Watching the game yesterday and publicity that Miles is getting as a rim protector raised some concerns.. Namely, can we keep him for 4 years? He's still learning but as one poster said on X f/k/a Twitter "today's Rubin would hand it to beginning of the season Rubin". I would guess a lot of programs would like to pry him away from us. Great athlete, high basketball IQ, great student. My question is what is LUC doing in NIL department? What can be done to keep good players once we get them? Anyone have insight on what or how the NIL is structured at LUC? We have had some good success in portal, but man its a hard way to survive for Mid-Majors.

If I knew it was going to keeping Rubin around, I’d donate in a heartbeat

LU hasn't published a ton about NIL initiatives. But we do have the "Keepers of the Culture" NIL fund (https://keepersoftheculturenil.com/). It's managed by Christian Thomas and Chris Knight. Not a ton on their website and I haven't seen them actively promoting much.

Agree that we should be trying to do more to get alums involved in donating. Unfortunately, it's the reality in today's college athletics world. Ohio State has reportedly spent (or committed to spend) ~$13 million since the end of the season to retain current players and attack the transfer portal. It's a wild world out there. Guys like Rubin, Dawson, Watson, etc. 100% WILL be contacted by "middle men" acting on behalf of P6 programs, who will make promises of $$.

I was thinking the same thing, he’s for sure talented enough to play on a P6 program and we can’t compete with what they can offer. I doubt he’ll ever make it to the NBA so it would likely be stupid by him to not take a nice NIL offer if we can’t promise the same.

Some guys are happy where they're at. Maybe they try another program at the grad level. If you're happy and the NIL money is meh, why leave?

Personally, I would like to know more about the Des Watson decision to leave Davidson to come to Loyola. He didn't visit campus in the year he was playing at Davidson, but he played against us (when we had our worst year in 11 seasons or whatever it was) and still decided to come here. He's obviously having a great time in addition to making a huge step in playing performance over where he was last season. Let's see if we can scale up whatever attraction we had for Watson up to an even higher level, or use it for retention of great players like Rubin.

There have been a few conversations at Brunos after games on what needs to be done for NIL for Miles because given the money that is thrown around by P5 programs it seems pretty silly to think hed stay beyond this year if those 6 figure offers come a calling. That type of cash could relieve any financial stress his family may have.

Very depressing conversation, tho likely relevant. NIL will destroy college basketball as we know it. Throw in unlimited player transfer and it becomes a hell hole. The identity of player and school will become meaningless. NCAA continues to cater to the large programs and the cash that media expends there. Cat is out of the bag, and if college players are basically professionals perhaps fans will choose to spend their money watching NBA professionals instead of these lower levels. If player loyalty to a school is non existent why should fan loyalty be expected? Seems an impossible situation trending in the wrong direction. I love watching Miles play and am grateful for his decision to play here. I like to think this institution and what it offer should be adequate compensation. But. Am I a dreamer?

My perspective is that even if he leaves, he still chose us and has by any measure been a massive success. If this leads to more talented local kids staying home, even if for a period, and then finding financial and basketball success elsewhere, that's pretty damn good for us.

Maybe he won't leave, personally i think the money will be too good to pass up...but no matter what he's been a great member of our university community and will always be a Rambler in my eyes.

Great topic.

One the one hand, the portal has been great for players. Go back pre-portal and think of the amount of players quietly "run-off" by the coach's over the years. I mean PM had quite a few in his early days. So, the staff had tremendous leverage and could alter the player's future very quickly. I always felt as a player and fan, that was grossly unfair.

In the portal era - LUC has been really fortunate in being a landing spot for players rather than a leave spot. Ultimately, the best example of the portal working (besides the Ivy kids who can only transfer out) is the St. Thomas example. Both player and Coach are dissatisfied, player leaves and finds a new home where he thrives. Both staff and player get the result they were looking for.

But then when you toss in NIL, all hell breaks loose. Good example is Tyreke Key from Ind.State, he was payed about $140k to transfer to Tenn for his last season after his injury year at ISU. ISU could only muster about $30k to try and keep him. Away he goes, 1st team all-Valley to the SEC.

So, now what you have is a feeder system for the haves. Lower tier D1's, D2's and some NAIA get picked up after performing at their respective levels. Coach's love it because they have already seen the kids adjust to college life and the college game without wasting their scholarship the prior year or 2 (Justin Mullins from Denver to NW for example). In LUC's case Alston is a good D2 example. Pretty interesting stat from earlier this season: Top 15 portal players averaging about 14ppg this season at their new school, top 15 class of '23 hs recruits averaging about 8ppg. This will only keep the flywheel spinning in the portal.

As for Rubin, he will definitely get looks this year, I tend to think his largest "payout" would be after 2 years as he shows he can stay out of foul trouble, get more weight on and have a big year in 24/25 playing 28-30 minutes per game.

And how big is the $ out there? Well, my son is a '25 at a high-level prep school. Two of his teammates are '24 commits to a top-25 program. Each will receive $150k next year. Top player on their new team makes over $500k (according to rumor, not verifiable). So, it is life altering for players coming from challenging financial conditions.

Overall, I am happy for the players to have optionality. I am middle of the road for what it means to the Coaching world. And I am a bit on the side of Ramblerguy on the fan portion. Part of the uniqueness of college hoops was just how few kids transferred pre-portal. That allowed for a very close player-fan relationship, paticularly at this level (MVC/Horizon/A-10). Sad to see that go.

Miles is 17 in blocks per game and 1 of only 2 freshman in the top 20. He alters a lot of shots at the rim as well. Hopefully there's a plan to make a competitive offer to keep him. Loyola has not been a stepping stone to bigger and better programs and I do not want to see us become one. Is there any NIL money being spent now?