A New Record for the Transfer Portal

[oldude]

Leading up to this past season, with the NCAA adopting both an extra “covid” year for every athlete who competed in college during the 2020-21 season, as well as allowing a one-time transfer rule with immediate eligibility for any underclassman, WBB set a record with 1,159 transfers. With 5 days remaining until the May 1 cutoff for immediate eligibility next season, the number of transfers just exceeded last year’s total for WBB reaching 1,161 and counting.

Many of the transfers who have entered their names in the portal are done playing college ball. They just don’t know it yet. They are reserves who haven’t played much, or seniors looking to avoid the inevitable time when it becomes necessary to leave the relative comfort of college and face the world. For these athletes there will be no takers.

For many others it’s just a game of musical chairs. They are not necessarily heading to a much better opportunity, just a different one. Some coaches have lost much of their roster to transfer or graduation, and they are desperately trying to plug holes like the Little Dutch Boy and the leaking dike. Most of the top teams will add a transfer or two to shore up their rosters. But there is no guarantee that these transfers will make the adjustment to be able play a significant role with their new team or simply extend the number of chairs required on the bench.

Having scrolled through the names in the portal several times, there is most certainly quantity, but not very much quality in my opinion. As Geno sardonically asks the questions of any transfer, “What’s wrong with you?” While there are an infinite number of reasons to transfer, many of these kids have a flaw in their game or in their personality.

Everyone is hoping to acquire a game changer from the transfer portal. In my opinion there is only one true game changer, who can significantly elevate any team she joins, and that’s Maryland’s Ashly Owusu. Owusu is a big-time scorer who has size and an excellent handle, allowing her the ability to dominate opposing defenders and take over a game. After Owusu, there are some very good players, but none that can transform a team.

After this coming season, we still have two more years when players from the 2020-21 season will have the opportunity for a 5th year of eligibility. While incoming HS kids who sit behind 5th year players won’t much like it, the process is set to continue unabated for several years. Stay tuned.

 

[veryolddog]

Good thoughts. I wonder how many in the portal want to leave on their own initiative for some apparent reason versus those who have been asked to leave.

 

[jcoton56]

Well happiness is elusive.

 

[CL82]

I wonder if in time we will see the allure of the portal trail off for marginal kids. There is a kind of “grass is greener“ appeal to it, but entering the portal is risky. The portal was supposed to empower players, but it ends up doing two things well: 1) Moving talented players from smaller schools to bigger schools and 2) eliminating scholarships from marginal players.

I suspect the portal will end up moving kids in three waves. The first wave will be the very best players who will come out shortly after they come in. The second wave will be towards the end of the transfer period and will allow coaches to fill bench and depth positions with players who now see the writing on the wall. The last wave will be the very large group who will be leaving scholarship athletics.

 

[oldude]

I wonder if in time we will see the allure of the portal trail off for marginal kids. There is a kind of “grass is greener“ appeal to it, but entering the portal is risky. The portal was supposed to empower players, but it ends up doing two things well: 1) Moving talented players from smaller schools to bigger schools and 2) eliminating scholarships from marginal players.

As I said in another thread, the transfer portal also makes some coaches lazy. They no longer have to devote 2+ years recruiting a HS kid and then another year or two developing them at the college level. All they have to do now is spend a couple of weeks hitting the portal hard at the end of the season and they’re good to go.

 

[GreatValue]

Leading up to this past season, with the NCAA adopting both an extra “covid” year for every athlete who competed in college during the 2020-21 season, as well as allowing a one-time transfer rule with immediate eligibility for any underclassman, WBB set a record with 1,159 transfers. With 5 days remaining until the May 1 cutoff for immediate eligibility next season, the number of transfers just exceeded last year’s total for WBB reaching 1,161 and counting.

Many of the transfers who have entered their names in the portal are done playing college ball. They just don’t know it yet. They are reserves who haven’t played much, or seniors looking to avoid the inevitable time when it becomes necessary to leave the relative comfort of college and face the world. For these athletes there will be no takers.

