Hao Dong enters transfer portal

Locked On Cougars discusses transfer portal. The portal is open for the next 60 days. Jake gives his opinion on what the cougars should do. He thinks they need a big man. Pope reached out to Aimaq who played at UVU two years ago.

That’s too bad, I was really high on this kid. Because he is a walk on, BYU has no schoolies to mess with. Dong can also come back if he chooses.

A lot of talk about how USU has used the transfer portal to get to the big dance 2 straight years. Was Pope blindsided by the Transfer portal and NIL? absolutely. But with added $$$$ coming in, why not add the scouts to program to get the talent we need to compete in the Big 12.

“We need to keep the core we have and add a few right guys”, Jake Hatch". Aimaq would be a perfect fit at BYU. Could it happen? We would win an extra 10 games with this cat on the team.

The thought of Aimaq has me salivating. It seems like a matchup nightmare with Aimaq on the outside and Fous down low posting up. Aimaq would pull some tall defenders out to him and Fous would have an easier time. Also, if Fous starts developing an outside shot… ouch! that would be hard.

Wasn’t Waterman supposed to be a big man with primarily an outside shot? We need a big man who can post up and play D. We would have a great high low possibility. And yes, Foos has to develop a true midrange shot for next year.

I’ve linked the KSL article that Jake Hatch mentions in his podcast. I don’t know if Pope was blindsided bythe transfer portal. if anything, he has spent too much time there and the extreme roster turnover the past two years attest to that.The Connor Harding for Seneca Knight signing still has me wondering about Pope’s eye for talent.

KSL sportswriter Mitch Harper mentions a few of the misses. I still think BYU is in the tournament if Antoine Davis had signed. Then again, I don’t know if Jaxson Robinson would have signed if Davis were here. Robinson is a strong building block for BYU’s future. Harper writes, " Antoine Davis from Detroit, who nearly became the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, opted to stay at Detroit Mercy because of a Chinese NIL deal with Glowballs. They lost out on the nation’s number one JUCO guard Sean East, who has carved out a role on NCAA Tournament-bound Missouri. Plus, they missed on frontcourt player Josiah Allick, who ended up starting in all 32 games for New Mexico this season, and Fredrick King, who signed with Creighton.

Add those four players or a combination of those guys; the projections would have been far different for BYU this season.

BYU’s staff still found a way to land f[ormer Top-100 recruit Jaxson Robinson from Arkansas.

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You can go a long ways with a lineup of Foos, Johnson, Hall, Saunders and Robinson…add a good big man and another point. We be ballin.

Don’t forget Knell will be playing too. He’s the best shooter on the team.

You’ve pretty much convinced me that we have a pretty solid six or seven players.Add two big men and a point guard , and we have a pretty good team.

I like Knell as a shooter, just don’t like him as a defender.

If we can keep Ronbinson, he turned out to be a very good defender along with Johnson. Hall needs to come miles to be a good defender but has the body to win games and take that last shot. We all know Saunders defense, tenacious rebounding and his good shooting game…Foos can play with anyone. Now we just need SPEED and Aimeq. BYU could play in the B12 with that lineup.

I agree that a couple of bigs and a point guard would make a good team against the WCC. Problem is we play in the Big 12 next year. There are growing pains on the horizon for a few years.

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Another player has entered the transfer portal. You might ask, “Who’s Braeden Moore?” As I recall he was one of the more prized recruits last summer–more than Noah Waterman, less than Jaxon Robinson. He received very little play time.

He played at Donda Academy, the private school founded by Kanye West. As I recall the school had a lot of D-1 recruits last year.

Well, to get a legit big man or elite guard in the transfer portal that scholarship could be important. We have shooting guards and forwards. Probably happened in the exit interview.

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Moore was injured.

Pope is parroting what I have been saying all along. NIL and BYU is not up to speed.
BYU basketball: Braeden Moore reportedly enters transfer portal - Deseret News

Nor will it ever be, I do not believe the BYU administration will ever go with the NIL deals like Alabama or Florida, etc. seems to go for.

So they need to do a better job of selling BYU another way that the players will still want to come to BYU.

Not sure what that is, but I cannot see BYU rolling out 6 figure NIL for players.