Goodbye Baraka Okojie

[Jack Strop]

Isn’t this going to be the case for most of these kids…it’s the case for most adults. Don’t like where any of this is headed. Guess I’ll stick to playing golf.

Hold on... I'm taking a shot of tequila...

... ... ...

...nope, didn't help.

 

[dr. gunnie]

I don’t blame the kids - if someone is offering a lot more money, they should take it. I blame the broken system.

 

[bravesfan]

Everyone can thank the NCAA for being stubborn asses and not being proactive about anything. You know it's a mess when they're begging Congress to take it up.

 

[FlPatriot]

I don’t blame the kids - if someone is offering a lot more money, they should take it. I blame the broken system.

This is obvious…no?

 

[mkaufman1]

Really rough day to be a Mason fan but once again something like this really can't be unexpected in this environment. The market is crazy for anyone who is talented and those with the deep pockets can outspend those who do not have deep pockets. At some point something is going to have to give because its not sustainable for many schools let alone Mason. Then again it seems like everyone else has deep pockets so its on the university to figure out how to make our pockets deeper in support of NIL as much as possible. We've been talking about this as fans and donors for years, and not once have seen significant donations to Mason basketball or athletics (significant private donations of 1m+) at least to my knowledge. Add in the fact that we have our own fanbase who is not supporting NIL or against NIL and now is threatening to not be a fan at all, it doesn't help. I can debate that more another time maybe in July or August when we have nothing else to talk about. I can't convince folks to not be a fan and certainly understand why folks would want to find something else to do. The days of building a team for a few years are over unless some rules change. We'll be lucky to keep kids 2-3 years at this point.

Baraka- man, loved watching him play. His recruitment as hinted by Tony and explained during a coaches show took forever. He wouldn't announce and then finally did a long time after that he was committed and reclassifying. Unfortunately for Mason, after a strong frosh year, he felt his worth went up and asked for well more than what Mason is willing to pay him. I wish him the best, and I'm curious on whether we did all we could to keep him. I know he asked for a lot more money and my guess is that the staff said enough and lets move on to someone who wants to be at Mason and we can afford. My hope is that we weren't caught unprepared because I am tired of seeing situations unfold where we are not prepared. From what I know it doesn't sound like that, but I defer to @gmubrian and as much as he could add on the topic in a public forum.

What is done is done, it was a joy watching him play, and I will enjoy watching him play elsewhere and be bitter since he was the first true PG we had with that type of moxie in years. As I told athletics staff in Brooklyn, the kid is special.

 

[GMUgemini]

Welp... can't say I know the story—thanks for setting me straight. Perhaps we should lift the taboo here about exposing players' nefariousness. Not saying Okie is either. Not saying Hall is either. Just saying it would be good to know. NIL is making EVERYONE selfish.

If we are being asked to pay for their services it almost seems fair to understand why they are leaving too.

 

[GMUgemini]

Very sorry to hear about Okojie leaving. Thought he was going to be a big piece of the rebuild. And I agree with the bitter sentiment about the direction that college basketball (well, all college sports), is heading. Can't see how this can work long term and we are probably watching the beginning of the death spiral of college sports. Consider this, one day we could see HS and colleges drop sports and just teach. All sports will be run as professional leagues starting at age 13. Instead of only being able to choose between a classic education, and a trade school as kids do now, there will be a third option - pro sports (assuming you are good enough at 13).

Of course this is tongue in cheek stuff, but what benefit are sports going to be to schools that can't afford NIL in the future?

This is what they do everywhere else in the world. The fact we waste billions of dollars a year on sports for education does seem out of whack sometimes, but I do wonder about the consequences of killing the golden goose. Only like 2% of college athletes go pro in their sport. Destroying it as a means to gain an education is going to do a lot more harm than good.

 

[Walter]

The only reason I continue to donate to the program is because Tony is the coach. I feel like I owe that to him for the Final Four.

If anyone else was the coach, not only would I no longer donate, I would no longer care.

 

[jruby]

Slow your role here, you may not like VT but make sure you do research when trying to bash something you may think you know but really have no clue about.

VT is ranked 30th in the country in the Collective NIL "rankings." https://nil-ncaa.com
and have a very strong NIL base that continues to grow and grow. More info here: https://hokiesports.com/news/2023/6...nil-collective-named-to-prestigious-list.aspx

They pulled in over $25 million in donations in just this past year that concluded in April for certain sports designations. Trust me, I get the VT Athletics thank you letters and progress trackers in the mail once a quarter. Bottom tier of P5... Nope... the stats are there to back it up. Bottom tier Power 5 would be Boston College.