For many others it’s just a game of musical chairs. They are not necessarily heading to a much better opportunity, just a different one. Some coaches have lost much of their roster to transfer or graduation, and they are desperately trying to plug holes like the Little Dutch Boy and the leaking dike. Most of the top teams will add a transfer or two to shore up their rosters. But there is no guarantee that these transfers will make the adjustment to be able play a significant role with their new team or simply extend the number of chairs required on the bench.

Having scrolled through the names in the portal several times, there is most certainly quantity, but not very much quality in my opinion. As Geno sardonically asks the questions of any transfer, “What’s wrong with you?” While there are an infinite number of reasons to transfer, many of these kids have a flaw in their game or in their personality.

Everyone is hoping to acquire a game changer from the transfer portal. In my opinion there is only one true game changer, who can significantly elevate any team she joins, and that’s Maryland’s Ashly Owusu. Owusu is a big-time scorer who has size and an excellent handle, allowing her the ability to dominate opposing defenders and take over a game. After Owusu, there are some very good players, but none that can transform a team.

After this coming season, we still have two more years when players from the 2020-21 season will have the opportunity for a 5th year of eligibility. While incoming HS kids who sit behind 5th year players won’t much like it, the process is set to continue unabated for several years. Stay tuned.

excellent points however I disagree and would add Reese & Jackson as game changers. adding any three of them can change the dynamic of a team therefore change the team's game. just imo

 

[oldude]

excellent points however I disagree and would add Reese & Jackson as game changers. adding any three of them can change the dynamic of a team therefore change the team's game. just imo

Reese is certainly a superior athlete and rebounder. But in the vein of “What’s wrong with you,” she’s not a great shooter and she thinks she’s a guard. Reese needs to land in the right place with the right coach.

I agree that Jackson is intriguing, having played for 3 different coaches at MSU, while leading the team in scoring every year. Now that she’s heading to TN, my one question is whether she’ll be able to play effectively with Horston.

This past season Burrell & Horston struggled to play together effectively at times. Jackson & Horston are both lead scorers that need to have the ball in their hands. Unless TN can figure out a way to play games with 2 basketballs, one of the two players will have to defer at times to the other.

 

[GreatValue]

Reese is certainly a superior athlete and rebounder. But in the vein of “What’s wrong with you,” she’s not a great shooter and she thinks she’s a guard. Reese needs to land in the right place with the right coach.

I agree that Jackson is intriguing, having played for 3 different coaches at MSU, while leading the team in scoring every year. Now that she’s heading to TN, my one question is whether she’ll be able to play effectively with Horston.

This past season Burrell & Horston struggled to play together effectively at times. Jackson & Horston are both lead scorers that need to have the ball in their hands. Unless TN can figure out a way to play games with 2 basketballs, one of the two players will have to defer at times to the other.

I don't think Reese thinks she's a guard she seems to want to play a W which is a difference, does she has some guard-like skills for someone her size....YES. Reese lead her team in FG%, rebounds, blocks and steals. No she does not have a mid-range or 3pt shot and has admitted in interviews that she wants and needs to work on that(maybe her next stop will allow that), but her rebounding off her misses and teammates misses is undeniable. She has adequate "handles" to get you out of a pinch if need be. Seems like all the gazillion MD transfers over the years needed to land in the right place with the right coach lol

If you read Freese comments in the article yesterday she subliminal says that Owusu lacks effort(which I disagree). I love Owusu game and her handles and down hill game is worthy of praise.

Jackson and Horston have experience playing together in AAU & have a friendship off the court so that may transition nicely on the court.

Again those 3 are my top choices and all 3 are game changers.

 

[Puppy Love]

As to the athletes in the portal that won’t find new schools, I’m not disagreeing with the OP, but I do think the situation is difficult and nuanced for three reasons.
1. Early signing for high school is November and regular signing is April. Even the spring date is before “most” college athletes have entered the portal. As a college coach, you are taking a gamble if you decide to wait for the portal to complete your roster rather than sign high school athletes that you know you can get.
2. Outside of the very top athletes, nearly all recruiting is local/regional. It’s true for two reasons. The first is that smaller schools have smaller recruiting budgets and are less likely to go after far away kids that they probably won’t get. The second is that the athletes themselves want to play with their families can see them. It’s unlikely to see a transfer from the University of Vermont go to New Mexico State. And the athlete has to want to play for a particular coach.
3. Basketball isn’t the only consideration. The school has to be a good fit academically. You probably won’t see a transfer from the University of Albany to Cornell.

