2026 Portal Prospects

OK, if Insider is correct and AA is back, now we need:

1) Good shooting guard - would like someone that is big (at least 6'3 to offset our small guards on D a little) and has potential to shoot 35+ from 3 point range) Before sman says that guy will go power school - may I present to you the case of Dennis Parker Jr at Radford. But I get it mooney shouldn't be able to recruit as well as Chu at a piece of crap Big South, now should he?
2) Wing - Again hopefully this guy is a shooter, but we could use a Dji Bailey type, athletic, play D , do a little bit of everything. SLU brought in a couple guys like this last off season.
3) PF - Need a plug and play stretch 4. Love me some JROB ---- but Mooney has not developed him and not playing to his strengths yet.
4) Big man. This will probably be hardest to find. Probably have to over pay. Should be showing footage of TJ and Grant on loop to say - hey if you come here we have the highest usage rate in the country for our bigs. You get to do what you want and not much banging down low.

After thought: Is not there a lot of talk about NCAA just granting 5 years to everybody now? If so, get Walz back in here. I know I have not been his biggest proponent, but he is not bad. Wathcing a few d1 games in person, and the lack of any ability by the bigs, gave me a little more appreciation for what Walz should be able to do. Maybe the fith year would all come together, like some of the 4 year guys under Tarrant (Shields comes to mind). Just a pipe dream I realize.

Then we need another two glue guys (think Tyler Harris, Bigelow - who were not highly sought after in the portal but opposed to a Johnston, Daughtry, Roche - these guys impacted the game with toughness, rebounding and defense in addition to offense) . I think Daughtry likely gone in portal. We are going to need depth in any shape or form. JROB is such a piece, but need some athletic defensive minded guys from portal.

I think PG depth would be good with Simmons coming in and Tyne likely to stay. Hopefully Harper can progress too and win time in back court and - believe me i know our redshirts don't hit the ground running - but Donnie Richardson is a good contributor.

This all gets us competitive, probably competitive enough to finish behind SLU and VCU and Triumvirate to smirk and say I told you so.
 
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Here is what SLU did last offseason in portal:

Dion Brown - transfer from BC - big 6'3 guard, quick physical, only averaged 7.5 points at BC. Great on D, aggressive quick.
Ishan Sharma - 6'5 guard forward - aggressive quick, can run full speed off screen and pull up and hit 3. Hardly used at UVA.
Brady Dunlop 6'7 wing - aggressive shooter- Big recruit in HS, couldn't quite get healthy and on the court for Pitino at St Johns.

Exactly the type of guys was talking about like Pasha at Va tech. THere are 40-50 of these guys that would be impact players for us, but for some reason Radford and SLU can land them??????

Not mooney. Terrible
 
for how Moon runs the program you also need to be able to add that incoming portal talent to existing good talent that has been in the program multiple years. Like when King/Hunt/Harris joined Quinn, Dji, Bigs, Roche.

Maybe AA, JRob, Harper will be that for next season, but it feels like a stretch. Year 1 of Quinn/Bigs/Roche was a mess even with Tyler, Goose, Grace on board (11 combined UR seasons between them returning.)

I have completely lost faith in any member of the UR coaching staff, starting at the top.
 
I'd love to say that's a list of schools I don't necessarily want to be in the same bucket with, but we're probably mid-pack at best among that group.

That said, if we're looking to significantly boost spending then we should be able to get in the mix with guys garnering bigger-time interest. But if we're still looking for guys who have to fit the Moonball system, then yeah, we're probably limited.
 
SFspidur said:
I'd love to say that's a list of schools I don't necessarily want to be in the same bucket with, but we're probably mid-pack at best among that group.

That said, if we're looking to significantly boost spending then we should be able to get in the mix with guys garnering bigger-time interest. But if we're still looking for guys who have to fit the Moonball system, then yeah, we're probably limited.
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You don’t think competing with W&M, Campbell and Rice for a Western Carolina transfer is ideal in our quest for our next sweet Sixteen?
 
I really don’t enjoy having more negative posts here and get tired of repeating a lot of the same things but I always call them as I see it.

I want us to go after players who are sought after by other top teams. When the staff complained about not having a competitive
budget, that was a politically correct way of basically saying they don’t have players good enough for the A10 level. We are allegedly giving them a significant increase in budget, presumably to go get those kinds of players we missed out on in recent years. I’m sorry but guys averaging 4 ppg at Ball State or us competing with Campbell or Winthrop for recruits is simply not good enough.

If anyone on the staff says how hard it is to do it and bring top recruits here, my response would be put in the effort which means changing the ways you’ve done things, work harder, and just do it. You are being paid a ton of money to coach a basketball team. We are giving millions now in a budget to bring in top recruits. We’ve given 10s of millions to upgrade facilities to be an attractive place. If you can’t do it, then our administration should find someone who can.

I’m sick and tired of seeing every other A10 team being able to bring in top recruits except us. Heck, even other programs in Richmond can do it. Our women’s basketball team has the #80 recruit coming next year. Our men’s lacrosse team has several top 100 recruits on the roster. Our women’s lacrosse has a few top 100 recruits. Our men’s golf team has a top 100 recruit who is a sophomore. Our women’s tennis team, who hasn’t won the A10 in a long time, is bringing a top 100 recruit next year. Yet, the program we all care about the most and have poured in millions, is incapable of doing it for whatever reason. Give me a break. Heck, no one is asking to bring in top 100 recruits at this point, but there are certainly still a ton of non-top 100 guys that P4 teams or other top mid majors want that we can be in the mix in. Let’s offer 50 of those guys and land 2 of them. That’s a 4% success rate. Is setting the bar that low good enough?

I get posters comments that it’s tiring reading the same negativity over again. I agree! It’s up to our basketball program to give us reasons to be excited and change the tone on this board. Whenever that happens, I promise I’ll be the team’s biggest cheerleader. Until then, I’ll continue to point out how absurd it is that we are giving this staff millions more this year for recruiting because they complained how hard it is to be competitive with the budget they had, and they’re still recruiting the same caliber of players in the portal.
 
SF can correct here but while he only played 8 games in 2024/25, he played in January and February. I think that disqualifies him. though he could ask for a waiver.
 
vt4700 said:
My guess is Thomas and McLothin are gone, and Daughtry is a maybe. So, we will probably have 4 spots available, and maybe 5.
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There’s always the dudes who we never seen play real time in the jersey and they just depart. Bryce will most likely join the likes of Thomas Verbinskis, aj ford and Malcom Dread
 
If we’re anticipating transfers like others have commented, why aren’t we hearing any reports from UR players going in the portal so far? I know it opens after the national championship game but that hasn’t stopped other players from putting their names out there.

Edit: found the answer to my question. Answer below for anyone else who had the same question as me.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2036177033030492179
 
Yes, but most of the guys announcing don’t qualify to enter yet either. They’re just saying they’re going to. Gets the ball rolling so they have a leg up once the portal does open.

I am indeed a bit surprised we haven’t heard anything about our guys yet.
 
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