Quote Originally Posted by MHettel View Post
I didn’t allude to anything. I didn’t suggest that there was some sinister forces at play. I didn’t speculate that there was “something going on”.

I actually PROVIDED an explanation for why he had several lackluster games in a row.

You guys are hung up on this idea of making something out of nothing. But I didn’t provide “nothing”. I provided an ACTUAL root cause that may explain ( in whole or in part) some of Conwells struggles.

And I didn’t make this shit up. Jason Carter jumped from the MAC to the Big East…..and floundered. Ben Stanley led the country in shot attempts at Hampton….and couldn’t crack the rotation at X.

It goes the other way too. Sasa Ciani got destroyed in the Big East last year and is now averaging nearly a double double in 20 minutes per game….in the same league that Conwell came from.

The reality is there IS a difference in the competition level between the conferences. And further reality is that many players struggle (or flourish depending on if they moved down) when facing different competition. That was my position.

Lumping that reasonable take into some tin foil hat NIL conspiracy is just wrong.
Well, I think it is reasonable to ask how we evaluate transfer talent. Hettel postulated that Conwell was not talented enough to compete in the B.E. The book is now (or certainly should be) closed. I'm pretty sure Hettel, too, agrees with that.

Conwell can compete at this level. That's an understatement! And, we have plenty of examples of lower division talent coming to X and doing well---most recently Souley and then Olivari. More going back before then. But, this year, we all can agree (I think) that Hugely and Maddox look like misses. Hugely didn't even play at a lower level. He just hasn't gotten it done.

In the portal era, we will need to evaluate incoming talent effectively. That evaluation must occur quickly. Competition will not allow a long thorough evaluation.

As an aside, I wasn't sorry to see Abou, Cianni or Lazar move on. They all appeared to be misses last year. Wish we had them this year.