Greg recaps Thursday’s player moves talks to Ethan Bock of The Portal Report about the recent moves Oklahoma made to bolster their backcourt, their transition to the SEC, & the top teams in the American Conference.
A warmer from the lou Welcome to Love you, Las Vegas for seats with myself, Greig Eepspeeds and now part of the Beason Family and podcasts. Relatively short podcast today as we're going to be joined by Ethan Bach here in the second segment, taking a look at what we've all seen from these Big twelve slash SEC teams over the last few weeks. We've seen a few moves made by Oklahoma. How much pressure is on them, How does end Glenn Taylor junior along Jeremiah Fears help them out? And how should we be taking a look at some of these guys that reclassify from the Class of twenty twenty five into the class of twenty twenty four. How to be able to gage some of those guys and why it's more of a look at the next season, not the twenty twenty four to twenty five season, but twenty five to twenty six and beyond with a lot of those guys. And I will once again beg and play you guys, because we are in the dog days of summer. July is really the slowest month for all college basketball that you have fire and some Twitter questions that you want me to answer on this pot if there's something that you want to know for being prepared for the upcoming season. If you haven't got a question, comment segment idea, what I have you You've got one of two ways vow fur thoes in. First one is my Twitter slash x timeline at genen An forty one. Keep in mind, Lycium, maybe he does not matter as per usual, please to send these into the timeline. The other way is find an Apple podcast review. If you rate this podcast I starts, it is very much appreciated. From there, you're able fire and whatever you'd like to hear on this podcast by that five star review. Right now, we've been seeing some injury notes coming along with these guys that are going through summer practices as of right now, like Kevin Griffiths looks like he is going to be out for quite some time. After he was transferring him from Rutgers, he's now on Nebraska. He's dealing with a little bit of an injury. Good news. As lines Terry, you missed all of last season. Prior to that, he had been a relatively nice score when he was over at Gardner Webb and at Georgia Tech. He is going to be good to go. During the twenty twenty two to twenty three season was about a thirty nine percent three point Sure. I know that John ross you know, we all know him. Love John Rossini. He's been able to do a great job. I'll be able to check in out these But that's mainly what we're getting right now. So hard to have too many takeaways. And when a guy is looking like good slash bad in summer workouts, I'm not someone that's going to get two bench out of shape over that. You do want to be taking a look just to make sure that nothing is completely out of whack, and you can get a little bit of a feel for some of these teams. They're going to be trying new stiles as well. But I mean these are summer workouts for a reason. These are not nlb alls. And when it comes to this time of year, most of the transfer news, most of the player news, it is done. We did get one piece of news though on Thursday is syree Lewisy is going to be transferring on over to Western Michigan. He was beginning his career over at Kansas City. And when he was at Kansas City, he's six foot nine a little bit more of a for we'd not a guy that's going to stretch a floor too much. Was able to get about three three and a half points per contest. He spent a little bit of time at RICE as well, So for Western Michigan, that's going to be very significant for them. By the way, going to be hoping to do that Matt Conference preview in about a week or so. Been a little bit bombarded with doing more like six days a week here for the Greg Peterson experience on Vison over the last month or so. You get a lot of people on vacation in July, and one of the very few people on the face ofok planet Earth that doesn't take a vacation, so that means I'm very open, very available for being able to take those days. So that means I fill in quite a bit on these shows, but certainly I'm going to be getting on a lot of those. You could expect to hear the Missouri Valley Conference up in the next few days as well, so just a few updates there. Again, Please do send in those questions, and as I always say, if you're asking about a specific team, I do that with the conference previews I will be previewing all thirty one and then I will do an addition for the PAC two as well. We're going to take a look at those two teams of Washington State along with Oregon State, though that'll probably be lumped in with regards to the WCC West Coast Conference as well, if you have to decide how I'm going to be doing that, but certainly those are going to be touched upon, and we're going to be touching upon next just what we're seeing with regards to Oklahoma some of these teams in terms of especially the American that are more at the mid major ranks that are good for and Ethan Boch of the Portal Report it's feeling a little bit Bullshawan as well. We're going to be addressing the conundrum of these guys that reclassify as well and so much more right here oncas Gussieps with Myself, Guy Up Peters and now among the decent daily podcast Every Brag You Love You Las Vegas for comes Gussieps with Myself, Guy Gaps, Peters and now part of the Visa Family podcasts. And so he's great to be joined by this man, Ethan Boch. He does an absolutely tremendous job over at the Portal Report as one of their main recruiting analysts over there, also does a great job on the West Virginia beat over at w v sports Now on Twitter slash cks sure for West Virginia Sports Now. As Ethan he is out there in the great state of West Virginia and you're able to follow him on Twitter slash x at Ethanboch then an underscore after that and Ethan always great to get your board.
Thank you, Thank you, Greg, I appreciate it.
