Outgoing Portal

[GoBearcats31]

Jamille Reynolds - transfer portal

[sedz]

Wrong guy. The decision to play Reed more was coincidental because ISU played a small lineup per Wes at the post game presser.

I don't have the energy to do this at the moment but I'd be curious to see a playing time trend line for everybody throughout the season and see what happened to people PT's starting with that game.

I just did that and there is no noticeable, significant change outside of Josh Reed at that time (minus CJ's brief return). Dan's jump in minutes came Jan 13 at Baylor in the third game of conference play. Outside of one terrible game against Oklahoma a week later, he played 28+ minutes every game the rest of the season. Simas had been consistently playing 30+ since Dec 19. Aziz played 20-30 all year long. Jamille bounced around from 10 to 20 with no real pattern and actually had a bump up to 20 minutes in that Iowa St game before dropping to 14 again. Jizzle's minutes increased at the very end of the season but bounced around in conference play, and were actually lower in the couple games after Iowa St, some of those taken by CJ. Day Day saw a boost from the upper 20s to lower 30s beginning March 2 against K State. Newman was consistently around 30 all year.

Reed played only 1 minute against Iowa St and the preceding Houston game (and 10 or less in the previous 4) before jumping up to 14 and 13 after. If a donor was looking for playing time after the Iowa St game, Reed is the only guy who got it, but that boost was gone by the conference tournament. The PGs started playing together more beginning February 24, but that coincides with the only three games Vik played significant minutes after Iowa St.

I do love a good conspiracy though.

[Bearcat93]

Maybe this NIL deal explains some of the incredulous substitutions across the season?

[GoBearcats31]

Here are the minutes played by forwards / centers from Iowa State through the end of the season


Lakhin: 9 / DNP / DNP / 15 / 22 / 20 / DNP / DNP / DNP / DNP / 5 / 2 / DNP / DNP
Bandaogo: 20 / 26 / 23 / 23/ 23 / 20 / 28 / 27 / 21 / 26 / 23 / 15 / 29 / 22 / 28
Reynolds: 21 / 14 / 17 / 13 / 17 / 11 / 18 / 17 / 14 / 16 / 20 / 16 / 12 / 12
Oguama: DNP / DNP / 3 / 2 / DNP / DNP / 3 / 3 / DNP / 1 / DNP / DNP / 8 / 6
Skillings: 32 / 32 / 34 / 28 / 28 / 29 / 28 / 37 / 32 / 35 / 36 / 30 / 34
Lukosius: 31 / 30 / 30 / 31 / 33 / 33 / 39 / 31 / 37 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 33 / 36
Reed: 1 / 14 / 13 / 11 / 7 / 19 / 12 / 14 / 9 / 9 / 6 / 11 / 21 / 11

Iowa State
at UCF
Oklahoma State
at TCU
at Houston
Kansas State
at Oklahoma (OT)
WVU
vs WVU
vs KU
vs Baylor
USF (OT)
Bradley
at Indiana State


These are according to ESPN's numbers. I feel like Vik had a game where he played one possession late but possibly logged 0 seconds and potentially did not show up on ESPN as accumulating stats.

[Lobot]

If I'm following this right, we stopped playing Vik because a donor wanted more minutes for Josh Reed? He's the only guy who saw a significant jump in playing time the two games after Iowa St. We have a major bureaucratic problem if that's true.

Wrong guy. The decision to play Reed more was coincidental because ISU played a small lineup per Wes at the post game presser.

I don't have the energy to do this at the moment but I'd be curious to see a playing time trend line for everybody throughout the season and see what happened to people PT's starting with that game.

[longtimefan]

If I'm following this right, we stopped playing Vik because a donor wanted more minutes for Josh Reed? He's the only guy who saw a significant jump in playing time the two games after Iowa St. We have a major bureaucratic problem if that's true.

It’s not true.

[leo from jersey]

Switching starters around is one thing. Cutting Vik from the rotation in favor of Josh Reed because of a donor is a completely different animal. That's wild.

who said it was Josh.You may be right but I was thinking of a bigger name who went into the starting lineup.

