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Matt Painter and Hunter Dickinson discuss NIL on Hummel's podcast

I think this is an excellent discussion on NIL. It has representatives from high-major coaches (Painter), mid-major coaches (Dana Ford), players (Hunter Dickinson), and agents (Zack Charles), and all sides bring in their perspectives. I honestly think that's how we need to solve a complex problem - we need perspectives from different stakeholders.

For anyone who wants to get a good listening on NIL, this is an hour well-spent. Here are what stand out to me for those who just want the cliff-note:

  1. Really like Painter's combination of common sense, wisdom, and sense of humor. He and Dickinson had some friendly jab.
  2. Really like how Painter talked about Newman. He didn't mention Newman by name, but he talked about "a player who has fallen out of rotation," and how he was floored when that player who had a tough time in a role came to his office and said he wanted a Purdue degree and he wanted to make it right. He said he would have understood if that player wanted to leave, but the fact that he stuck with it through adversity, he felt that those were the people who tended to be successful in life. Man, I almost wanna cry. I'll be rooting HARD for Newman to have two (or more) fantastic seasons at Purdue and make it to the NBA!!!
  3. Painter suggested NIL didn't kick in until the 3rd semester (so first day when one becomes a sophomore), which makes a lot of sense to me.
  4. We all know it is impossible, but I love Painter's suggestion that coaches and players should ref for a year and refs should coach for a year. I firmly believe that a lot of conflicts in today's world can be resolved (or at least vastly improved) if both sides are willing to walk in the others' shoes instead of simply seeing the other side as an adversary and demonizing.
  5. Painter pointed out that it was great that they (different stakeholders) are having this discussion and listening to each other, but the decision-makers are not listening to them. He was on a lot of basketball committees, but they weren't the decision-makers. The actual decision makers contain no coaches. There needs to be a Czar in CBB who knew basketball and who could coordinate different stakeholders (that was supposed Mark Emmert's job but he failed miserably). Goodman nominated Painter and I actually thought Painter would be an excellent choice. But I don't want him to leave Purdue, so maybe give that role to Jay Wright now that he retires. We need the decision-makers to include someone who is well-respected while also understand the ins-and-outs of college basketball.
  6. Painter felt that they should have spaced out the changes, but instead, we got NIL, one-time-transfer, and extra Covid year all came at the same time, which made this a gigantic problem.
  7. Painter didn't say specifically, but he sounded confident that Purdue would still get players under NIL (I am less confident about that). It's only the mid-majors that will struggle.
  8. Dickinson was less dickish and actually spoke fairly reasonably. He said high-school recruiting is a dirty business, and kinda acknowledged that some people paying him [indirectly] in high school [via other avenues] by hinting that his brother was a coach. Also hinted that Zion Williamson wouldn't be going to Duke for free.
  9. Even Dickinson thought the transfer portal needed to be limited, b/c a lot of guys were transferring more than once.
  10. Dickinson felt that the money is always there. Instead of some guy giving $180M to Clemson, they'd just be giving $170M and give the $10M to the players. So Clemson might get a slightly less expensive stadium, but the players would be getting paid (my sense is that coming from a player's perspective, he thinks that's how it should be, probably more money should have gone to the players).
  11. Dickinson said what everyone knew but wouldn't say: $EC is super dirty. He also kinda complaining about Michigan's NIL approach as being too conservative.
  12. Dickinson acknowledged it was difficult for him to focus just on basketball last season with all the NIL deals, e.g. needing to read contracts and get lawyers and a marketing team.
  13. The agent Zach Charles was very blunt in how dirty the NIL is and how it is gonna ruin the game as agents showing up at 8th-graders game and sell them on the kind of deals they can get them. Goodman was also blunt in how coaches just "dropped a piece of paper with names" and then the boosters would take care of it.
  14. I pity the mid-major coach, who needed to have 10 new players despite losing only 2 seniors. That's almost impossible to win.
  15. Painter was super complimentary to Dickinson. I think that's pretty amazing about Painter's personality. He isn't the stiff guy that people used to describe him. When I met him in Taiwan, he made the effort to walk over and come speak to me (I was wearing a Purdue shirt). I can see why we are having an uptick in recruiting in recent years as he became comfortable in his own skin. He knows how to make you feel comfortable without sounding fake or ingenuine.

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