I appreciate you, Ethan and Ethan for the most part, a lot of what we're seeing in the transfer portal has done, but for Oclaham over the last few days, they've made it few moves as I do feel like this is a little bit of a put up or shut up year for them, and he certainly put up with Glenn Taylor, junior former double figure score over at Oregon State, joined the program, and then Jeremiah Fears, a top fifty recruit that was supposed to be the class of twenty twenty five for Illinois. He's on the class of twenty twenty four for Oklahoma. What do you make out of these two moves because I feel like for Oklahoma they might be lacking that shall we say, star power, but they certainly now have a lot of depth.
In my opinion, this is a really pivotal year for Porter Moser, and I don't think that's any secret to anybody that follows college basketball, especially with the Oklahoma moving to this SEC. I think it's a lot similar to the Big Twelve, where under Porter Moser the team has had its moments where even reaching the top ten in the inn A people having solid starts to the season, but then once they get in the conference play, things don't work out. They hit a rough gauntlet of five games, get on a losing streak, and then all of a sudden they're on the bubble, and then by the end of the season they're off the bubble. So this is a very important year for Porter Moser to keep his job in Norman. And about Glenn Taylor the time I was on the show and he was one of those forwards that if a team needed to find that twelve thirteenth man, he was a good option. So dam with Jeremiah Fears, getting him to reclassify up is huge for Oklahoma, and I think Porter. Mercer's got his team in the right direction. It's just he's got to keep them on that trajectory just throughout the season.
Oh, I am right there with you, and I do think that the biggest question I do have with this time of year is because most of these rosters are filled out, you're going to see a few small moves, But a lot of those small moves are going to be moves like we saw with Jeremiah Fear Some of these guys being in the class of twenty twenty five reclassifying to the class of twenty twenty four. How do you gauge these guys because we have seen a few success stories like Jared Duran a few years ago with Memphis, But I've just noticed that more times than not, because these guys they should be in their senior year of high school and said they're going to be in their freshman year of college, it does feel like they struggle quite a bit.
I think it's pretty inconsistent with kids reclassifying. I look at it as I don't think there's any harm in doing so. This is a year development. If I was a coach, if I ran a program, which thankfully I don't because I would do not too well. But if I was a coach, I think I would use a reclassified kid and try to pitch it to him as a red shirt year development year. Just a year under the program, I think is huge. Obviously you do run the risk of red sharing a kid in today's college basketball, but you just don't see kids really making an impact that quickly, especially when especially if they're a young eighteen year old kid. So that's how I just view the reclassifications.
Yeah, Ben joining me on the show. We do have Ethan Baki does a tremendous job over at the Poor Report, joining me on soup. So it feels like you really just have a better outlook for these guys in year number two, year number three, and you just really right off your number one, which personally, I think is right approach to take. But on top of that, how do you be some of these guys that did recive last year and that year one to year two leap as well? Because I do think that that is the most critical leap, in my opinion, in all of college basketball, because it feels like these guys go from like year three to year four, year four to year five, it's just not is quite a big of a shall we say jump, that is as it is from year one to year two in my opinion as well.
Yeah, coaches said all the time that freshman's sophomore summer is the most important time for kids development, and you're right on, Like you see guys take jumps from junior to senior year, or maybe their fourth year to fifth year, but not as much as like freshman's sophomore year. I think that's really telling if you have the right guy within your program who can be a contributing piece, and if they don't take that jump in from freshman to sophomore year, then it's like, Okay, well they have two years left. Can they really make an impact that quickly? Is it best to part ways have him transferred down? I think that freshman is sophomore summer is just it's super critical. It was really important and traditional college basketball before the transfer portal era, and now I think it's even more important in this era.
Yeah. I do think so as well. And I do think that it is going to be so interesting to take a look at how big of a jump these guys are going to be able to take this season. And on top of that, I do think that just getting back to Oklahoma, we were talking about a little bit before, we were talking about how big of a year this is for them. I think it is going to be interesting to see how they play in the SEC as opposed to the Big Twelve as well, because just looking more and more reclassification of these teams from the PAC twelve going on over to their conferences. On top of that, obviously the two schools from the Big Twelve going to the SEC, I think one of the biggest changeovers for them is just a way that games are going to be called as well, because I do think that for Oklahoma, their style very much suited the Big Twelve, and now my question becomes how they're going to be able to adapt to an SEC where I think that you'd agree with this. There's many more uptempo teams in the SEC than there were a season ago when they were in the Big Twelve.
Oh yeah, for sure. And I think officiating is off a little bit different. I think the Big Twelve the Big Twelve officials are a little in consistent, but consistent with their inconsistency, I think it just depends on what kind of crew you have, Which half are you in which venue are you in, which coaches are on the sidelines. I think the Big Twelve officials have a lot of different factors and going to the SEC, I think Oklahoma can play a little bit more freely. Also just gonna be a lot similar to the Big Twelve their transition with just the competition level. I think they are going to have still gauntlets kind of like the Big Twelve has, So you could have a five game stretch of playing Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, Alabama, Florida. Even like the shortage of like really bad teams in the SEC, I think most of the teams in that league are mediocre at worst. So it's going to be a telling year for Porter Moser at Oklahoma.
