Light it Red

Griffin Cunningham 0:11
Welcome back to Light it Red. Today we're going to be talking about NIL deals, the transfer portal and new recruits for the next season for a couple of different sports. And that's going to be for mainly basketball, right? That's what we have notes on. Okay.

So I guess we can start by jumping into kind of the transfer portal, what it is what our thoughts on it are. You want to start Jenna.

Jenna Cuniowski 0:35
Yeah, so I know in recent years, the transfer portal has been a little bit controversial because the NCAA changed it so that athletes don't have to redshirt for a year after they joined a new team, which has made it

a much more favorable option for a lot of student athletes. Because one may consider if they do want to transfer but they don't want to have to sit out for a year, then they might not transfer. But now that the NCAA has made it a lot easier for them to get onto a new team and start playing right away, a lot of athletes are taking advantage of that option. And I know Wes Moore touched on it a couple times in a lot of his postgame interviews when the team was kind of lacking chemistry. And he sort of defaulted a little bit of the blame back to the transfer portal because it's making it so easy for players to just kind of get up and go, when they don't love the team that they're playing with, which sort of robs coaches of the opportunity to develop players for all four years that they're at the program and said he's sort of getting this like, mix and match team of players from all over the place that were developed through different programs and not necessarily his program. And he sort of has to figure out a way to, like mash them all together in a way that works, which can be difficult for our coaches.

Griffin Cunningham 1:48
Yeah, I think it's, it's very player friendly. And and that's a common theme that we're kind of seeing spread from professional sports to now college sports. And um I think, yea it defintely it hurts programs that are trying to build chemistry um and uh I mean I think it's interesting because like with professional sports your under a contract so your oblige to stay with yout team but with college sports you can kind of pick and choose your moments in when you want to leave and that I think that can be dangerous thing I know there is a lot going on with UNC Men's basketball with that and then NC State basketball also feeling with that and trying firgure out what spots are going to be open um because they alrady recruited the new class for the most part and you know its hard to find spots for those transfer guys especially coming along later in the year and you've already filled those spots

So our next topic, NIL deals. so for that I know that's been a hot topic especailly with the NCAA tournament rapping up um athlete like Anne Clark and

um who's the, Angel Reese. Both of them are getting a lot of a lot of deals and are I think you have the statistics on that, don't you? Or is it just for NC State?

Jenna Cuniowski 3:29
Yeah, I was looking at mainly NC State athletes on the on three website has a list of the top 100 And il valuations for players at NC State and that that includes all sports like football and basketball were the main moneymakers. And then Caitlyn tui was the one sort of random athlete I guess, because obviously she's pretty well known.

And it basically ranks the players based on their like performance influence and exposure in their respective sports and gives them a value in terms of how much money they think they could be making. And the highest ranking player is for NCAA basketball was pretty obviously I think, Jarkel joyner and Terquavion Smith and I was a little bit surprised to not see DJ burns on there because I know he's a pretty popular face, especially around campus.

Griffin Cunningham 4:20
I think next year will be his year for NIL deals because I'm almost was certain he's planning on returning because he has another year of eligibility. And he'll probably definitely be the oldest guy on the team, but also the most known. um, and I do have the stats here for the angel reese and the

yeah, there's that. And then there's also like, I don't know, it's, you need to be able to focus on the game, and not how much money you're making in college.

Jenna Cuniowski 6:12
Yeah. I would wonder also, how much of that is the older athletes being bitter? Because like, obviously, those guys went off to go play in the NBA. But for people that didn't, they might be like, Oh, well, I could have made like, X amount of money in college, but they didn't allow this when I was in school. So now I'm gonna get mad at these kids. You're taking advantage of it? For sure.

Griffin Cunningham 6:33
No, I think it's a it's a good thing for the kids now. But uh, yeah, there's probably some bitter undertones there for sure.

Speaker 1 6:46
Let's talk about recruits, who has NC State recruited so far.

Jenna Cuniowski 6:52
So looking at the woman, they have four recruits that have signed with them. And for basketball, yeah, for women's basketball. And their bests that they've signed is ranked number nine in the class of 23 recruiting class.

She was a Naismith High School finalist and she was selected to play in the McDonald's all American game, but she didn't play because she was injured at the time, which could be an unfortunate like foreshadowing to her time at NC State because we know they've struggled with injuries. So hopefully that isn't a consistent issue. But in watching a little bit of her highlight, she kind of reminded me of diamond Johnson and a little bit, she's a little bit taller, she's 5'10. But she has the same sort of explosiveness that diamond has in terms of getting to the rim and drawing attention into the middle of the floor and then dishing out to her teammates. And the next one is power forward. Mallory Collier out of Tennessee, she was ranked 55. And then Lacey seal out of Oklahoma as a guard ranked right behind her at 56. And then forward, Mandy Cox from Texas is ranked 71. And I was I was just sort of looking at their playing styles in reference to NC State players because I feel like that's what listeners are going to be able to like conceptualize them as because you've obviously seen them perform. But Mallory Collier definitely reminded me of a Camille hobby, but a little bit more agile in terms of like getting to the room and getting around defenders. And then Lacey Steele was sort of like a Madison Hayes, she definitely was not afraid to shoot the three. But she could get to the basket if she wanted to. But she wasn't as crafty with it, I guess. Like it was more like simpler dribble moves, but still very effective. And then Maddie Cox was very, like, lengthy, very tall, sort of reminded me of a scenario reverse. So I think that the recruiting class is definitely going to help them out this year, even though they lost a couple of girls to transfers and graduation.

