Bohls: Suddenly, transfers are everywhere you look in college hoops, even the Final Four

HOUSTON — Suddenly, there’s hope.

Hope for Tulsa, which went 1-17 in the American Athletic Conference this season. Hope for Louisville, which went a hideous 4-28 on the year.

And Georgetown, which couldn’t get out of its own way. Or Cal Poly which won one of its 19 games in the Big West. Or any other bottom feeder.

All of them can legitimately dream of reaching the Final Four now. Roster makeovers can happen overnight. Today’s transfer out becomes tomorrow’s transfer in. The tournament might never be the same. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The Final Four could use a little touch-up.

It certainly got one this year with three teams who had never been to a Final Four before. Now they may just be here to rub elbows with powerhouse UConn, which has thoroughly enjoyed its little invitational.

The Huskies have shown their gratitude by blowing out its five opponents, including Miami in Saturday night's semifinal, with a lopsided margin of 103 points. Thanks for stopping by, you guys. Don’t forget your parting gift.

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In any event, this fine American institution of crowning the blue blood du jour — or de l’annee —  has evolved from total elitism to an egalitarian mode. We’ve now seen a full-blown democracy. If a Florida Atlantic can get here, anybody can. Which is not to discredit the school, which definitely has something to sell recruits with a campus less than two miles from the beach. And the Owls were good, really good.

And the boys from Boca came within an eyelash of qualifying for the national championship game, which on the surface would have been a little akin to UMass meeting Georgia for next year’s football title.

However, in today’s world, this FAU team can become an overnight sensation. Until March, it had never won an NCAA Tournament game. So naturally it beat No. 4 seed Tennessee and No. 3 Kansas State here and won more games than any team in college basketball with 35 victories. The Owls lost just two games since November until Saturday night’s heartbreak on a buzzer beater by San Diego State’s Lamont Butler.

All it takes for a team nowadays is a deep dive into the transfer portal, some well-heeled boosters providing NIL money and solid coaching. Or be a powerhouse like the UConn machine which clubbed Miami into submission.  And barely breathed hard.

The rest? Most relied on transfers, a friendly whistle and some king-size peaking at the right time in this best of all sporting events. Even the Huskies had three transfers, including guard Tristen Newton from East Carolina who had seven points, eight assists and five rebounds in the 72-59 win over Miami.

“The culture of college basketball has completely changed,” Canes coach Jim Larrañaga said. “The transfer portal is the single most important change in the game. And it’s happening everywhere. That’s the name of the game.”

For most, especially if you’re not Duke or North Carolina. But even they’re dipping their toes in. This could become the haves and the may-haves soon.

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“Who knows where this thing is going?” UConn’s Dan Hurley said. “For us, I don’t want a kid to pick my school because we matched an NIL offer or we gave the best offer. I want kids to come to UConn because they want to play for me.”

Dreamer.

He’s expressing a notion a lot of old-school coaches cling to. But they’ll all eventually adjust or be rolled over. Or retire like a Jay Wright or a Roy Williams. Won’t surprise if other big-name coaches get out sooner than later.

This is the new reality that’s come to college basketball. Nothing’s been more impactful than the transfer portal, which has become the new lifeblood of the sport.

An eye-popping 69 transfers played on the Sweet 16 clubs in the last month. San Diego State sports five, none bigger than Matt Bradley, the sharpshooter who left Cal.

Heck, Texas had six and could use six more now that Marcus Carr, Timmy Allen, Christian Bishop and Jabari Rice have played their final games for the Longhorns with Vanderbilt transfer Dylan Disu and maybe others still undecided about their plans. Tyrese Hunter is exploring his NBA potential, too.

The Longhorns’ bid for a title was doomed by Miami, which is the poster team for the portal. It’s been well-chronicled that Kansas State’s Nijel Pack headed east to Coral Gables after pocketing a two-year deal worth $800,000. The Wildcats weren’t exactly shy about working the portal either as they had 12 transfers on their roster, none bigger than Tournament sensation Markquis Nowell (Arkansas-Little Rock) and Keyontae Johnson (Florida).

Neither of the Big 12 teams got to Houston, but both came within a whisker of doing so.

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Don’t look for this to be the final time you’ll see Final Four interlopers intrude on the hallowed grounds that used to belong to just the Kansases or Kentuckys of the world.

Monday night’s pairing has some old school in four-time national champion UConn and also new flavor in upstart San Diego State, both of which punched their tickets to the title game in wildly divergent manner Saturday night.

San Diego State's Butler was the man of the hour. Or last second actually. The junior guard became a modern-day Christian Laettner and carved a spot for himself among other legendary shot-makers by burying a jumper at the buzzer to beat FAU.

“We’re one of the biggest things in San Diego,” said Darrion Trammell, a San Diego State point guard who transferred from Seattle University.

Or the whole country.

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Of course, nothing about this event screamed your normal NCAA Tournament, and it officially became The Final Four Out of Nowhere when a foursome that were anything but household names converged on NRG Stadium.

Not a No. 1 seed in the house.

Heck, no 2 seed or 3 seed made it through to the final weekend either. Instead, America was treated to a 9 versus a 4 and a 4 against a 5 and survived.

And much of the blame — or credit, depending upon your point of view — can be placed at the feet of the transfer portal. It’s only the biggest innovation in college basketball and every other sport since the 3-point line or the forward pass.

Players love it.

Coaches hate it until they love it. But still probably hate it.

Administrators don’t mind it because they don’t have to foot the NIL bill and can let boosters do that.

Fans despise it unless these new players are coming to their team, and then they’re fine with it.

And television doesn’t quite know what to make of it, but CBS is probably more concerned with why a Duke or a UCLA isn’t here this weekend.

Ratings might be down for this Final Four not because of all these transfers hanging around but because, well, Caitlin Clark didn’t play for a men’s team and there’s really not a superstar equivalent in the men’s bracket. This is the first time no McDonald’s All-American hero is at the Final Four.

Transfers aren’t essential to every program. Heck, Georgia’s football team lost 15 draftees to the NFL a year ago, didn’t add a single transfer and won it all again. This year Kirby Smart grabbed three, two of them receivers in part because one, AD Mitchell, is a Longhorn now.

But transfers abound, and this could be the new normal. As of Sunday morning, 786 basketball players were hanging in the portal, waiting for a bite.

West Virginia’s Bob Huggins isn’t sure what to make of it.

“On one hand, it’s tough,” the Hall of Famer said. “Guys are coming in from different systems, different styles of coaching. But on the flip side, you get some fresh players because the guys you’ve had three or four years know what you’re going to say before you even say it.”

For that matter, the NCAA could use a fresh approach.

It’s got a new man at the top, former Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker, who largely inherits a mess as new president of the NCAA because he’s got to deal with the transfer portal and name, image and likeness without any guards rails. The NCAA would be wise to push for a one-time-only transfer that carries immediate eligibility to discourage such nomadic movement.

He’s looking for help from Congress, which has one or two other priorities like immigration, a burgeoning deficit, global warming, Social Security insolvency and the Russia-Ukraine war before it gets to NIL.

Still, Baker’s looking in their direction, if mainly because the NCAA was too inept to solve this before it became a full-blown crisis.

“If you want to have a national standard,” Baker told a group of us reporters, “it’s going to be very hard to do that without federal legislation.”

And we’re sure they’ll get right on it.

In the meantime, someone like Aztec guard Trammell had more perspective as he said to expect “just more March madness.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Transfers, transfers everywhere to be found in college basketball now