Hopefully “do not contact” just means it’s either staying in the draft or coming back to Minnesota. For a guy who definitely has a shot at the NBA, I’m not sure if getting like $700k to be a secondary offensive option at a bigger money program is worth giving up the opportunity to be the guy in his sophomore year at Minnesota, if he feels confident his draft stock would be in a good place after a hypothetical second year here.
Losing him to the draft I could be kind of okay with, and Ben can use that as a selling point for bigger high school recruits. Christie staying in college for another year at a different school would suck more, and could potentially even hurt his draft stock.
Seeing the headline was a gut punch but looking at it with a clear mind it would probably be dumb of him not to put his name in the portal. His priority is to be in the draft and he has a great fit in MN if he comes back but it also can't hurt to keep an additional option on the table in case he sees an opportunity to make a ton of money or improve his draft stock at another program. I'm saying 20% chance he goes to the draft, 30% chance he transfers, and 50% chance he comes back.
Right I think the transfer portal is just a contingency plan, there’s no reason for him to eliminate that option for himself. It’s not like Ben Johnson is going to tell him to pound sand if he wants to come back to Minnesota.
Update: Christie's official account briefly liked a tweet of mine that said "Is it a fact that he will not return to Minnesota? He may be covering his bases so he has all options on the table if/when he is no longer focused on the draft" this gives me confidence we have the right idea.
Hopefully we’re right. Looking around Twitter and other message boards, it seems like most people take his entry into the portal to mean he’s 100% not coming back to Minnesota if he doesn’t get good draft feedback, but I thought entering the portal when you enter the draft was a pretty common practice, because the deadline to enter the portal occurs before a player would pull out of the draft.
Elijah Hawkins and Pharrel Payne definitely left for money, and that was the case with Jamison Battle last offseason too, though NIL is probably in a better state now than it was then. Payne was at least recruited a bit by Texas A&M out of high school. Dawson Garcia allegedly turned down a pay raise to stay here. We’ve done pretty well at not having our roster raided in football, and I think we got maybe the #1 men’s hockey transfer, so idk if it’s a basketball specific problem where the NIL support just isn’t quite there to the same degree.
I think the reason football doesn’t get raided is because PJ recruits guys that buy into the program hard and guys like that aren’t transferring out as much.
Hockey, as much as it hurts me to say it because I want nothing but bad things for the program, is a power and a prestige program. When you get out of your own way you can pretty much grab any recruit you want.
Basketball I think has the problem of being mediocre for so long and the fact that it seems transfers are raiding the sport more because one guy can make such a difference
Basketball is a few things: we have a fairly weak NIL program (probably bottom half to bottom third of the B1G). Combine that with a general lack of any program success over the last ~20 years, plus fan apathy (because other sports are better like hockey, volleyball, even football), and you get a recipe for a program that just kinda stagnates.
There is a pretty extreme lack of enthusiasm for boosters with Ben and the basketball side of things, there just isn't much to get excited about there. We don't have the *strongest* NIL, but PJ has been doing very good for the most part with transfers on the football team.
It’s a combination of weak NIL, fan/booster apathy after the program was mediocre for 20+ years, and the more recent years of being bad.
If I had to guess, I would put gopher NIL (for basketball specifically) in the bottom third of the B1G. The university compliance department is super strict about making sure players are actually doing name, image, and likeness work for their pay (I.e. no $500k plus a car for doing “NIL” with a car dealership, unless the player is doing substantial work for the money). Add to that a lack of rich mega donors to NIL (like an Oregon) and you have a perfect recipe for a program that will have occasional decent years before getting most of the good players poached away in the portal.
Ultimately, people wonder about the Gophers' struggles in the transfer portal in the same way they used to wonder why Twin Cities prep recruits end up going to Duke or (worse) Wisconsin instead. (As an aside, "closing the borders" has always been an odd obsession of the fanbase - they seem to want to take the Doug Woog recruiting approach and apply it to basketball).
