Transfer portal takes teams to Final Four
Connecticut and Purdue needed the right fit. Alabama needed more bodies. North Carolina State had big holes to fill in the backcourt.
They all mined the transfer portal effectively enough to reach the Final Four and head to the desert with a chance to hoist a trophy.
It’s a reminder that finding experienced help has become an essential piece of building a top team in NCAA basketball — each surviving team added at least one player in his fifth college season — and meshing new pieces with different personalities is a high-reward part of the equation.
“Getting players with a lot of life to them,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said before the reigning champs beat Illinois in the Elite Eight. “Avoiding zombies and deadheads on your roster. Outgoing, different types of personality. It helps you in these bigger moments.
“I think that’s something that we spend a lot of time thinking about with a couple of the years where we didn’t play our best in March. Get guys that are alive, that aren’t going to shrink when the lights get bright in March.”
The Huskies have six-foot-four guard Cam Spencer, who had played three seasons at Loyola Maryland and last year at Rutgers. He found a home in the starting lineup alongside Associated Press first-team all-American Tristen Newton and returning big man Donovan Clingan on a roster that lost some major pieces from last year’s title run.
Spencer is the team’s No. 2 scorer at14.4 points per game, while shooting 44 per cent from three-point range and 92 per cent from the foul line. He will celebrate his 24th birthday Saturday, the same day the Huskies face the Crimson Tide in the national semifinals.
Alabama coach Nate Oats brought in four transfers after losing four starters, including No. 2 NBA draft pick Brandon Miller. One of those, lanky six-foot-11 forward Grant Nelson from North Dakota State, went off for 24 points and 12 rebounds in the Sweet 16 win against No. 1 seed North Carolina.
At Purdue, the Boilermakers added a 1,500-point scorer in Lance Jones, a six-foot-one guard with 113 starts in four seasons at Southern Illinois. While seven-foot-four Zach Edey was the star (40 points, 16 rebounds), Jones came through with one of the biggest shots of the Elite Eight matchup against Tennessee, a three-pointer with 2:42 left to give Purdue a 66-60 lead.
It is the second consecutive year that N.C. State has bolstered its roster through the portal — though this time to improbable heights. Fifth-year guard D.J. Horne spent two years at Illinois State and Arizona State, and now he’s the team’s top scorer (16.8 points per game) after the departures of last year’s backcourt tandem of Jarkel Joiner and Terquavion Smith backcourt tandem.
Throw in last year’s portal addition of big man DJ Burns Jr. — who has made himself the face of this year’s NCAA Tournament with his nimble post moves and big personality — and the Wolfpack’s run is comparable to that last Final Four trip in 1983 under the late Jim Valvano.