Because of these things, for most schools pool of potential transfers is small and for most athletes the pool of potential schools is small. It will be interesting to see historically in three or four years how many freshman played Womens D1 college basketball each year compared to the years before Covid eligibility rules. Only then will we know the impact of the extra year of eligibility. The portal will likely result in some regional shuffling and a few eye popping transfers in marquis programs each year. I don’t think it will permanently change the landscape. Coaching moves will have a bigger impact

 

[HopJim]

Good thoughts. I wonder how many in the portal want to leave on their own initiative for some apparent reason versus those who have been asked to leave.

Dog, you did a good job of netting out the question many of us are starting to ask. I have several nephews and nieces who play various D1 level college sports who all say for as many athletes who are benefiting from the new transfer rules, others are experiencing negatives. Appears to be a trend for coaches to manage the top 50% of their players but push the bottom 50% out. Decreasing loyalty from both players and coaches. We should be proud that Geno does not agree with this way of thinking.

 

[GreatValue]

Ranking women's college basketball's top transfers: Maryland movement has ripple effect

Teams such as Maryland, Louisville and Tennessee have reloaded or reworked their rosters as more than 1,000 players have entered the transfer portal.

www.espn.com

 

[GreatValue]

Ranking women's college basketball's top transfers: Maryland movement has ripple effect

Teams such as Maryland, Louisville and Tennessee have reloaded or reworked their rosters as more than 1,000 players have entered the transfer portal.

www.espn.com

Reese & Owusu are ranked #1 & #2 left of unsigned transfers. Not a lot of “bigs” left

 

[Bone Dog]

I think it was Doug Bruno who said it about his school (though I may be misremembering another BE coach) that turning around the program he inherited years earlier was entirely about shifting the focus from recruiting for the next season to recruiting for the culture of the team. Until he did that, they couldn't make any progress.

 

[Centerstream]

But wait...there's still one week to go...next Sunday is the last day for players to notify their current school and Tuesday is the last day that schools have to enter their names into the portal.

 

[Bone Dog]

I don't think Reese thinks she's a guard she seems to want to play a W which is a difference, does she has some guard-like skills for someone her size....YES. Reese lead her team in FG%, rebounds, blocks and steals. No she does not have a mid-range or 3pt shot and has admitted in interviews that she wants and needs to work on that(maybe her next stop will allow that), but her rebounding off her misses and teammates misses is undeniable. She has adequate "handles" to get you out of a pinch if need be. Seems like all the gazillion MD transfers over the years needed to land in the right place with the right coach lol

If you read Freese comments in the article yesterday she subliminal says that Owusu lacks effort(which I disagree). I love Owusu game and her handles and down hill game is worthy of praise.

Jackson and Horston have experience playing together in AAU & have a friendship off the court so that may transition nicely on the court.

Again those 3 are my top choices and all 3 are game changers.

I'm not surprised by the exodus from Maryland. When Friese hints about effort I suspect its about effort on D. 2 years ago they were bounced from the tournament by Texas in a D struggle. "All gas, no brakes" really meant all O, no D, and when Texas clamped down on their O they had nothing else to turn to. Friese built the team that year based on the players she had. The Stanford game really exposed them this year. I think none of them will like playing under Geno where it's always D first, then O.

 

[oldude]

But wait...there's still one week to go...next Sunday is the last day for players to notify their current school and Tuesday is the last day that schools have to enter their names into the portal.

That is just for immediate eligibility of undergraduate transfers. Seniors & juniors working feverishly to complete their degrees can list their names in the portal anytime before the start of next season and still be eligible to play.

 

[TeamFirst!]

Some news in this article about Blackwell considering between South Carolina, Ole Miss and Baylor:

Women's college basketball transfer portal tracker: Who entered and where they land

The transfer portal is bumpin' once again this offseason with more than 1,000 student-athletes in it for the past month. Track the notable ones here.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Charliebball]

Reese is certainly a superior athlete and rebounder. But in the vein of “What’s wrong with you,” she’s not a great shooter and she thinks she’s a guard. Reese needs to land in the right place with the right coach.

