Transfer turmoil

NCAA rule changes creating college hoops chaos

There is havoc in men’s college basketball, a diaspora of players leaving programs that shows no sign of ending soon.

Roughly one out of every three players who donned a uniform this past season has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal. That’s over 1,600 players, enough to field about 120 teams, and some believe that number could still swell to double the total from a year ago when the portal had over 1,000 entrants for the first time.

The reasons are clear: the NCAA’s decision in October to grant an extra year of eligibility to all current student-athletes, coupled with a more recent ruling that allows players to transfer one time without penalty. While the rule changes were meant to benefit student-athletes, they have created chaos.

UConn’s Dan Hurley has made it clear he’s not a fan of what amounts to the advent of free agency in college basketball, vowing his school will never become “Transfer U.” The Huskies aren’t likely to add a single player from the transfer portal for next season.

Meanwhile, dozens of coaches have tapped into the portal seeking immediate talent upgrades. Programs like Arkansas and Iowa State have turned it into an art form in recent years. Over at Hurley’s alma mater, Seton Hall, coach Kevin Willard has added several talented players from other programs — including a pair, Kadary Richmond (Syracuse) and Alexis Yetna (South Florida), who were coveted by UConn — that could make the Pirates one of the teams to beat in the Big East.

College coaches must look at recruiting in an entirely different way, especially at the low- and mid-major level. Those coaches may shy away from higher-level recruits, for fear that landing them now only means losing them in a couple of years.

And they must recruit depth. Ten or even five years ago, a coach would not recruit another point guard if he already had a talented player at that position.

“Now, if you have a point guard you love, that means somebody else loves him, too,” said Sacred Heart coach Anthony Latina. “Just because you have the best point guard in the league

doesn’t mean you shouldn’t recruit another very good point guard. If you’re lucky, they stay and figure out how to play together. If they don’t, it’s very likely at least one is ready to go.”

It has created headaches not just for college coaches trying to manage rosters. College athletic departments must decide whether to pay for scholarships for seniors who want to return for another season. Prep coaches are trying to get their players recruited over veteran transfers. High school players are losing out on scholarship opportunities as coaches opt for experienced players off the transfer wire instead.

Shelton H. Jacobson, Ph.D., a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois who also runs Bracket Odds, a college basketball analytics website, believes the ease of transferring will affect players in another way.

“Quite often, college sports is about characterbuilding,” said Jacobson, who recently penned an op-ed on the matter for The Hill. “You don’t always get to go from high school, where you were the star in your conference, to being the star in college. You may have to be the second or third option. And you may get disgruntled and say, ‘I’m not gonna stay here,’ when, in fact, you may need that character development. It’s taking away that opportunity to students, and I am concerned about that.”

A quick listen to the opinions of coaches, both college and prep, reveals wildly differing views on the two rule changes, from “I completely understand what the NCAA did, but ...” to “I think it’s disgraceful on the NCAA’s part.”

Maybe Jere Quinn, longtime head coach at St. Thomas More prep school in Montville, summed it up best.

“I just think it was a bad year,” he said, “to do both at the same time.”

‘IT’LL GO EVERY WHICH WAY’

The one-time transfer rule provides more movement and mobility — more freedom — for players, ostensibly a good thing. If coaches can up and leave whenever they want, why not players?

But it creates other issues. High-major programs were already siphoning top players from mid-to-lowmajor programs when the transfer portal numbered in the hundreds. Now?

“I suspect you will see a wider gap between the haves and have-nots in college basketball,” Jacobson predicted.

Central Connecticut State, for example, has sent eight players into the portal. Then there’s TennesseeMartin of the Ohio Valley Conference, which somehow has sent 18 different players (including walkons) into the portal over the

past year.

But the portal hasn’t only discriminated against the low- and mid-majors. Boston College lost its top four scorers (including Shelton’s Rich Kelly); Minnesota its top two, along with several other key players. Washington has had at least six players enter the portal, and high-major programs like Creighton, Penn State, Washington and Cincinnati have had numerous key defections.

Even blue-bloods like Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas — programs that aren’t used to players leaving — haven’t been immune.

