Off-Season Player Updates

I tend to struggle with things that I can't rationalize. Can somebody please tell me why Malcolm wouldn't just stay here instead of taking a step down to a school like NAU? There's the obvious of course, he could be a big fish in a small pond, but other than that, I'm baffled.

Maybe he knows this is it for him so wants to get as much run as possible?

Any insight you can provide on this would help me sleep better tonight LOL

Courtside Kev wrote:I tend to struggle with things that I can't rationalize. Can somebody please tell me why Malcolm wouldn't just stay here instead of taking a step down to a school like NAU? There's the obvious of course, he could be a big fish in a small pond, but other than that, I'm baffled.

Maybe he knows this is it for him so wants to get as much run as possible?

Any insight you can provide on this would help me sleep better tonight LOL

Very easy to see why he left if you observed his body language this past season, and the manner in which he interacted with his father...much the same as Franklin before him.

Pretty tough to call it a step down to NAU considering the state of the UP program.  A quick look at KenPom from last season shows the Pilots at #286 and the Lumberjacks at #215.

Good for Malcolm, a really nice young man. I'm sure he's looking forward to having fun playing basketball again while working on his graduate degree.

I thought Malcolm was the second most improved Pilot last year (behind Taki) but I really wasn’t sure where he’d end up.

Our older son is 5 now. I helped coach him in hockey this year and had been trying to get him to keep two hands on his stick for several weeks in a row. The second last practice before coronavirus cancelled the season, I was helping another kid and a different coach told him the exact same thing. You can guess what happened next, he finally did it and kept doing it.

It’s tough enough to balance the father/coach son/player dynamic when the kid is 5. I would imagine it would be even tougher when the kid is 19/20/21 and that’s why I give Coach Porter a pass for both Franklin and Malcolm transferring out.

Thank you for the insights! Watching Player/Coach relationships is definitely one of the weaker aspects of my fandom. Between ordering food from the waitress or getting in my 12 year old's ear about what they could have done better (or praising a good play,) I never really look to see what's going on with the bench. I see everything when I watch games on television. When I get to the Chiles Center, I'm like a little kid at the State Fair with eyes bouncing around everywhere and it's like a 2-hour euphoric roller coaster ride lol.

https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/12-sports/464229-375127-pilots-athletic-director-plays-waiting-game

1. The big financial blow for UP (not just athletics) was the cancelation of Pilots Give, the largest annual fundraising event.
2. Portland will miss out on about $250,000 from the NCAA that goes to support student athletes' support programs — not to the general athletic department budget.
3. It was fortunate the WCC basketball tournaments were completed as fulfillment of the TV contracts helped the bottom line.
4. The cancellation of spring sports and the moratorium on in-person recruiting saved UP between $400,000 and $500,000 in travel costs.

Tryon lands at New Mexico State. Great spot for him, should likely finish off his career with a tourney appearance.

I knew he was too good for D2.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Tryon lands at New Mexico State. Great spot for him, should likely finish off his career with a tourney appearance.

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/sports/college/nmsu/2020/04/29/new-mexico-state-lands-portland-transfer-jacob-tryon/3053720001/

Good to see all the transfers land at D1 programs:

Jacob - New Mexico St.
Malcolm - Northern Arizona
Hugh - UC Davis
Theo - Louisiana

Unless the 1-time transfer exception rule passes and goes into effect this coming season, Jacob and Theo will have to sit a year, but Malcolm and Hugh can play right-away as grad transfers.  

(Cody didn't transfer, he simply left the team at mid-season).

Good for Tryon. NMSU is one of the most dominant programs in the country vis a vis their conference.

DoubleDipper wrote:Unless the 1-time transfer exception rule passes and goes into effect this coming season, Jacob and Theo will have to sit a year, but Malcolm and Hugh can play right-away as grad transfers.  

