College basketball players are transferring at a record rate. What does it mean for the sport?--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Sometimes, a coaching change necessitates a move. In other instances, rifts can develop.
“Here at Oakland, I feel like I wasn’t able to show my versatility as
a player,” said Daniel Oladapo, a transfer from Oakland University who
signed with Pitt in April. “I kind of felt like coach was just holding
me back. ... I was just telling him to get to where I want to get to, I
need to show more of my game. We really didn’t see eye to eye.”
In that way, the portal can provide a valuable, much-needed reset.
Robert Morris coach Andy Toole can empathize with exiting players.
He, too, transferred, leaving Elon in 1999 for Penn, where he helped
lead the Quakers to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances. At the time,
Toole remembered feeling as if there was something wrong with him for
making such a move. In the two decades since, it’s a mindset that has
evolved dramatically.
“You’ll see guys that are successful players who play a lot of
minutes on their team and they’ll say to you, ‘I just want to see what’s
out there,’” Toole said. “You’ll hear guys say, ‘Well, I didn’t really
get recruited that hard the first time. I want to get recruited.’ Some
of the stuff doesn’t necessarily add up versus, ‘Hey, I’m in a good
situation where I’m a big part of a team. There’s a plan in place for
me. I have an opportunity to continue to grow and develop.’ Sometimes,
that’s not even enough.”
Unintended consequences
What the transfer portal and the one-time transfer exemption offer
for players on a micro level has larger, potentially lasting
ramifications.
Perhaps the most apparent and immediate development comes with high
school recruits, who some in grassroots basketball believe are being
overlooked as college coaches devote time and resources to pursuing
transfers.
College coaches have noticed, too, with Toole noting that he and his
assistants hear regularly from high school and junior college coaches
imploring them to take a look at one of their players. But the portal, a
perpetually updating list of available players, is often too enticing.
While no program is immune to defections, there’s some fear that
schools from outside the major conferences will serve as a farm system
of sorts, even more than they have previously.
In the past four seasons, Duquesne and Robert Morris have lost four
players who led the team in scoring in a given season, all of whom
transferred to programs in bigger, more prominent leagues. The standout
with remaining eligibility at a mid-major who guides his or her program
on an NCAA tournament run now has options previously unavailable, as
does the player working their way up the rotation in a program that gets
old and stays old, much like Pitt did in its most decorated years.
Kailey Coffey garners third-straight CoSIDA Academic All-District recognition--
nkunorse.com
