In Reply to: Portal Commits? posted by Jdmba84 on April 19, 2026 at 08:33:33
we're sitting on a large chunk of money, hoping to land him.
Possible a significant amount of that could be pledges for that specific recruitment but still, he'll cost a lot in this year's market and Duke and especially Louisville figure to be offering big amounts but he's training in LA and his agent is a UCLA alum so I believe we're in it. Louisville will likely outbid us in terms of money but we're no doubt competitive in our bid and Perry and Petty didn't come for peanuts. And Able is still in play as well.
Those two appear to be key targets for us and that reflects a plan which requires we manage our money to be able to afford them, so extremely doubtful we've offered the big bucks it would take this year to be competitive for other big name candidates. We certainly haven't gone after any big name (big bucks) centers and, with Perry and Petty at guard, doubt we've gone after anyone other than Blackwell at guard, either.
As the saying goes, it ain't over 'til it's over - and in the case of negotiations the whole thing doesn't make sense until you can see the outcome to understand the process. Don't know how this all turns out as both Blackwell and Able have some deep pocketed suitors remaining - still hoping for another center - at least as a backup - and a wing. Guess we'll see. But the answer to your questions I think is no, not shut out because don't see how we could have offered (plus absolutely no report or speculation at all that we've done so) and we aren't "NIL poor" but we also are not among the handful of NIL rich programs either. Reports have all been we're in that next group down - nice money available but not at the elite level.