After learning of [Kansas freshman Bryce Thompson’s decision to enter the transfer portal,][1] we have reached the point where the portal has more scholarship players from the 2020-21 Kansas basketball roster in it than the Jayhawks’ roster for next season.
As things stand today, the only scholarship players who are returning from the 2020-21 KU roster are Christian Braun, Dajuan Harris, Mitch Lightfoot and David McCormack.
That certainly could change if either Ochai Agbaji or Jalen Wilson — or both — elect to return to school for the 2021-22 season instead of keeping their names in the NBA draft pool. And at least one of them is likely to return.
But either way, it’s clear that next season’s KU roster is going to feature a whole bunch of new faces.
Get used to it.
Like it or not, we very well may be at the dawn of a new era in college basketball, where players move about more freely than ever before, looking for the right fit, the best opportunity, a fresh start or all three.
The transfer portal, which has seen close to 2,000 names added to it since the end of the 2020-21 season, is fast becoming *the place* for players to find what they’re looking for.
It’s also a place coaches can look to fill their needs.
Kansas coach Bill Self has gone on record saying that the portal, in conjunction with the expected passage of the one-time transfer exemption, is bad for the sport.
But as long as it’s a viable option for players, coaches are going to have to get used to using it, as well.
And there’s no reason that the whole thing can’t be a win-win for both sides.
Take the current situation with the Jayhawks as an example.
Of the five Kansas players who entered their name in the portal during the past couple of weeks, three (Latrell Jossell, Gethro Muscadin and Tyon Grant-Foster) were facing uphill climbs for meaningful playing time at KU.
The other two — Tristan Enaruna and Bryce Thompson — were both rotation players but also seemed to be closer to single-digit minutes on any given night than cracking the 30-minute mark.
Depending on what happens in the weeks to come, a case could be made that all five will land in situations that provide them with more minutes and better individual opportunities than what they were getting at Kansas.
Those might not come with the same exposure and pop that players get from playing at blue blood programs like Kansas and Kentucky, but NBA executives have proven that they will find you if you can play.
For Kansas, the opportunity to fill those vacated spots also represents a potential win. Especially in the short term.
No school, coach or program is immune to the rapidly rising transfer trend. And there’s not a whole lot of rest being had by head coaches around the country either.
Every program, big or small, has needs or is looking for some kind of an upgrade or replacement plan. And the portal is full of them.
Fans have gotten into the act, too. They see a particular player who they remember hearing about during his recruitment. Or they go straight to the position of greatest need for their favorite team (in KU’s case, that’s probably point guard) and immediately start scouring news about the portal for players who fit either of those descriptions, or, better yet, both.
It’s kind of like when you get pulled into a rabbit hole while watching YouTube videos. It starts innocently enough with a fun video that someone sent you or you saw on social media. And then you watch the recommended video after it. That makes you think of something else you’ve been meaning to check out and, three hours later, you’re still watching YouTube videos.
Don’t get me wrong, the transfer portal path has its benefits. There are a ton of players out there who either don’t fit at the school they’re at or have realized that they can’t quite play at the level they’re playing. So, for those players, moving on in search of more playing time and an all-around better experience makes a ton of sense.
There’s the flipside of that, too, involving the mid-major player who realized in the past year or so that he actually can play at a higher level and wants to test himself against the best of the best before his college days are done. I’m usually a big fan of loyalty and sticking with the program that helped make you, but it’s really hard to criticize these kids who want a shot at playing on the biggest stage.
Besides, if someone will sign them and give them a chance to do just that, it’s kind of hard to blame them for looking into it.
For example, there’s no telling yet what type of player now-former KU guard Latrell Jossell is going to become. His career, wherever it continues, will likely include some ups and downs, moments of growth and overall evolution as he matures and receives more opportunities to play.
In Drake transfer Joseph Yesufu, the Jayhawks are getting a proven commodity who is ready to step into the lineup right away.
I know this is not a true one-to-one trade type of scenario. Those do not exist in the college game. Thank goodness. But in a sense, that’s what we’re talking about here.
Jossell goes to a yet-to-be-determined program that will give him the room and opportunity to grow and develop through playing time. And Yesufu gets a shot to play on a bigger stage to see if his skills translate to the highest level of college basketball.
On the surface, it may seem like this only benefits the big boys, who now can poach talented players from smaller programs on an annual basis. But you’ll never convince me that what’s happening — both ways — is not a great opportunity for the kids. What’s more, some of those smaller programs now have access to players who were once deemed good enough to sign with Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, etc. That can be huge in terms of adding a missing piece to a decent program and also in terms of marketing and future recruiting for the player’s new school. All three aspects make college basketball better.
Where this gets scary is at the prep level. Not for the top 40 prospects in each recruiting class, of course, but for the guys ranked 100 and above, who in years past would have signed with programs like Kansas, Michigan, Oregon and Tennessee.
Sure, coaches at those programs, and countless other high-major Division I programs, can and will continue to recruit high school talent to fill out their rosters while hoping the players they pick pan out.
But we’ve all seen enough to know that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the player is not what the coaches expected. Sometimes the program doesn’t fit the player’s needs. And sometimes a signing like that can lead to a largely underwhelming career, with a decent player who gets little to no playing time taking up a roster spot for four years without making an impact or getting much out of the experience himself.
So instead of working hard for months — maybe even years — recruiting prep prospects who may or may not be what you think they are when they get to your campus, coaches now have the option to pluck a proven player from another Division I program who has shown what he can do at the level at which you compete.
It’s hard to resist that path, especially when you’re talking about upperclassmen who have matured both mentally and physically and can show up on your campus as ready-made players who just need to learn your system.
The middle-of-the-road high school prospect not only has to learn your system but also has to adjust to college, life away from home, a harder weight training program than ever before and a new relationship with the coaches who recruited him.
The flip side of that is that a lot coaches may wind up having to re-recruit their own players in order to convince them to stick around.
Who knows how it’ll all work out? As the years go by, most programs, and many players, are likely to both benefit and suffer from the challenges and opportunities that come with the transfer portal.
And until the rules are changed to keep this kind of movement from happening, you’re likely to see it continue to grow year after year.
Whether that’s a good thing or not is a whole other conversation. But it is a thing. And programs from coast to coast are in the thick of navigating their way through it.
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2021/apr/13/kansas-freshman-bryce-thompson-latest-jayhawk-ente/