The working group gave a thumbs-up to granting one-time transfer waivers for ALL D1 student-athletes now, and then the board agreed and recommended the change to the Council, but in the same breath stated the one-time transfer waiver is "not appropriate at this time"....and "recommended the waiver process be sensitive to student-athlete well-being, especially those impacted by COVID-19 in the interim period."    

https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/di-board-directors-and-presidential-forum-discuss-future-division

Jeesh, the layers of bureaucracy at the NCAA appear to makes everything move a snail's pace in the fast-paced world of college athletics.  At least the coaches can now include spread with the bagels....

Not really a player update, but this is as close to an offseason thread as we've got in here.

The @WCChoops account tweeted out this picture today. Who's the Pilot? Sure looks like it was taken during the '96 tourney game against Villanova.

Dean Murdoch wrote:The @WCChoops account tweeted out this picture today. Who's the Pilot? Sure looks like it was taken during the '96 tourney game against Villanova.

That's none other than Chivo Anderson, a 6-5 sophomore wing...and yes, he was part of the '96 WCC Tournament winning team coached by Rob Chavez.

Haven't heard from our "Stoney" on PN for a long, long time, but the 1996 team also included 6-8 freshman Kyle Stonehouse, from Vancouver, WA.

Tough to pick out any "stars" of the team that year, but Kweemada King, Lemont Daniels, and Rick Brainard were the top scorers, as I recall.

One of the best UP guards ever, especially on defense, Dion Holton (nephew of Michael) was a sophomore that year...he gave SCU star and 1996 NBA first-round pick, Steve Nash, fits both seasons he played him.

Best name on the roster that year, Jimmy Rainwater.

Thanks for the memories...success like that is fun to recall.

What's the status of Pilots basketball and NCAA basketball in general? Are offseason workouts happening?

Dean Murdoch wrote:What's the status of Pilots basketball and NCAA basketball in general? Are offseason workouts happening?

The status of NCAA basketball in general is in constant flux as Coronavirus outbreaks in many states and amongst a number of college athletic teams begin to rise.

Specifically, however, UP has an amazing set of protocols in place to minimize the chances of spreading the virus as students begin arriving back on campus, and workouts in some form are expected to begin by mid-July.

https://www.up.edu/backtothebluff/index.html

Six or seven of the eight new players and all of the returning players are expected to be on UP campus no later than June 28th to begin self-quarantining and taking online Summer Session 2 classes.

WBB's Alex Fowler and Haylee Andrews, both from Australia, are already back at UP, and Australian Keeley Frawley should be arriving next week.  New Zealand native, Emelia Shearer, is apparently experiencing no travel concerns from her government.

As mentioned elsewhere, Australian Zac Triplett will arrive on campus around July 1st.

From what I understand the UP Athletic Department's staff did a yeoman job of cutting through the red tape to get UP's four Aussie basketball players out of their home country despite the "no foreign travel" order.

Saw this pop up on Twitter today -

@VerbalCommits wrote:2021 East Los Angeles College (CA) F Josh Phillips has received an offer from Bryant. @Josh2Phillips

Good for him.

Dean Murdoch wrote:Saw this pop up on Twitter today -

@VerbalCommits wrote:2021 East Los Angeles College (CA) F Josh Phillips has received an offer from Bryant. @Josh2Phillips

Good for him.

Apparently he's not the only one to receive an offer from Bryant...

The Bulldogs lose one player to graduation in 2021 and five players in 2022, but according to Verbal Commits, they have made offers to 69 players for 2021 and 145 players for 2022.

DoubleDipper wrote:Apparently he's not the only one to receive an offer from Bryant...

The Bulldogs lose one player to graduation in 2021 and five players in 2022, but according to Verbal Commits, they have made offers to 69 players for 2021 and 145 players for 2022.

Haha...I completely forgot that Bryant had gone with that recruiting strategy. Eight offers just in the last week for Bryant, that is absolutely wild. I don't really see how that's effective, but to each their own.

Keep Kramer Knutson and his family in your thoughts, Kramer has been hospitalized in AZ.

Note from his family.

