Just a week ago, the college basketball transfer portal opened. While some have critiqued the timing of it coinciding with March Madness, the largest, widest-sweeping critique has been the volume of players it has awarded freedom of movement to.
Currently, there are more than 1,000 college basketball players in the transfer portal. At the same time, for the second time in NCAA Tournament history, all four one-seeds have made the Final Four. It’s impossible to prove cause or correlation, but many have attributed a historic low number of upsets to players seeking greener pastures.
Out of every Sweet 16 team, Purdue was the only one with a starting five full of players who started their careers with the team they’re currently on. On the other hand, a team like Arizona didn’t start a single player from one of its own freshmen recruiting classes.
The transfer portal exists for a very simple reason: players deserve freedom. Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) of course plays into the destination, but the denial of freedom to find a better situation simply dehumanizes athletes.
Think of the bond between player and program like a relationship between two people. When a player chooses the program they’re going to spend his or her freshman year with, they do so based on what’s going to be best for them.
However, relationships can be tricky, and sometimes, what’s promised is rarely delivered. Maybe it's a former top recruit who wasn’t given priority within their current program, looking for a place where they can shine. Perhaps it’s a standout performer whose team didn’t give them the resources they needed, looking for a spotlight to win in.
Whatever it is, the transfer portal has allowed players to achieve their needs. While the beloved "Cinderella" story of a mid-major team battling its way deep into the NCAA Tournament didn’t come to fruition this year, the proliferation of individual Cinderellas has created a landscape of top teams like we’ve never seen before.
Despite its Elite Eight loss to Duke Saturday, Alabama is a prime example. The team’s two leading scorers, Mark Sears and Grant Nelson both came from mid-major programs – Ohio and North Dakota State – where they would have likely never been able to play on the stage they got to with Alabama.
Perhaps the best example was UConn’s 2024 NCAA Championship team. While their two highest draft picks, Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle, were underclassmen during the run, the Huskies would not have gotten there without mid-major transfers and leading scorers, Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer.
The top teams in the NCAA are always going to have success. They have the best coaches and recruiting classes for a reason, and it's not just money; it’s prestige. A player of Cooper Flagg’s caliber was always going to go to a program like Duke.
However, that has yet to take away from players like Johni Broome and Walter Clayton Jr. – upperclassmen from lesser programs showing they’re just as capable of leading a team to a national title as the well-decorated freshman sensations destined for the top pick in the NBA Draft.
The transfer portal hasn’t eliminated the Cinderella story, it’s expanded it. In the player-focused era we find ourselves in, the stories should be focused on that of the players, earning their way to the biggest stage in college basketball, deep into the NCAA Tournament, genuinely competing for college basketball’s top honor: a national championship.
Logan Adams is a junior studying journalism. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Logan know by tweeting him @LoganPAdams.
