From ‘shunned’ to hot commodity, the role of transfers changed markedly

As of Friday afternoon, nearly 1,400 college basketball players had entered the NCAA’s transfer portal this year, according to verbalcommits.com. That’s about 400 more than the previous year and about 30 percent of all Division I players.

Jerry Meyer, a recruiting analyst for 247Sports, put those numbers in perspective.

“There was a time you were shunned, and you kind of had a red mark against you if you transferred,” Meyer said. To transfer suggested a lack of perseverance, loyalty and/or ability to handle adversity.

“You’re just going to run and transfer, that’s how all that was looked at,” Meyer said. “So, the times have changed. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

Kentucky is no stranger to transfers coming and going. Since 2017-18, Reid Travis, Nate Sestina, Davion Mintz, Olivier Sarr, Kellan Grady and Oscar Tshiebwe have been among the transfers joining UK teams. In that time, Devin Askew, Cam’Ron Fletcher, Johnny Juzang, Quade Green, Jemarl Baker Jr. and Brad Calipari said goodbye.

Helping fuel the growing number of transfers is the expectation bordering on assurance that the NCAA will approve a rule change by the end of the month in which players will be allowed to transfer once without having to sit out a season.

Tshiebwe’s high school coach, Rick Mancino, acknowledged that this change can be frowned upon.

“Everybody’s against this transfer rule,” he said. “And I understand it looks like it’s bad.

“But I don’t know how you expect an 18-year-old to make — seriously — a lifetime decision. I don’t see anything wrong with (players) being able to transfer one time.”

How widespread is the desire to transfer? Of the 76 programs in what could be called the Power Six conferences (ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Big East), only three have not had a player enter his name in the transfer portal: Alabama, Michigan and UCLA. Fifty-seven of the programs — including UK (Askew, Fletcher) — have had multiple players enter the transfer portal.

Alabama Coach Nate Oats cited three factors in his program avoiding a transfer departure this year: winning, tender loving care and player improvement.

“Our skill development is at the top of our list of priorities,” he said. “We have not had the downside of the portal ruling. We’ve gotten the positive side of it. Being able to add pieces each year. Hopefully, we can continue to add pieces, and not lose pieces we’d like to retain.

“I certainly don’t want to quit recruiting high school guys. There’s really good players coming out of high school every year that I’d like to get.”

Alabama added Jordan Bruner as a grad transfer from Yale this past season. Sophomore guard Jahvon Quinerly, a transfer from Villanova, had to sit out the 2019-20 season after losing an appeal to gain immediate eligibility.

Meyer suggested college coaches turned more to the transfer portal this year because of restrictions on recruiting travel because of the coronavirus.

Victor Martin, the director of the AAU program that once included Askew as a player, suggested there’s less guesswork for coaches with players in the portal.

“They can get stats,” he said of college coaches. “They can get film. And they have a college career (to review). … If you’re a four- or five-star athlete, they’ll still recruit you.

“If you’re a three or two, they’re kind of, like, uh, we don’t have enough film on you. And they’re really recruiting out of the portal real heavy.”

Oats offered a bottom line.

“You want to stay old,” the Alabama coach said of roster management these days. The transfer portal should not replace high school recruiting, “but I certainly think it can enhance and fill in what you don’t have on your roster.”

Sports and society

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver participated in a Duke Sports and Entertainment Law Symposium last week. He was asked about athletes protesting social injustice, a timely topic given how Major League Baseball removed this year’s All-Star Game from Atlanta in reaction to a new Georgia law that civil rights groups say is designed to restrict access to voting.

And when the NBA finished last season in a Disneyworld “bubble,” the slogan Black Lives Matter was painted on the courts. Players wore masks and T-shirts adorned with that and other like-minded messages.

In the aftermath of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, it would have seemed “completely tone-deaf to restart our season and not be focused on those issues as well,” Silver said.

Silver said sports has long played a role in society. He cited Jackie Robinson and Arthur Ashe as trailblazers in the fight for equality.

“Our Babe Ruth is still alive in Bill Russell,” Silver said. “He still talks about these issues.”

Russell was at the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

Sports leagues served as an example “where you saw opportunity, a so-called level playing field and an objective demonstration of equality,” Silver said.

As for the new Georgia law that some see as intended to limit voting, Silver said, “If there’s ever an issue there should be a bipartisan approach, it’s voting rights.”

‘Street cred’

During his appearance on the Duke Sports and Entertainment Law Symposium, former Blue Devils standout Grant Hill said that players in his time (early 1990s) were “kind of unaware” of any antipathy Black Americans might have for the program. The players then lived in an athletics “bubble,” he said.

And now?

“I think Duke basketball has more street cred now …,” Hill said before speculating on the possible reason. “Maybe it’s embracing the one-and-done culture.”

‘Unofficial Dukie’

Earlier this month, USA Basketball named Grant Hill as the men’s national team managing director. He will replace the retiring Jerry Colangelo after the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled for July 23-Aug. 8.

Hill, who is a vice chairman in the Atlanta Hawks front office and a CBS basketball analyst, reflected on Mike Krzyzewski’s record as a head and assistant coach for USA Basketball teams (11 gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals).

During his NBA playing days, Hill was a team captain at times. The pregame meetings with referees could include opposing team captains who had played for Krzyzewski-coached teams in the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup. These players would include Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.

“Guys, you’re an unofficial Dukie,” Hill recalled telling these players. “You’ve had Coach K as your coach.”

Hill saw significance in an “unofficial Dukie” playing for Krzyzewski in more than one competition. “They valued that experience,” he said.

‘Sweetest text’

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020-21 season required players, coaches and fans to be ready to adjust to a positive COVID-19 test.

Vanderbilt Coach Jerry Stackhouse spoke late in the season about the relief he felt each time he learned that all his players had tested negative.

“That’s the sweetest text I can receive,” he said.

Condolences

To the family of Alabama fan Luke “Fluff” Ratliff. He died at age 23 on April 2 from what the Alabama student newspaper, The Crimson White, and The Tuscaloosa News reported was COVID-19 complications.

Alabama Coach Nate Oats and assistant coach Bryan Hodgson spoke at Ratliff’s funeral. Some players and managers served as pallbearers.

“I just felt like he was one of us,” Oats said on a teleconference last week. “He had been over to my house in the fall.”

Hodgson had taken Ratliff to dinner two nights before the fan died.

Ratliff had attended 44 of Alabama’s 45 most recent games.

“My heart goes out to the family,” Oats said. “We’re going to keep his spirit and what he’s about kindled around here.

“I’m glad the last season he was able to participate in ended up being as good a season as it was.”

Happy birthday

To Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He turned 74 on Friday. … To Dwane Casey. He turned 64 on Saturday. … To Derrick Millar. He turns 53 on Sunday (today). … To Nate Knight. He turns 43 on Sunday (today). … To Michael Bradley. He turns 42 on Sunday (today). … To former UK and Cincinnati Reds player Doug Flynn. He turns 70 on Sunday (today). … To ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg. He turns 65 on Sunday (today). … To Scott Padgett. He turns 45 on Monday. … To Ashley Judd. She turns 53 on Monday. … To former Tennessee star Candace Parker. She turns 35 on Monday. … To former Tennessee star Allan Houston. He turns 50 on Tuesday.

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