Battleground of the Transfer Portal
It is no secret that the “Transfer Portal” has taken over all collegiate sports. For many
years, it was the battle of intel for coaches to land formidable transfers across all three
NCAA divisions. On October 15, 2018, that all changed with the launch of the NCAA
Transfer Portal, as college coaches now possess the NCAA-wide equally accessible
database and compliance tool to manage and facilitate their college athletes during the
transfer process. The first question I would like to pose is, “Why would a college player
choose to transfer in the first place?” Despite the long, arduous process college
coaches take in recruiting individual prospects and the emotions behind the player’s
decision to join the program, there are many times that it doesn’t end up as the right fit.
This can stem from several factors on and off the court. The player may believe he can
have a more prominent role at a smaller program, might be able to get more NIL money
at a larger program, or potentially, the coaches change the player’s role, which causes
dysfunction in the locker room amongst teammates. With an unimaginable number of
possible reasons, the prospect will seek a new home that gives them the “grass is
greener” promise and leaves behind their former program. With over 1,800 men’s college basketball players utilizing the portal in just NCAA Division 1 alone, it accounted for over half of the roster turnover outside of players graduating.

In an article published earlier this March by The Tennessean titled College
Sports will implode if we don’t fix the problem with the transfer portal and NIL, recently
retired Coastal Carolina men’s head basketball and coaching legend, Cliff Ellis was interviewed. Coach Ellis made the following statement regarding the tragedy of this transfer portal and NIL,

“Perhaps most importantly and so very, unfortunately, education gets lost in this system. “Student” is no longer a valued part of the athlete’s experience. Fans are losing interest in the game because they can’t keep up with players in the portal’s revolving doors, and when it becomes the same old dancers with no Cinderellas, fan support will wane further.”

This recent industry shift has also caused many college basketball coaches to
leave Power Five schools despite their success with their respective programs or leave
the college coaching profession entirely due to the dramatic alter the portal has caused
with job security. It has made a team-first winning program a nearly indescribable
obstacle for coaches to climb. It has also been reported to have had an impact on
coaches’ relationships within the industry. Many face the reality of altering program
values to win and maintain employment at their collegiate level. What was an already
highly political race for the best talent through the high school recruiting process has
been taken to a whole new level through the portal.

Navigating the JUCO Landscape
Recruiting talent from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) has
been a staple for all college sports for many decades. Attending a junior college can be
an excellent option for a college prospect to get their grades up to par to get into that
higher-caliber school they desire while also shaping their skills and developing their
collegiate speed and toughness against a wider competition pool. Why might a college
coach recruit at the JUCO level? There are many reasons college coaches are fearless in getting their feet wet in the wild terrain of the 2-year college programs. Many college
programs are trying to focus on player development of their younger top high school
recruits while managing to stay competitive and win. This is my favorite strategy for
building a successful college program. A school gets to nearly promise the older and more mature players with two years of college experience the opportunity to start and have a significant role in the moment, while their younger high school players get to compete against better talent in practice and learn the idea of “earning their minutes” later on in their college athletic careers.

JUCO is also a great place to find tough players. Every coach is looking for players that provide
toughness and grit in every possession, and there is no better way to instill that in your program than recruiting talent that has been viewed as overlooked and undervalued. Whether it was due to grades, injuries in high school, international misses, or immaturity during the recruiting process, these players missed the first go around. With their second opportunity, they will bring that extra fire to the court. It takes a keen eye for talent evaluation to determine whether a JUCO player is solid enough to step on the floor at the next level. As I participated in recruiting and film study in college, my assistant coach would always ask me, “Does this kid seem like an NCAA Division 2 kid?” or, “What qualities on the court do you see translating to our Division 2 level?”

Many of those players I was watching were actually NCAA Division 1 caliber talent, he just
wanted to test me! The eye test is critically important when scouting and evaluating talent. My mentors have always recommended watching two games of a kid on film and two in person to determine if he is the type of talent I should recruit. The hardest part about scouting JUCO talent is getting to a game in person. Many are not located in your backyard like the regional or home state high schools; you might have to watch a handful of tapes on a kid, interview him over a Zoom call, and potentially offer and bring him in, and then hope for the best. When recruiting JUCO, you don’t always get to build relationships with the parents and family like that of high school recruits. However, the immediate impact of winning is typically worth it.