Payne in portal (UPDATED: Payne commits to Texas A&M)




Speaking of...
Yup! For example support. Did you see the massive turnout for the women’s game Tues night? Apathetic. Was it a NCAA sweet 16? Nope. But we had our new coach, we had local girls all over the court, and it was a post season tournament. Yes, the weather wasn’t cooperative, but that turnout had to make Coach P wonder if she should go back to W. Va? Do you seriously think Iowas or Wisconsins fans would have been that sparse? The football stadium was made small so we could fill the seats, and we still can’t half the time with a coach that UCLA lusted for. It isn’t the fact that our support isn’t like Iowa, WI, Penn St, OH St., MI, and all them folks down south! It’s that we won’t admit it! We just keep recycling coaches blaming them for the problems. No coach is going to be able to overcome our NIL deficiencies. PJ talks big, but how many times have we ever won the ever competitive West? Much fun was made of Bens comments on culture. While I don’t know if he’s the guy to nurture that culture (of course I am sure you do) I do think he is on to something. There are only two ways to compete in todays college sports arena. Build a "culture" where they want to play here, or in the words of the great philosopher Randy Moss, "straight cash homey"!
 

My probably unpopular opinion is that I don't mind the transfer portal and I don't mind the idea of NIL. I think the portal adds a little excitement to things. What I do think is there should be an NIL cap. If every place were able to offer the same amount to each of these transfers, there would probably be fewer transfers. For example, if the max was $250,000 and that's what Payne was getting here, would he still be looking somewhere else? Maybe, but less likely IMO.

If you cap, cheating programs will cheat again. It will soften some of the madness, but someone may still find a way to give Payne $500K.

Go Gophers!!
 


Yup! For example support. Did you see the massive turnout for the women’s game Tues night? Apathetic. Was it a NCAA sweet 16? Nope. But we had our new coach, we had local girls all over the court, and it was a post season tournament. Yes, the weather wasn’t cooperative, but that turnout had to make Coach P wonder if she should go back to W. Va? Do you seriously think Iowas or Wisconsins fans would have been that sparse? The football stadium was made small so we could fill the seats, and we still can’t half the time with a coach that UCLA lusted for. It isn’t the fact that our support isn’t like Iowa, WI, Penn St, OH St., MI, and all them folks down south! It’s that we won’t admit it! We just keep recycling coaches blaming them for the problems. No coach is going to be able to overcome our NIL deficiencies. PJ talks big, but how many times have we ever won the ever competitive West? Much fun was made of Bens comments on culture. While I don’t know if he’s the guy to nurture that culture (of course I am sure you do) I do think he is on to something. There are only two ways to compete in todays college sports arena. Build a "culture" where they want to play here, or in the words of the great philosopher Randy Moss, "straight cash homey"!
C'mon. This isn't on the fans.
 


Follow the money. That’s what this is…. IF as stated above JOJ and Carrington left because they weren’t taking in enough NIL, and dragged Payne with them, no other coach could have changed that. Delusional is still delusional. JOJ and Carrington were bit players, and they won’t find the grass much greener somewhere else. (See Henley) Payne hurt. He was only going to get better, and his type of motor is not easily replaced.

Speaking of delusional? The Ben Haters Fan Club. If you seriously think anyone is going to come in here and magically change this around, in this NIL mess you are wrong. There’s no magic bullet here. The U of M has never ever placed the emphasis on athletics some other schools have. They (we) look at ourselves as above the trivial pursuit of athletics. They don’t pay big bucks for coaches, and have drug their feet for years on facilities. Even the football field recently built wouldn’t hold half a MI or Ohio St crowd. And while we afford PJ with praise for the relative progress he has achieved, in most Blue Blood programs he would have already been gone!

You can replace Ben, with let’s say "Bob", but then you would have to become the Bob Haters Fan Club, followed by the Dave Haters Fan Club, etc. You get the drill. NIL and consolidation is changing, and ruining, college athletics as we know it. Blaming it on BJ is the easy way out. Accepting the fact that MN citizens, and the local corporations, and the U, have no interest in seriously competing is probably more realistic.

I don’t say this lightly, I have been a Gopher fan for years. While I followed all sports, BB, men and women’s, is my favorite. It’s sad to see things headed this way, but the bottom line is an uneven playing field has only gotten more uneven in the current environment!
If Bob is a better coach than Ben, this team makes the ncaas this year... And that would inspire more nil... Enough to keep everyone.. probably not...

And yes I've donated... It wasn't $50 or 10,000 but somewhere in between
 

Not likely, but let's not forget it is possible that a guy tests the portal and decides to come back. Doesn't happen that often, but it does.

I certainly hope that's the case with Pharrel.
Yep. I believe that this will be more true in the NIL era. I would hope that Payne, who I believe likes Ben and playing here, will give us a shot at matching or coming close enough to make him want to return.

To be honest, this needed to happen. Our players needed to shock the administration into understanding that they need to get serious about playing the game as it is currently designed and being aggressive or we simply will not compete. I think that the whole athletic department is tone deaf. I hope this is their wakeup call and that we decide to get up off the mat and get going. The U is taking its 60 mil happily from the TV contract- so they are in it for the money. Let's be done with the Marquis of Queensberry rules and start fighting.

