The new reality: Arkansas has contacted more than 80 transfers

[AuricGoldfinger]

Why bother with high school recruiting when you can get players with as much as four years' college experience and seasoning?

And the portal doesn't even close for another month.

[Obvious]

Jordan Wright said his second choice would have been Arkansas. That would have really bugged me.

[Foreverhopeful]

Everything about the Jordan Wright move bugs me.

[UltimateVUFan]

Everything about the Jordan Wright move bugs me.

The ONE thing that gives me solace about Jordan Wright’s move is that he is from Baton Rouge. Hard to be mad about a kid who put in his 4 years at VU, graduated, and is taking advantage of the one-time COVID exception to play his 5th year. In a non-COVID scenario, he would have completed his entire career at VU. Can’t fault him for taking advantage of a freebie year and perhaps working on a degree program LSU - a much larger university in his hometown - offers that VU doesn’t. I don’t view the situation as a slight to VU in the least.

[Foreverhopeful]

I know. I don't have hard feelings towards Jordan at all, and I knew in my heart that he was gone, but it is going to be hard to see him playing against us.

[Starkiller]

I think Wright losing playing time during the middle of the season pretty much cemented it. Then after Liam got hurt and Wright had to step up, he wasn’t going to come back anyway but used his opportunity to showcase himself. I had just assumed 2 months ago that he was going to transfer.

I don’t begrudge him leaving, but I was hoping that getting back to the starting lineup and the center of the action might change things. Obviously it didn’t.

[UltimateVUFan]

I think Wright losing playing time during the middle of the season pretty much cemented it. Then after Liam got hurt and Wright had to step up, he wasn’t going to come back anyway but used his opportunity to showcase himself. I had just assumed 2 months ago that he was going to transfer.

I don’t begrudge him leaving, but I was hoping that getting back to the starting lineup and the center of the action might change things. Obviously it didn’t.

I wouldn’t really characterize the situation on the whole as Wright losing PT. On the contrary, he was likely doing a lot of PT (physical therapy) for his back injury and was playing limited minutes to allow him to recover properly.

[Jason94]

Why bother with high school recruiting when you can get players with as much as four years' college experience and seasoning?

And the portal doesn't even close for another month.

This is the way the game is played, and with so many openings, I would hope that CJS and staff is equally active in reaching out to players.

To some extent, it does make sense to put even more effort into scouting during the season and focusing a lot of effort in recruiting transfers. From a risk standpoint, they are much surer bets than true freshmen outside the very top talent, which we don't get that often anyway.

For coaches who understand this, there is a huge amount of opportunity to turn your program around very quickly, as well as completely avoid rebuilding seasons. CJS has been a little late to the party in terms of volume, but with the exodus of a number of very average players, he could end up with a tournament level roster with a few key transfers.

It is a little nerve wracking but also exciting to see what he brings in. It makes little sense to complain about it - much like complaints about how the tournament committee judges resumes, you can either complain and miss the tournament or get on board and go with the flow.

[Jason94]

I think Wright losing playing time during the middle of the season pretty much cemented it. Then after Liam got hurt and Wright had to step up, he wasn’t going to come back anyway but used his opportunity to showcase himself. I had just assumed 2 months ago that he was going to transfer.

I don’t begrudge him leaving, but I was hoping that getting back to the starting lineup and the center of the action might change things. Obviously it didn’t.

I wouldn’t really characterize the situation on the whole as Wright losing PT. On the contrary, he was likely doing a lot of PT (physical therapy) for his back injury and was playing limited minutes to allow him to recover properly.

He did have some injury issues, but IIRC, CJS said during the middle of the season that Wright was better as a 20 mpg guy coming off the bench. There was definitely some coaches' discretion in not starting Wright for a majority of the SEC season, and it is probably not a coincidence that as soon as Robbins went down for the 2nd time that Wrights' minutes shot up and he was inserted back into the starting lineup. Not saying the CJS was wrong for benching Wright, but I'm pretty sure this was largely a coaches' decision and not one made solely due to injury.

[commadore]

I think Wright losing playing time during the middle of the season pretty much cemented it. Then after Liam got hurt and Wright had to step up, he wasn’t going to come back anyway but used his opportunity to showcase himself. I had just assumed 2 months ago that he was going to transfer.

I don’t begrudge him leaving, but I was hoping that getting back to the starting lineup and the center of the action might change things. Obviously it didn’t.

I wouldn’t really characterize the situation on the whole as Wright losing PT. On the contrary, he was likely doing a lot of PT (physical therapy) for his back injury and was playing limited minutes to allow him to recover properly.

After seeing the press conference with Stackhouse and Wright I tend to agree with you more. Also, I have back issues and for him to play well all the time is just not reasonable.