I'm not going to rip Jesse and he is a big loss. No way to spin that. We are not awash in centers who have averaged a double-double at SU during our history.
What we know is that we put our NIL offer on the table. For all we know, it was a very reasonable and lucrative deal. At some point, almost certainly before he hit the portal, other schools went to his dad and threw some really big $$$ into the equation. A lot of teams have now reached out to him after he portaled, but there may have been only a small number of actual big $$$ offers made to his dad before that. No way for us to know.
Does that mean we cannot compete? Not necessarily. Many of the schools who have reached out likely can't or won't match what he has been already offered either. They might need a big guy and have to do their due diligence. "We probably can't afford that Lamborghini honey but let's just see how much it costs."
There are teams out there who are solid across the board at the other positions and feel they are a really good big man away from a Sweet 16, Final 4, or NC. They can afford to open the vault to get that one player.
We cannot.
Unless Judah returns, and until proven otherwise, we are solid nowhere at the other positions. Promising in a couple of them, perhaps, but solid? Not until proven otherwise anyway.
Perhaps, my speculation only, it was SU who simply refused to match large counter-offers rather than blow our whole wad on one guy when we have so many other holes to fill. I'm guessing that many of the schools who have reached out to him will come to the same conclusion. There will be ones who go all the way, however, and that is where he will resurface.
