POWER MOVE: BYU Eyeing Julius Halaifonua Transfer, Aims to Secure ELITE Big Man for Upcoming Season

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Julius Halifeneua, he is a guy that you're going to want to file a way in terms of a

transfer portal target for BYU and the reason why is, well, you can't argue that the fact

that he's 7 foot 260 pounds and he has already got proven production at the power 5 level

having played for the Georgetown Hoyas.

Now, he is a sophomore and I think you could petition for a year back, he only played

six games as a freshman for the Hoyas.

This past year, he played 32 games at Georgetown in the Big East, average is to shade under

20 minutes per game, shot 60.8% from the field, scored nearly 10 points per game, had nearly

four and a half rebounds and also had 1.3 assists and nearly a block a game.

Those are all really enticing numbers and, oh, by the way, his turnover rate less than

one per game.

So, this is a big man who has got, I think, a lot of potential in him and can you get that

out of him and can he come in to BYU?

Maybe he's playing with Luigi Swigo, maybe he's not.

But he could have come to BYU and be their Cougar version of Stephen Adams.

You know, and you know, the story of Stephen Van Adams, he was a guy who was a big, just

a big body who came over from New Zealand and becoming a star for the pit, no, it was

a pit, it was a pit panthers and then has gone on to have just a pretty incredible career

as one of the true just forces in the NBA and he doesn't do it with any like a plum,

he doesn't do it with big flashy, he is one of those quiet giants that you don't mess

with.

There are some stories by him and you can see some videos, I think I picked up people

and just carried them and you're like, man, that is a very, very strong man.

Well, the reason why I bring up Julius Halifanua and Link Stephen Adams is both of them

are New Zealand natives and Halifanua is a guy that is a former top 60 prospect.

As I said, he's already got proven production to the power five level, having played in

the big East and if be why you were lucky enough to pick him up, he would continue a strong

trend this off season for Kevin Young and Company of bringing in players who have played

at the level the big 12 plays at and that is power five.

I think they learned a lesson from last year thinking they could bring in mid major

type talents and expected they would thrive at the big 12 level.

Some of them throw, throw, thrived, thrived, yes, some of them thrived, other ones

flopped.

Guess what?

I think they have bet on the fact, okay, these guys have already played at this level,

the expectation, the physical nature, the just understanding the night in and night out

grind of the big 12 is not going to be news to them.

And that's why I think a guy like Halifanua offers to be why you ultimately picks the

cougars.

Now, any of them paying attention to the transfer portal, it is absolutely nuts out there

when it comes to big men.

This year, the most expensive position to add a player in the transfer portal according

to everybody I have talked to in the reports I've seen out there are true big men.

They can command four to five million dollars reportedly on the open market.

Now, as we all know, BYU is a private institution and they will never open up the books to really

reveal what they're paying NIL wise, but we have been told by multiple people to BYU has

got a deep bag when it comes to NIL and they're unafraid if they have the player or players

that they're interested in about spending that money on those players.

Is Julius Halifanua the player that BYU wants?

Well, what I have understood is that BYU has made contact with him and there's been

other reports of that and they are intent on seeing what he could offer to BYU.

I think that this would be a very intriguing pick up because much like we talked about

if you missed it earlier on in today's podcast, go back and check it out.

What a guy Colin Chandler could leap he could take as a from a sophomore to junior season

at BYU.

Couldn't you hope that a guy like Julius Halifanua comes in to BYU and has that same type

of a leap with Kevin Young as his coach?

That's what you would hope and that's I think maybe the one of the selling points that BYU

makes to a young man of his caliber saying, hey, this is what we're all about.

Obviously I would imagine being that New Zealand is not necessarily the most, it's not the

biggest country in terms of population, I would, I don't, I can't say this for certain,

I'd be very surprised if a guy like Julius Halifanua with a name that sounds Polynesian,

if he doesn't have some association at some level of members of the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day State.

Steven Adams, his sister Valerie is a very strong member of the church who is a three-time

gold medalist in the shop, but now Steven, I don't know if he's ever been baptized, but

the connection that Aussies, New Zealanders, Kiwis, they have with the church, yeah, by

and large, they either are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

be have family, they're the members of the church, or at their minimum, have association

in some a former fashion of their life that they know members of the faith.

So in theory, I think Julius would have a touch point to understand what BYU as the flagship

University of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be all about.

And obviously, he would have an understanding of what standards are at BYU, and that's

another thing that Kevin Young, I think, it's underrepresented, is that he is not going

to hide what BYU is all about.

He's been very open about, this is the standard we expect to be why you.

And I think that any player who may be like, I'm not sure about that BYU, all you got

to do is turn to AJD Bonson.

AJD Bonson had every opportunity to go anywhere in the country he wanted to go, and he

settled on BYU and said, you know what, these are the standards they set for, then guess

what, I signed up to play here.

So therefore, I'm going to live by said standards.

I can respect all of that.

And it's something that Clonise Taka is echoed forever, since he took over a BYU, is that

the standard is the standard of BYU, and that is the honor code, you've got to abide

by it.

But it is looked at, I think, by both Kevin Young and Clonise Taka as a strength versus

an impediment in terms of bringing young men into their programs, and it just absolves

them of a lot of the distractions out there, a lot of young men deal with in college and

allows them to pursue what they are looking for.

And I think I got Julius Halifanua, he's probably looking to make an MBA future or making

a professional basketball future for himself.

Well, BYU can offer that because I've talked about on this podcast, everything that Kevin

Young has built at BYU, all the personalities added, they are MBA level type people, training

staff, nutritionist.

He wants to make it as MBA-esque, as he possibly can at the college level, and that's got

to also be an enticing prospect to anybody, even not even just a guy like Julius Halifanua.

So I think this would be a very, very nice pickup if BYU can bring in Halifanua.

And yes, I also don't think it precludes them from bringing a guy like Luigi Swiego in

and saying, hey, may the best man win.

And the other simple fact of life is that you need two or three legit big men in the

big 12 conference.

And we saw that very glaringly obvious this past season.

I will forever love Kebukete and what he offered to BYU.

But when Kebuk went off the floor, man, it was a black hole, if the like of that center

spot.

And like I said, something in Xavier on state, and it's nothing against Abdullah Bidu

Ahmed.

They just weren't it.

So I think Kevin Young is intent on adding multiple big men in this transfer portal cycle.

And the hope is, yeah, if it's if it's Luigi Swiego, if it's Julius Halifanua,

you need to find multiple of those guys.

If you want to have the success, you hope to have as the BYU football that football BYU

basketball program hopes to have this coming season.