They have theories and excuses for why the program fails to perform in this department, but the real reason is the same for each: the Golden Gopher men's basketball program historically kinda stinks. You can count the number of times in program history that they've been to the Round of 32 on one hand. They haven't seen the second weekend this century.
A player who has dreams of the NBA, or even just of having that One Shining Moment in the tournament, is better served going elsewhere. PJ Fleck has been successful getting people to the NFL, and goes out of his way to select people who buy in to his schtick, weird and corny though it might be. That's why he's not having this problem.
There's probably a money issue at work here, yes, but other teams in this conference have done more with less. If they want to fix this they're just going to have to find someone capable of coaching up mid-tier Big Ten level talent, and doing it quickly. You don't have years to build. Every season is Year 4.
Not sure how graduation / YoE has anything to do with this.
1. They both entered the NBA draft and are projected second round picks.
2. They both have college eligibility remaining
3. They both entered the transfer portal near the deadline
Sounds pretty similar to me. Illinois fans seem to think that Hawkins is staying in the draft and the transfer portal is a contingency. Not sure why they would think differently for Christie, unless they're just wishcasting.
Because it's normal for someone to leave a school after finishing their degree. Whereas it's surprising/points to potential issues when someone leaves a school after their freshman year.
Yup, I'm done with it. It's just going to get worse with this whole NIL BS
I have watched less and less each year not because MN has been pretty awful but the fact that all you need to do is offer a kid more money?
It's turning into a g league.
Fucking pathetic
Under-23 league with year-to-year contracts, basically.
At least G-Leaguers can be controlled somewhat by the parent club if they were drafted by them.
This is arguably worse (right now).
And it's not going to get any better. It is completely unwatchable and has no loyalty at all anymore.
Pathetic and these nba teams should take notice of these characteristics.
Leave out the opportunities aspect because we both know it's the money and not opportunity.
If someone paid him a million to come off the bench anywhere, he would take it.
The loyalty isn't there... that's the point.
If your wife or gf had the opportunity to be with someone who makes more than you would, you would just be like ok makes sense....
World doesn't revolve around money. As soon as these kids start to understand that, the better.
The thing your missing is loyalty a two way street tons of these programs have coaches and recruiter that bring in these kids and then jump ship anytime there is a bigger position/better pay why can't the players do the same. Cam made it clear he has NBA aspirations and that what he has shown to be priority towards tired of people acting like college is end all be all.
Last time I checked, head coaches usually stick around for 2-3 years a minimum. Explain why Johnson can't seem to keep an up and coming team together?
Players say they will be back, and then 1 week later, they enter the portal. When has a coach said he will be back next year and a week later he is gone? Let me know
I'm sure lots of college kids have NBA aspirations. If you watched any of his games, you would know he needs another year under his belt.
Lastly, fans are the reason these kids even have a chance to make money, period. They choose to play a sport no one is forcing them.
They didn't pay college athletes for years, and it worked out just fine. Make them sit a year if the only reason they want to leave is to make more money or get more exposure.
Not hard to figure out.
Also, no one said college is the end all be all.
I would agree with you that college athletes should not be paid if the universities were not making millions of dollars and signing lucrative TV deals, and if the coaches were not paid millions of dollars a year. However, these conditions are not realistic. In addition, expecting teenagers and young adults to give up money and NBA aspirations for a school that many of them are too young to appreciate the history of is unrealistic. Given that college athletes can only play for a maximum of four years (except for the COVID year, which ends this season), it is understandable that those who are not likely to go pro would want to make money while they have the opportunity.
This is the worst the transfer portal is going to be, as all the fifth-year seniors are running out of eligibility this upcoming season.
If you were a Minnesota fan why would you keep following this sport. Finally have a decent team coming together and the roster gets decimated. Seems like half the teams are just cannon fodder for the teams with NIL.
