickly forget the people we know who answered a different bell. Players, like people, have the capacity to value things differently. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for the Flyers this time around. If we’re left with Frenchie, Bennett, Simon, Allen, and the 2 freshmen, AG has a lot of work to do. I’m hopeful that we’re able to snag 3 front court players (a 4 will be a starter), and 4 guards. Ideally, we get a starting 1 and 3. The next couple of months could be a lot of fun.
The rumor I heard involved two seniors who are both gone anyway.
Conner is gone??
I heard the same rumor, from 3 different sources, in 3 different parts of town, who are completely unrelated. The same names each time. And yes, both names I heard (perp and victim) are outgoing Seniors.
There hasn't been anything about Conner and the portal, just Smith and Jack. Where are you hearing about Conner?
Suspect he will contribute next year. Probably a four star if he chose a power conference school.
Yeah, a pretty good get, I think (and hope). He did have some mid- to lower-level P4 offers: SEC (Georgia), Big 12 (Arizona State), Big 10 (Penn State) and ACC (Virginia Tech).
I was in Cleveland last month and met a St Ignatius grad so we started talking UD hoops and this kid...I heard nothing bad but was told not to expect much from him as a freshman as he has a lot of development and adjusting to do.
If he develops like another tall, skinny Cleveland kid from my generation (Mike Kanieski), I don’t think any of us will complain.
I'd take even a 1/2 Kanieski in terms of production. And I think Friery has a high ceiling.
Half of my house was from St. Ingatius so I am always pulling for the alums. Except for Jonathan Gannon who single handedly lost the Eagles a Super Bowl and should burn in h**l for all eternity... but I digress. Hopefully Friery is an immediate contributor but not pushed to start before he is ready.
I don't think we should ever be looking at freshman as other than value added until they prove otherwise. This weekend begins the launch of 2025-2026 starter recruitment period. Plenty of opportunities available to qualified applicants!
And then there were 4 returning players... wow.
Honestly, if you told me we would be down to 4 after the season I would have been fine with it as long as Bennett and L'Etang were 2 of the 4. We need to be recruiting over Bennett. By the end of last season, the need for a rebuild was obvious. I don't think the current condition of the roster is anything to worry about yet.
And if it does hit that point, next season will likely be the tipping point that leads to much larger changes in the program.
The new reality is that we will likely need to learn to be comfortable with discomfort (to use an overused phrase). Don't get me wrong, I absolutely would feel better if we started seeing some lhs "welcome" threads.
We have the best 4 returning. The others are addition by subtraction.
The “core 4” is actually not a bad starting point. The only shocker for me in the portal was Allen. Don’t even know if he can play but he seemed like a UD lifer.
For those who wish to follow along at home, we now have seven scholarship players, with 8 scholarships left to give.
Returners: Javon Bennet, Jaiun Simon, Amael L'Etang, Jacob Conner
Recruits: Damon Friery, Jaron McKie
Transfers: De'Shayne Montgomery
Not rumors, an actual rule change that happened months ago. For 2025-26 each school will have 15 available full scholarships for men's basketball.
Returners: Javon Bennet, Jaiun Simon, Amael L'Etang, Jacob Conner
Recruits: Damon Friery, Jaron McKie
Transfers: De'Shayne Montgomery, Jordan Derkack
8 scholarships used, 7 to give. We need guards, guards, guards. Especially the point variety. And a backup for Frenchy. And a starting 4?
This is plenty right there ^. If 2 go down to injury, we still have 6 players and potential walk-ons. I hear the trainer can also play a mean game of intramural BB.
What this means is that we will fill the back end of the roster with more one hit wonders, and guys with so-called potential.
We need someone with size & enforcer attitude at the 4 and really would be nice to have a beefy center for when Frenchie isn’t the best match up in the middle. Shooters on the wing would be good too.
No inside knowledge but it wouldn’t surprise me to see Grant and Greer pull in an international player for the 4 spot. Someone who is strong (rebounding and D) and is more of a complimentary player on O.
i think the team also needs a pure shooter.
The benefit of having 15 scholarships (if they are all used) is that you can take a chance on 1 or 2 long shots who may have potential. If they don’t work out, they are like walk ons. Low risk, potential reward
Returners: Javon Bennet, Jaiun Simon, Amael L'Etang, Jacob Conner
Recruits: Damon Friery, Jaron McKie
Transfers: De'Shayne Montgomery, Jordan Derkack, Adam Njie
9 scholarships used, 6 to give.
I believe the 4 walk-ons count toward the 15 roster spots even though they don't receive scholarships.
Great call LLFF. You got me to read the new rules. Yes, 15 total regardless of status. Is the walk-on dead??? This will be interesting to see. Walk-ons do not have to get a scholarship ( but now probably would) and walk-ons are happy in a back up role. Uhl is a great case study. Essentially a walk-on but he was grateful for the chance. He graduated. Would you rather see Uhl and Maxwell or Mouss and Frazier. I think AG only fills12 slots.
