Patrick Mind has been a supporter of Seton Hall basketball for 30 years and is the voice of reason as administrator of the program's Facebook page for fans.
Tuesday wasn't a special day for the Pirates' star senior point guard Kadary Richmond as he announced his intention to play his graduate season at Big East archrival St. John's.
“It's a dagger to the heart,” Mind said. “I don't know how else to put it, but people feel betrayed by this.”
Photos of Richmond in Johnny's uniform posted on social media and his comments praising Rick Pitino's reputation for player development and attacking excited Pirates fans to “understand more” about his situation. was unbearable for many Hall believers. Richmond saw his powers blossom under the tutelage of Shaheen Holloway.
The reality, of course, is that St. John's University, with the help of billionaire alumnus Mike Lepore, offered Richmond a compensation package more in line with Richmond's profile and image, but Mike Lepore said last week that He openly bragged about this to reporters at the Kentucky Derby.
“It was difficult for people to understand what the NIL and the transfer portal meant,” Mind said. “For those of us who have been hoping and praying that college basketball would somehow remain the way it is, today is officially the day the light goes on. Because of that, the face of our program has become the face of our biggest rival. Imagine if Terry Dehere or Shaheen Holloway had gone to play at UW or St. John's. As a fan, that's unthinkable, but this is the reality of the NIL. is.”
This week, the reality of today's free agency landscape hit Jersey College players hard. On Sunday, Rutgers All-Big Ten center Cliff Omoruyi decided to spend his graduate school season at Alabama, leaving behind a promising team that was likely to be a stud postman that is out of Final Four contention.
The situations aren't exactly similar — Alabama isn't Rutgers' rival, and Omoruyi won't play twice with the Scarlet Knights next year — but for longtime fans of both teams, the upheaval and travel is a big deal. The sensation may be unpleasant. Seton Hall lost eight players to the transfer portal, while Rutgers lost six. This also means that fans are being asked to pay for their NIL chests, handing over cash with the hope that coaches will use it wisely and that incoming players will give them something in return.
This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
“As a fan, it's complicated,” said Danny Breslauer, a Rutgers University graduate and men's basketball season ticket holder. He serves on the executive committee of the Knights of the Raritan, an NIL organization whose mission is to retain players for Rutgers Athletics. “I was able to learn his four-year story about the players, from their backgrounds to observing their development. Now that that's gone, I miss it.”
Complicating matters is that Breslauer is “very supportive of these players having the freedom of movement” that other players enjoy in other endeavors. “That doesn't mean as a fan you don't have the right to change your position based on temporary emotions. I get that.”
College sports have changed forever.
For generations, college sports have had implicit promises, unlike the contract-driven professional ranks. The idea was that players would grow up within the program and become lifelong Rutgers players or Seton Hall players. People like Jerry Walker and Mike Dabney have led lives that are completely intertwined with their fellow alumni. There are many others similar, but they probably won't exist in the future.
“One of my favorite parts of college basketball was watching the growth of high school students from the time they walked on campus to the time they graduated from college,” said Al Reicheg, president of the Rutgers Court Club. he said. “I don't know if we'll ever see another Geo Baker story unfold.”
Of course, there is some irony since Mr. Baker is one of the godfathers of NIL. But Baker will tell you: He never imagined that the beginning of the NIL would be tied to the elimination of the non-transfer penalty. Overnight, college sports were completely turned upside down.
“What we often hear from Court Club members is that they miss the stability of the roster and the four years of cheering on the kids,” Reicheg added. There needs to be a way to accomplish that without the majority of players hitting the portal every year. ”
During this time, fans are scrambling to raise money for the next roster. Mike Walsh, a longtime Seton Hall season ticket holder, said his Seton Hall alumni-led NIL arm, Onward, will help crowdfund more than $100,000 this year for Setonia. He was the central figure.
“I pay $2,000 for season tickets, and the way I think about it, paying a little bit more will help us build a better team,” Walsh said. “Past (university-wide) giving days were record-breaking, and I 100% believe that was because we won the NIT Championship. So donating that money means actually donating to the university. I truly believe that what you are doing will help you in every way.”
Walsh and Breslauer spoke to fellow fans knowing some fans would be skeptical due to Richmond leaving for a rival and Cam Spencer leaving Rutgers after a year. Although he is marketing the fundraiser, he urges fans to look at the bigger picture.
“All of the NIL funds we generate will be put to good use for Shaheen Holloway,” Mr Walsh said. “You've got Rick Pitino coming into St. John's and you have a guy who can write big checks for Lepore. It's frustrating because Cadderly was the guy that everyone fell in love with. If he was somewhere else… I don't think I would have had this kind of reaction if I had gone there.” But the team that spends the most money doesn't always win the championship. It's a different story to have all of those players playing together and sharing the basketball. ”
Breslauer sees Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell assembling the 2024-25 roster with that in mind, surrounding two talented freshmen with veteran role players to improve his chances of getting shots and playing minutes. Instead of fighting for your time, you will help them.
“This organization just raises money for all sports or for a specific sport,” Breslauer said, adding, “Some people can direct money to specific athletes, but it's their It's a privilege. But I don't know if there's athlete-specific anxiety about NIL because a lot of it is for the athletic program as a whole or for individual sports, but I'm not sure if there's any player-specific anxiety about the NIL, but it's more like, 'You're leaving my favorite program. There is no other way than that.”
“It’s hard to be a fan now.”
Still, “You're Leaving My Favorite Program” is serious for fans who see college players for the first time as far less invested than they are.
“We're seeing a lot of kids making snap decisions that aren't in their best long-term interests,” Reicheg says. “We go through typically long recruiting cycles, including multiple visits and conversations with the coaching staff after high school, and then have to make decisions in a few days, sometimes a week or two, within the portal. In the meantime, coaches are quickly assembling rosters with a lot of moving parts, so in some cases what looked like a perfect opportunity to move ends up being the final roster. Things may not look so rosy.”
Reicheg, like most Rutgers fans, understands where Omoruyi is coming from.
“I would like to thank Cliff for all his accomplishments and the fact that he remained at RU for four years,” Reicheg said. “He had a chance to play before last season, but he chose to play one more year and finish his degree at Rutgers. He now has an NIL opportunity and a year elsewhere. I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to play.”
Seton Hall fans probably would feel the same way about Richmond – if he had been transferred elsewhere.
“It's hard to be a fan right now,” Mind said. “All of this feels really weird. We just finished feeling great winning the NIT. Our Pirates played in April, and here comes Sha, we We feel like we got what we needed, and now we wake up and we have almost all new players – and the majority of our program was sent to the worst team.”
Mind supports Onward Setonia both physically and on its Facebook page, but in times like these it's hard to shake the feeling that college sports fans are running on a never-ending treadmill.
“I think some people are feeling helpless,” he says. “We need a better system.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and college basketball since 2003. He is an Associated Press top 25 pollster. To contact him, jcarino@gannettnj.com.