ETown Jim said:

It's way more interesting.

According to reports, a UCF assistant coach shopped himself and former 5* center Moustapha Thiam as a package, demanding a two-year guaranteed salary, above market for an assistant. Most passed, Cincinnati ended up with the center and asst coach.

This happened in mid to late April.

Arrinten Page had bided his time playing behind a last-year center who statistically was the same Page, but had more familiarity with the coach. Page was due to start in '25 - '26. Suddenly, he's back on the bench, filling in at best 8-10 mins. a game.

So he jumped. I believe to a far better situation for Mr. Page and his family. He's with a staff that has deep experience developing bigs. He's on a roster where he's the undisputed starting center. And he gets to display his skills in the Big Ten.

Justifiable, defensible, smart move.

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Southport Cat said:

Let me state unequivocally: Nick was the best or second best Wildcat last year depending on how you value health as a skill.

That said, we are veering a smidge into “Hatteberg can’t replace Giambi because I know what a ballplayer is” territory.

As the statistical revolution matures in hoops every year, it is clear that the guy who takes the most shots is very often not the most valuable player on the floor. Nick got a lot of bad shots when our offense stagnated because his bad shots were and are way better than everyone else’s. I think that hurt him a lot in these types of ratings systems.

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Purple Pile Driver said:

When rating systems rank players in what Is a bizarre way to anyone with 2 eyes, you look at the methodology and try to determine a reason. Often reasons are given and they are ignored if they don’t fit a narrative. Honestly, any ranking system that Ranks Nick as the 5th most efficient player is garbage. It’s nonsensical. Don’t care to explore it further and waste time analyzing an algorithm. The Coaches and Media vote on all Big Ten teams, personally I certainly trust their voting than some ranking system that I believe the author won’t even claim identify the best players.

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FeralFelidae said:

Can't blame the young man for taking the SEC paycheck. As you say, you with your fancy-shmancy NU degree fall short of his earnings.

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Hungry Jack said:

That averages out to almost $400k per player.

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