When I listened to Ben and the AD talk about NIL last spring they were talking about trying to spread the NIL money around equally. I went away thinking- that's just not going to work. If a big hitter is giving NIL they want to know it is going to get to the stars to keep us competitive. I hope they have changed their tune in the athletic department.
 



I agree with that but, last I've heard, he wasn't getting $3 million. I would guess that he's still the lowest paid coach in the league.
I've looked at the CBJ multiple times and when he was hired in 2021 his salary was 3+ million according to multiple web-sources. I distinctly remember being dismayed at his salary being the same as Pitino's salary when Pitino was fired and wondering why CBJ wasn't hired at a deep discount. Someone WAS spreading misinformation if his salary is $ 1.95 million today compared to his published salary in 2021 of 3+ million.
 

I don't think it is really that simple anymore. Even programs that have had a lot of success like Wisconsin are losing guys to the portal.
Right, but then they will fill in with high level replacements. Here were are looking at D2 level players. The winning was just never established here after Clem and now they are paying the piper.

Who wants to come to MN to play bball? Really in the middle of a huge city and a university more worried about woke policy than if their teams do any good. It's a tough sell. This grave was dug years and years ago.
 

I used to detest the NBA and love CB. It has flipped.

At least in the NBA the contract terms are known, the rosters are more stable, and there are rules that at least give teams some semblance of a chance to compete.

If I'm going to watch professional basketball, I'll watch the league with the best players that's not in utter chaos every offseason.

NBA >>>>>>>>College Basketball. I can't believe it has come to this.
I agree. And a little bit of me has died. I haven't even watched one NCAA game yet. I see no point
 




Follow the money. That’s what this is…. IF as stated above JOJ and Carrington left because they weren’t taking in enough NIL, and dragged Payne with them, no other coach could have changed that. Delusional is still delusional. JOJ and Carrington were bit players, and they won’t find the grass much greener somewhere else. (See Henley) Payne hurt. He was only going to get better, and his type of motor is not easily replaced.

Speaking of delusional? The Ben Haters Fan Club. If you seriously think anyone is going to come in here and magically change this around, in this NIL mess you are wrong. There’s no magic bullet here. The U of M has never ever placed the emphasis on athletics some other schools have. They (we) look at ourselves as above the trivial pursuit of athletics. They don’t pay big bucks for coaches, and have drug their feet for years on facilities. Even the football field recently built wouldn’t hold half a MI or Ohio St crowd. And while we afford PJ with praise for the relative progress he has achieved, in most Blue Blood programs he would have already been gone!

You can replace Ben, with let’s say "Bob", but then you would have to become the Bob Haters Fan Club, followed by the Dave Haters Fan Club, etc. You get the drill. NIL and consolidation is changing, and ruining, college athletics as we know it. Blaming it on BJ is the easy way out. Accepting the fact that MN citizens, and the local corporations, and the U, have no interest in seriously competing is probably more realistic.

I don’t say this lightly, I have been a Gopher fan for years. While I followed all sports, BB, men and women’s, is my favorite. It’s sad to see things headed this way, but the bottom line is an uneven playing field has only gotten more uneven in the current environment!
You are right...things aren't working, we are screwed so why change anything?!

Good lord...
 

And why? Why was this rule dropped???
There would have been a lawsuit if it wasn’t.

Proof: there is a lawsuit now, challenging the still intact rule against no-sit second transfers.
 

If you cap, cheating programs will cheat again. It will soften some of the madness, but someone may still find a way to give Payne $500K.

Go Gophers!!
I guess you pick your poison. No matter what the number is (zero or some cap), you face the same cheating potential. Is this new world better than that? Does one want to live in a world where we have no environmental regulation because we assume everyone will cheat, so what's the point? I personally would rather have a regulatory framework and enjoy some measure of better air and water quality than no regulation at all.
 


How would suggest the AD "convince" big money donors to donate? Let's assume there are some and they are interested, how is Coyle going to get them to do so when they wouldn't before. It isn't like we can offer them anything of value they have to want to give money...and they never have.

I would agree with you if we were a team that had success and we were still falling behind. But they can barely convince me to give NIL money because of how little faith I have in the team and college sports in general...why would some big wig who probably never steps foot on campus care?

Sorry you can blame Coyle and Company for a lot...but I am not sure this is one those things. Unless the pitch is "throw in some money and we will can Ben" they really can't barter much.
It's finding companies that need tax write offs and getting them to funnel some of it to your NIL fund, rather than do whatever else it is they have been doing with their "donation" money. You also need to use these atheletes to promote your donor businesses and promote them hard.
 

The U of M has never ever placed the emphasis on athletics some other schools have. They (we) look at ourselves as above the trivial pursuit of athletics. They don’t pay big bucks for coaches, and have drug their feet for years on facilities.

I 100% agree with this part of your post. Couple this fact with the U being located in Minneapolis and there you have it.
 

