NCAA Basketball: Analyzing the 5 finalists for Yale grad transfer Paul Atkinson

There are now five NCAA Basketball programs in the running to land talented Yale grad transfer Paul Atkinson.

The NCAA Basketball season has continued for almost everyone, with the exception of the Ivy League. The conference, which was the first to shut down last season when the Covid-19 pandemic became a national story, has decided not to play all at in 2020-21. That has sidelined a lot of talented basketball players, including Paul Atkinson, who made the move to enter the transfer portal.

Among the plenty of now-former Ivy League Basketball players, Atkinson is easily the most coveted. After two strong years as a role player scoring around 9.0 ppg, the 6’10 power forward had a breakout junior campaign. The Yale big man averaged a team-leading 17.6 ppg and 7.3 rpg last season, winning Co-Ivy League Player of the Year.

Atkinson only took 13 three-point attempts and is more comfortable playing in the paint. He developed a great post-game inside and should be a power conference-level contributor. Due to the unique circumstances of this NCAA Basketball season, the forward may be able to play as soon as possible.

That’s because not only is he a graduate transfer but the NCAA recently passed a waiver, allowing all transfers to be able to play immediately. A pending vote in the offseason will make this official going forward. What’s better for Atkinson is that the NCAA also has given all players an extra year of eligibility, meaning that he’ll be able to play in the second half of this season, as well as all of next year for his next team.

As the tweet above says, there are five programs in the running for Atkinson. In this rare situation, I’ll be looking at how the Yale forward fits not only for the rest of this season but also what things will look like for the 2021-22 campaign.