NEWS: Cal guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year, is entering the transfer portal, he tells @On3sports.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) March 20, 2025
The 6-1 freshman averaged 15.1 points per game this season. Represented by Drew Kelso and Clay Mallory of One Motive Sports. https://t.co/3xSMWM9E47 pic.twitter.com/zW6DcqOMWl
Jeremiah Wilkinson to the portal
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149 Replies |
Last: 2 mo ago by mbBear
Well, that was quick.
Bring back It’s It’s to Haas Pavillion!
This was expected. You can feel it out just based on the rhetoric lately. It's fine. Someone will overpay for him, and we can spend the same amount on a center who can shoot, and it'll make us much better. I think we'll be fine. If we lost Andrej too, though, we'll be in very bad shape.
No surprise. That's the standard procedure in college athletics nowadays, and it's killing college football and basketball.
Didn't Madsen say no one is leaving via the portal? hahah
Ouch. That's a loss. He was also really fun to watch. Crucial offseason for Madsen not starting out so well.Johnfox said:NEWS: Cal guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, the ACC Sixth Man of the Year, is entering the transfer portal, he tells @On3sports.
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) March 20, 2025
The 6-1 freshman averaged 15.1 points per game this season. Represented by Drew Kelso and Clay Mallory of One Motive Sports. https://t.co/3xSMWM9E47 pic.twitter.com/zW6DcqOMWl
Sort of calls into question everything he says.
Addicted-to-TopDog said:
Sort of calls into question everything he says.
Smoke and mirrors. He coukd return to Cal if we match nil. I guess.
Bring back It’s It’s to Haas Pavillion!
SIGH.
Meh, expected. Why wouldn't you test the market if you're in demand?
He showed a ton of promise for a freshman but would have to significantly improve to an all-conference level player to be worth the kind of NIL that we would need to keep him. Of course he can and I hope he returns, but I don't want to gamble the house on a shoot first, second, and third 6 foot combo guard. If Madsen thinks the money can be better spent elsewhere, then so be it.
He showed a ton of promise for a freshman but would have to significantly improve to an all-conference level player to be worth the kind of NIL that we would need to keep him. Of course he can and I hope he returns, but I don't want to gamble the house on a shoot first, second, and third 6 foot combo guard. If Madsen thinks the money can be better spent elsewhere, then so be it.
BC Calfan said:
Didn't Madsen say no one is leaving via the portal? hahah
Well Wilcox said he was sure a certain qb would return, so... Madsen not alone there
Never said that just said we'll try our best to retain the players
Found it. I guess he doesn't consider JW "key".
You guys are insane. It is not fine. The only thing that was progress at all from last year to this year was the concept that we would keep some of the team together. He and Andrej both needed to stay for this to be remotely workable and he was by far the most important piece much more than Andrej, IMO. If he actually goes, we are pretty much starting over again. Yeah, I know, "Meh, expected. He's good so we knew he'd leave. We'll use his money for someone else. Blah Blah Blah." There is absolutely zero indication that we can go to the portal and build a team that is in the middle of our conference. None. If Cal wants to build this program, they need to get young players, develop them and keep them. Enough with the fantasy that one year a whole bunch of great portal players are just going to decide that Cal is the place to be. It isn't going to happen.bearsandgiants said:
This was expected. You can feel it out just based on the rhetoric lately. It's fine. Someone will overpay for him, and we can spend the same amount on a center who can shoot, and it'll make us much better. I think we'll be fine. If we lost Andrej too, though, we'll be in very bad shape.
If by fine you mean we can do exactly what we did last year and this year with zero progress, than, yeah, we are fine. If by fine you mean, yeah, well, life is life. More time to clean out my gutters, yeah, we are fine. If by fine you mean we want to make progress toward being a program that actually remotely means anything beyond fodder for the best teams in the league, no, we won't be fine.
My feeling with Madsen was year one he had to come in with little time to recruit and put a team together out of the ashes and what he did was as much as could be expected. Couldn't really expect that he would be able to start building a team for the future as he just needed bodies. Year 2, we needed to start building. Frankly, we need Wilkinson and to add 4 more Wilkinsons. It is questionable that we would be able to replace him with one Wilkinson. We ain't getting 5.
I get that you all expected this because he is good and why would anybody good not leave, but all that means is that you are mired where you are, which sucks. If we want to progress we need to start expecting that our good players stay.
