The Riverside Press-Enterprise
San Diego State star Butler enters transfer portal
His dad says they are not willing to pass up opportunities that are out there this time
The man who made the biggest shot in San Diego State basketball history might be taking them in a different uniform next season.
Lamont Butler announced Wednesday night that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal after initially expressing his intention to spend his final season of eligibility at SDSU if he doesn’t turn pro.
“I spent the last four years in San Diego, and I love everybody there,” Butler told the Union-tribune by phone. “The city of San Diego is really tough to leave. It was a really tough decision, but I feel like this might be best.”
Butler, a Riverside Poly High graduate, indicated he is leaving open his option to return to SDSU but admitted “it’s more of a slight chance ... if things don’t work out the way I think it’s supposed to.”
Coach Brian Dutcher seems more open to that scenario than he has in the past, but only if it doesn’t drag out too long.
The last day to enter the portal is May 1 (although players have all summer to commit to a new program). In the past, grad transfers could still change schools after the deadline, but the NCAA quietly closed that loophole earlier this week and requires all transfers to submit paperwork by next
Wednesday.
“I’ve got to have time to get somebody,” Dutcher said recently, speaking in general and not about any player in particular. “Everything is time sensitive. If the process drags out, we have to be in a position to take somebody else.”
That might mean he needs an answer within a week, because some players not currently in the portal may be tempted to jump in it knowing there’s a spot available for a veteran guard at a program that has reached back-to-back Sweet 16s.
Butler also provisionally entered the NBA draft and is currently in Las Vegas for the next few weeks working