Yesterday Wes Moore hosted a Zoom call to discuss his program’s offseason, and among other topics, offered some enlightening remarks about the portal and his approach to the roster:
We’re fortunate that until, up until July, we were able to have the collective help us some, and then now revenue shares kicked in. But like I said, I just probably wasn’t a great GM. My priority, though, I can tell you from day one, was to keep our players, and that was my number one priority, and that’s what we tried to get done first. We were very fortunate. We kept, you know, the core of our team. We did have one or two that, again, I think probably playing time wasn’t exactly the role, wasn’t exactly what they wanted. So we did have that, but we kept the core, and that was my priority.
You know, I thought I’d have enough money left to get maybe three players. And as it turned out, it might have been enough to keep one, I mean, to go out and get one. So it’s just a different era. And so, like I said, I’m learning and but hey, like I said, The Lord shined down on me, and I couldn’t pick a better one. You know, Khamil’s a big time player. So we’re, we’re very fortunate to add her. This roster is really exciting. It’s got me, got me fired up. You know, I’m a stallion. I may have another 10 years in me. Who knows? …
I feel better than I did a month ago. How about that? A lot better. Frozen margaritas for everybody.
Underestimating the amount of money it would take to make a quality addition through the portal was part of the slow start to State’s offseason, but also the better your core, the more you have to allocate to retention as well.
This also underscores the challenge for a lot of coaches who have to fill the general manager role themselves these days—football and men’s basketball programs are investing in these specific positions off the field/court, and they are separate, full-time jobs for a reason. They’re difficult and time consuming.
As it happened in this case, Moore’s reluctance to spend on some high-profile targets while the portal was open was a blessing in disguise, since that left him with the money he needed to land Khamil Pierre when she became available unexpectedly. And as he says, that was lucky. It worked out well in the end—margaritas for everyone!
We’re gonna have to talk about the frozen margarita thing, though, coach.