:rofl:

This was a great April Fools joke. The article seemed so authentic and well written. Sounded just like the kind of statements the universities would make. You got my wife and I good. Our jaws dropped nearly to the floor as I read the article to her. Good one, man! :lol:

The landscape is crazy. — LeFan

Charles Barkley believes that NIL is ruining college sports and I agree:

Barkley argued that when big-named schools with the most NIL money reel in the bulk of top prospects, parity In college sports will crumble.
"It's a travesty and a disgrace. I'm so mad now how we can mess up something that's so beautiful," Barkley said.

He added, "In the next three to five years, we're going to have 25 schools that's going to dominate the sports because they can afford players, and these schools who can't afford or won't pay players are going to be irrelevant."

https://www.outkick.com/sports/charles-barkley-bashes-nils-impact-on-college-sports-on-60-minutes

LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards has named Clint Allard '08 the new head men's basketball coach of the Tritons. Allard becomes the 13th head coach in program history, and the second at the Division I level. Allard will report to Edwards in his new role.

"I have the distinct privilege to announce Clint Allard as our next head men's basketball coach," said UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards. "As an alumnus of our program, he knows what it means to be a Triton. His successes as our associate head coach were put on full display as we transitioned to Division I, won the Big West regular season and tournament titles, and competed on the national stage. His ability to recruit elite scholar-athletes, his coaching acumen, and his vision for continued success in this competitive climate make him the ideal candidate to lead our program into the future. I'm excited for the Coach Allard era to begin!"

https://ucsdtritons.com/news/2025/3/30/clint-allard-08-named-mens-basketball-head-coach.aspx

Thanks for the memories, Lan!

He seems to have a lot of player turnover, which doesn't happen w WBB and FB. — movielover

I don't think that Les has a higher rate of players leaving the program than other mid-majors like us or higher than the other Big West teams either. It's a new age in the college sports nowadays and players leave for a whole lot of reasons most of which have nothing to do with their coaching staff. I remember Darius Graham once saying that he'd "run through a brick wall for Les."

I actually think Les does a remarkably good job of retaining his best players who stay here because they feel connected to the team, the coaches and the university, for example, Pepper and TY coming back because they simply didn't want to leave even if it meant getting significant NIL elsewhere and playing on a larger stage.

He’s shown that he’s a great coach but, if we’re going to build a stronger program, we need to be able to compete with well coached, good teams. So I welcome the competition. They’ll set the bar high and we’ll need to meet the challenge or be left behind.

He's been tremendously successful and this year's team lost a very close game to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament. He 240-119 at UC San Diego and now we'll be playing against his team again starting in 2026.

Here's a more detailed article about Olen:

https://themw.com/news/2025/03/30/eric-olen-named-head-coach-of-lobo-mens-basketball/

This is an interesting post from the Big West Boards:

It is interesting that of the roughly 2,000 D1 players who entered the portal last season, about 200 of them (about 10%) never landed at another school (I'm guessing most probably never got an offer, or never got one from a school they preferred to attend or a team they wanted to play for). The consequence for declaring to enter the portal means you are at least temporarily relinquishing a scholarship at your former school. The school you transfer to does not need to guarantee you a scholarship, nor, if you wind up returning to the school you had intended to transfer from, that school does not have to reinstate your former scholarship, although they may do that....it is a risk for the player to enter the portal...maybe not for the best players, who will 'land on their feet,' but certainly for lesser players who might not get a better offer than they currently have at their present school.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bigwest/bw-transfers-t29507-s30.html

Nice find, CAF. It's not easy finding info on players in the MBB portal. I hope Les and his staff are able to bring in some high quality talent this year as we build towards playing stiffer competition in the MWC in 2026. With 6 graduating seniors and 3 more players in the portal we have a lot of spots to fill.

He makes a good point.

The fans over on the Big West Boards are following the transfer portal and, as of today, there are 44 players from BW teams who have entered the portal. LB and Fullerton have been hit the hardest. Both of those teams have 10 players in the portal. Riverside was looking like they had the players in place to be one of the top teams in the BW next season after a very good year this year but some of their best players have entered the portal.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bigwest/bw-transfers-t29507.html

Jamaal Unuakhalu has entered the portal. That makes 3 Aggies in the portal. Looks like next season will be a total rebuild.

This was a really good basketball game. Myles Che was outstanding also and he's only a sophomore. Irvine and San Diego were definitely the best of the Big West this year.

I'm not sure but we are losing 6 players to graduation: TY Johnson, Leo DeBruhl, Niko Rocak, Pablo Tamba, Francesco Borra and Lucas Prongos. So if Mani and Sangster do not return, that's would be 8 possible open spots. We do have Jalen Stokes and Chase Rawlins coming in as true freshmen.

I think Les has to hit the portal hard. We have a lot of shoes to fill and we don't have size.