YEP. I do think that it's going to be as well. This is going to be a lot of fun to take a look at out day in Texas. Do actually to their new program. As Ethan Boch, who does an amazing job over at the Poor Report, is joining me radioncos Coast SEPSI. Ethan, I know that you guys over there at the Poor Report, you're doing a lot of inventory right now. Is everything that we have seen thus far in twenty twenty four, and I know that you guys do a great job of shining a light on a little bit of everything, whether that be the bigger conference teams, whether that be the teams that are going to be in a new conference, or if that's a few of these smaller conference teams. I do want to get your thoughts on the ladder here in terms of some of those smaller conference teams that maybe they're a little bit out of sight, out of mind, maybe they're not getting a tunnel clove nationally, but you feel like they've just done a good job of retooling this offseason.
Usually I felt like the high majors, mid majors, and low majors all one in a way this offseason. I don't know what it is. I think a lot of kids are lost in comparison to previous years. We've talked about this throughout the offseason. I'm not quite sure what that exactly is. I don't know if that's the mixture between the coaching carousel being just insane this year, or just the NCAA getting rid of the getting rid of the waivers entirely and more kids entering because there's still about five hundred guys left in the portal, so I'll know why the mid majors and low majors seem to not win keep on pace with the high majors when it comes to the portal. Obviously, I think it was a very important offseason for FAU. This was gonna come anyway. They weren't gonna keep Dusty May forever. So I think the new staff at fau's got momentum. And I mean with a Baylor as system or Scott Drews, I'm not gonna say it's automatically They're gonna keep it going with the momentum they have, but it's a nice tree to come from. And Ken Evans from Jackson State is a player that stuck out to me, is going to FAU now. He was recruited by a lot of programs, a lot of high major programs, even a couple of blue bloods, and then a Miller from Florida State as well. These are just a couple of the guys they had to get retooling the roster. Obviously, with Dusty May leaving, their whole core left from the Final four team and last season's team as well. So I think college basketball needs a team like FAU to keep momentum going. They were a fun team to watch last two three. So having a mid major like that he's in the American. Just if they can keep momentum going after Dusty May and get back to the tournament and be a fun mid major team, I think that's great for college basketball and just all mid majors in general.
Yep, I do think so as well. And I looked at that entire American and I do think that that is going to be a fun conference to be able to gauge. Because I also really like the fact that UAB was able to have a nice end of the season last year, and I feel like that's one of those teams outside of the Power five Slash Power six that can really make some intros this season as well, not so much with the transfers that they have coming in, but the fact that they retained Dard near everyone from last year as well.
Yeah, Andy Kennedy at UAB did very well last season. He's done well the last two seasons, especially when he had Jilly Walker, Eric Gain, Trey Jemison as well. Just he's been able to get UAB back to the tournament a couple of times. It's to a point where Andy Kennedy's they've had a fun splot at UAB and they've got to the tournament a couple of times. Now what's the next for AKA at UAB. It's advancing in the NCAA tournament. There's more to it, so Kennedy and Staph and now as new players can do that at UAB, then that's going to be interesting for the whole American Conference just in general.
Yeah, but I do think that the American is going to be having a lot of fun going down this year. I know a year guys over at West Virginia have had a much more stable off season with things going well there with Tucker Debries being now in the fold as he's cleared for practice as well. And I know that you Ethan are locked in on a little bit of everything as of right now getting step for the upcoming season. And I know if people are looking for a little bit of TBT action, you've been following that as well. So let me get people at home know it's all on tap for you and how people can fall on on social media and other platforms.
Yep, So you can follow me at Ethan boch Underscore on Twitter, find our work at the port or Report on Twitter as well, and then my West Virginia work at wv sportsnow dot com.
And Ethan does a tremendous job take it a look at this great game of college basketball and every single time he joined the show on such great insight. So big thanks to Ethan for joining me on cost go Seats now part of the Beast of Family Podcasts. And if you do like jeering from this fine podcast, cost goes Seats, you're able to subscribe wherever your podcast Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, citrae in and if you have a question comment take be dea what ID be for this podcast? You have one of tways be for those in. First one is my Twitter slash xs timeline at you Enner and forty one keep in mind Learnsium maybe he does on Matter Size Previews. We'll please se send you this into the timeline. Other ways find an Apple podcast review. If you rate this podcast sized stars, it is very much appreciating them from there, airble Fire and whatever you'd like to hear on this podcast. Five that five star. If you've co'm with the guys every single day on this podcast, again, please do send in those Twitter slash tacks questions. You do me a massive, massive favor and a massive solid way you do so, so please do fire in there. You're going to expect to hear a lot of conference previews in August and September as well. Things are getting a little bit less busy for myself in terms of the filling days, so that means I'll have more time to be able to put out these conference previews today. We're already doing pretty good with these conference previews. I'll be coming at you with us all throughout the off season. Then once we get in season picks and analysis on every single game, every single day. I'm with you guys all three iron sixty six as of the year on this podcast. Appreciate you tuning in today and I'll do you that good working them out. Thank you,