What’s going on? Why George? I can see Lohner because he’s a 3 and 4 man playing a lot of 5 that screwed him up.
I liked both of these guys as players. Maybe they both thought they should have been starting the whole year? I don’t know. But I’ll bet Pope is having conversations with the players and they made their decisions based on those conversations. Pope will be coming back with better options to improve the team, I have no doubt. Lohner, as much as I liked him, was inconsistent offensively. Great rebounder, but until late in the season, was not looking good with the shot. George was inconsistent until late in the season, too. I believe we will see some really good things happening with the team soon.
Maybe those two guys got tired of WCC and want change. According to Deseret News Caleb Lohner more likely heading back to his original commit to u that he signed. Meaning he is following Coach Chris burgers (lol to Siri typo).
As for George which was surprising.
Right now Mark Pope need to find his replacement is assistant coach and hopefully recruiting goes smoothly smoothly including transfer portal.
The portal giveth and the portal taketh away. It
worked well for Pope for three years. He got Toolson and Barcello his first year, Haarms and Averette the next, and Lucas and Knight this past year. Now it appears there is a little karma in the air. Hopefully this isn’t a sign that the best locker room in America talk was a sham. I hope he lining up some better players to replace those leaving.
The transfer portal is fine but you better line up some blue chip high school players and preferably some that will stick around 3-4 years. Kansas had a team with a lot of experience with lot of guys who played together several years. That’s the way you build
a winner.
1400 players in the transfer portal and counting. George and loner, wish you guys the best. But you’re making a giant mistake. Also heard Gavin Baxter is announcing his departure as well
The only guy that has a legitimate reason for transferring is Erickson. My humble opinion
Baxter is an injury waiting to happen. I don’t know what Pope envisions. If it’s bringing in an outstanding one and done like Antwoine Davis along with a few proven players with two or three years left to play added to contributing RMs, then Baxter’s and George’s departures make sense. Erickson and the other guard didn’t figure into future plans. Burgess and Lohner are the big losses, imho.
I wonder what Chandler is thinking.
Completely agree. Why would Baxter leave if he’s going to play next season? All started with Burgess. Is Pope next? I haven’t heard anything from him.
25% of college basketball players are in the Portal.
Here’s my opinion:
- Make scholarships more important by restricting the ability to transfer. Make scholarship players sit out a year for transferring. Unless they are graduate transfers. Schools are flipping the bill for these ungrateful premedonnas.
- Transfer players must not be allowed to go to a school within the same league and/or the same state.
Hopper: I agree with your assessments. But I guess this is the 21st century, the Cancel culture.
great post
The hot take is the sky is falling but after talking to my sources and thinking this through because really…we won’t know the real reason for Lohner/George transfers until well after the dust settles.
Erickson, is a prolific scorer and yet could not get on the court when Pope needed scoring…was not going to be the starting p guard IMHO because if he was, he would of had a lot of play time last season. Probably because he would not conform to Pope’s system. I was not surprised at his transfer.
Baxter was not going to eat up a schollie, just too injury prone. He should stay and play at BYU. Now he will have to break into a new system, and he has had 3 MAJOR injuries where one in a career will get you the side eye. Pope was just not going to burn a scollie now that Atiki and Traore are doing pretty much the same work and are durable.
George, WTHK??? Can’t think of a reason why he would transfer. Not a NBA player, could be if he became a scoring machine but 2 great games in two years is NOT a recipe for a draft pick. Stay and become the guy you think you are, now you have to learn a new system, new team mates. Spells no chance at getting drafted.
Lohner, At first I was so blind sided by this one as many of you are feeling. but in retro and talking to Tom Larimer, who should posting more because he is an inside guy…Lohner has been told for soooo long that he has NBA upside and to play sooooo poorly his Soph year, with his ego, you have to blame your season on someone else, right? Sometimes you move on just to start fresh. Wish him luck and hope he gets his head on right cause that mental war between his ears was painful to watch. back to Texas, maybe T Tech???
Losing Burgess was big, he is loved by the players. May have to do with some of the transfers but Burguss has to do what is best for his future. Pope needs another great recruiter…I wonder if Jimmer is ready for a shot. We do need a great black Assistant Coach.
There is a lot more to cover but it is a long summer, we will see
A team of Foos, Atiki, Spencer, Knight and Knell can win plenty of games but we are in dire need of a true Point and a Center.
My take on Lohner is he should have been playing the 3 and 4 spots. But, was forced to play the 5 more and wasn’t able to focus on where he needed to be.
George is a head scratcher. Who’s talking in his ears?
And just like that, Gideon has withdrawn his name from the transfer portal. Still a Cougar.
Maybe I am more of a skeptic than most…
if there are no problems with BYU Basketball, then why is an assistant coach leaving BYU to take a similar job at Utah that is in a lower-level basketball P5 conference (Compare to when BYU goes to the Big12)?
Why has four players entered the transfer portal?
Why has Pope said “Nothing”?
Makes no sense to me.
Pope is busy recruiting for next year. George is back. Maybe Lohner will come back too. Burgess left for money. Pope isn’t panicking and knows he can’t look that way. 25% of all college basketball players are currently in the transfer portal.
Burgess had been with Pope for 7 years. If he has hopes of being a head coach some day, This is the right move. Dickson wrote an article on it. We as fans feel betrayed when, in this case, a great assistant leaves for our red brothers up north but from Burgess’s perspective, it is a solid career move.
3 and only one of significance. Both Tom and I agree that ego played a big role. We both have inside people who say there is nothing with Pope’s locker room that would of raised red flags.
For those who may not have heard, Lohner is headed to Baylor. He has three years to play so we may see him his senior and his extra year.
Well, if he plays like he did this past year, he won’t see the court much. Good luck.
BYU basketball: Caleb Lohner reveals transfer destination - Deseret News
Sometimes they are just home sick. or wanted a warmer climate. Good luck Lohner
Thank heaven it wasn’t the U.