How transfer portal has impacted recruitment of CIAC players

The transfer portal has changed the world of college basketball significantly and the trickle down affect has impacted high school players as well.

With college coaches often using the transfer portal first, then seeing what high school players are out there to complete their rosters, many high school seniors are left waiting.

Cromwell senior Victor Payne is one of those who could be playing the waiting game. The reigning Shoreline Conference Player of the Year has games with both 44 and 42 points. The 6-foot-4 Payne helped lead Cromwell to the CIAC Division IV championship last March.

Victor Payne Sr. said his son received an offer from Central Connecticut State during the summer of 2022. Cromwell coach John Pinone has reached out to other schools on Payne’s behalf.

The dad said he is not concerned about having to make a decision in late spring.

“We understand the landscape of college basketball and we are willing to wait. If nothing serious happens, the option of a prep school is still there,” said Victor Sr., who both played for and coached at CCSU.

Victor Sr. said a post-graduate season at a prep school is a “strong option” and feels interest in his son would pick up if that ends up being the route he takes.

Payne will end up playing somewhere. But not everyone who has waited this long will find a home.

“There is more supply than ever before and thus less demand for high school players than ever before,” said Adam Finkelstein, the director of scouting for 247Sports. “Coaches are not necessarily paid to develop their program three or four

years down the road. They may not be there to reap the benefits of it.”

At one time, collegiate players had to sit out a year when they transferred from one Division I institution to another — and sometimes two years if they transferred within their conference. The transfer portal has provided a free-agency type situation. There seems to be little sustainability on men’s college basketball rosters these days.

“It’s a whole new world of college recruiting. There are a lot of roster spots to fill. Five-to-10 years ago, there were 3-5 spots to fill. Now, you have 6-8 or more spots to fill because roster turnover is so great,” Sacred Heart University men’s basketball coach Anthony Latina said.

Notre Dame-West Haven coach Jason Shea feels the NCAA should bear the brunt of the responsibility for the limited opportunities for the high school player’s recruitment period.

“Quite frankly, it is a horrendous situation for the student-athlete and the NCAA should be ashamed to have allowed it to come to this,” Shea said. “(The NCAA) needs to have something in place that controls the portal calendar and aligns better with the recruitment of high school athletes. The NCAA has created an environment where so many high school athletes are put in a precarious position while most of their classmates have decided and deposited on the school they are going to.”

The pressure has always been there for college coaches to win or else. Now they are trying to do it with more experienced players, ones who have already made the adjustment to the college game.

“Every coach knows there will be an influx of college-ready players available to you,” Latina said.

The transfer portal was originally supposed to be open for 60 days this year. Last fall, the NCAA Division I Council reduced it to 45 days.

So the portal will open on March 18, the day after the NCAA announces its 68-team field for Division I. The portal will remain open until May 1.

Let’s say a CIAC boys basketball player, for example, has multiple offers from Division II programs that he received this past summer. In addition, he has some interest from a

Division I school. But instead, he decided to wait until after his senior season to make a decision, hoping that interest turned into an offer.

Chances are, now players will be waiting well past their seasons ending in March to determine their future.

“The part not talked about enough is high school kids willing to take the risk of waiting it out,” Finkelstein said. “If you get an offer in the summer going into your senior year, I think it’s a good bet that if you don’t take it, be prepared for less traffic during the course of your season and the risk of having to play this out deep into the spring.”

If a player receives a full scholarship offer going into his senior year, or even earlier, accepting it and eventually signing the national letter of intent in the fall takes all of the pressure off of waiting until the following spring.

“I highly advise a kid who does get an offer to think about taking that offer because once that transfer portal opens up, the coach will be on that portal looking (for players). If you wait, it may not end up in your favor,” Southern Connecticut State men’s basketball coach Scott Burrell said.

Unlike a national letter of intent, a verbal offer from a college coach to a prospective recruit is non-binding. Top-level players can get several offers and can afford to wait it out to see if any more come up.

But there are only a certain amount of scholarships available per program, with a maximum of 13 in Division I.

Latina feels players need to be educated on the process of scholarship offers, that they are only available for a limited time until someone accepts it. In all likelihood, the offer you received has also been made to others.

“That’s something that has to be communicated coach to prospect. To say you have an offer, well, six months from now, it may not even be there,” Latina said. “That’s something that I would certainly encourage players to be proactive in discussing. The idea that offers are indefinite is not the case anymore. … Asking kids and parents who have never been through this, to navigate an ever-changing situation, can be quite difficult and jarring.”

Two of Notre Dame-West Haven’s seniors last year, Mekhi Conner and Timaury Gay, waited until after last season to make their decisions. Gay accepted a Division II offer to play at Franklin Pierce.

Conner had Division II offers as well, but he was looking for a Division I program. He ended up taking a post-graduate season at Putnam Science Academy and played AAU this past summer. Division I offers came and last fall, he committed to Sacred Heart starting with the 2024-25 season.

Shea said Conner’s participation in an event during last April’s live period — where college coaches can see prospective high school recruits compete in events — prompted a call from Campbell University inquiring about Conner. Other Division I schools also became interested in bringing Conner in for the fall, Shea said.

“You have to have honest conversations and realistic conversations about, ‘What does another year (post-grad) or another spring of AAU do for you and specifically, does it help get you to that Division I level, or are you a Division II player and take that scholarship?’ ” Shea said. “These are not easy conversations. These are kids who have carried your program, you are talking to all-staters.”

Shea said it’s important that players base their decision on a place and program where they see themselves staying for four years and not with the intention of moving on sooner than that.

“I don’t think that is a healthy approach for a player,” Shea said.

But there are plenty of athletes who have or will use the portal to try to find a better situation — or a higher level of play.

“There is definitely an increased mindset that more and more kids think along the lines of your first school is not necessarily your last school,” Finkelstein said.

Pinone thinks that “a lot of guys think they are better than Division II.” Instead of going to a Division I program and possibly not playing for two or three years, Pinone says, “Go to a Division II school, play 30 minutes out of the gate, then go to Division I from there.”

However it plays out, it’s a predicament a number of high school seniors playing basketball are finding themselves in nowadays: waiting longer into their senior year to determine their future.