Fran McCaffery on Navigating NIL & the Portal in Roster Building

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00:00In this new age of NIL and agents and the portal,

00:04how do you go about building a roster now

00:07where you see some teams get it right

00:10and some teams get it incredibly wrong?

00:15It's very complicated,

00:17and I think that's why you asked the question, James.

00:21It's new for all of us.

00:23We never dealt with agents before

00:26to recruit your rosters.

00:27You built relationships.

00:28You started early.

00:29You identify a kid as a freshman or a sophomore,

00:32and maybe you invite him up for an unofficial visit,

00:35and you get to know his mom and dad,

00:36and you call him,

00:37and you have conversations

00:38after June 15th of his sophomore year,

00:41develop relationships.

00:42Okay, that's how we did it.

00:45Well, now we're getting phone calls from agents

00:50while the season's going on.

00:51So-and-so is gonna go into the portal.

00:54Would you be interested?

00:55I'm like, I'm trying to coach my team right now.

00:58I don't wanna think about who might be in the portal.

01:01So that's changed,

01:04and I think the concept and the way we phrase it

01:08is it becomes, when the portal opens,

01:11it becomes speed dating.

01:13So you're trying to develop those relationships

01:16that used to take two years,

01:17now it takes two weeks.

01:19And if you come in with the right number,

01:22it can take two minutes.

01:25But do you really know the young man?

01:27Do you know what his perspective is

01:31on fitting with a team?

01:33Is he only trying to put numbers up for one year

01:36and go then to the NBA?

01:39Or is he just trying to maximize his income

01:41for the next two years,

01:41since he has two years of eligibility?

01:46You pointed out, it doesn't work out all the time.

01:49We've had a couple situations in our league

01:52where it's worked out well.

01:54You look at, Michigan got some guys,

01:58Maryland, and those guys played together.

02:02Illinois, same thing.

02:05Tom hasn't had a lot of that at Michigan State.

02:10We didn't have a lot, we had two.

02:11And those guys, Seydou Triore and Drew Thelwell,

02:17a blessing to have those two young men

02:18on my basketball team.

02:20I think it's hard,

02:21and I think the point you were making a minute ago,

02:24what if you have to sign eight?

02:27So you have eight guys coming in,

02:29all listening to a different agent,

02:31and how do you get them to play together

02:33and prioritize winning?

02:35So that's the biggest challenge.

02:37You can improve your roster,

02:38and you can improve it with veteran guys.

02:43You can have a team, we'll play a team,

02:46they'll all be 24, everybody.

02:49Used to be, okay, well that kid's a freshman,

02:51they have two freshmen to play,

02:52a couple sophomores, it's not like that anymore.

02:55And it's interesting to see how high school kids

02:58are being recruited now.

03:01You have some high school kids that are really good

03:03that are being way overlooked.

03:05You have junior college kids that are being way overlooked.

03:08Because everybody just waits for the portal.

03:10There's 2,000 names.

03:13So you have to be diligent in analyzing,

03:18not only talent, but health of the athlete,

03:24and then do the best you can

03:26to have the right conversations with them

03:30and the people that have been around them,

03:32whether it be their parents, or their high school coach,

03:35or the coach where they came from.

03:39I mean, I will tell you,

03:40we signed Seydou Triori from Manhattan College.

03:42John Gallagher is a coach at Manhattan,

03:44he's one of my best friends.

03:46John, when can you tell me about Seydou Triori?

03:49Beautiful human being.

03:52That's all I need to hear.

03:55We'll figure out if he can play.

03:56Well, he can play, I know.

03:58I watched him.

03:59But he is a beautiful human being.

04:02And he came into our locker room, and everybody loves him.

04:05And he hoops every day, and he cares about his teammates,

04:08and he cares about winning.

04:10And then we enjoy the journey.

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