Also sounds like Rutgers is having similar NIL problems. What strikes me as funny is every school seems to think every other school is rolling in NIL money, when in reality it seems like very few schools are actually rolling in it.
Paul Mulcahy
- Thread starter Franisdaman
- Start date
SEC seems to be doing well, but maybe they are just moving the money from under the table.
Kansas outbid Kentucky for Hunter Dickerson
Granted, Kansas has been at this for a long time now
It's not so much that Rutgers is or isn't rolling in NIL money. They are not throwing it wastefully at certain guys. Rutgers used NIL to retain Mawot Mag and Cliff Oromuyi but not Paul Mulcahy. The ROI is better with Mag and Oromuyi than it is with Mulcahy. Mulcahy's poor play of last year made him expendable. Besides, Rutgers is positioning NIL money for top recruits like 5* Ace Bailey, 5* Dylan Harper, 4* Gavin Griffiths, and 4* Lathan Somerville. So far, they have 3 of the four mentioned and are in line to grab the last one.
What you typed up sounds like what goes on in pro sports (no salary cap, unfortunately). Mulcahy is an unrestricted free agent and you decided to not re-sign him.
NIL has sure turned into something it wasn't supposed to be. Pay to play is alive and well.
If they land #1. overall recruit Harper that would be a top 5 class for RU!
Pickell has awakened the echoes for knight BB.
Welcome to the big time!
Without Dylan Harper, the class is ranked #2 by Rivals and 24/7. Rutgers is still in play for Tyler Besty (4*-ranked 25th overall) and Nassir Cunningham (4*-ranked 29th overall). IMO, it's a long shot to get Besty, but Cunningham is trying to push his way into this class. Cunningham is a Jersey kid everyone thought would go to the G-League but recently has expressed a strong interest in playing with Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. The 2025 class may be as good as the 2024 class. Rutgers has several offers to the top 25 kids. Four of them have Rutgers in their top 3.
Pikiell had changed his staff (& support personnel) from when he first arrived. The bench coaches are young, hungry guys who know the game. Pikiell has been able to keep them by paying them well. And the support staff has excellent connections to several AAU teams. Also, the way the NIL is applied helps. It explains why Paul Mulcahy became expendable. Many more people are buying into the program, from donors to the talent.
Another factor is that the NY/NJ media loves that Rick Pitino is at St. John's, and Rutgers, Seton Hall, and Princeton are all competitive teams. Basketball is immense in that area, and to have several teams be successful is what the media want to push.
Mulcahy said it wasn't about money, but it was, to the tune of $300K-$400K range. He'll play his last season for the U of Washington.
Wow; who da thunk that Washington men's basketball would have that kind of cash to throw around. This NIL stuff is crazy. And if Paul is getting paid that kind of money, what did Hunter Dickinson and some of the top transfers get paid? Is this all sustainable?
Thanks for your contributions to the forum.
He's not making the NBA, so if true, which I never really know on these supposed NIL deals, a head start out of college w/3-400K in his pocket is a pretty smart deal for him. Now why a mediocre team like Washington would pay a pretty mediocre guy like him 300-400K is another story for another day.
As someone who lived in Seattle for almost 10 years, UW is a sleeping giant in sports if they can tap into their donor base. There is a lot of money that graduates from that school + Seattle/Tacoma has a good amount of talent to recruit from every year. I'm not sure why they have kept their basketball coach as long as they have to be honest. Hopkins just isn't exciting to most of the fans and he's on year 7 having only made the tournament once.
Mulcahy is a decent team player, but Rutgers made the right decision IMO. With their recruiting success, it sounds like they could be very good over the next few years. I like defense, but maybe they will even move away from the boring fight it out on every possession that they have played recently.
Rutgers is moving to an uptempo style and that didn't sit well with Mulcahy.
Which is smart to move towards with who their main pieces are now and what they are building towards next season.
I will say losing Mulcahy and Spencer likely means Rutgers is going to be slightly down this year. They won't fall to the bottom by any means, but I don't think their roster this season is particularly impressive unless Simpson or one of the freshmen takes a very big jump. They also just have very minimal depth, so I'm expecting their starters to need to all play 30+
It's a mix of things for Rutgers. Gavin Griffiths (4*, ranked 21st-rivals) has in the gym range, and he is 6'8. He will play the 2 and 3. Fernandes is a transfer from UMass who burned Rutgers two years ago while raining 3s. He will be the PG, and Simpson may come off the bench. PG Davis (Ace Bailey's friend/HS teammate) is a finisher at the rim. He is similar to Jacob Young a few years back, except Davis is a better passer and scorer. Look for Antonio Chol (6'9) to surprise some people. He was initially in the 2023 class, but with offers from Syracuse, Pitt, Va. Tech, and a few others, Pikiell didn't want this kid going elsewhere. Pikiell got Chol to reclassify to the 2022 class and redshirt. Simpson and Davis will push the pace and look to kick to shooters like Fernandes, Griffiths, and Chol. Expect more pick & roll with the PG and Omoruyi. Scoring should be up. The main concern is defense. Rutgers will be hard-pressed to replace Caleb McConnell. Mawot Mag is the closest guy Rutgers has to defend at an elite level, but he will not return until early January. I see Rutgers as a middle-of-the-pack B1G at best.
They will definitely miss McConnell and Mag's defense. Both were great defenders. It's really important that they got big Cliff O back, to give them a really good post presence on both ends. Simpson is very talented, but I don't much about the new guys.
Pikiell is hoping people don't know much about the new guys. Geo Baker, Ron Harper, and Caleb McConnell showed up at Rutgers, and few knew what Pikiell had. I've noticed over the year, Pikiell doesn't recruit to the stars, except now, but players who excel at one aspect of the game.
I don’t see how it’s sustainable for schools who can’t play in the High-Limit card room. There just aren’t enough big cash donors to keep all the schools anywhere near on an “even playing field”.
Possibly. Almost every school, especially a big power 6 school has to have many many big boosters. Now it just depends on how they want to spend their money. For us it looks like most of our money is going to football.
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