As for the VT fan base... they have one of the most loyal fan bases in the country that travel for all sports very well. They had down years in football recently but they continue to sellout games and fans travel for away games and certainly bowl games...and other sporting events in general. 35K fans attended the Military Bowl this year in a stadium that has capacity of 34,000. 32,000 of those fans were VT. I was there.... in the pouring cold rain. Womens basketball recruits have publicly said in interviews one of the reasons they come to VT is because they want to play in front of sold out home crowds. Same with VT Wrestling.

Fair weather ACC fans... nah man....you may be thinking of GT or Pittsburgh but not VT. Biggest and loyal fan base in VA.

They/VT are losing players because A. They want to win and want to join a team who consistently makes the NCAA tournament B. Want more money and/or playing time, VT has limits on what they spend for basketball. Their PG Pedulla is in the portal and said he would come back if they meet his price. C. Or want more playing time / be focus of the offense - as MJ Collins told reporters/interviewers on why he is transferring out. You can pretty much apply this formula to every P5 men's basketball team. UNC can't even keep guys.... Trimble and Love transferred, or are transferring.

It happens... its the new landscape of college bball.

Okojie can certainly join a ACC or Big 10 team, he has the quickness, work ethic/hustle and abilities to play P5. Coaches can develop a 3 point shot for him... they ain't worried about that.

All I heard in this was FOOTBALL SCHOOL! It's my fault for bringing football into this, i'm sure they do have a decent NIL for football but yes there has been several years the school had to buy bowl tickets. It's above the middle of the ACC but not one of the 2 that competes for titles.

Their basketball though I highly doubt anyone cares and I should have clarified.

VT isn't good at hoops outside a couple fluke years. Hell even most every A10 school has a final 4. It's never been a basketball school ever and never will be. It's actually funny people even talk abut VT hoops. BC has 18 tournaments to VT's 13. Miami is only program worse than VT in the ACC. NC State 29, Wake 23, GT 17, Pitt 27. Who would be a worse power 5 basketball program than VT? Just curious?

When the ACC dies and Big 10 and sec break apart VT dies, there will be no conference to save them like the ACC did. The fall of the Big East was the start of all this garbage to begin with. Insanely weakened hoops. Football has ruined college hoops entirely.

However what's most interesting about this is seeing that vcu grads are clearly broke! They barely raise more than Mason. If Mason had anywhere close to the amount of fans they do they would blow them out of the water. McDonalds must not be paying very well!

 

[GMU_DCU]

Unfortunately I assumed this would happen. I didn't keep much hope that he would be back next season. Such is the way of college basketball these days. NIL and endless transfers makes it almost impossible for a mid major to keep any talent.

 

[hoopsjunkie75]

lol if you knew the story with dinkins he’d definitely not have your respect.

Most definitely not lol

My opinion on this is to either share all, or share nothing.

It's like kids on the playground (when kids used to actually use playgrounds) "I know something you don't know....."

 

[GMU_DCU]

I was exaggerating, but make no mistake doubt they find a good one. It's been 10+ years since they even got even a decent PG.

We had one but had a coach that played him out of position, he left to become a Big East player of the year.

 

[thebiasedannouncer]

Really rough day to be a Mason fan but once again something like this really can't be unexpected in this environment. The market is crazy for anyone who is talented and those with the deep pockets can outspend those who do not have deep pockets. At some point something is going to have to give because its not sustainable for many schools let alone Mason. Then again it seems like everyone else has deep pockets so its on the university to figure out how to make our pockets deeper in support of NIL as much as possible. We've been talking about this as fans and donors for years, and not once have seen significant donations to Mason basketball or athletics (significant private donations of 1m+) at least to my knowledge. Add in the fact that we have our own fanbase who is not supporting NIL or against NIL and now is threatening to not be a fan at all, it doesn't help. I can debate that more another time maybe in July or August when we have nothing else to talk about. I can't convince folks to not be a fan and certainly understand why folks would want to find something else to do. The days of building a team for a few years are over unless some rules change. We'll be lucky to keep kids 2-3 years at this point.