[sedz]

Of course you didn't look at who started at the end of the year - Hint not Aziz I think.

Switching starters around is one thing. Cutting Vik from the rotation in favor of Josh Reed because of a donor is a completely different animal. That's wild.

[leo from jersey]

If I'm following this right, we stopped playing Vik because a donor wanted more minutes for Josh Reed? He's the only guy who saw a significant jump in playing time the two games after Iowa St. We have a major bureaucratic problem if that's true.

Of course you didn't look at who started at the end of the year - Hint not Aziz I think.

[sedz]

Let's say for example, that Vik is the starter and suddenly an important donor says to someone in the Athletic Dept that Wes needs to be playing his best players and not just he one's he's loyal to. This comes after a press conference where Wes specifically defended Vik's loyalty to the program after he was sick and had a really bad game (Iowa St.?) That info from the donor trickles down through the dept. to Wes. The next game Vik gets 1 minute on the floor in garbage time and doesn't play the next game. Based on information I got, the above scenario happened. The thought between myself and several people I talked to was this was probably related to NIL payments to others who were then played over Viktor.

If I'm following this right, we stopped playing Vik because a donor wanted more minutes for Josh Reed? He's the only guy who saw a significant jump in playing time the two games after Iowa St. We have a major bureaucratic problem if that's true.

[leo from jersey]

What are you framing as abuse here Leo?

I think there's a got to be better term for what you're describing. You make it sound like it's physical, which is not the case.

Mental abuse is often as bad as the physical. It can lead to long term difficulties and a deeply disturbing present. My wife is in the mental health profession and all her years of practice verifies this. I understand that things can be traumatic for a youth being away from home and having bad treatment, but as my beliefs are that suffering is redemptive fair or not fair. It is just never pleasant. I feel for Vik and it is too late now to say that he didn't handle it correctly. I wasn't there. If the truth is a deep pocket who has dished out 6 figures required his payee to play with compliance from the HC and AD, then UC has major problems. I am sure UC has help in place as we saw with David D. two years ago. Perhaps UC needs a better mentoring program with ex-players taking care of the new guys. I don't know. If it is true that a deep pocket picked the FB coach, then I suspect the deep pockets have a lot of clout in all the sports. If they have that kind of clout, they need come up with NIL money for 5-star recruits at least. No, that was sarcasm. Whatever happened, it is not good. Nobody won starting with the players, the school and the fans. At least some deep pocket got off on their power and control game. Friends I wish I could speak better of my beloved Cats. Regardless, these young guys need to never give up regardless of the present situation. Life is far from fair, but it is life. I have an answer, but it is religious, and this forum is about UC sports. I do know covering things up under the rug is never the solution- see HC JB.

[red_n_black_attack]

It is scary to think a) a donor is making sole/direct NIL payments to a player, and B) as a result of that NIL money the donor has influence over the coach to determine playing time. Both sound extremely like pay-4-play

[GoBearcats31]

This thread....

To recap, Viktor Lakhin is in the portal. No one else has hit the portal yet :-)

[Lobot]

As I said - the abuse should be reported to Cunningham and I suspect he knew. Regardless of that, I personally don't go by what others do to me. I do my best as unto the Lord and not to man. I realize that many don't have that philosophy, but a "Bearcat for life" should. All empty words said when things were good. I would have gotten out if the abuse was more than I could handle, but hopefully not sulking and giving up. You may never overcome that in your future life. I told my kids that when a certain coach had abusive problems. In this world, few are counseled so. Just leave. Sometimes it is how you leave especially of your tanking hurts the team. I believe it did. Now let CWM and Cunningham learn from this. They may lose their position or raises, but we are dealing with youth. It is on to them too if this is so. If so Vik wasn't the only one tanking.

What are you framing as abuse here Leo?

I think there's a got to be better term for what you're describing. You make it sound like it's physical, which is not the case.

[D.A.H.]

so, i'm sorry. i've been skimming this thread, and i've got enough meds in me with whatever crud i have, and i'm not sure if i've read it right. is anyone saying that vik was "abused". it sounds like a business disagreement, but i didn't think, even in this day and age, that just saying no to a player was abusive. was there more going on?