Kansas Crimson

AlOerter wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 7:53 pm If KU gets Mbako and cruises to a national championship say, I expect NCAA to start talking about salary caps to maintain some sort of parity.

NewtonHawk11 wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 12:31 pm The only people that didn't get paid a dime that played a significant role were probably the walk-ons that exceeded expectations or the local guys that wanted to play for Kansas because it was their favorite team growing up.

College athletics has been a sham in terms of purity for over 50 years and it isn't changing. It's just becoming more well known.

Dickinson arrives with proof rather than just potential. He averaged more than 17 points and eight rebounds per game in three seasons at Michigan and was a second-team All-America pick as a freshman. Questions about his ability to defend and his fit as a throwback center in the modern NBA kept him from testing NBA waters after his seasons at Michigan. In the old days of two years ago, his track record through three seasons might have been enough to convince him to leave college as a borderline NBA prospect or play professionally overseas. The ability to make money from name, image and likeness (NIL) deals the past two seasons has helped create a new breed of players -- others include Purdue's Zach Edey, North Carolina's Armando Bacot and Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe -- who have decided it's a better business decision to develop their games further while taking advantage of star power on basketball-obsessed college campuses rather than rushing to the professional ranks.

"We've talked about it. It's great because it's really helped keep us back in college," Dickinson said. "Being a good college basketball player is really fun."

Dickinson is unique even among that small group because of his decision to transfer to a new school, which set in motion a head-spinning, 34-day recruiting process and a swirl of rumors about the type of money a proven 7-footer can command in the new market for college athletes.

He says he wants to make clear that his choice to play at Kansas was a "basketball decision," driven by the potential to win championships and by the coaching staff's reputation for developing and deploying their big men effectively. To the extent that money factored into his thought process while sorting through his options, Dickinson says he was thinking not about any immediate payday but how to maximize his potential to stick around for a long professional career in the NBA after his time in college.

"If I wanted to just go to the highest bidder," he said, "then it wouldn't be Kansas."

[…]

Dickinson said he made less than $100,000 in his last year at Michigan. He heard from friends in the sport that other players who were not as impactful on the court were making far more at other schools. While NIL money was not a main deciding factor in going to Kansas, he said, it is part of the reason he left Michigan. His parents said during the recruitment process this spring they were shocked to learn that the earning potential for a player like Dickinson started at a minimum of $500,000.

"I think that would make any normal human being a little upset about their situation," Dickinson said. "Any guy in some desk job that was working way harder and producing way more than a person at another company that wasn't producing nearly as much as them but they're making more money, I feel like any normal human being would be a little upset."

[…]

Self, who was not on the sideline for Kansas during the NCAA tournament in March while recovering from a health scare, said he felt "re-energized" by a hectic month of recruiting. Kansas added two other transfers this spring to finish overhauling a roster with only three returning scholarship players.

He said he thinks the new rules will make it easier for high-major teams like Kansas to fill missing pieces on their rosters through the transfer portal each spring, making it less likely that they'll take big steps backward in any given year. That proved to be the case this season for the Jayhawks. He called Dickinson "the anchor" of an offseason in which the transfer portal treated them "really, really well."

The veteran coach said he sees pros and cons to the new world of building a college roster. Self said he is concerned that the combination of new transfer rules and NIL money is teaching young athletes the wrong lessons when it comes to fighting through adversity, but he understands that there are cases where moving to a new team is in a player's best interest.

"I've been doing this for a long time and now to keep up with the younger group of players I've got to adjust," he said. "To me, that's been fun."

The transfer process was more stressful than fun for Dickinson, who said he's now happy to be settling into a new campus and getting to know his new teammates during the first weeks of June. Dickinson said he was worn thin by some of the critiques he heard about his decision to leave Michigan, but that ultimately the new doors open to him and others like him -- both in terms of opportunities to seek out better spots to develop their skills and the money players can now make in college -- are a good step forward for college basketball.

"It's a multibillion dollar industry. You've got coaches making almost $10 million a year. This is not an amateur business," Dickinson said. "...People might take that the wrong way, like you don't care and you're only about money. But I think for me, I look at it as trying to expand and grow in the game of basketball. I'm working out every day to grow my business."

Mjl wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 12:18 am Michigan had two top 15 picks alongside Hunter Dickinson. And missed the tournament. How is that possible?

Mjl wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 12:18 am Michigan had two top 15 picks alongside Hunter Dickinson. And missed the tournament. How is that possible?

randylahey wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 7:28 am

Mjl wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 12:18 am Michigan had two top 15 picks alongside Hunter Dickinson. And missed the tournament. How is that possible?

Was thinking the same thing. How bad is Juwan Howard

But then again, north Carolina brought back a team that made it to the championship game and missed the tournament too

TDub wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 8:56 am I heard it was because Hunter wore a yellow and blue paisley jacket once. The rest of team couldn't focus or trust him anymore and the entire university of Michigan is still recovering from the shame.


and then....Chris Webber called another timeout.

ousdahl wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 9:07 am It’s maize and blue.

(Sorry, it’s the michigander in me)

JKLivin wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 8:41 am

randylahey wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 7:28 am

Mjl wrote: ↑Fri Jun 23, 2023 12:18 am Michigan had two top 15 picks alongside Hunter Dickinson. And missed the tournament. How is that possible?

Was thinking the same thing. How bad is Juwan Howard

But then again, north Carolina brought back a team that made it to the championship game and missed the tournament too

Hard to quantify, but you have to think some of it is coaching, but a lot of it is just the vagaries of working with young people with a socially-instilled over-inflated sense of importance and entitlement. Team chemistry is a delicate ecosystem.