I along with others (Jeff Goodman, Jon Rothstein, etc) thought if you get talented, veteran players from the portal that you’re building a dangerous tournament team. That building your team from the portal could be the future of college basketball.
2 teams that have proved that theory wrong:
Oregon
Arkansas
Arkansas loses at home tonight to Vandy. And are currently not projected in the tournament
Arkansas brought in 6 transfers! The magic number is probably 3, like we did… And you have to have a culture in place to teach those transfers.
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Duce630
(DustinK - I Stand With Israel - Bring Them Home)
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Is it the transfer portal or the recruiting and coaching that’s the problem?
Oregon’s coach Dana Altaman, has done pretty well with transfers. And is a good coach.
How you recruit these transfers is an issue:
Cause you tell a veteran player, come to my program. You’ll be a starter, etc.
Well what if the transfer isn’t playing well, and is moved to a bench role. Is he happy or does he feel he was lied to by the coach. And isn’t getting big minutes like promised.
That’s obviously an issue with all recruiting. Over promising.
Another team that brought in a bunch of transfers, Texas Longhorns. Still don’t know how good they are.
Musselman plays an obnoxious style. If your guys know each other thats fine. And Arky can beat anyone on any given night. They can also lose to anyone. They wear you out. But sometimes they can’t shoot a lick.
Took a quick look at the current T-25 teams’ rosters to see how many teams had a transfer starting. The answer was 17/25. 10 of those teams had multiple starters.
Auburn: 4 transfers, 13-1, #9
ISU: 4 transfers, 13-1, #11
UH: 3 transfers, 13-2, #13
UT: 3 transfers, 12-2, #14
Kentucky: 3 transfers, 11-3, #16
Seton Hall: 3 transfers, 10-3, #24
Providence: 2 transfers, 13-2, #16
LSU: 2 transfers, 13-1, #21
Xavier: 2 transfers, 11-2, #22
Texas Tech, 10-3, #25
The following 7 teams all have 1 starter that transferred in: Baylor, Gonzaga, UCLA, Kansas, USC, Michigan St., Ohio St.
The following 8 teams have zero starters that transferred in: Duke, Purdue, Arizona, Alabama, Tennessee, Villanova, CSU, Wisconsin
Note that’s players that transferred in this year. You could probably add a few more names to that list if you included players that transferred in previously.
Yup. Or even look at last year’s Final Four. UH started 4 transfers. Baylor had transfers make up 2 of its starting lineup and 4 of its top 7 rotation players. And Juzang pretty much single handedly carried UCLA from the First Four to the Final Four.
With the exception of maybe Duke, pretty much every high major is recruiting from the portal. And the most important factors to winning remain coaching, culture, talent, experience, and roster construction—regardless the roster is made up of HS, juco, or D1 transfers.
My point with the transfer portal is, the teams that have a good nucleus and go to the portal to grab an extra piece to their team
That’s the way to do it.
Baylor had Mayer, Flagler, Cryer, Tchamwa Tchatchoua, Thamba returning from last year.
And then they go get Akinjo from the portal, who’s really bought into his role and he’s been excellent
The transfer portal is still a good thing.
But, unselfish players are the key.
All the guys we’ve brought in have just bought in. Taze Moore is a 5th year guy, if he has only 5 points, that doesn’t affect his effort or his defense.
Yah the Martin kid just hasn’t gelled. Didn’t watch enough of his game at ASU to know exactly what’s up with him.
I’ll slightly disagree with you about Oregon. I think they’ve turned into a pretty good team. They may fall on the wrong side of the bubble but they could also win the Pac 12 tourney.
I think perhaps the lesson we’ve learned about the portal is that you can build a strong roster with it but it may take til very late in the season for the team to come together. In some cases (like Oregon) that slow start may be costly for a team’s chances at receiving an at-large.