Why do you think someone else will pay him the value of an all conference level player if he isn't one yet? If we can't afford him that means we can't afford a player of his quality. If we can't afford a player of his quality, that means we can't compete.concernedparent said:
Meh, expected. Why wouldn't you test the market if you're in demand?
He showed a ton of promise for a freshman but would have to significantly improve to an all-conference level player to be worth the kind of NIL that we would need to keep him. Of course he can and I hope he returns, but I don't want to gamble the house on a shoot first, second, and third 6 foot combo guard. If Madsen thinks the money can be better spent elsewhere, then so be it.
"The phrase we'll use is this. Key players are going to be retained"Johnfox said:
Never said that just said we'll try our best to retain the players
This is kind of consistent with this board.
"We are in good shape because A, B, and C are going to happen"
"Um...they may not happen. Shouldn't we wait and see if they happen before we say we are in good shape"
A, B and C don't happen
"We are fine anyway"
I'd really like someone to define what "fine" means and then explain how it is that we are that.
Fine: single A level in an AA level league of professional minor league basketball.BearlyCareAnymore said:"The phrase we'll use is this. Key players are going to be retained"Johnfox said:
Never said that just said we'll try our best to retain the players
This is kind of consistent with this board.
"We are in good shape because A, B, and C are going to happen"
"Um...they may not happen. Shouldn't we wait and see if they happen before we say we are in good shape"
A, B and C don't happen
"We are fine anyway"
I'd really like someone to define what "fine" means and then explain how it is that we are that.
It's fine because my father is paying for the season tickets, and I go with him when I can. I was paying for football, which we mutually decided to give up, because of the Friday night game, because we have no confidence in Wilcox as a coach, and because I'm losing interest in rooting for semi-professionals who aren't really interested in getting an education. More time to work on my golf game. I'm basically where you are.
That really sucks and is far from good.
His value is his projectability. Guys with all-conference potential don't grow on trees but they aren't a sure-thing either. Deeper pocket teams can bet on his upside and afford the risk that he doesn't reach the next level.BearlyCareAnymore said:Why do you think someone else will pay him the value of an all conference level player if he isn't one yet? If we can't afford him that means we can't afford a player of his quality. If we can't afford a player of his quality, that means we can't compete.concernedparent said:
Meh, expected. Why wouldn't you test the market if you're in demand?
He showed a ton of promise for a freshman but would have to significantly improve to an all-conference level player to be worth the kind of NIL that we would need to keep him. Of course he can and I hope he returns, but I don't want to gamble the house on a shoot first, second, and third 6 foot combo guard. If Madsen thinks the money can be better spent elsewhere, then so be it.
Are we sure this all about NIL? He plays the same position as Blacksher and we continued to start Blacksher long after JW showed he was better. He could be going portal for a school that will start him. PT is just as important as NIL.
I have to agree. I gave up on coming to games long ago, stopped listening to them, then forgot they were even happening, check score next day. Gone are the days when we have a Jorge to root for for four years. And the game is worse for that.
All of this has killed my love of college basketball. I didn't even fill out a bracket because the only point of semi-pro sports is money.
All of this has killed my love of college basketball. I didn't even fill out a bracket because the only point of semi-pro sports is money.
He was 6th man of the year. Blacksher is gone. Wilkinson would've played as many minutes as he is physically capable of.MilleniaBear said:
Are we sure this all about NIL? He plays the same position as Blacksher and we continued to start Blacksher long after JW showed he was better. He could be going portal for a school that will start him. PT is just as important as NIL.
Typical to take the phrase out of context. He immediately followed up by saying that every effort would be made to retain key players and described what that looked like. He wasn't promising it was a done deal that no key players would leave for greener pastures, just that there would be a major emphasis on retaining them. And technically JW is not gone yet, and Madsen may still be making every effort to retain him.BearlyCareAnymore said:"The phrase we'll use is this. Key players are going to be retained"Johnfox said:
Never said that just said we'll try our best to retain the players
This is kind of consistent with this board.
"We are in good shape because A, B, and C are going to happen"
"Um...they may not happen. Shouldn't we wait and see if they happen before we say we are in good shape"
A, B and C don't happen
"We are fine anyway"
I'd really like someone to define what "fine" means and then explain how it is that we are that.
