During the ‘Portal Pandemic of 2021’ college basketball coaches went shopping in Mark Emmert’s online store like last-minute Christmas shoppers. More than 1,000 players from four-year institutions entered the transfer portal. This talent glut significantly changed rosters, expectations, and the nature of ‘program building’.
When you add in the typical recruitment of high school players and junior college athletes, teams were more radically transformed than normal.
Transferring used to be looked at as a player lacking commitment or a coach being unable to either hold on to his players or to develop the ones he had. That has all changed. Players are expected to check out their options and coaches aren’t viewed as doing their jobs if they haven’t grabbed a free agent or two.
So who is the Missouri Valley Conference’s top ten transfers? Traditionally this evaluation would come down to five or six key players that dotted Valley rosters, but in today’s world, virtually every team has several significant newcomers. Where will they or their teammates be playing next year? We have no idea, but at the midway point of the season, we’re looking at the Valley’s top ten transfers.
Not all of these newcomers came via the relaxed transfer rules. Loyola’s Ryan Schwieger and Chris Knight were already in the fold when the one-time, no restrictions rule went into effect.
We’re evaluating based on individual output AND on team impact. In other words, just because a player is scoring or racking up rebounds, he may not be having an effect on team success. The goal of landing these players was to make their teams better.