In fact, with so many players transferring, lowerlevel programs could reap some benefits. In a search for more playing time and better numbers, players disappointed with their situation at a high-major may seek a program in a weaker league.

“No question, it’ll go every which way,” Quinnipiac coach Baker Dunleavy predicted. “There’s a lot of competition at every level to get players through the transfer portal. I’m a believer that balance is important. If you ignore any route of acquiring talent, I think you’re at a disadvantage.”

Look no further than Dunleavy’s own program. Quinnipiac will welcome back Kevin Marfo, one of the nation’s top rebounders for the Bobcats a couple of years ago. Marfo transferred to Texas A&M last season, but things didn’t go quite as planned. So he’s transferring back to Quinnipiac and will be immediately eligible as a grad transfer.

“People realize that the grass may not necessarily be greener,” Latina pointed out. “So I think people might pause a little more than normal. I don’t necessarily think this has to be a negative for low-major, mid-major programs. Everybody’s dealing with it. There’s a little more of a musical chairs aspect to this thing.”

Just don’t look for Dan Hurley to play along all that much.

HURLEY REMAINS DEFIANT

Hurley loves the challenge of building a program from the ground up through recruiting high school talent and developing it over time. He did it at Wagner. He did it at Rhode Island. He’s done it over his first three years at UConn.

“I feel like we want to build a program in more of a traditional way,” he said recently, “and try to supplement that in a given year.”

Hurley has taken in transfers R.J. Cole (Howard) and Tyrese Martin (URI) in the previous two seasons, and they’ve helped a great deal. But he’ll supplement this year’s roster the old-fashioned way, with three national top-60 high school recruits — 6-foot-11 Samson Johnson, point guard Rahsool Diggins and

wing Jordan Hawkins. It’s possible the Huskies could still welcome in a Class of 2022 player or two who reclassify to 2021.

Meanwhile, Hurley will have two of the rarest commodities in men’s college basketball back next season in Isaiah Whaley and Tyler Polley — fifth-year seniors who will have played their entire careers at one school.

In theory, the one-time transfer rule should create decrease in transfer waivers. Previously, players in men’s college basketball (as well as football, women’s basketball, baseball and hockey), had to sit out a season after transferring, unless they secured an NCAA waiver. That led to its own chaos.

“Some schools and compliance offices got good at the waivers,” Latina recalled. “So it basically came down to, if you’re good at writing waivers (you’d get players accepted). That’s not what we want to be all about. We want to do things in a fair way. Fairness should be what we strive for, at least at the NCAA level.”

But the waiver situation will hardly go away. Remember, hundreds of players currently in the portal have already transferred once.

“The million-dollar question that’s going on, maybe not to the average fan but certainly among coaches, is, ‘Are these guys transferring a second time gonna be eligible?’ ” Latina said.

The answer — according to NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt — is no.

So prepare for a deluge of COVID-19-related waiver requests. Latina has an idea.

“My suggestion is: Everyone’s eligible this year. This is your one time. If you’ve already transferred before, you’re lucky, you got your mulligan. Just to avoid the infinite number of waivers.”

The NCAA has shown no inclination to make such a move.

DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

The entire college basketball season was still shrouded in doubt in October, when the NCAA decided to allow an extra year of eligibility to all winter athletes.

“I applaud the NCAA for making that decision quickly and decisively,” Latina said. “The fact they did that early, I thought, was smart.”

Of course, the season wound up being a reasonably representative one.

“Now,” Latina continued, “we’re in a situation where, ‘Are kids going to come back (for a fifth year)?’ ”

Nearly all of Sacred Heart’s players are coming back. The Pioneers haven’t had a single player enter the transfer portal this spring.

“Which is kind of ironic,” Latina noted.

Indeed, Sacred Heart has become the poster child of losing top players to higher-level

programs via transfer. The Pioneers have lost not only their best player but arguably their league’s best player to transfer three times in the past six years: Cane Broome (Cincinnati), Quincy McKnight (Seton Hall) and E.J. Anosike (Tennessee). And that’s not even including several allconference players.