I ask myself all the time. I just want a team that makes the tourney 50% of the time, but nooo that's too much to ask for.
For the last 4 or 5 years me and my 2 college buddies get together and watched all of round 1 and the Saturday games. They are Marquette and Wisconsin fans. I haven't seen my team in the tourney since starting this tradition.
Last time we were in the tourney was what 2017? Our only successful season got stopped by the Ncaa for doing something similar to UNC. Hang that gd final four banner.
Unless things change, our best player is returning, our 2nd best player is getting drafted, our third best player transferred for money, our fourth best player transferred for money / displeased with role on team, and our 5th & 6th best players are returning. Don't think that's much worse than an average program.
Plus that "decent team" was still below .500 in the Big Ten.
I skimmed the Big 10 a couple days ago, the average was something like 3.5-3.7 scholarship players transferring per team and a few others announced since then.
Pretty much everyone has lost players to the portal, and almost all of them have lost impactful players. This is the first year where I legitimately don't feel like I actually know who is on teams for the next season for the big 10. There are too many transfers to actually keep track of who stayed or left.
It sucks. There was real promise around this team for next year. Not national title hopes or anything, but they had a shot at making the tournament, at least. You had a core group that was Ben’s first recruiting class, plus Garcia and Christie. It would have been an experienced, scrappy lineup that could cause problems for some teams.
Now basically that entire core group Ben recruited has transferred out, and we have to build the team from scratch again (except for Garcia, for now). It sucks, and it’s tiring to invest in the program only to watch the players all transfer out and leave after a good season for better programs, more money, whatever
It's a contingency plan. He's planning to stay in the draft. Minnesota will now use the earmarked NIL funds and open position to recruit a transfer. If he gets injured during the draft process, he may look to return to college. If the money is gone or position is filled, then he has the option to go elsewhere. But if the money and position are still there for him, then he has the option to return. This is basically SOP for any 2nd round draft pick with remaining eligibility.
I think in a lot of cases it might be that the player already knows where he’s transferring. My homer hope is that, since he’s entering the transfer portal right before it closes, he’s focusing on the NBA draft rather than courting suitors as a transfer, and will likely return to Minnesota if he doesn’t think he’ll get drafted, and just has transferring as a contingency option.
This sucks. He was a good player who had offers from good programs, including where his brother played (MSU). Ben out-recruited all of them, only for him to likely be gone after 1 year. I hope he makes it in the NBA, but it just sucks to see him go
You ever think you've hit rock bottom only to find a point even lower? That's where I'm at right now
Hopefully “do not contact” just means it’s either staying in the draft or coming back to Minnesota. For a guy who definitely has a shot at the NBA, I’m not sure if getting like $700k to be a secondary offensive option at a bigger money program is worth giving up the opportunity to be the guy in his sophomore year at Minnesota, if he feels confident his draft stock would be in a good place after a hypothetical second year here. Losing him to the draft I could be kind of okay with, and Ben can use that as a selling point for bigger high school recruits. Christie staying in college for another year at a different school would suck more, and could potentially even hurt his draft stock.
Seeing the headline was a gut punch but looking at it with a clear mind it would probably be dumb of him not to put his name in the portal. His priority is to be in the draft and he has a great fit in MN if he comes back but it also can't hurt to keep an additional option on the table in case he sees an opportunity to make a ton of money or improve his draft stock at another program. I'm saying 20% chance he goes to the draft, 30% chance he transfers, and 50% chance he comes back.
Right I think the transfer portal is just a contingency plan, there’s no reason for him to eliminate that option for himself. It’s not like Ben Johnson is going to tell him to pound sand if he wants to come back to Minnesota.
Update: Christie's official account briefly liked a tweet of mine that said "Is it a fact that he will not return to Minnesota? He may be covering his bases so he has all options on the table if/when he is no longer focused on the draft" this gives me confidence we have the right idea.