Baraka- man, loved watching him play. His recruitment as hinted by Tony and explained during a coaches show took forever. He wouldn't announce and then finally did a long time after that he was committed and reclassifying. Unfortunately for Mason, after a strong frosh year, he felt his worth went up and asked for well more than what Mason is willing to pay him. I wish him the best, and I'm curious on whether we did all we could to keep him. I know he asked for a lot more money and my guess is that the staff said enough and lets move on to someone who wants to be at Mason and we can afford. My hope is that we weren't caught unprepared because I am tired of seeing situations unfold where we are not prepared. From what I know it doesn't sound like that, but I defer to @gmubrian and as much as he could add on the topic in a public forum.

What is done is done, it was a joy watching him play, and I will enjoy watching him play elsewhere and be bitter since he was the first true PG we had with that type of moxie in years. As I told athletics staff in Brooklyn, the kid is special.

Once we started targeting guys like King, Thomas, Acker, Robinson, I knew at least something was up with the PG position... I maybe thought that it was to move Baraka over to SG, but yea none of those guys were gonna come here unless they had starter minutes. Should've been the first sign Baraka was at least unsure of coming back.

 

[GMUgemini]

We had one but had a coach that played him out of position, he left to become a Big East player of the year.

This argument gets tossed around all the time ignoring both 2006 and 2011.

In 2006 Tony Skinn gave up PG duties to Folarin Campbell and in 2011 Luke Hancock was the primary ballhandler out of the small forward position.

In other words, just because Kolek would have been playing with XJ/Polite doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have had the ball in his hands a lot pulling the strings.

 

[mkaufman1]

My opinion on this is to either share all, or share nothing.

It's like kids on the playground (when kids used to actually use playgrounds) "I know something you don't know....."

My point was to call out that someone was applauding Dinkins for loyalty to Mason, when in reality it wasn't that at all.

He decided to take a redshirt this year and have a back injury instead of trying to compete for minutes.

 

[2011WinOverVillanova]

Really rough day to be a Mason fan but once again something like this really can't be unexpected in this environment. The market is crazy for anyone who is talented and those with the deep pockets can outspend those who do not have deep pockets. At some point something is going to have to give because its not sustainable for many schools let alone Mason. Then again it seems like everyone else has deep pockets so its on the university to figure out how to make our pockets deeper in support of NIL as much as possible. We've been talking about this as fans and donors for years, and not once have seen significant donations to Mason basketball or athletics (significant private donations of 1m+) at least to my knowledge. Add in the fact that we have our own fanbase who is not supporting NIL or against NIL and now is threatening to not be a fan at all, it doesn't help. I can debate that more another time maybe in July or August when we have nothing else to talk about. I can't convince folks to not be a fan and certainly understand why folks would want to find something else to do. The days of building a team for a few years are over unless some rules change. We'll be lucky to keep kids 2-3 years at this point.

Baraka- man, loved watching him play. His recruitment as hinted by Tony and explained during a coaches show took forever. He wouldn't announce and then finally did a long time after that he was committed and reclassifying. Unfortunately for Mason, after a strong frosh year, he felt his worth went up and asked for well more than what Mason is willing to pay him. I wish him the best, and I'm curious on whether we did all we could to keep him. I know he asked for a lot more money and my guess is that the staff said enough and lets move on to someone who wants to be at Mason and we can afford. My hope is that we weren't caught unprepared because I am tired of seeing situations unfold where we are not prepared. From what I know it doesn't sound like that, but I defer to @gmubrian and as much as he could add on the topic in a public forum.

What is done is done, it was a joy watching him play, and I will enjoy watching him play elsewhere and be bitter since he was the first true PG we had with that type of moxie in years. As I told athletics staff in Brooklyn, the kid is special.

Regarding NIL... I think it's worth looking at how Arkansas was able to put together an attractive situation for Cal. The Executive of Tyson Chicken is offering an annual NIL budget of 5 million dollars to him. Other key players will be the Walton Walmart family (their arena is named after Bud Walton) and Jerry Jones who went to Arkansas. He hosts an annual game between Texas A&M and Arkansas at the Cowboys stadium.

I'm not saying we have to nor is it realistic for us to expect to get to that Arkansas level. However, I am in firm agreement with my fellow Patriot Platooner Mr. Met.

More of the fanbase needs to stop looking "askance" at NIL or clutching their pearls and decrying it.

It's about winning.

The age of George Mason is either 1957 or 1972. (depending on which one you use). OR are we merely "too young"
Is there a really successful Tyson Chicken guy Mason alum out there?