Griffin Cunningham 8:48
And these are all incoming freshmen. Yeah. How many are there? Four? That'll be good. You think? How tall was diamond? Isn't? She's 5'5?

Jenna Cuniowski 8:57
5'5 I'm pretty sure, yeah,

Griffin Cunningham 8:58
she'll get to probably lead this group. Yeah, that'll be interesting. Yeah, I don't, I don't think that they will do as well as they did last year. But I think it'll be more acceptable. Because if they have a younger group, it's like, you know, that's kind of the expectation is, you don't do as well, but you you have something to look forward to in the coming years.

Jenna Cuniowski 9:24
If it's day because as we talked about with the transfer portal, there's always that danger of them just deciding you know what, this isn't for me, and then they go off and find another school.

Griffin Cunningham 9:32
Do you know who their recruits for the men's team is?

Jenna Cuniowski 9:35
Yes, they only have two for the men's team that have signed both four star recruits. The first was shooting guard Trey Parker at Georgia. He was number 76 in the national rankings. And then small forward Dennis Parker at a Virginia is ranked 112.

Griffin Cunningham 9:53
Okay, so maybe they're leaving room open for some transfer guys. Yeah, because they will who did they lose? Let's talk about

Who? Who's left? Like who's gone? I think they had a lot of guys enter the transfer portal.

Jenna Cuniowski 10:06
Yeah, um, they had Jack Clark, Ebenezer Tawana and then Greg Gant all entered the transfer portal and then took Terquavion Smith is like predicted to go like mid to late first round the NBA Draft. And then Jarkell joiner is graduated. So,

Griffin Cunningham 10:25
so that's, that's like, a half the starting lineup, and then a lot of size too. Yeah. So it's gonna be the DJ burns show. Probably 30 points a game. Maybe if he can. I know. He's been posting a lot of workout videos. And I said, I haven't seen that. It's back on the grind. As did you see the song that he put out? DJ burns put out a song. Yeah. Is it good?

Jenna Cuniowski 10:51
Go stream DJ burns, if you're listening to this.

Unknown Speaker 10:56
Why don't want to trash you, DJ burns.

Jenna Cuniowski 11:01
Loves DJ burns. And he's very good basketball player. I didn't love his song. What's it called?

I don't know what it's called. But

Speaker 2 11:10
yeah, I don't know. Go listen to it. See for yourself. See if you like it.

Jenna Cuniowski 11:15
Um, but yeah, he's taking advantage of his free time. So good for him.

Griffin Cunningham 11:19
Yeah, he's very, like other interests, very pro NC State, which is a good thing to see on the socials. Because I know, I mean, obviously, all the other graduate guys are gone. Yeah. I think he's really like, embrace this role that kind of, I don't know, like, how it really happened. I think people just see like, an uncharacteristically big man playing basketball. And they're like, That's my guy. That's why like, yeah, and everyone gets behind them. And then it just so happens that he has this like, glowing personality. And then so it all just came kind of came together. And now he's just like, He's the face of the program. Almost. Yeah. The shades and yeah, I wouldn't have to query on Smithfield about all that, because he, normally he would get all the attention. Yeah, I think like, outside of the NC State student body, he probably did. But I don't know when, when DJ burns got the ball in the post, like, every time the crowd would be at its loudest. And yeah, it'll be it'll be cool to see him back on the floor. Yeah. And should we talk about some of the other sports because I feel like we've kinda like, gotten really into basketball. But we're also supposed to talk about non basketball things like,

Jenna Cuniowski 12:41
basketball is definitely like, that's where my expertise is, personally. But we can talk about these words.

Griffin Cunningham 12:48
Well, isn't there a football game coming up? Like a spring game? You don't know anything about that? No. I know that. I mean, I've been really into NC State gymnastics lately. And they just finished their season. And they they made they made it to like the second round of their postseason to my understanding. But it was it was a really good like, there was like a stretch of time in the winter, where like, everyone was just doing so well. It was gymnastics, wrestling. Swimming track track was golf going golfers. You know a little bit about golf don't Yeah,

Jenna Cuniowski 13:30
I do. I read a lot of the golf recaps. Yeah. Because it's the best golfer, oh, it honestly changes a lot. Like it just depends on the day. I know. Michael aceso is a freshman and he's doing pretty well. But he didn't. I don't think he competed in their most recent match. But they're doing okay, they usually come pretty middle of the pack at their tournaments. And so to the woman

Griffin Cunningham 13:58
the reason I actually found out about the the spring football game through DJ burns, because he was posting about it on his Instagram, and he was saying, like, come out and he was taking pictures with with people but that'll be interesting because there's a new quarterback that's gonna play I guess it's a dude's name

Jenna Cuniowski 14:29
like a new recruit are well, I've just I think, what are they on their fourth string now?