BCA, I know you and I have clashed in the past - but your post is spot on. If the best we can do is "recycle" our best players then this program ain't going nowhere.BearlyCareAnymore said:You guys are insane. It is not fine. The only thing that was progress at all from last year to this year was the concept that we would keep some of the team together. He and Andrej both needed to stay for this to be remotely workable and he was by far the most important piece much more than Andrej, IMO. If he actually goes, we are pretty much starting over again. Yeah, I know, "Meh, expected. He's good so we knew he'd leave. We'll use his money for someone else. Blah Blah Blah." There is absolutely zero indication that we can go to the portal and build a team that is in the middle of our conference. None. If Cal wants to build this program, they need to get young players, develop them and keep them. Enough with the fantasy that one year a whole bunch of great portal players are just going to decide that Cal is the place to be. It isn't going to happen.bearsandgiants said:
This was expected. You can feel it out just based on the rhetoric lately. It's fine. Someone will overpay for him, and we can spend the same amount on a center who can shoot, and it'll make us much better. I think we'll be fine. If we lost Andrej too, though, we'll be in very bad shape.
If by fine you mean we can do exactly what we did last year and this year with zero progress, than, yeah, we are fine. If by fine you mean, yeah, well, life is life. More time to clean out my gutters, yeah, we are fine. If by fine you mean we want to make progress toward being a program that actually remotely means anything beyond fodder for the best teams in the league, no, we won't be fine.
My feeling with Madsen was year one he had to come in with little time to recruit and put a team together out of the ashes and what he did was as much as could be expected. Couldn't really expect that he would be able to start building a team for the future as he just needed bodies. Year 2, we needed to start building. Frankly, we need Wilkinson and to add 4 more Wilkinsons. It is questionable that we would be able to replace him with one Wilkinson. We ain't getting 5.
I get that you all expected this because he is good and why would anybody good not leave, but all that means is that you are mired where you are, which sucks. If we want to progress we need to start expecting that our good players stay.
Step away from the keyboard.....BearlyCareAnymore said:"The phrase we'll use is this. Key players are going to be retained"Johnfox said:
Never said that just said we'll try our best to retain the players
This is kind of consistent with this board.
"We are in good shape because A, B, and C are going to happen"
"Um...they may not happen. Shouldn't we wait and see if they happen before we say we are in good shape"
A, B and C don't happen
"We are fine anyway"
I'd really like someone to define what "fine" means and then explain how it is that we are that.
Deep... calming... breaths....
fine is subjective.....
find your peace.....
Hug your children..... pet your dog....have a drink....
BeachedBear said:Step away from the keyboard.....BearlyCareAnymore said:"The phrase we'll use is this. Key players are going to be retained"Johnfox said:
Never said that just said we'll try our best to retain the players
This is kind of consistent with this board.
"We are in good shape because A, B, and C are going to happen"
"Um...they may not happen. Shouldn't we wait and see if they happen before we say we are in good shape"
A, B and C don't happen
"We are fine anyway"
I'd really like someone to define what "fine" means and then explain how it is that we are that.
Deep... calming... breaths....
fine is subjective.....
find your peace.....
Hug your children..... pet your dog....have a drink....
BCA:
" Year 2, we needed to start building. Frankly, we need Wilkinson and to add 4 more Wilkinsons. It is questionable that we would be able to replace him with one Wilkinson. We ain't getting 5."
I'm with Beached Bear, everyone needs to smoke something and relax.
BCA's use of the word "building" is telling for me. As if schools like Cal can still build something with a predictable four-year set of players.
We've all heard this quote from a pro player who betrays his team: "You know, this is a business so…." There's not even a sorry after that. College players won't say that out loud, but the best ones are all thinking it and operating in that framework.
You'll have to let go of thinking THEY think like you did as a student… when things like school pride, Cal campus culture and the "college experience" mattered.
We can have a better program, but there is literally nothing Madsen can do about players making decisions as pro players (not semi-pro, they ARE professionals even though it sounds ridiculous to say that about a freshman).
The "building" is a one-year cycle, not 5 years (just ask Pitino), what we have to get better at is the one-year cycle (ie finding the Wilkinsons who nobody else knows about (JohnFox's roster of JuCos, for example).
I think he is leaving because he doesn't see the team playing winning basketball in the coming year. You can see the frustration on him when he goes thru 3 opposing players and get hacked to get an And-1 and the other team comes down and cal plays no defense and give up an easy 3 pointer within seconds to neutralize his hard earned points.