List of George Mason University people - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Right off the bat?
Martin Andrew Taylor - one of Steve Ballmer's right hand guys at Microsoft.


That guy has got to have some $$$ and we should court that whale... I doubt Chris/Kathy read this board though...

 

[mkaufman1]

Regarding NIL... I think it's worth looking at how Arkansas was able to put together an attractive situation for Cal. The Executive of Tyson Chicken is offering an annual NIL budget of 5 million dollars to him. Other key players will be the Walton Walmart family (their arena is named after Bud Walton) and Jerry Jones who went to Arkansas. He hosts an annual game between Texas A&M and Arkansas at the Cowboys stadium.

I'm not saying we have to nor is it realistic for us to expect to get to that Arkansas level. However, I am in firm agreement with my fellow Patriot Platooner Mr. Met.

More of the fanbase needs to stop looking "askance" at NIL or clutching their pearls and decrying it.

It's about winning.

The age of George Mason is either 1957 or 1972. (depending on which one you use). OR are we merely "too young"
Is there a really successful Tyson Chicken guy Mason alum out there?

List of George Mason University people - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Right off the bat?
Martin Andrew Taylor - one of Steve Ballmer's right hand guys at Microsoft.


That guy has got to have some $$$ and we should court that whale... I doubt Chris/Kathy read this board though...

I have already said this on text to others, but my hope is that some of the notable alumni have been approached by development at Mason and by Mason Athletics. Whether they will be approached for NIL, I have no idea.

Its one to be told "no thank you" and try, its another to not have tried at all.

The University needs to be proactive and fast, and its not exactly something we've seen Mason be good at in the past, especially when it comes to athletics.

 

[GMUgemini]

Regarding NIL... I think it's worth looking at how Arkansas was able to put together an attractive situation for Cal. The Executive of Tyson Chicken is offering an annual NIL budget of 5 million dollars to him. Other key players will be the Walton Walmart family (their arena is named after Bud Walton) and Jerry Jones who went to Arkansas. He hosts an annual game between Texas A&M and Arkansas at the Cowboys stadium.

I'm not saying we have to nor is it realistic for us to expect to get to that Arkansas level. However, I am in firm agreement with my fellow Patriot Platooner Mr. Met.

More of the fanbase needs to stop looking "askance" at NIL or clutching their pearls and decrying it.

It's about winning.

The age of George Mason is either 1957 or 1972. (depending on which one you use). OR are we merely "too young"
Is there a really successful Tyson Chicken guy Mason alum out there?

List of George Mason University people - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Right off the bat?
Martin Andrew Taylor - one of Steve Ballmer's right hand guys at Microsoft.


That guy has got to have some $$$ and we should court that whale... I doubt Chris/Kathy read this board though...

There is a big difference between a multi-billion dollar multinational corporation giving an NIL deal and asking random people making 50-100k to come up with unlimited amounts of money to pay for athletes. I couldn’t care less if Tyson’s wanted to pay 500k to an athlete to wear a chicken suit once during a post-game presser. I take issue with asking normal fans to pony up salary for these players. The university should be doing that if that’s where we are going.

 

[2011WinOverVillanova]

There is a big difference between a multi-billion dollar multinational corporation giving an NIL deal and asking random people making 50-100k to come up with unlimited amounts of money to pay for athletes. I couldn’t care less if Tyson’s wanted to pay 500k to an athlete to wear a chicken suit once during a post-game presser. I take issue with asking normal fans to pony up salary for these players. The university should be doing that if that’s where we are going.

Rules prevent the university from doing that. An NIL collective has to operate off to the side. So if we don’t have a Tyson chicken executive type alum in terms of success who is willing to push us to the top of the A10, isn’t it on normal fans to try to do it?

 

[GMUgemini]

Rules prevent the university from doing that. An NIL collective has to operate off to the side. So if we don’t have a Tyson chicken executive type alum in terms of success who is willing to push us to the top of the A10, isn’t it on normal fans to try to do it?

A, we can’t. It’s not sustainable (Holmes was making 500k-600k last year at Dayton. You think we could do that on our own without corporate money?)

B, no. Players should not be asking fans for money.

C, that’s not entirely true. There is “the true cost of going to college” rule out there now. These players already get several thousand from the university as a stipend on top of their scholarship. Also true, the university would probably have to increase that stipend by 20x to make a real difference here, but if grad students at Columbia can bargain for 50k, the student athletes should be able to bargain for similar amounts.