The world according to Jim:
• As of 10 a.m. Friday morning, according to the recruiting site Verbal Commits, 1,610 players had entered the men’s basketball transfer portal. Of those, 182 had already found new schools and 19 others (mostly at mid-majors) decided to stay where they are.
Now think about that. There are 351 Division I programs, which if you figure 15 players per roster comes to 5,265 players nationwide. Add 10 Division II programs currently in the transition process to Division I and that comes to 5,415 players. So a little less than one-third of players nationwide have opted to move on, or at least keep their options open.
Bug, or feature? …
• The suspicion here is that the suddenly free-wheeling NIL rules – as in, right now there aren’t any – are contributing to the traffic jam in the portal. (And I’m still trying to visualize what said portal might actually look like. Would it be a long, narrow hallway? A ballroom? An arena? Is there a turnstile, or someone in a tuxedo behind a purple velvet rope determining who goes in when? And is the football portal more spacious than the basketball portal?)
The conundrum: Most of the traffic at this point involves roster churn among lower level programs. And as the process continues and available spots at power conference schools are snapped up, those, um, NIL riches aren’t going to be there. …
• We have already seen the phenomenon of players from mid-major or Group of Five schools upgrading via the portal, moving to power conference programs either as grad transfers or undergrads. This year’s basketball group already has players going from Massachusetts and Penn to USC (junior center Joshua Cohen from the Atlantic 10 and junior point guard Clark Slajchert from the Ivy League, the first planks of Eric Musselman’s roster rebuild), and from Pepperdine – following a coaching change – to Gonzaga and Alabama (shooting guards Michael Ajayi and Houston Mallette, respectively).
And I’m guessing the bidding process among the big schools’ NIL collectives hasn’t even warmed up yet. Players (or more specifically their parents) openly discuss it, and the recent court ruling that seemed to wipe out the last limits on those collectives really has turned college sports into the Wild, Wild West. Even those groups that have acted cautiously such as USC’s House of Victory collective, as our Luca Evans reported, are now taking active roles in the recruiting process. (Or at least they’d better start.) …
• Then again, the basketball transfer story of the spring thus far has to be Kobe Johnson going from USC to UCLA. I can hardly wait to see what kind of reception he gets at Galen Center next season.
Or is he maybe the player to be named in football defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s move from UCLA to USC? …
• Even those of us who believe the players should be compensated and should have some freedom of movement feel whipsawed by the way the process has evolved. Unlimited free agency is not really in the best interest of the sport. …
• Possibly a clarification of college athletes’ status – more likely to come through a court ruling that they be designated as employees, rather than legislation – will clear things up a bit. Then again, the NCAA had plenty of opportunities to reform on its own, and maybe along the way create reasonable limits (say, one free transfer without having to sit out a year), but in its slavish devotion to what remains of “amateurism” it keeps losing in court.
They’re still holding out hope for a legislative remedy. The lessons of the past never take hold, do they? …
• Meanwhile, the women’s basketball transfer portal – as tracked by thenexthoops.com – listed 1,163 entries as of Friday morning, 85 of whom had found new locations. USC sophomore guard Taylor Bigby (who started 11 games in 2023-24) is one of those still looking. …
• Does the portal force coaches to re-recruit their own players? Sometimes. That seems to be what happened with USC football defensive lineman Bear Alexander, convinced to stay by Lincoln Riley and new co-defensive coordinator (and former Rams line coach) Eric Henderson. Riley expressed the sentiment Thursday, after learning freshman center Jason Zandamela was entering the portal, that USC doesn’t need to beg players to stay. But maybe this was an exception.
And perhaps all Henderson needed to convince Alexander to stay were four words: “I coached Aaron Donald.” …
• Today’s quiz: What do Kelsie Whitmore and Shea Langeliers have in common? Answer below.
• Given the attitude of Laker Exceptionalism – don’t kid yourself, it’s part of the organization’s own ethos – and the idea that the team is destined for its third play-in date in the four years of the format, is it fair to suggest that Darvin Ham is coaching for his job the rest of this season?
He is midway through a four-year contract, and seems to still have the support of owner Jeanie Buss and VP of basketball operations Rob Pelinka. But the Lakers, possessors of two of the game’s best players, have had to battle from behind each of the last two seasons. Will anything short of last year’s stirring run to the conference finals be held against the coach? Should it be? …
• Thursday may have been one of the more intense news days we’ve had in a while, with the Justice Department complaint against Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, and the death of O.J. Simpson. Mirjam Swanson and I unpacked it all in this week’s edition of our weekly online conversation, The Audible, and if you haven’t already checked it out you should. …
• Quiz answer: They’ll both be playing professional baseball in Oakland this year. Langeliers is the A’s rookie catcher (who already has a three-homer game to his credit, Tuesday night in Texas). Whitmore, pride of Temecula Valley High School and Cal State Fullerton, has signed with the independent Oakland Ballers (or B’s, for short), who begin their season May 21. Whitmore was the first woman to sign a contract to play in the Atlantic League, playing for Staten Island the last two years, and now she’ll achieve another first in the Pioneer League. …
Related Articles
Alexander: In 48 minutes, Lakers’ chances take a direct hit
Alexander: For a rebuilding Angels team, it’s all about hope
Alexander: What can we expect from Eric Musselman’s USC teams?
Alexander: Shohei Ohtani finally gives Dodger fans what they’ve been expecting
Alexander: While we were away … sports news we didn’t see coming
• This, from Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy (and it must have killed him to write it): “The late Frank Robinson remains the only player to win an MVP in both leagues, but Mookie Betts (second in the NL last year) and Shohei Ohtani have a good shot to join F. Robby one of these years.” …
• Yes, they’re still obsessing over the Mookie trade in Boston (and let’s not mention his performance thus far this season, lest we really stir up a hornet’s nest in New England). I’d say they’re still taking the Betts trade harder there than Angel fans are taking Ohtani’s departure, but when Shohei’s image flashed onscreen during the “Calling All Angels” pregame montage at last Friday night’s home opener in Anaheim, it drew boos. …
• Then again, Arte Moreno’s appearance in the clip was booed louder, and the next night the owner was edited out of the montage. At this rate of fan disaffection, people wearing “SELL” T-shirts may well be showing up at the Big A any day now.
jalexander@scng.com