Dear concerned family and friends,
As you may have heard, Kramer was admitted to the hospital on August 15th to receive an emergency surgery that relieved air that had been progressively building up by his brain. This was due to a mass found in his sinus cavity. This initial surgery was successful in relieving the pressure on his brain.
Today, August 19th, he had another successful surgery to remove the mass which was benign! This mass had been eroding part of the skull near his sinus. This allowed air up into his cranial cavity which caused pressure on his brain and gradual symptoms of severe migraines, sickness and eventually a lack of responsiveness leading to the ER.
He will be kept asleep for a few days to let his body heal before he starts his road to recovery. Thank you to those of you who have reached out during this difficult time for our family. We really appreciate the concerns and questions you may have, but kindly we will not be responding to many messages at this time as we focus our energy on his care.
We have created this page to relay any new information we have on Kramer and the Family. Once again, thank you all so much for the prayers, love and support you have given us and continue to do so!
Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts,
Kramer's Family.

You can track Kramer's progress and send him a message on his CaringBridge site:

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kramersjourney

Dean Murdoch wrote:Tryon lands at New Mexico State. Great spot for him, should likely finish off his career with a tourney appearance.

This from NMSU Head Coach Hans, "Tryon's waiver and appeal for immediate eligibility was denied.  We wish Jacob nothing but success moving forward."

My interpretation of what the coach said is, "We needed Jacob to fill a gap this coming season, but we don't need him the following season as we have a much better player who will be eligible."  

"See ya, Jacob!"

Hey DD,
is the pilot list done and dusted, how does it look ?

Aussie Baller wrote:Hey DD,
is the pilot list done and dusted, how does it look ?

Although almost all UP classes are now online only, there are 220 students living on campus and more living in UP owned off-campus housing, and the last I looked all the MBB players are either on campus or near by.  But with the COVID-19 cases not even close to being reduced to an acceptable level, one has to wonder if some of the guys who are far from home might just toss in the towel and head back home if there is no basketball season this year...but yeah, for now, the roster is done and dusted.

Here are the new guys:
Not on the list, but on campus, is UP's newest signee, Ahmed Ali, 5-11/170, Grad Student

And the returning players are:
Quincy Ferebee 6-1/165
Miles Turner 6-2/195 (walk-on)
Chase Adams 5-7/150
Tahirou Diabate 6-9/225
Taki Fahrensohn 6-7/185
Wyatt Watson 6-9/195 (walk-on)

What happened to Jojo Walker?

spokanepilot wrote:What happened to Jojo Walker?

From June 27 in the 2020 Recruiting thread:

StudentPilot wrote:JoJo is not sure what he will do next, but it was the university's decision that he not return to UP, not his.

He said he grades were fine, and that Porter was ready for him to return to the team, but something obviously happened that caused Waldschmidt Hall to ban him from returning.

I consider him a friend, and I'm sorry to see his college education at UP come to an end...

StudentPilot wrote:You will NOT hear anything.

It is a personal matter between the university and a student, and it has nothing to do with athletics.

I was Zooming with one of the players tonight and learned many of the players are really "stressed-out" and "depressed" because of their inability to practice.

"We attend our online classes in our room, go to the gym for 5 on 0 practice and go back to our room, and that is it."

Everyone on the team is a gym-rat, but the none of the gyms on campus are open except for official practice because of budget cuts and furloughs, and the players are not allowed to mix with the general public without great caution because they are being tested for the Coronavirus at least once a week, and it will now be more often once they begin contact practice.

Although we assumed practice was to commence immediately, it apparently begins next week after UP's testing and tracing protocols are approved by the state.

Sound Voltex wrote:Malcolm heads to NAU.

https://twitter.com/NAUBasketball/status/1251313750839136259

I meant to report this earlier, but Malcolm Porter is no longer on the NAU roster after deciding to take the "crazy year" off due to COVID concerns and the the season's uncertainty.

What reminded me of Malcolm's decision was the news that the NAU basketball team has temporarily shutdown operations, and their game against Arizona scheduled for Wednesday has been canceled, due to a member of the NAU team testing positive.

All indications are Malcolm is still pursuing his graduate degree at NAU, but is doing it at home for now.