I agree that Jackson is intriguing, having played for 3 different coaches at MSU, while leading the team in scoring every year. Now that she’s heading to TN, my one question is whether she’ll be able to play effectively with Horston.

This past season Burrell & Horston struggled to play together effectively at times. Jackson & Horston are both lead scorers that need to have the ball in their hands. Unless TN can figure out a way to play games with 2 basketballs, one of the two players will have to defer at times to the other.

Reese could be a game changer for UConn as she's got the ability to battle down low with the South Carolina/Stanford front courts and is virtually unstoppable offensively........it's unlikely she's headed to Storrs but one can hope.....

 

[LoboDays]

I understand that this whole Portal thing is with us and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s basically like free agency in pro sports. It creates an unwelcome cycle where portal players coming in to a team generates dissatisfied players entering the portal. I’m sure there will also High School players who will de-commit to schools that are bringing in players from the portal.

The search for a “game changer” will create poaching. I don’t follow the rules about all of this but there will be people representing schools who will get to these “game changers” and entice them to enter the portal and join their team. A sad by product of these new rules.

I’m not against players having the freedom to transfer. I will root for all players on my favorite team however they became part of it. But, part of the reason I enjoy college sports is watching players evolve from freshman to seniors. Now, there will be free agents coming in every year and players I was following and rooting for leaving. Just like the pros. I’ll just have to get used to it.

 

[Sargassoc]

While there are an infinite number of reasons to transfer, many of these kids have a flaw in their game or in their personality.

I think that many of these student-athletes (Covid transfer rules notwithstanding) will come to realize that transferring didn't get them any closer to where they wanted to be. That's because, of course, as oldude notes, they haven't taken stock of themselves first (I think of Kennitra Johnson, for example). Something didn't work out the first time, and it might have been the school, coach, or the environment, sure-- but everywhere you go, there you are. There will be clearly kids who just transferred their way out of a D1 scholarship, which might be sobering for other watching. I say might be because there is also a tendency among young people to think that their circumstances are different (and they might be right-- but they might not be).

What will be interesting to see is how many undergraduate students in the portal get picked up by no one and how that might affect the number of students in the future who will/will not go into the portal (which I know is impossible to measure because we're measuring something that doesn't happen). What does that number look like, I wonder?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Parrish at #9 on the list of impact transfers is a huge stretch. Maxwell at #18 is a much better player, as are many others I'm sure.

 

[GoingPostal]

As I said in another thread, the transfer portal also makes some coaches lazy. They no longer have to devote 2+ years recruiting a HS kid and then another year or two developing them at the college level. All they have to do now is spend a couple of weeks hitting the portal hard at the end of the season and they’re good to go.

Those coaches were probably already lazy. The portal makes them lazier.

 

[sun]

In addition to playing BB, it's about getting a free education and free room & board in the best environment and under the best circumstances that they can find.
Sure some of them want more PT, others simply want a better deal or more emotional satisfaction.
If they're unhappy enough to give up their benefits, then it's not worth it to some of them to risk their body & limb to continue on that combined academic & athletic career path.
Some of them probably don't even like their studies.
A lot of kids flunk out of school, so what makes WBB players any different to want to expend the extra effort?
It does require a considerable amount of intestinal fortitude for any student to graduate, never mind when combining academics in with playing BB.
It's challenging and some students just need time off to consider their options for their own well being.
Meanwhile, some others get to enjoy their 5th year playing while they take a break.

The women can always join the military and have their NCAA eligibility extended by their length of service.
Not everyone is gung ho about going to college to begin with when there are other options.
Some would probably rather get married, have kids or start working.
College life isn't all roses for everyone, and I can imagine that playing WCBB doesn't make everyone happy either.
Just because they bite the bullet doesn't mean that they're really enjoying themselves as much as they'd like.
Some do, some don't, it's probably a percentage of players that fluctuates within certain norms, depending on their academic & athletic background & social factors.

 

[Monte]

I am sick of hearing 2 words: Portal...and...Transfer

 

[pacific 44]

As oldude said,many girls who enter the transfer portal unknowingly give up their playing career. They now have to pay for that once free education if they no longer have a scholarship.

This the face of someone who just discovers that fact.