good luck to him. guessing the school didn't turn out to be a good fit for him, since there seemed to be opportunities for a wing the next couple years.

Hopefully he finds a place that works for him. I do wonder if that opens another scholly?

Sorry to see him go. He looked like a promising player. He had offers from Sac and Riverside also when he committed to the Ags.

Caleb Fuller "transferring" I put in italics as I believe this was his fourth year at Davis and has probably graduated and is looking to play his bonus year elsewhere.
https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/caleb-fuller

Caleb retweeted this on his twitter page so it appears to be accurate. I'm curious to know why he apparently is not seeking to play as a grad at Davis if he has a year of eligibility left.

It is a pet peeve of mine that Verbal Commits puts graduates in the transfer portal. It is a very different situation when a kid has graduated as often it is not just a basketball decision.

It may just be an education decision for Caleb. He is very, very close with Coach Les and his family. Since he's from England, he spent the Christmas Holidays with the Les family each year and they consider him "family."

Personally, regardless of how positive my experience was at the four year school, I would want to get an advanced degree at a different school. An opportunity to have a new college experience, learn from a different set of coaches, a degree in exactly what fits the career goal, etc. I get that there are exceptions; maybe the current school has an ideal masters program or the team has everyone coming back and has a chance to be special. But in most cases, the benefits of a change outweigh staying put. My 3 cents (inflation)

I’m not sure what other academic requirements for admission(besides undergrad 3.0) into UC grad programs, but I suspect he doesn’t meet them - hence the reason for another opportunity. Much harder to qualify for grad admission than undergrad

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, this sucks for Davis as Manjon is transferring out.
https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/ezra-manjon

Oh man that really does suck. I can't say I'm all that surprised, but I was hoping that he'd be an aggie for life. We'll certainly need to dip our toes into the portal and see what we can find, though it’s probably impossible to replace a Manjon. Les does have a good track record of finding point guards. I wonder if this caught coach by surprise or if he knew this was coming. Wish the kid good luck wherever he lands.

Wow...this is a real shocker that I did not expect. Les essentially found Manjon and gave him a chance to play D1 ball. He had no other offers out of high school.

I thought he was more devoted to being an Aggie playing under Les and more connected to his teammates than he apparently was but this seems to be the nature of the way things are now with the transfer portal. It kinda makes you wonder who's next to go.

I’m trying not to think about who’s next. We aren’t like other BW programs where you can go out and find someone and plug him in. This program only seems to really achieve when we are loaded with experienced players who are used to the schemes and playing together. Felt like next year might have been that year. Now, feels like we’ll be right back in the middle of the pack.

Any news on the student athlete fees vote? Like when? Any idea if it will pass or not? Just having this on the calendar is not a great thing for recruiting. Imagine what the other recruiting schools are saying about it. Oh, by the way did you hear what uc davis is doing. . . . .?

Now, feels like we’ll be right back in the middle of the pack. — Oldbanduhalum

That's my feeling as well. Les mostly recruits high school players that he feels have a high ceiling and that they can then be developed with time and effort. Many of the other BW teams are bringing in experienced players from the transfer portal some of whom have played at several different schools. That's often a crap shoot, in my opinion, since you never know what the chemistry may be like from one year to the next.

Les is committed to the "Aggie way" of putting character, education and the team as a family first and foremost. That's a slower process of building the team over time and, when you have a player like Manjon transfer out, it leaves a void that isn't easy to replace quickly.

Manjon averaged 15.0 ppg just behind Pepper at 15.1 ppg. He also led the team in assists with 81 which is nearly twice as many as Caleb Fuller who was second insists with 46. So we will be losing our #2 and #3 scorers ( Manjon @ 15.0 and Fuller @ 12.1) for a combined 27.1 ppg plus our #1 and #2 assist leaders. Losing these two players is huge for the Aggies and it essentially puts us right back into a rebuilding season next year.

Manjon Is getting whispered to and now he’s gonna make a mistake and leave for a “higher program” . He will play 9 minutes a game …if that …and and watch from the bench the rest of the game. A higher profile program is gonna get a a kid in Manjon who was coached hard, has a lot of DI experience and can play a bit. That’s a lot better than a poorly coached juco transfer kid . But he is getting talked to by people that never played or coached at these levels, or professionally. And what he’s promised won’t be reality.

Best wishes to the young man, he dominated Pac 12 Oregon State. Maybe he ends up at a program like St. Mary's.

This opens opportunity at PG.