Great call LLFF. You got me to read the new rules. Yes, 15 total regardless of status. Is the walk-on dead??? This will be interesting to see. Walk-ons do not have to get a scholarship ( but now probably would) and walk-ons are happy in a back up role. Uhl is a great case study. Essentially a walk-on but he was grateful for the chance. He graduated. Would you rather see Uhl and Maxwell or Mouss and Frazier. I think AG only fills12 slots.
I’m inclined to think AG “carries” at least 2 walk ons with maybe nominal compensation - like no more than $5,000. But who knows. They serve a big role in scouting the opposition and emulating that team in practice. Who fills those roles without the traditional walk-ons? And I know the scholarship players had great respect for these players in the past. They knew their value to the team. And I agree we don’t have the deep pockets to “fully-fund” 15 players who can pick up large sums of cash at other schools as back ups. And these couple former walk-on status players might have a contract that states they can be replaced in January if a player who can “start” becomes available. I think we add a player or two every January - when the bigger schools have spent their funding and there is less competition for solid players.
I believe that Dayton will keep the 4 walk ons, who have all been with the program at least two years. They have been included in NIL benefits but the only one to be granted a scholarship was Uhl. As BeckyTXA mentioned above, they are well respected by the scholarhip players as are the managers.
No chance. That would mean we only have 11 roster spots for scholarship players. So instead of taking advantage of two extra scholarships we ride with two less? Incomprehensible.
I think we might keep 2 -maybe 3 if we can only “land” 12 “paid” players. And then that’s what I’m saying when these 2-3 are told upfront that it might be a short term gig. If we can pick up a player who will see court time in January, then someone gets cut. I wondered who will pickup the scout-team video work and practice work. I guess they could add a couple more student managers who could do the video/scouting work under the direction of an assistant. That’s basically what they do now with the walkons - but then they implement the opponents’ systems in practice. That’s where I think there is a hole to fill. These walkons/practice players took great pride in executing an opponents’ system during practice. I don’t think you are going to get that from a 12-13-14-15th paid player. Think Mousa…who struggled to figure out UD’s system. And now he is being asked to learn 2 new systems a week to be part of the practice team? Or even Jack. I think he would have been a great practice player in being able to learn and emulate the opponents’ systems. But would he have wanted to? I think he wants to be in the line up playing for real. So how committed would a player who feels the same be in this critical role? It’s an issue every team will have to deal with. I have no idea how or what the NCAA will allow. I know many assistant and grad student coaches play against players in practice. Maybe even some student managers? So maybe it’s a matter of giving the walk-ons a new title? And they don’t travel or suit up ever. They become student coaches?
End of the day that’s what it comes down to. Status and label. #10 & #11 will be potential starters. #12 will be a guy like Allen (coming off injury/slow to mature). So we are talking about #13, 14, 15. Grant likes to keep one spot open for mid year/last minute studs. So we are talking 2 slots for what is typically 4 walkons. My guess is the last 2 will be named Super Managers” or such and they sit behind the bench at home, play in practice, get gear, but never suit up or travel (they can travel ‘on their own dime though (NIL $).
Kool-ade I'm thinking along the same lines. You might not have every detail correct - but in concept I would bet you are spot on. I think AG "keeps" some of the walk-ons in some sort of capacity and if it's all 4 from last year - some probably slide to a student manager "title" and won't be able to suit up or possibly travel - I don't know the rules for student managers traveling, but I believe some do. My guess is each school has to register their official 15-player (or less) roster with the NCAA at some point. But I also would think there is a procedure to amend the roster. Schools add players in January - so there has to be at least that. I also believe AG will still somehow keep one of the 15 spots open and maybe 2, for mid-year additions.
I'm just wondering because I keep hearing about mid-year additions, how many of these usually happen? I know we got Amzil mid-year, although he was already committed to us and ended up leaving his prep school early to join us. Have there been others at UD? Are there a lot at other schools?
While not a huge number of mid-season adds (anywhere), and Amzil is the only one that really made an impact on me, this number will grow. Now whether you want to sign someone who skips out on their team mid-season for a payday is a different story. I coached at the D-III level and you saw players swap teams mid-season all the time (had a player recruited on the handshake line). Also with the rule for coach changes (enter portal within 30 days), there will be more late entries. And the last is the 'slow decision maker' where a player is expecting $X which never materializes and opts for the experience and $Y.
Correct me if I am wrong but I didn't think the NCAA allows a player to play for a second team in the same season.
You're allowed to have walk-ons and practice players. So, if you have 13 on scholarship and 4 walk-ons in 2024-25, you can have 13 scholarships, 2 walk-ons and 2 practice players in 2025-26. In fact, I don't believe there is a limit on practice players.