Thats why I was hoping for any post season games NIT crown to see if Madsen improves his schemes and tactics and gives some hope to the top players to stay.
Thats why I was hoping for any post season games NIT crown to see if Madsen improves his schemes and tactics and gives some hope to the top players to stay.
PenBear said:
I think he is leaving because he doesn't see the team playing winning basketball in the coming year. You can see the frustration on him when he goes thru 3 opposing players and get hacked to get an And-1 and the other team comes down and cal plays no defense and give up an easy 3 pointer within seconds to neutralize his hard earned points.
Thats why I was hoping for any post season games NIT crown to see if Madsen improves his schemes and tactics and gives some hope to the top players to stay.
In one or two games after playing 30 he's going to change things wholesale and that's going to make the argument for players to stay? C'mon
BearlyCareAnymore said:You guys are insane. It is not fine. The only thing that was progress at all from last year to this year was the concept that we would keep some of the team together. He and Andrej both needed to stay for this to be remotely workable and he was by far the most important piece much more than Andrej, IMO. If he actually goes, we are pretty much starting over again. Yeah, I know, "Meh, expected. He's good so we knew he'd leave. We'll use his money for someone else. Blah Blah Blah." There is absolutely zero indication that we can go to the portal and build a team that is in the middle of our conference. None. If Cal wants to build this program, they need to get young players, develop them and keep them. Enough with the fantasy that one year a whole bunch of great portal players are just going to decide that Cal is the place to be. It isn't going to happen.bearsandgiants said:
This was expected. You can feel it out just based on the rhetoric lately. It's fine. Someone will overpay for him, and we can spend the same amount on a center who can shoot, and it'll make us much better. I think we'll be fine. If we lost Andrej too, though, we'll be in very bad shape.
If by fine you mean we can do exactly what we did last year and this year with zero progress, than, yeah, we are fine. If by fine you mean, yeah, well, life is life. More time to clean out my gutters, yeah, we are fine. If by fine you mean we want to make progress toward being a program that actually remotely means anything beyond fodder for the best teams in the league, no, we won't be fine.
My feeling with Madsen was year one he had to come in with little time to recruit and put a team together out of the ashes and what he did was as much as could be expected. Couldn't really expect that he would be able to start building a team for the future as he just needed bodies. Year 2, we needed to start building. Frankly, we need Wilkinson and to add 4 more Wilkinsons. It is questionable that we would be able to replace him with one Wilkinson. We ain't getting 5.
I get that you all expected this because he is good and why would anybody good not leave, but all that means is that you are mired where you are, which sucks. If we want to progress we need to start expecting that our good players stay.
Agree: Some of us are insane and this is not fine. Obviously it's not fine when we lose one of our top talents.
Disagree: What matters is that we continue to progress with whomever we end up with and it doesn't necessarily need to be Wilkinson. He is a dynamic scorer and one of the greatest athletes I've ever seen at Cal, but I have reservations about his contributions to winning basketball, as well as his basketball future. I see him as sort of a "microwave" third guard who needs to be in a 3-guard rotation with a) a facilitator and b) a taller shooting guard who can defend.
Maybe JW molds himself into a point guard, maybe not. Who can he defend (asking the question, dunno the answer)? He would certainly be valuable to any college team, but, for the top teams, probably as their 3rd or 4th or even 5th best player. Not sure if he has an NBA future, so I don't blame him for taking the highest offer right now..
With our pretty-good-but-not-near-the-top-level NIL, I don't think we should spend a huge portion of it on Wilkinson. He would pair better with Stojakovic if they could each have their own basketball.
Please explain how me expecting that our good players stay helps us progress.
You're right…all is well. #sarcasm. JFC, the minute a guy leaves, here's comes the "explanation" crew saying how it's ok, he probably didn't have the grades to stay, or he wasn't all that good anyway. No. There's nothing positive to see here. Half glass empty for sure, until proven otherwise. Last I saw, Cal played a post-season game 7 years ago, and the loss to Hawaii is 8 years ago. Grumpy
Bear here, for sure.
Bear here, for sure.
In last several games madsen ran some more complex sets to get open shots and the offense was less sticky and flowed better. Too bad he had a concusion for the stanford game. A few more games (if they do win) would show the madsen is willing to make adjustments. I never said that was the only factor but seeing progress is important
Like I said before, both he and Stojo are going to command $1M-plus. Nice knowing ya.
Madsen doesn't have the cards right now.
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