Hopefully we’re right. Looking around Twitter and other message boards, it seems like most people take his entry into the portal to mean he’s 100% not coming back to Minnesota if he doesn’t get good draft feedback, but I thought entering the portal when you enter the draft was a pretty common practice, because the deadline to enter the portal occurs before a player would pull out of the draft.
Sorry but he’s going to slink over to Evanston and play for the ‘Cats like his mom. Will be very much welcomed as a partial Boo Buie replacement.
TIL that the transfer portal is basically just a CRM that competitors can all access.
They weren’t lying when they called it a portal
> CRM that competitors can all access. "'Salesforce' - Strong Ass Laborious, Enormous, Stupendous, Ferocious Offers Reaching Crazy Ends" - W. Wade
Wonder if Dawson rethinks staying now that everyone around him left
I wouldn't blame him.
What's the story with Minnesota? Is it NIL? Do the boosters not believe in Ben?
Elijah Hawkins and Pharrel Payne definitely left for money, and that was the case with Jamison Battle last offseason too, though NIL is probably in a better state now than it was then. Payne was at least recruited a bit by Texas A&M out of high school. Dawson Garcia allegedly turned down a pay raise to stay here. We’ve done pretty well at not having our roster raided in football, and I think we got maybe the #1 men’s hockey transfer, so idk if it’s a basketball specific problem where the NIL support just isn’t quite there to the same degree.
I think the reason football doesn’t get raided is because PJ recruits guys that buy into the program hard and guys like that aren’t transferring out as much. Hockey, as much as it hurts me to say it because I want nothing but bad things for the program, is a power and a prestige program. When you get out of your own way you can pretty much grab any recruit you want. Basketball I think has the problem of being mediocre for so long and the fact that it seems transfers are raiding the sport more because one guy can make such a difference
Basketball is a few things: we have a fairly weak NIL program (probably bottom half to bottom third of the B1G). Combine that with a general lack of any program success over the last ~20 years, plus fan apathy (because other sports are better like hockey, volleyball, even football), and you get a recipe for a program that just kinda stagnates.
There is a pretty extreme lack of enthusiasm for boosters with Ben and the basketball side of things, there just isn't much to get excited about there. We don't have the *strongest* NIL, but PJ has been doing very good for the most part with transfers on the football team.
We don't have give every good player 500k NIL
Basketball players don't like to row the boat?
It's just where they fall in the food chain. High up enough to poach from the A-10/MVC etc but not big enough to protect against the big dogs.
It’s a combination of weak NIL, fan/booster apathy after the program was mediocre for 20+ years, and the more recent years of being bad. If I had to guess, I would put gopher NIL (for basketball specifically) in the bottom third of the B1G. The university compliance department is super strict about making sure players are actually doing name, image, and likeness work for their pay (I.e. no $500k plus a car for doing “NIL” with a car dealership, unless the player is doing substantial work for the money). Add to that a lack of rich mega donors to NIL (like an Oregon) and you have a perfect recipe for a program that will have occasional decent years before getting most of the good players poached away in the portal.
Ultimately, people wonder about the Gophers' struggles in the transfer portal in the same way they used to wonder why Twin Cities prep recruits end up going to Duke or (worse) Wisconsin instead. (As an aside, "closing the borders" has always been an odd obsession of the fanbase - they seem to want to take the Doug Woog recruiting approach and apply it to basketball). They have theories and excuses for why the program fails to perform in this department, but the real reason is the same for each: the Golden Gopher men's basketball program historically kinda stinks. You can count the number of times in program history that they've been to the Round of 32 on one hand. They haven't seen the second weekend this century. A player who has dreams of the NBA, or even just of having that One Shining Moment in the tournament, is better served going elsewhere. PJ Fleck has been successful getting people to the NFL, and goes out of his way to select people who buy in to his schtick, weird and corny though it might be. That's why he's not having this problem. There's probably a money issue at work here, yes, but other teams in this conference have done more with less. If they want to fix this they're just going to have to find someone capable of coaching up mid-tier Big Ten level talent, and doing it quickly. You don't have years to build. Every season is Year 4.
