2024-25 Roster Thread

RowdyPkunk · Apr 17, 2024

LazyStegosaurus said:
I'll just say this here. I am glad we have Odom right now instead of MR. MR was a player relationship guy, but that only gets you so far in the era of transfers and bags of cash. Odom is a much better X's and O's coach, and I have a lot more faith in him that he can max out players in the one year he likely has them.

*runs before the Rhoades truthers come at me*

Not saying I disagree with what you said on any of that..... And certainly not throwing Odom under the bus, especially not knowing the entire circumstances of everything going on..... But

Having a "Player relationship guy" isn't necessarily a bad thing.... especially if NIL offers "aren't that far apart" or "guaranteed playing time" aint that far apart.

And a player might choose to stick around for "a few bucks less" because hes already got an establish relationship with a particular coach, group of coaches or players.

Not defending MR, not Bashing RO on this..... and none of us know the reason behind this. Did he want more $$$? Did he wanna start & get more playing time? Did he not like RO or someone on the staff? No one knows.

Odom may be a better X's & O's guy.... but guess what, so was Will Wade, and I as well as @MobileMunchies @Natty & others can tell you from one night at Baja after a TBT tournament.... there was more than just 1 player who was Happy Will Wade left & went to LSU when he did.... and it wasn't because he wasn't a good X's & O's coach & it wasn't even all about playing time.

Again, who knows why Tobi is entering the portal.... I sure as he11 don't..... but you need a good player relationship coach as well as someone who is good with the X's & O's.

Time will tell if Odom fits the bill for both categories.

SteveMM · Apr 17, 2024

N Mollen said:
If you want to count Max and Okafor (charity scholarship to a walk on last year; "I was going to throw this out, do you want it?") that's up to you. If Odom is counting them, well, that's a different scale of problem

I would *think* that if Okafor had his scholly pulled, he might consider leaving VCU. He would then enter the portal. That hasn't happened. Until we hear otherwise, we should probably assume he's going to be under scholarship. None of us know what he's looked like in practice ... at least while healthy.

AlienAiden · Apr 17, 2024

I was talking to a friend and he said…It is all about the

. From what I hear guys put out a number & if you don’t match they are gone. It’s the wild west. To some degree you cant blame them. The ridiculous thing is if the NCAA had been reasonable before we might not be here. Couldn’t buy a player a coke or get them something to eat. Athletes ruled ineligible for little to nothing. Now it is chaos. I think the pendulum has or will swing too far. Has to be a diminishing return at some point. Fandom will diminish which means TV $$ will diminish.

HBK · Apr 17, 2024

LazyStegosaurus said:
I'll just say this here. I am glad we have Odom right now instead of MR. MR was a player relationship guy, but that only gets you so far in the era of transfers and bags of cash. Odom is a much better X's and O's coach, and I have a lot more faith in him that he can max out players in the one year he likely has them.

*runs before the Rhoades truthers come at me*

Everyone knows that I like Rhoades and am friendly with him to this day. I like Ryan and am friendly with him. That said, I don't disagree with you at all. Odom seems to want more skilled players and is willing to sacrifice a bit of athleticism and "attitude" (I mean attitude in a positive way, like Ace was just a dog on the court). I think the more skilled a player is when he arrives makes him much more likely to be successful for the one year you have them. If you are only going to get a guy for one year, or even two in some cases, you don't want someone who needs a lot of time to develop.

VCU94MCV98 · Apr 17, 2024

We will get exactly who we can afford, nothing more and nothing less. Next offseason, anyone who had a good year and can move on for a bigger offer will do so and the cycle will repeat again. It's a year-to-year fantasy draft except every team has a widely variable war chest.
Things like tradition, location, coaching, playing time, the BDC, fan support, Ramily, etc. mean nothing in this brave new world.

HBK · Apr 17, 2024

AlienAiden said:
I was talking to a friend and he said…It is all about the . From what I hear guys put out a number & if you don’t match they are gone. It’s the wild west. To some degree you cant blame them. The ridiculous thing is if the NCAA had been reasonable before we might not be here. Couldn’t buy a player a coke or get them something to eat. Athletes ruled ineligible for little to nothing. Now it is chaos. I think the pendulum has or will swing too far. Has to be a diminishing return at some point. Fandom will diminish which means TV $$ will diminish.

I posted a video on RamNation a few weeks back of Nick Saban talking about one major reason he retired. He told a great story about how in the last year or two, when he and his wife hosted recruits, the first and sometimes the only thing they wanted to know was how much they would get to come to Alabama. Saban spoke about in years past kids would want to know about how they'd develop or be used, etc. Not so any longer and it is a major reason he retired.

