2026 Portal Prospects

Spider17 · 2026-03-17T15:05:33-0400

SFspidur said:
Jamie Kaiser heading to the portal.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2033926165606314031

He’s the exact kind of player I want to see us go after and have a realistic chance in getting. Former top 100 recruit. Didn’t work out in Maryland. Did better in Butler but leaving after coaching change. He’s probably more open to looking at mid majors given that his 2 most recent stops were P4s. P4s would be hesitant to give him starter looks because he hasn’t had much success in either place (although Butler numbers are decent).

So us coming in, seeing a big role for him at the 3 spot, giving good amount of NIL that competes with P4s who would offer him less to be a bench player, and we recruit him with the pitch of starter minutes.

We also recruited him in high school if I remember correctly, so we already have a connection there too. He’s also a Virginia kid.

sman · 2026-03-17T15:13:22-0400

hate to be the voice of reason but he was a starter in the BE playing 30 mpg, 3rd on the team in scoring.
he's a high major kid. no reason for him to move down. he'll have high major options.

Spider17 · 2026-03-17T15:30:49-0400

Well, let’s just give up recruiting all together then. Let’s not try and use the extra millions we are supposedly receiving from the school to actually get good players. Maybe if we’re lucky we can get the guy averaging 4 ppg at Ball State to come here, but we better watch out, Randolph Macon could out recruit us for him.

If this coaching staff and program is actually serious on wanting to be a good team and program, we are going to need to have great, impact players come to UR. This means out recruiting other great programs for these players. If we’re going to assume it’s too hard and just piss away the money the school is giving us, to bring in mediocre players instead, then like I said before just don’t bother playing next season.

I’m not asking us to land 15 P4 caliber players on our roster. But surely we can use our supposed $4 million payroll to lure only 1 or 2 of these guys away from P4 teams. But that would require effort.

*23* · 2026-03-17T15:31:04-0400

I get both sides of the discussion. I still think there are p5 talents that can get buried by sheer numbers. I gave an example of the kid at Tech by way of Delaware. There have to be 30 more like him. Maybe they are getting a pay cut anyway, and are fearful of rotting at end of bench. We need these type of athletes, that can play D, get to the rack and rebound.

*23* · 2026-03-17T15:33:29-0400

Agree 17. That is exactly the defeatist attitude that Mooney embraces now at all levels of operation. I'm not so worried about sman being defeated now, but our 1.5 million coach seems to think the same way. Meanwhile Chu doesn't think that way. Bad sman , bad sman

Spider17 · 2026-03-17T15:41:03-0400

*23* said:
Agree 17. That is exactly the defeatist attitude that Mooney embraces now at all levels of operation. I'm not so worried about sman being defeated now, but our 1.5 million coach seems to think the same way. Meanwhile Chu doesn't think that way. Bad sman , bad sman

“Scheduling is too hard and recruiting is too hard, but don’t fire me for my bad record against bad teams and also give me more NIL money so I can recruit mediocre players to play Gardner Webb next year and lose to Duquesne after being ahead by 30.”

By the way, 6 days since we’ve lost to Loyola and still haven’t heard anything from our AD.

The amount of resilience we have as spider fans to deal with this every year and still continue to be fans has to be worth some kind of award. It’s mind boggling.

*23* · 2026-03-17T15:53:41-0400

Spider17 said:
By the way, 6 days since we’ve lost to Loyola and still haven’t heard anything from our AD.

The silence is deafening.

This is actually there favorite time of year right up to the fall. The interest just dies away and they can slink to the background.

sman · 2026-03-17T16:38:04-0400

you guys are funny. sure, call the kid. maybe there's extenuating circumstances. doesn't hurt to call. call Brumbaugh too.

yes, I'm a defeatist. so what's your pitch? "we want you, but we don't think you're good enough to succeed at a high major so you should come here."?

look, we're all Richmond fans. I'm all for stretching. we might have $500k+ offers to make. when the portal opens, call like crazy. but focus on guys we can land. not guys getting dozens of high major offers. think about it as if you're a regular person and not a lifelong Richmond fan.

fan2011 · 2026-03-17T17:08:30-0400

Over under on percent of D1 players transferring this year: 60%

Spiderguy · 2026-03-17T17:08:48-0400

Spider17 said:
By the way, 6 days since we’ve lost to Loyola and still haven’t heard anything from our AD.

If you hold your breath waiting to hear some valid explanation from Hardt, you will need resuscitation.

Spider17 · 2026-03-17T18:52:53-0400

sman said:
yes, I'm a defeatist. so what's your pitch? "we want you, but we don't think you're good enough to succeed at a high major so you should come here."?

Our pitch is we’ll give you $100K more whatever the highest other program is offering you. We show him tape of other great players at UR and tell him how he can become a great player here and we are recruiting him with the intention to be a starter and play significant minutes. Offering $100K more than anyone else with being a starter getting 25+ mpg at an A10 school will have recruits hear us out.

I’m not saying we’re going to land him. I’m also not suggesting that we spend all our NIL on him either. If a P4 team offers him $1.25 million or something absurdly high, we don’t have to outcompete that just because we have the money. We need to spend it wisely and distribute it wisely among our entire roster. I just want us to dream big and aspire to land good players. These are the guys we should be going after.

sman said:
look, we're all Richmond fans. I'm all for stretching. we might have $500k+ offers to make. when the portal opens, call like crazy. but focus on guys we can land. not guys getting dozens of high major offers

On the old forum many years ago, I went through all the A10 schools at the time and their highest ranked high school recruits. I believe over 50% of the schools had a recruit in the top 100 commit to their program from high school (either through ESPN or 247). Even Davidson with Kellen Grady. We were not one of those teams.

I understand I am biased and think UR is the best thing since sliced bread but I’m not delusional. I do not expect us to land guys who are being recruited by the elite or even top quartile of P4 teams.

I do think though, especially if we use the school funding money to our advantage and are strategic in targeting 1-3 impact guys, that there are kids we can bring and lure from P4 schools.

We cannot rely on diamond in the rough players and hope they become Jordan King for all 15 guys on our roster. Especially since many of those guys not only were not Jordan King but ended up transferring to lower level schools and not even producing much there. We need to have guys who are proven, really good players. Obviously good players will be sought after by good teams. We need to reach out and recruit 30-40 Jaime Kaiser’s and Tyler Lundblade’s caliber players in the portal with the goal of landing 1-3 of them.

If we bring in guys who average 4 ppg at Ball State. We only have ourselves to blame for stinking again next year.