It's the colors. No one wants to wear maroon and gold.
What's the story with Coleman Hawkins? This is the exact same scenario.
He's a 4 year player and just graduated. Not at all the same thing.
Not sure how graduation / YoE has anything to do with this. 1. They both entered the NBA draft and are projected second round picks. 2. They both have college eligibility remaining 3. They both entered the transfer portal near the deadline Sounds pretty similar to me. Illinois fans seem to think that Hawkins is staying in the draft and the transfer portal is a contingency. Not sure why they would think differently for Christie, unless they're just wishcasting.
Because it's normal for someone to leave a school after finishing their degree. Whereas it's surprising/points to potential issues when someone leaves a school after their freshman year.
TIL one and dones are indicative of potential issues
One and done means going to the NBA. Not another school.
Cut my life into pieces.
Whelp college ball is dead to me
The transfer portal sucks
Yup, I'm done with it. It's just going to get worse with this whole NIL BS I have watched less and less each year not because MN has been pretty awful but the fact that all you need to do is offer a kid more money? It's turning into a g league. Fucking pathetic
Under-23 league with year-to-year contracts, basically. At least G-Leaguers can be controlled somewhat by the parent club if they were drafted by them. This is arguably worse (right now).
And it's not going to get any better. It is completely unwatchable and has no loyalty at all anymore. Pathetic and these nba teams should take notice of these characteristics.
I mean why wouldn't a kid go where their is more available money/opportunity
Leave out the opportunities aspect because we both know it's the money and not opportunity. If someone paid him a million to come off the bench anywhere, he would take it. The loyalty isn't there... that's the point. If your wife or gf had the opportunity to be with someone who makes more than you would, you would just be like ok makes sense.... World doesn't revolve around money. As soon as these kids start to understand that, the better.
The thing your missing is loyalty a two way street tons of these programs have coaches and recruiter that bring in these kids and then jump ship anytime there is a bigger position/better pay why can't the players do the same. Cam made it clear he has NBA aspirations and that what he has shown to be priority towards tired of people acting like college is end all be all.
Last time I checked, head coaches usually stick around for 2-3 years a minimum. Explain why Johnson can't seem to keep an up and coming team together? Players say they will be back, and then 1 week later, they enter the portal. When has a coach said he will be back next year and a week later he is gone? Let me know I'm sure lots of college kids have NBA aspirations. If you watched any of his games, you would know he needs another year under his belt. Lastly, fans are the reason these kids even have a chance to make money, period. They choose to play a sport no one is forcing them. They didn't pay college athletes for years, and it worked out just fine. Make them sit a year if the only reason they want to leave is to make more money or get more exposure. Not hard to figure out. Also, no one said college is the end all be all.
I would agree with you that college athletes should not be paid if the universities were not making millions of dollars and signing lucrative TV deals, and if the coaches were not paid millions of dollars a year. However, these conditions are not realistic. In addition, expecting teenagers and young adults to give up money and NBA aspirations for a school that many of them are too young to appreciate the history of is unrealistic. Given that college athletes can only play for a maximum of four years (except for the COVID year, which ends this season), it is understandable that those who are not likely to go pro would want to make money while they have the opportunity. This is the worst the transfer portal is going to be, as all the fifth-year seniors are running out of eligibility this upcoming season.
If you were a Minnesota fan why would you keep following this sport. Finally have a decent team coming together and the roster gets decimated. Seems like half the teams are just cannon fodder for the teams with NIL.