Ramlove81 · Apr 17, 2024

HBK said:
I posted a video on RamNation a few weeks back of Nick Saban talking about one major reason he retired. He told a great story about how in the last year or two, when he and his wife hosted recruits, the first and sometimes the only thing they wanted to know was how much they would get to come to Alabama. Saban spoke about in years past kids would want to know about how they'd develop or be used, etc. Not so any longer and it is a major reason he retired.

And I don't blame him.

rambunctiousrowdyram · Apr 17, 2024

Ramlove81 said:
And I don't blame him.

I’m close to quitting too. That would have been unthinkable before the transfer portal. But my interest is just dying completely. The players don’t care about the fans. So why should we care?

N Mollen · Apr 17, 2024

SteveMM said:
I would *think* that if Okafor had his scholly pulled, he might consider leaving VCU. He would then enter the portal. That hasn't happened. Until we hear otherwise, we should probably assume he's going to be under scholarship. None of us know what he's looked like in practice ... at least while healthy.

Man I hope that's not correct. Not from his standpoint but from the staff's. He was a walk on and got a gift scholarship. Why would he leave if he returns to that status?

If Odom is actually counting on him as someone competing for minutes, that's a problem to me at least

Ramdog · Apr 17, 2024

N Mollen said:
Man I hope that's not correct. Not from his standpoint but from the staff's. He was a walk on and got a gift scholarship. Why would he leave if he returns to that status?

If Odom is actually counting on him as someone competing for minutes, that's a problem to me at least

He was walk on…he would have to had a tremendous year in the gym…while recovering from his injury …to consider burning a scholarship on him…of course if you going to not use them all like last year than WTF…give him one ..and maybe the mascot as well

Mr X · Apr 17, 2024

Gone will be the days of the Cinderellas.

TampaKAP · Apr 17, 2024

N Mollen said:
Man I hope that's not correct. Not from his standpoint but from the staff's. He was a walk on and got a gift scholarship. Why would he leave if he returns to that status?

If Odom is actually counting on him as someone competing for minutes, that's a problem to me at least

Ramdog said:
He was walk on…he would have to had a tremendous year in the gym…while recovering from his injury …to consider burning a scholarship on him…of course if you going to not use them all like last year than WTF…give him one ..and maybe the mascot as well

In the spirit of an honest discussion, If Obi had taken the scholarship to and had 15/10/2 block guy or If he had Taken Harvards offer to prep one year then come to Harvard and let’s say he was a 12/8 guy there, would you be opposed to RO bringing him in as say the 11/12 man off the bench?

HBK · Apr 17, 2024

rambunctiousrowdyram said:
I’m close to quitting too. That would have been unthinkable before the transfer portal. But my interest is just dying completely. The players don’t care about the fans. So why should we care?

It's why as much as I like the young men who play fur VCU, and I've gotten to know some personally, my allegiance is to the front of the jersey. VCU is my alma mater and where my donations go, so that's my priority: the VCU basketball team.

(Actually my priority is all of the VCU Athletics teams, but in this context, it's all about men's basketball.)

N Mollen · Apr 17, 2024

TampaKAP said:
In the spirit of an honest discussion, If Obi had taken the scholarship to and had 15/10/2 block guy or If he had Taken Harvards offer to prep one year then come to Harvard and let’s say he was a 12/8 guy there, would you be opposed to RO bringing him in as say the 11/12 man off the bench?

Absolutely not. And if he had invented a better CRISPR sequence I wouldn't be opposed to giving him a spot in the med school as a sophomore. So far as I know we don't live in any of those realities.

Instead he's a guy who had one low, low major offer who came to VCU as a walk on. He got a scholarship that Odom was otherwise going to throw away. It's possible that every mid and high major program was wrong about his abilities, but I have seen no evidence of that, nor have I heard that he was destroying the scholarship athletes in practice

RowdyPkunk · Apr 17, 2024

N Mollen said:
Man I hope that's not correct. Not from his standpoint but from the staff's. He was a walk on and got a gift scholarship. Why would he leave if he returns to that status?

If Odom is actually counting on him as someone competing for minutes, that's a problem to me at least

Can we stop saying "gift scholarship" when none of us have even seen him play? Wasn't he labeled as a "preferred walk on" last year under MR? But obviously injury kept him out of games.

And then whatever RO saw in him during the offseason before he got hurt again.... RO thought it was warranted enough to give him a Scholly intsead of keeping him as a "preferred walk on".

It's not like he got gifted a scholarship because that Jacob Patrick kid backed out on us last minute... so we had "an extra" & chose to give it to him.

If we just gave him a scholly, with no intent of him ever actually playing (prior to his injury)... then we have more serious issues that need to be discussed.