2021 Transfers

[Savannah Jay]

Can well oiled machines with thick, rich cultures - like Villanova and Gonzaga - "plug and play" effectively in this transfer environment?

Few seems to be able to bring pieces to the Gonzaga program, and he appears to mesh them both rather quickly and effectively.

13 kids on a team. One to a few of them walk-ons. The rest are on scholarship. Do you build a core group from recruiting and augment that group from a now new constantly revolving manpower door?

This will get interesting. Having a strong, likeable, effective coach is now more important than ever. And that brings me back to Nova and the Zags. They would appear to be well positioned with Jay and Few at their respective helms for a while.

Beyond all this, it's all about to become more of a crapshoot.

Dash - to your point (or your question), Gonzaga had one starter last night that played at Florida last year (Nembhard) and one that was a freshman (Suggs) so they've done the plug and play. Kispert and Suggs (and perhaps others) will be in the league next year and Gonzaga will be good again. Just diff names and numbers (one of whom being the kid from Omaha).

The manpower door has always been revolving at colleges, given the eligibility "cap" at 4 years (or 8 if your grant gibbs). It's just going to revolve a little faster for a few years (or forever).

[Xudash]

Can well oiled machines with thick, rich cultures - like Villanova and Gonzaga - "plug and play" effectively in this transfer environment?

Few seems to be able to bring pieces to the Gonzaga program, and he appears to mesh them both rather quickly and effectively.

13 kids on a team. One to a few of them walk-ons. The rest are on scholarship. Do you build a core group from recruiting and augment that group from a now new constantly revolving manpower door?

This will get interesting. Having a strong, likeable, effective coach is now more important than ever. And that brings me back to Nova and the Zags. They would appear to be well positioned with Jay and Few at their respective helms for a while.

Beyond all this, it's all about to become more of a crapshoot.

Dash - to your point (or your question), Gonzaga had one starter last night that played at Florida last year (Nembhard) and one that was a freshman (Suggs) so they've done the plug and play. Kispert and Suggs (and perhaps others) will be in the league next year and Gonzaga will be good again. Just diff names and numbers (one of whom being the kid from Omaha).

The manpower door has always been revolving at colleges, given the eligibility "cap" at 4 years (or 8 if your grant gibbs). It's just going to revolve a little faster for a few years (or forever).

Good point.

As an aside, but also as a direct comment on the revolving door, I find Cole Swider to be a fascinating example of part of the current craziness. He was down to Xavier and Nova, if I recall correctly, and he obviously went with Nova. That one hurt (us / me). At any rate, fast forward to the present and he now places himself in the portal.

Some of the fans posting on XH are taking a "hard pass" on him, due primarily to his perceived (relative) slowness and lack of athleticism - not to suggest that he would consider X if X offered, which I doubt will happen. The world was his oyster coming out of HS and he certainly landed well on his feet on the Mainline. Yet now he finds himself where he finds himself.

Recruiting can be a tough gig, and a given player's profile certainly can be fluid, ebbing and flowing from year to year. I guess I am at least amazed that this one specific individual is leaving the school of his choice.

[Savannah Jay]

Good point.

As an aside, but also as a direct comment on the revolving door, I find Cole Swider to be a fascinating example of part of the current craziness. He was down to Xavier and Nova, if I recall correctly, and he obviously went with Nova. That one hurt (us / me). At any rate, fast forward to the present and he now places himself in the portal.

Some of the fans posting on XH are taking a "hard pass" on him, due primarily to his perceived (relative) slowness and lack of athleticism - not to suggest that he would consider X if X offered, which I doubt will happen. The world was his oyster coming out of HS and he certainly landed well on his feet on the Mainline. Yet now he finds himself where he finds himself.

Recruiting can be a tough gig, and a given player's profile certainly can be fluid, ebbing and flowing from year to year. I guess I am at least amazed that this one specific individual is leaving the school of his choice.