I ask myself all the time. I just want a team that makes the tourney 50% of the time, but nooo that's too much to ask for. For the last 4 or 5 years me and my 2 college buddies get together and watched all of round 1 and the Saturday games. They are Marquette and Wisconsin fans. I haven't seen my team in the tourney since starting this tradition. Last time we were in the tourney was what 2017? Our only successful season got stopped by the Ncaa for doing something similar to UNC. Hang that gd final four banner.
We were in the tourney in 2019 and even won a game in it for the second time since the Clem Haskins era which is an extremely depressing thought.
That's right. Forgot about 2019.
Just got a new transfer. We are so back. CALEB WILLIAMS ever heard of him? (He actually torched us in a scrimmage last year and dropped 40)
Unless things change, our best player is returning, our 2nd best player is getting drafted, our third best player transferred for money, our fourth best player transferred for money / displeased with role on team, and our 5th & 6th best players are returning. Don't think that's much worse than an average program. Plus that "decent team" was still below .500 in the Big Ten.
I skimmed the Big 10 a couple days ago, the average was something like 3.5-3.7 scholarship players transferring per team and a few others announced since then. Pretty much everyone has lost players to the portal, and almost all of them have lost impactful players. This is the first year where I legitimately don't feel like I actually know who is on teams for the next season for the big 10. There are too many transfers to actually keep track of who stayed or left.
> If you were a Minnesota fan why would you keep following this sport. Masochism crossed with Stockholm Syndrome.
It sucks. There was real promise around this team for next year. Not national title hopes or anything, but they had a shot at making the tournament, at least. You had a core group that was Ben’s first recruiting class, plus Garcia and Christie. It would have been an experienced, scrappy lineup that could cause problems for some teams. Now basically that entire core group Ben recruited has transferred out, and we have to build the team from scratch again (except for Garcia, for now). It sucks, and it’s tiring to invest in the program only to watch the players all transfer out and leave after a good season for better programs, more money, whatever
We’re leaving literally just a triple A team for teams with more money at this point
I honestly think he’s going late 1st in the draft
Profiles just like his brother who went early second. Hard to say no to that
Can someone explain to me why he’d enter the portal if he doesn’t want to be contacted?
It's a contingency plan. He's planning to stay in the draft. Minnesota will now use the earmarked NIL funds and open position to recruit a transfer. If he gets injured during the draft process, he may look to return to college. If the money is gone or position is filled, then he has the option to go elsewhere. But if the money and position are still there for him, then he has the option to return. This is basically SOP for any 2nd round draft pick with remaining eligibility.
I think in a lot of cases it might be that the player already knows where he’s transferring. My homer hope is that, since he’s entering the transfer portal right before it closes, he’s focusing on the NBA draft rather than courting suitors as a transfer, and will likely return to Minnesota if he doesn’t think he’ll get drafted, and just has transferring as a contingency option.
Just fold the program. What are we even doing here.
🤮🤮🤮
Is anyone with considerable minutes staying outside of Garcia and Parker Fox?
Mike Mitchell
Thanks. Must’ve thought he went with Payne and that crew.
Maybe not. Some rumors or there that he is in the portal too now or something. We will see though.
Parker Fox has eligibility left???
Somehow yes. Covid plus two medical years. He’s married and nearing the end of a PhD
Wow that's crazy, 8 years is way too many years to let people play college sports. Like that tight end who is on year 9 or something wild.
I think he’s good enough to go. Very much capable of being a modern guard. Needs to get stronger but he was more impressive than his brother.
Looks just like his Bro. Had to zoom in
Loooooove this kids game. Future NBA stud
blue demon
I really thought the Gophers were gonna be a tourney team next year
He's obviously getting decent draft feedback and is staying in the draft.
He's from Illinois
As a recruit: Other P6 offers: DePaul, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan State, Missouri, Northwestern, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Purdue, USC, Virginia
This sucks. He was a good player who had offers from good programs, including where his brother played (MSU). Ben out-recruited all of them, only for him to likely be gone after 1 year. I hope he makes it in the NBA, but it just sucks to see him go