In Reply to: How NBA draft withdrawal moved our early NCAA top 25 rankings posted by mh on June 06, 2025 at 10:33:14
From an email by Eamonn Brennam
North Carolina (derogatory)
On Monday, citing multiple sources, Inside Carolina’s Greg Barnes reported that North Carolina had “surpassed the $14 million mark in its financial commitment to the 2025-26 roster, approximately triple what was spent” last season. That roster was assembled with help from newly hired men’s basketball executive director and general manager Jim Tanner’s, whose $850,000 salary “represents another bullet point confirming the university’s support of its prized program,” Barnes wrote.
That … is a staggering number. In the spring, Matt Norlander reported that coaches and administrators generally saw the highest tier of NIL budgets as hovering around the $10 million threshold, give or take; at no point did anyone suggest anyone else was going to spend $14 million. Carolina, where elite status is non-negotiable, did.
So it would be a staggering number regardless of how the roster looked, of whether it appeared to be an undeniable powerhouse entering the 2025-26 season. But it is especially eye-popping given what UNC’s actual roster looks like.
Caleb Wilson is a big time freshman, no doubt. But he’s not, or at least most people don’t regard him as, a Cooper Flagg-level — or even A.J. Dybantsa-level — talent. He might be really good. He might have growing pains. We’ll see. However you rate the player, though, he is not a can’t-miss-oh-that’s-where-the-money-went type of guy.
Hubert Davis was active in the transfer portal, bringing in five players, almost all of them established contributors at high-major schools. Arizona transfer center Henri Veesaar and Alabama stretch big Jarin Stevenson should both alleviate UNC’s broad frontcourt woes and give Davis more offensive flexibility, too. Jonathan Powell is a good get from West Virginia. Kyan Evans was an elite scoring guard (including 44.6 percent from 3 on 157 attempts) at Colorado State. Derek Dixon and Isaiah Denis appear to be solid enough freshman guards. Luka Bogavac averaged 14.9 points in the Adriatic League last season, and looks like yet another example of quality foreign players coming to the US college system to get some of that sweet NIL cash.
It’s a decent roster! It’s likely a pretty good team! If you’re starting Evans, Seth Trimble, Bogavac, Wilson and Veesaar, you’re likely to be close to the top of the ACC. But it is not a roster that screams “Wow, UNC really dominated the transfer portal, these guys are the obvious employers of choice” — even on an $8 or $10 million budget. Hearing that UNC spent $14 million makes you wonder where the Darrion Williamses, J.T. Toppins, Boogie Flands and Ja’Kobi Gillespies are.
The answer: other schools. Before this week, it was easy to assume UNC hadn’t fully maximized its NIL project, that it was still a creaking old blueblood, that SEC schools with fewer pretensions were better suited to the brave new world. The Tar Heels only just acquiesced to hiring a GM this spring, after all.
But $14 million?! And for this?
This is another fun wrinkle to the NIL era, by the way: Trying to understand how teams are spending their money.
Eventually, maybe, college basketball salaries will be public, and the sport will enter a period of fandom that includes nerdy cap analysis and transparent free agency budgeting. Maybe there will even be a second apron! (Whatever that is.)
In the meantime, when all you have a reported top-line number and a list of players to look at, you have to guess at where all the money went. In North Carolina’s case — as with a few other teams on this list — it’s hard to understand.
Marquette (mildly derogatory)
We have long lauded Shaka Smart’s decision to swerve in the face of portal madness — to double down on retention and loyalty to a core group of players. Smart realized you don’t have to shuffle kids in and out the door every year to compete for conference titles and high tournament seeds, and that a settled environment, focused development and deep relationships can be powerful recruiting pitches, too. The old ways are still an option; Marquette has been the top practitioner.
Then again: When you have Tyler Kolek, Kam Jones and Oso Iguodaro in your starting five, fostering a culture of bidirectional loyalty is also smart. You want those guys to stick around! You don’t want Kansas to poach Kolek for an NIL bag you can’t counter. Eventually, though, those players graduate, or get drafted, and then comes the real test. If you’re really committed to your culture — to not bringing in transfers over the top of players you’ve signed — you have to engage with the side of the old ways many fans no longer have the patience for: rebuilding...
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That's as much of his stuff as I get for free, and I haven't signed up for the rest.