How the transfer portal has transformed college basketball

The transfer portal, appropriately referred to as “the portal” by many, the relatively new and unknown phenomenon has permanently changed the way that college basketball teams are assembled.

“The transfer portal has changed college basketball,” Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga said.

Larrañeaga and the Hurricanes are coming off a season that featured the program’s first Final Four berth, reaping the benefits of a starting lineup headlined by Jordan Miller, Norchad Omier and Nigel Pack — all pickups in the transfer portal.

The turnstile-esque shifting of college rosters has created opportunities for athletes to jump from school to school with ease.

For many athletes, the transfer portal has granted the ability to elevate to higher levels following elite play at lower conferences.

Take Virginia Tech graduate forward Mekhi Long, for example. Long transferred to VT following three productive seasons at Old Dominion, making the jump from the Sun Belt to the ACC. He transferred from Rhode Island to ODU in 2020 following his freshman year.

"After my freshman year, I was worried about which schools we’re going to call me because my stats weren’t that good as a freshman, plus [dealing with] COVID,” Long said. “What I was going to do, I was going to go JUCO or stay on the same level or go lower, but this [transfer] I knew I was going to go higher than the Sun Belt.”

Long is one of the hundreds of players who hopped in the portal last season, but he’s one of the few that was fortunate enough to find a spot this year.

According to On3.com, over 1100 college basketball players entered the portal this offseason, with only 525 (46%) having committed as of the writing of this story.

Over half of the players that try to transfer end up without a home, eventually buried beneath the next wave of unclaimed transfers to follow in the year to come a year later.

That leaves a lot of open roster spots — especially at the Division III and Division II levels — initiating a country-wide scramble for the best players left in the portal. The top players get bombarded with calls and texts from coaches around the country, many from programs that have virtually no shot at actually landing them.

One of the top players in the Big Ten last season at Northwestern, Virginia Tech graduate forward Robbie Beran narrowed his transfer decision down to the Hokies and Miami, but that didn’t stop a plethora of Division III and Division II schools from reaching out to the coveted big man.

“Once I was in [the portal] and coaches started calling, you kind of feel out who’s genuinely interested and who’s just reaching out because they see a name in the portal,” Beran said. “There were many schools that I had no intention on going to, like small Division III’s that just see a name in the portal and then they’re going to send an email or a DM, because ‘why not?’ That’s the name of the game [in the portal], especially in these lower-level schools, trying to get anybody.”

The proverbial arms race in college basketball has granted teams the ability to create powerhouses as quickly as a few months. Young teams can add veteran leaders and squads with closing championship windows are able to nab young stars to provide an extra push.

With longtime Tech forward Justyn Mutts graduating this past spring, head coach Mike Young needed another veteran player to fill the leadership position he left. A few months later Beran landed in Blacksburg, giving Young an experienced player to help anchor his young team.

“I’m looking to bring that veteran presence,” Beran said. “[I’ve] obviously played in a lot of college basketball games. Winning is hard in college. It’s funny to say, but you gotta learn how to win and close games.”

The portal will continue to catalyze the evolution of college basketball, allowing some coaches to complete rebuild projects as quickly as a few months, while leaving unlucky coaches with incomplete rosters and many players without homes.

Similar to the uncharted territory that many players face when entering their name into the portal, the world of college basketball will continue to move as the transfer portal dictates — and everyone in the sport will be along for the ride.