This is what doesn't make sense. I'm sure we're far from the top, but how are we doing decently in NIL for football and have basically nothing for basketball. I don't buy that.
Because our football team wins. 100%, nothing more, nothing less.
 

I am not a CBJ supporter, but this is just further evidence that the slow rebuild is not a possibility. Personally, I never believed that was CBJ's plan, but his defenders would just argue that he was "doing it the right way".

That said, what do you do? The entire system is broke and even when you try to do things the right way (how CBJ treated Carrington), it backfires. I can think of a ton of stuff to blame on Ben, but this entire system is a dumpster fire.

I'm not in the camp of blowing it up and starting over, but I'm just getting increasingly less interested in college basketball.
To be fair we aren't blowing it up...the players leaving are.
 

It's finding companies that need tax write offs and getting them to funnel some of it to your NIL fund, rather than do whatever else it is they have been doing with their "donation" money. You also need to use these atheletes to promote your donor businesses and promote them hard.
Uh most of the Fortune 500 companies have plenty of tax write offs. Avoiding the political football that this discussion usually leads to, that is just not going to move the needle for a dozen reasons.

And why would Best Buy for example benefit from say Pharrell Payne talking them up? Gopher Basketball brings no sales value, because the team has no Q rating even locally. If they are going to give money, they have to feel they are getting something out of it. You want that...then you need better results than we are getting by leaps and bounds. More people probably go to a random Target in an afternoon than watch Gopher Basketball or show up at Williams. (a bit of hyperbole there)

It always amazes me how easy people seem to think it is...even if you assume most of the local companies are run by alums (which is dicey) what makes you think they care if some player they never heard of is willing to talk them up on social media or TV?
 


It's finding companies that need tax write offs and getting them to funnel some of it to your NIL fund, rather than do whatever else it is they have been doing with their "donation" money. You also need to use these atheletes to promote your donor businesses and promote them hard.
NIL isn't tax deductible. The institution isn't supposed to be part of NIL. Name, Image, and Likeness is not supposed to be 'pay for play' but this has been overlooked. I'm counting the days until I see the first Pharrel Payne television ad for Jim Bob's Toyota in Lawrence, Kansas.
 

NIL isn't tax deductible. The institution isn't supposed to be part of NIL. Name, Image, and Likeness is not supposed to be 'pay for play' but this has been overlooked. I'm counting the days until I see the first Pharrel Payne television ad for Jim Bob's Toyota in Lawrence, Kansas.
isnt it a marketing expense and reduces taxable income?
 

Yup! For example support. Did you see the massive turnout for the women’s game Tues night? Apathetic. Was it a NCAA sweet 16? Nope. But we had our new coach, we had local girls all over the court, and it was a post season tournament. Yes, the weather wasn’t cooperative, but that turnout had to make Coach P wonder if she should go back to W. Va? Do you seriously think Iowas or Wisconsins fans would have been that sparse? The football stadium was made small so we could fill the seats, and we still can’t half the time with a coach that UCLA lusted for. It isn’t the fact that our support isn’t like Iowa, WI, Penn St, OH St., MI, and all them folks down south! It’s that we won’t admit it! We just keep recycling coaches blaming them for the problems. No coach is going to be able to overcome our NIL deficiencies. PJ talks big, but how many times have we ever won the ever competitive West? Much fun was made of Bens comments on culture. While I don’t know if he’s the guy to nurture that culture (of course I am sure you do) I do think he is on to something. There are only two ways to compete in todays college sports arena. Build a "culture" where they want to play here, or in the words of the great philosopher Randy Moss, "straight cash homey"!
It was a women's basketball NIT game that didn't include Caitlin Clark.

Did you really expect a good crowd?
 

Might be a hot take but Payne seems incredibly overrated by the board and apparently whoever is about to pay him. Maybe it was the function of him and Dawson shouldn't be starting at the same time but he seemed so awkward doing basic things on the basketball court. I cringed every time he dribbled and threw a pass and not to mention the free throws. He was also consistently in foul trouble.

Optics are obviously bad but I don't think any of the losses are irreplaceable currently...
 


Might be a hot take but Payne seems incredibly overrated by the board and apparently whoever is about to pay him. Maybe it was the function of him and Dawson shouldn't be starting at the same time but he seemed so awkward doing basic things on the basketball court. I cringed every time he dribbled and threw a pass and not to mention the free throws. He was also consistently in foul trouble.

Optics are obviously bad but I don't think any of the losses are irreplaceable currently...
Payne is a massive loss- if he stays gone. I would hope we gather our senses and get the kid paid. Let him shop, see what he can get and then match it. Well, that's if we want to compete.
 

Might be a hot take but Payne seems incredibly overrated by the board and apparently whoever is about to pay him. Maybe it was the function of him and Dawson shouldn't be starting at the same time but he seemed so awkward doing basic things on the basketball court. I cringed every time he dribbled and threw a pass and not to mention the free throws. He was also consistently in foul trouble.

Optics are obviously bad but I don't think any of the losses are irreplaceable currently...
And not a peep about this from you. Until today.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
 




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