This is the essence of recruiting right now. Is Swider leaving because (a) Jay Wright sold him a bill of goods (least likely scenario, IMO) or (b) he just didn't develop the way everyone thought he would or (c) he has a better understanding of college level skill set and where he may be a better fit or (d) he's too far from his girlfriend or (e) an advisor got in his ear about developing better elsewhere or (any number of reasons).

I am in favor of the one time transfer rule because kids (16 or 17 years old) make decisions based on information they have at the time of decision. That information can come from a variety of sources and can have a "variety of truths" attached to the info. After some time in a college program, presumably, the player is a little older and wiser about the college game and their skill set. We had a kid that chose Kansas over CU and now is in the portal. Many folks, albeit CU homers, postulated at the time that he would end up in the portal. And here we are...

Having said that...it was a kick in the shorts to read about Christian last night mostly because i loved watching the kid play. So much effort and joy all the time. But fully support the idea that he now knows what he is/can be at Creighton (which is a very athletic but undersized center) and he knows that his basketball future is not as a 6'7" center. Hard when ya love em and they leave ya.

[DudeAnon]

The transfer portal is a disaster for college basketball. If Mark Emmert were even somewhat competent he would be working to fix this. Instead, he is busy pinching his pennies and fighting in the supreme court.

[Omaha1]

Koby McEwen leaving Marquette for Weber State? I know Creighton really wanted him before he went to Marquette.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

The transfer portal is a disaster for college basketball. If Mark Emmert were even somewhat competent he would be working to fix this.

It definitely needs fixing.

2021 College Basketball Transfer Portal – 247Sports – updated April 7, 2021

2021 College Basketball Transfer Portal – VerbalCommits – updated April 7, 2021

Total 2021 Transfers To Date: 1253

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[XUFan09]

The transfer portal is a disaster for college basketball. If Mark Emmert were even somewhat competent he would be working to fix this. Instead, he is busy pinching his pennies and fighting in the supreme court.

It's a new thing that coincides with seniors getting an extra year if they want it; it's a perfect storm. It will settle down after a couple years.

[Hall2012]

The transfer portal is a disaster for college basketball. If Mark Emmert were even somewhat competent he would be working to fix this. Instead, he is busy pinching his pennies and fighting in the supreme court.

It's a new thing that coincides with seniors getting an extra year if they want it; it's a perfect storm. It will settle down after a couple years.

Especially because I believe everyone's only getting 1 free transfer (I could be wrong, but I sure hope not). We may see a domino effect into next year with a lot incoming freshman seeing themselves pushed aside for transfers and returning seniors but I do think it will ultimately settle down.

[DudeAnon]

The transfer portal is a disaster for college basketball. If Mark Emmert were even somewhat competent he would be working to fix this. Instead, he is busy pinching his pennies and fighting in the supreme court.

It's a new thing that coincides with seniors getting an extra year if they want it; it's a perfect storm. It will settle down after a couple years.

Especially because I believe everyone's only getting 1 free transfer (I could be wrong, but I sure hope not). We may see a domino effect into next year with a lot incoming freshman seeing themselves pushed aside for transfers and returning seniors but I do think it will ultimately settle down.

I hope you're right, but the trend was already worrying before this year. Last year multiple Xavier players got pushed out by transfers. KyKy, Wilcher and Ramsey (somewhat) were pushed out by Kunkel, Johnson, Griffin and Stanley. Now I don't think it was wrong to give minutes to the better players because that is how sports work. But the fact remains that those players committed to Xavier with a full understanding of the roster and their place in it. Within 2 years there were as many transfers as recruits and now they find themselves on the outside looking in. And as much as I love Kunkel and Johnson, I would've rather lost more games and saw Kyky and Wilcher grow into their roles over a 4 year career. Oh well.

[xufan02]

Coaches don't get paid to lose. Also, who is to say that if KyKy and Wilcher played more they still would be on the roster in the offseason? With the portal even players who log heavy minutes leave. Talk to a Georgetown fan about Wahab, a lot of examples of guys who played 25+ minutes with the ball in their hands and still leaving.