But amid this mass wave of player movement, Sacred Heart has been remarkably untouched. The Pioneers lost a pair of seniors to graduation but will welcome back Alex Watson for a fifth year, along with three incoming freshman recruits.

That will add up to 14 scholarships. The scholarship allotment in men’s basketball is 13. What gives? Players returning for a fifth season will not count against the team’s allotment. So if a team has 10 underclassmen returning, brings in three new recruits and has three seniors coming back for a fifth season, it could ostensibly have 16 scholarship players.

Of course, that’s if the school is willing to pay for 16 scholarships.

“Just because the NCAA allows it doesn’t mean the university says, ‘OK, go ahead,’ ” Latina noted. “If your university says, ‘We’re not gonna support that’ … I understand why. A lot of schools are in crisis with the pandemic, COVID, lost revenue.”

So, if that same team with 10 returning underclassmen, three incoming recruits and three seniors seeking a fifth year is capped at 13 scholarships, it will have to make some tough decisions.

“Those conversations are happening all over the country right now, and they’re not easy,” Latina said. “If you want someone back and the university says they can’t support it, and you’ve already signed kids … those seniors can’t come back, or you have to

cut the freshmen loose. Either way, it’s not a very good decision.”

‘I FEEL SO BAD FOR THESE 2021 KIDS’

No group is getting hit harder by the new rules, particularly the extra year of eligibility, than high school senior and postgrad recruits. Not so much the top-rated recruits, like UConn’s Johnson, Diggins and Hawkins, but the lowmajor recruits.

“It’s brutal,” said Putnam Science Academy coach Tom Espinosa. “I feel so bad for these 2021 kids. If you’re a low-major (recruit), you’re screwed.”

Quite simply, college coaches — Hurley aside — are recruiting off the transfer wire more than looking to bring in high school seniors or postgrads.

“And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t blame them,” Espinosa added. “Why take a kid that’s not proven, when you can take a kid who averaged 10 points, 8 rebounds, or whatever, at the college level?”

At least high school seniors have the option of a postgrad year. Current postgrads have little leverage if they’re not being recruited by DI programs. Some are opting for Division II, turning those programs essentially into postgrad prep programs as players continue to hope for DI offers.

“I think it’s disgraceful on the NCAA’s part,” said Mike Hart, head coach at St. Andrew’s School, which has sent numerous players to Division I programs over the years. “I have former players benefiting from those rules, but they’re destroying recruiting for the majority of high school kids from 2021. I have DI kids from any other year now playing DII next year in college. I’ve got two kids I still have to place. All I hear from coaches is, ‘We’re gonna take a transfer, we’re gonna take a transfer.’ ”

Hart, who’s coached at

St. Andrew’s in Rhode Island for 32 years, says he has one player, Jordan Brathwaite, who had been getting Division I interest before the pandemic and rules changes. Now?

“To see that kid on May (10), not have a DI offer, it makes me sick. It really bothers me.”

Quinn, a recent Basketball Hall of Fame nominee, has a Division I-level player (Chris Melis) at St. Thomas More who recently committed to DII Stonehill. Two more players with DI talent (Kirt Bromley and Corey Perkins) are still looking for schools.

Quinn said he called 13 college coaches the other day to try to sell them on his players. Only three returned his call.

“The challenge of placing kids is exponentially worse than any year we’ve had,” Quinn said. “To this day, the NCAA hasn’t addressed how they’re going to handle this.”

And with virtually every prep program taking a hit fiscally over the past year, many are now looking for players who simply can pay the most — a blow to players from low-income families.

One other thing: These issues aren’t going to end anytime soon. It wasn’t just this year’s seniors who got an extra year of eligibility, it’s every athlete. So a freshman from this past season could continue to play at a program (or another) for four more seasons, creating scholarship logjams along the way.

“What do you do with those guys?” Latina asked. “When they’re seniors, do you say, ‘Do you want to come back?’ It creates a lot of difficult conversations.”

Quite a mess, with no end in sight.

“Obviously, it’s going to multiply,” Hurley predicted, “the way the rules are going.”

Maddie Meyer / Getty Images Roughly one out of every three college basketball players who donned a uniform this past season has entered the NCAA’s transfer portal.