Is there more to the departures

[CougEd]

Smith does a great job of finding players . But they seem to want to take the first opportunity to leave .

Efe would have been better off in college. Jackson could have developed better at wsu. Bamba, Powell Gueye , Rodman . I think the Rodman situation was everyone left, leaving him where there was the Big Dance in his head then reality hit everyone was leaving . And then there is the money.

 

[roses04]

Money changes everything. I don't think Smith is the problem, NIL is the problem. I am amazed every week how well Smith navigates through the NIL. If there is a problem it's attendance, 2500-3000 a game, you can go to some other school get 100K a year and play in front of 10-12,000. According to the NIL rumor wire, Rodman got 100k, and Bamba more than that. Hard to say no to that as a broke college kid. As for Powell leaving, and declaring for the NBA, he has bounced around for several years, so the move doesn't surprise me as much as him declaring for the NBA. Jackson is money, and Gauye is living out the NBA dream. Would these players been better off staying? Probably, but they would have 100K or more in their pocket.

If the Cougs had an NIL payroll of 500,000- a million, you would see most of these players stick around.

 

[COUGinNCW]

Jackson may have left bc WSU wouldn’t clear him to play. Don’t know that for a fact but it’s certainly plausible.

 

[mikalalas]

Smith does a great job of finding players . But they seem to want to take the first opportunity to leave .

Efe would have been better off in college. Jackson could have developed better at wsu. Bamba, Powell Gueye , Rodman . I think the Rodman situation was everyone left, leaving him where there was the Big Dance in his head then reality hit everyone was leaving . And then there is the money.

In today's NIL + Portal environment, not only do you lose players because of that, it doesn't take much to create a snowball running down hill, dam break panic, etc.

If I were on Smith's team, and if 1 player leaves, then another, then another, that might cause 1 player to panic, leave, then another to panic leave, then 2 more panic leave, then 3 more panic, leave, then I, and 4 more panic leave, then the roster is DISINTIGRATED, and only 3,4 still left, that only reason not also leave, is that they are not good enough, and so if they were to enter the portal, nobody else would want them.

Not saying that's what's happening, but in today's NIL + Portal environment, that CAN happen.

And maybe a little tiny bit of that did happen, cause 1,2, players to panic, leave WSU, before the whole roster might transfer.

 

[Observer11]

Smith does a great job of finding players . But they seem to want to take the first opportunity to leave .

Efe would have been better off in college. Jackson could have developed better at wsu. Bamba, Powell Gueye , Rodman . I think the Rodman situation was everyone left, leaving him where there was the Big Dance in his head then reality hit everyone was leaving . And then there is the money.

WSU does a great job of finding coaches. But they seem to want to take the first opportunity to leave.

Get it now?

 

[PeteTheChop]

The reassuring thing is CKS does a good job of restocking the cupboard every year no matter who departs

Once some of these NIL initiatives take off, WSU should start seeing fewer and fewer players leave for "greener pastures"