Griffin Cunningham 14:34
I mean, the the hill probably whoever hasn't probably played but like the guy they just got from Virginia. Quarterback? I don't know. We'll have to look at that. Brush up on that. But yeah, that that's gonna start getting popular again and gaining some traction because we're gonna wrap up this semester here in less than a month and then we're gonna go homonymy Come back and that's gonna be football season. So

Jenna Cuniowski 15:02
yeah, I think a lot of people are already like they're mentally because I feel like for a lot of kids, yeah. Exciting sports wrapped up and no one's I know a couple of kids that go to baseball games, but they're not they don't really go to it because they're into it. It's just kind of like, Oh, something that deal was good. It was, isn't it? No one's watching softball, baseball. It's they're pretty good. Yeah, they haven't been doing so hot and the ACC, like they just won their first ACC Series recently, I think, like last weekend,

Griffin Cunningham 15:32
and softballs not winning an ACC. No. If you can't tell we're not baseball and softball fans, but you know, it's still relevant, I guess. Yeah, I know. I'm excited for gymnastics next year, because that's like, I think they're gonna do a student section. Because Auburn has a student section and they went to Auburn. And so they're like, We got to get in on that. And so I think they're called like the gym nasties. Oh, yeah. So I think everyone should go watch some gymnastics next year. It's actually, you know, I'm not like, I'd never seen gymnastics. Like, I've never been to a meat until like, this past year. And it was like, I only went because I thought it was funny. I was like, Well, I guess I'll go to gymnastics, you know. But then as time went on, I was like, these girls are really, like, passionate about what they're doing. And it's like, very obvious. And you could say that about any collegiate sport. If a gymnastics is like, an Olympic sport that gets a lot of attention. Yeah. Like, they just they're doing things out there that like, you can't see other athletes do because they, I mean, they're so tiny. And they get so much air when they're doing these, like backflips. And yeah, I just think it's really cool. And I know that most of their team is gonna stay the same. So they should be pretty good. Yeah, that's all I have to say about gymnastics. I got my little gymnastics feeling.

Jenna Cuniowski 17:04
Yeah, well, I think we covered all the other spring sports. So now we kind of talked about tennis. They're pretty good. Both teams are doing really well. It the woman lot just lost in North Carolina on Thursday, but I don't think that was, well, it was a little bit of a huge deal, because at Chapel Hill, and they've never, they haven't beaten them under their current coach, to my understanding, but they're also ranked number one in the nation. So and I think are pretty sure our women's team is number nine. They're definitely in the top 10 in the nation, which is still amazing, obviously. And then the men they were doing they were five unknown ACC I think up until recently, when they lost for the first time. Yeah, they're doing pretty well.

Griffin Cunningham 17:46
Brutal. Loss. No, I wonder like, if it's like one of those things where it's like, rifle only has, you know, 20 teams in the NCAA, and like tennis like I don't, I feel like a lot of schools have tennis teams like it's so it is it? I mean, it is an accomplishment. Yeah. Right. Like that. I think so. Okay. Let's go who's their best player? Because that's kind of like not really a team sport.

Jenna Cuniowski 18:10
Yeah, well, they have a doubles round. They have, they'll have like, one doubles round that has three double matches, every meet. But yeah, it's mostly individual, because then they have six single matches after that. But I believe one of their best players is Diana Schneider, who's from Russia, but she just recently got cleared by the NCAA to play for NC State, because I guess there were some complications with that. But she started, I believe, in the middle of February, and she's been doing pretty well. She has a couple of junior like Grand Slam wins to her name, which is obviously very impressive. Um, and she's been doing very well ever since she started playing for state.

Griffin Cunningham 18:54
So probably like the next Serena Williams or like,

Jenna Cuniowski 18:58
Yeah, I mean, I haven't seen her play, but she's doing pretty well. That's cool.

Griffin Cunningham 19:04
Yeah, we'll have to have to go to that kind of some tennis matches. Maybe when does the season end?

Jenna Cuniowski 19:12
I think they they just had their their ACC championships in either next week or the week after. And then they had their NCAA days a week or two after that. So I mean, they go into May

Griffin Cunningham 19:26
will be done or technicians done with print by them though, right. Yeah, so they Yeah, interesting. Yeah. So anything else that we want to talk about any other like sports going on right now?

Jenna Cuniowski 19:43
Not that are relevant NC State I don't think

Griffin Cunningham 19:47
yeah, obviously like I think NC State stuff has kind of taken a backseat to like, this is like NBA playoff season and like the March Madness thing just wrapped

Jenna Cuniowski 19:58
up baseball started. MLB right made their opening day a week or two ago.

Griffin Cunningham 20:04
But we'll still find things to talk about. Yeah, but I think for today we're good. And this is been (inaudible)

Speaker 3 20:17
you can This podcast was Jonas Hooper's Kena sports vibe and sneaker licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive

Transcribed by https://otter.ai