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Message: [QUOTE="BfromCT, post: 5256192, member: 10542"] It has become apparent over the last few years that NIL and ease of transfer (rent a basketball player) have profoundly reshaped basketball and not all in a good direction. We have seen the emergence of huge super conferences (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12) and with the remaining conferences of mid-majors and lower division 1 teams of essentially becoming feeders for the big ones. Economic greed has led to the destruction of the PAC with all its teams except for Oregon State and Washington State going to other conferences. The game is controlled by the four big conferences. Only one team from the other conferences (UConn) won more than one game in the recent tournament and we had two no. 1 seeds from the Big Ten and the other two from the SEC. UConn represents an anomaly because the bulk of the team consists of talent that has been recruited and signed by Geno and his team. It almost seems as if the Huskies are a basketball unicorn. They represent a non power conference and rely primarily on players who have signed for the long haul. We expect, however, the UConn will use the portal to get one-year player to strengthen the center position and Geno has wisely used the transfer portal to obtain a player just about every year to fill in a gap. Now that Qadence Samuels has decided to transfer, it is possible that the Huskies will add a second, but the principle remains and the team has never to my memory lost an essential player who is part of the rotation and no one who has ever become a star at another school. I can think of no other major basketball power that relies so little on the portal, although there may be others. Every other contender and pretender for a national championship relies much more heavily on transfers. Think LSU, Louisville, TCU, South Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, etc. Louisville and Maryland seem to reload every year and Notre Dame will probably bring in 3-4 players before next season. According to ESPN, UCLA has had six players enter the portal and one person transferring in. It’s the wild, wild west. What a tribute it is to Geno, Chris Dailey, and the rest of the staff that the bulk of the team consists year after year of players who have signed out of high school and remain for four years. How lucky we are! [/QUOTE]

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