FTR, the Fresno coach, Vance Walberg, was a well-known local high school coach and NBA assistant. He was the HC for two years at Pepperdine and resigned after a 6-win season. Walberg had 6 wins at FS two years ago, and 13 this year.

One graduating senior, so six spots to fill?

Dammit. Wilson is a big loss. Bummer. Balled out as a freshman. Imagine what he could have done here…

Super frustrating.

Is this a decent take?

- if you struggle to get off the bench, enter the portal
- if you have a good year, 50% may enter the portal (the grass is greener)
- unless you create a great culture, offer a top degree, and enjoyable college environment (Aggie football)

basketball seems to have taken this insanity to a different level vs. football. probably because the impact of 2 or 3 quality transfers can be a huge improvement. look at the Big West and you see UCI with 4, UCSD with 5, UCSB with 4, CSUN with 5. The first 3 have had success (2 with long time coaches) and have much more NLI money than we do. Scroll to the SEC and see teams with Tennessee and Kentucky with 7 or 8 transfers. Its nuts. I think its the coaches and the players -> i don't think the coaches have any issue with tossing aside returning players for a new, shining player that can start and take you to the final four.

wilson is on this 3rd school in 3 years. not sure what kind of top degree you can get with that track record.

President Trump proposed new limits.

AI: "On April 3, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order, "Urgent National Action to Save College Sports," targeting NCAA transfer and eligibility rules, aiming to limit student-athletes to one transfer during a five-year eligibility window and, generally, to one transfer without sitting out."

"Legal Standing: The order faces significant legal hurdles, as previous court rulings (such as in West Virginia) have already deemed NCAA limitations on multiple transfers to be illegal, leading analysts to believe the order may not survive legal challenges."

Schools face losing federal funding.

Big news: UCSB is leaving the Big West and joining the WCC. Our move to the MW continues to look better and better.

Michigan won the National Championship and 4 of their 5 starters with first year transfers. They had $10 million in NIL to offer and Arizona had $15 million in NIL. Here's the top total budgets for men's basketball for the 2023-24 season:

I guess posting that you’re actually staying with your team is a thing now. I’ve seen Chappell, Sevilla, Rawlins, and Fagbemi all say they are returning. Go Ags!

2 graduating. Niko and Daugherty.

If I were a point guard languishing at another school, I’d be calling Les ASAP. TY, Wilson come from bench tiles elsewhere to have starring roles, same with Milling to a lesser extent. Manjon parleys his time to a starting job at an SEC school. Now Fagbemi will get an even bigger shot after his transfer from C Arkansas.

Last year, we lost a bunch to graduation and one transfer (Tomba), and we reloaded pretty well. Let’s see what happens this year

Is it necessarily the case that a player who enters the transfer portal winds up actually transferring? Didn't we have a few recently who entered but returned?

I thought TY entered but stayed. He’s the only one I remember.

RB Ulonzo Gilliam in football entered but stayed here.

I'm not sure, but I think Eli Pepper was recruited heavily even though he never entered the portal and something like that probably happened to a lot of the footballers. What can I say? I'm an incurable optimist.

Yes, Pepper had a chance to leave and make some money but he stayed. He thrived under the tutelage of Les in his time as an Aggie.

TY put his name in, and we came up with enoigh money to keep him around. Not sure if that’s possible with any who have entered this year.

Santa Barbara and UCSD are leaving because Davis is out. WCC + Big Sky Football would have been a good outlet for Davis also. Poly may land there. The Big West being forced to admit Bakersfield and unable to control themselves with UH really killed the conference.

The Big West has now lost us, Hawai'i, SB and UCSD and they have added Utah Valley, Cal Baptist and Sac St. I think they've lost more than they have gained and leaves Irvine in a weakened conference.

This is what the WCC looks like with Gonzaga leaving for the PAC12:

Loyola Marymount
Pacific
Pepperdine
Portland
University of San Diego
Saint Mary's
San Francisco
Santa Clara
Seattle
Denver
UCSD
UCSB

The first leaked home game for next season:

Same guy says we'll be at Seattle on 12/22

Does this mean that we are paying Incarnate Word $75,000 to come to Davis?

that’s how I interpreted it

Yes. And no money for a roster. This is a total mess.

That's a whole lot of money which always seems to be in short supply here. Did we just inherit a sugar daddy recently?

Good question. I guess more money may be flowing into the program with the MW move. Anxious to see which players we’ll actually have on the court

Presumably, our payment for being a MWC team playing a P4 team will be higher. It’s a give and take.

Article about the top returning players in the MWC for next season:

https://nevadasportsnet.com/news/reporters/mountain-west-basketballs-top-10-returning-players-as-transfer-portal-is-set-to-close

Verbal commits is showing that Noudjihidi is in the portal

Fire Les. This is ridiculous.

Kind of curious about Suljanovic. Didn’t see one of those “I’m staying posts” but haven’t seen any portal talk either. His brother just signed with conference rival UNM so maybe he’s looking forward to that matchup a couple of times a year.