Conner Frankamp leaving Kansas

[SLUnatic1]

Rumor is that Frankamp has been on campus both at Wichita State and Creighton in the last week. I thought he'd be a good fit at SLU but it looks like a two horse race.

[chicagojayfan]

Omaha World Herald Reporter says Conner will be on Creighton's campus for an unofficial visit this weekend and then for an official the following weekend.

[marquette]

Good luck guys! Hope you can reel him in.

[FlyJays]

Yep, sounds like he will be on an unofficial this weekend, and will be returning the following weekend with his family for an official visit. The fact that they are already planning two visits has to be good news for the Jays. I believe it's probably down to Creighton or Wichita State. But I've also heard Colorado, UCLA, and Wake Forest mentioned as well.

[handdownmandown]

The three mentioned in the paper are CU, Wichita, and Colorado.

[SJHooper]

Wow. Would be great to see Creighton get him. I hope you guys do! Imagine them getting him and SJ getting Briscoe now? If it's Creighton vs. WSU then Creighton has a LOT of benefits. National TV exposure every game, much better conference, and plenty of PT. This would be great for the conference good luck guys!

[handdownmandown]

Two drawbacks: Frankamp is from Wichita, and he's going to have to pony up for a semester at either school since neither has an open scholarship - in-state WSU tuition is, shall we say, a little more cost friendly than paying for CU.

[Jet915]

Two drawbacks: Frankamp is from Wichita, and he's going to have to pony up for a semester at either school since neither has an open scholarship - in-state WSU tuition is, shall we say, a little more cost friendly than paying for CU.

You get what you pay for...

[GumbyDamnit!]

I'm surprised McDermott hasn't used his scholarships more wisely. In this day and age of kids transferring all the time, if I were a college coach, I would keep at least one, perhaps two, scholarships in my pocket every year just for these types of opportunities. I know Jay W. has not had more than 10 scholarship players in the program for a couple of years now. I think that number dissuades kids at the end of the bench from transferring and keeps a spot open should he need it. Over thepast few years we have used the space to bring in guys like Tony Chennault (from Wake F.) and Enis (from Rice).

[chicagojayfan]

I'm surprised McDermott hasn't used his scholarships more wisely. In this day and age of kids transferring all the time, if I were a college coach, I would keep at least one, perhaps two, scholarships in my pocket every year just for these types of opportunities. I know Jay W. has not had more than 10 scholarship players in the program for a couple of years now. I think that number dissuades kids at the end of the bench from transferring and keeps a spot open should he need it. Over thepast few years we have used the space to bring in guys like Tony Chennault (from Wake F.) and Enis (from Rice).

He has available scholarships for 2015, and kept 2 for the 2014 class, but has already used them to bring in two of the top transfers over the summer, Mo Watson and Cole Huff. They beat out Illinois, Wichita State, UConn, Kansas, Vanderbilt, Temple, Purdue, Penn State, and Xavier to get Watson to transfer. They beat out Iowa, Michigan, Dayton, USC and UCLA to get Huff's transfer. Some practice observers think Huff is the most talented guy on the roster despite not being eligible for games this year and Watson is easily in the top handful as well.

Beyond that they signed a top 100 and top 150 kid for 2014, so it's pretty easy to see where the scholarships went. McDermott has also used redshirts and walk-ons effectively. When Gibbs and his son came back for another year, they redshirted 2 players (Milliken and Hegner) who are both rotation guys this year. Hegner will start and Milliken is likely to play pretty heavy minutes at the 2/3 positions. They will likely redshirt at least one of the true freshman on the roster this year..

They also got a walk-on senior transfer from Kreklow, who was a starter at Cal and will be playing heavy minutes this year as well. When you add all that up, you have a team that is likely to play 10 guys pretty regularly (including Kreklow as a walk-on) and who may have 2 frosh redshirting along with 2 additional transfers already redshirting. So that 10 player pool is getting us to about where Wright is sitting in terms of available guys to play during the season, but instead of available slots we've got 4 guys prepping to play for next year already.

So, I get what you are saying, but I also think McDermott's done a great job of re-tooling this roster to play in the Big East and to rebuild after losing the seniors from last year's squad.

In any case, this won't be a hurdle for getting Frankamp on campus. We have a scholarship available for next year and if he comes to Creighton, there is plenty of ways (academic scholarships and financial aid) to mitigate the cost while he is practicing (but remains a non-counter due to not playing in games). I'm pretty optimistic they figure this out in a way that works for everyone. Frankamp is a perfect fit for the kind of offense that McDermott runs and that offense is a perfect place for him to develop and utilize his skills to the full extent.