Like you said, he looks like a good fit for the Aggies. He averaged nearly 20 minutes a game as a freshman last season in 33 games so I imagine he'll be able to contribute right away for the Ags.

Nope, I'm right there with you, Mike, and I'm sure Aggie fans are anxiously waiting to see if he'll stay or leave. I've been searching for as much info as I can find about him and he's certainly on the radar of some big programs. Here's a great highlight video that shows just how talented his is and why I'm hoping he'll stay here and be the leader of the Aggies next season:

Good for Eli! Continuing his basketball career as a pro in Australia should be great for him.

Damn...I didn't think about that!

I'm not totally sure about this but I think Pepper did something similar prior to playing his final season. He declared for the NBA draft as a learning process to see what the NBA scouts would tell him about his possibilities in the draft and to give him advice about his game and his draft prospects. Evidently, he gained a lot of good information from the process and then committed to returning to the Aggies for his final year.

The difference here is that I don't think that Pepper ever formally entered the portal and TY has. However, seeing that TY has posted "I"M BACK," it gives me hope that he may declare for the draft like Pepper did and gain a lot of useful feedback from the scouts and then return to the Aggies for his final year. Got my fingers crossed!

There are 353 teams in men's D1 basketball with a total of 5522 players. There are currently 1715 players in the portal which means that nearly 1/3 of all D1 players are looking to transfer. Of course, there are players in the D2 & D3 portal that are looking to transfer up also.

I was surprised by the number of CSUN transfers as well. They have typically relied on the portal as much or more than any other program in the conference. Some of their players have played at multiple schools too and I think players like that are more likely to pull up stakes and move on looking for greener pastures.

Irvine's outstanding 7'0 center, Bent Leuchten, has entered the portal. That's a huge loss for the Anteaters.

There are now 1692 players in the portal including 43 from Big West schools:

CSUN - 8
Poly - 7
San Diego - 5
Long Beach - 5
Bakersfield - 4
Irvine - 3
Riverside - 3
Fullerton - 2
Hawai'i - 2
Santa Barbara - 2
Aggies - 2

Yeah, unfortunately, my wife and I were there to witness that meltdown. We honestly thought that this Aggie team was going be the one to finally win the D2 National Championship...

Seattle Sports article about EWU hiring Monson as their head coach:

https://sports.mynorthwest.com/1774726/dan-monson-ewu-coach-who-started-gonzaga-rise/

I'm not sure that we have ever seen this much recruiting activity this early by the Aggies. It feels like Plough and his crew are really stepping hard on the accelerator. I love the energy!

Comments from Jim Les about TY Johnson entering the portal:

"It's our new reality that players who have developed as TY has will attract attention and other schools will try to poach them," Les noted.

"It's become a wild, wild West scenario, with NIL (name, image and likeness payments) becoming a recruiting tool. That's actually been going on for a long time, but now it's legal."

"He's an awesome young man, an awesome player and he put in a lot of hard work to get where he is today," Les added.

"We're hoping that if he stays, we can springboard him into playing at the next level. He certainly has the skills, the work ethic and the mentality to succeed."

"We need to keep doing what we do, which is developing young players and offering them a great education and a great basketball experience," said the Aggie coach.

"But we have to respond to our needs, too, and sometimes that is in the portal."

"I think this is a really hard decision for him," Les said of Johnson.

"We're in regular communication, and in his heart, I think he doesn't want to leave Davis. He loves it here and is thriving, but for a variety of reasons, he feels like he needs to test the market.

"I still believe this is the best place for him, but we just have to see how it plays out. He knows how much we appreciate him as a player and as a person. He's on an upward trajectory and we'd love to have him finish that ride here."

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/ucd-hoops-star-johnson-enters-transfer-portal/article_5fa692a6-f602-11ee-aed5-73d89460067e.html

I always thought that Jen Gross might be in the running for the Stanford job when VanDerveer retired. I've heard that she and her husband have a good relationship with VanDerveer and they have helped VanDerveer with the Princeton style offense.