In all fairness, a lot of guys dominated 3-win Oregon State!

But it’s a big blow. Not sure he can start at that next level, but we’ll see. Hate to see him make an at-best lateral move like Squire.

Ezra, along with BJ Shorts, are the two of the best PG's we've had here. His natural, physical ability and quickness are off the charts and he's incredibly strong as well. He's a hard worker and he's come a long way in just 2 years here. I think he also has the potential to get much better as well.

One of the main reasons he's has developed into such a good PG here is because he's been coached so well by Les who, as a former, small, pro PG, knows as much about the PG position as any coach in the country. In addition, he has been able to play a ton of minutes in every game. He'll be lucky to find that kind of coaching and minutes at the "next level."

I would put Angelo Rivers and Dante Ross with them. Was Audwin Thomas a PG or SG?

I’m not sure why I was fearing this at the end of the season. 7th place finish, small crowds……just felt that with SO many transfers out there, that this might be tempting to him.

Dick Vitale’s take on transfer portal and mid majors

https://thespun.com/college-hoops/dick-vitale-thinks-1-rule-is-hurting-college-basketball

I'm in total agreement with Dick Vitale.

I just read a bunch of articles about the pros and cons of the the transfer portal for college athletes and, as you would expect, it's controversial. In many ways it allows athletes to have more choices about their athletic careers but the downside, of course, is that some coaches and programs push the limits and find ways to abuse the portal to their advantage. Adding to the controversy is how players can now get paid for the the use of their NIL (names, images and likeness) which opens the doors for further abuse by 3rd parties and deep pocketed donors getting into the ears of players with promises of more money and stardom from their NIL if they transfer to their school.

The bottom line to me as an Aggie fan is, as Vitale has noted, that the mid-major programs are getting hurt the most and Manjon entering the portal is a perfect example. He was found, recruited, and developed by Les and his staff and he has excelled as a result of his time playing for the Aggies. Now he can enter the portal without having to consult his coaches prior to entering it or having sit out a year after transferring and the Ags are left with a big hole in their roster.

Players were much less likely to jump into the portal so quickly when they had to sit out one year after transferring. Now there is little incentive to think more carefully about making the decision to transfer. Loyalty and commitment to their current coaches and teammates has largely become a thing of the past.

As SI reported in June, roughly 40% of men’s basketball players who join Division I programs out of high school have left their initial team by the end of their sophomore year.

https://www.si.com/college/2021/11/05/ncaa-basketball-season-transfers-bluebloods-recruiting

Just as John Calipari built his Kentucky teams around his controversial style of "one-and-done" rosters, we now have coaches who are building their teams around finding talented players in the portal from "lower level" programs rather than putting their time and effort into recruiting and developing players out of high school. They're happy to let the smaller programs find the diamonds-in-the-rough, invest in them and develop them and then snatch them up when they enter the portal.

I'm curious how much this affects other sports like football, baseball, women's basketball, or other less popular sports.

It's happening to varying degrees in all college sports from what I've read. Basketball and football have, of course, the highest numbers of players entering the portal each year football getting the most pressure because it's the biggest money sport for the power conference schools.

if you google 'transfers in sweet 16', there are lots and lots of articles about key players who are transfers. Iowa State has 7 on their roster (i think they had a big exodus after a 2-22 season), Texas Tech has 8. Miami has 3, but one of them (Charlie Moore) is on his 4th school (DePaul, Kansas Cal).

Locally, USF has 7. With their coach leaving, it will be interesting who stays/goes!

As with so many things, the rich get richer. The big money programs will find a way to "exploit" anything that will benefit them.

Even though coaches are not allowed to contact players prior to them entering the portal, I don't think we should be so naive as to think that there aren't many players who get messages "filtered down" to them through the grapevine from coaches, donors and potential NIL sponsors before they make the decision to enter the portal.

Locally, USF has 7. With their coach leaving, it will be interesting who stays/goes! — DrMike

It's not uncommon that coaches take a lot of their players with them when they change schools and, you know for a fact, that the players who leave most certainly had some kind of conversation with their coach before they decided go with him/her.

Adding to the controversy is how players can now get paid for the the use of their NIL (names, images and likeness) which opens the doors for further abuse by 3rd parties and deep pocketed donors getting into the ears of players with promises of more money and stardom from their NIL if they transfer to their school. — BlueGoldAg

This was already happening. It's just more in the open now. I don't think NIL has really changed anything in terms of the big schools.