Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Hopefully, you have been enjoying this year’s men’s and women’s NCAA March Madness college basketball tournaments as much as I have. The mix of terrific talent, great coaching, and, let’s be honest, some exceptionally fortunate timing (I’m talking to you, NC State men!) have made for an exciting two weeks of college hoops.
By the way, my SwampSwamiSports picks on CBSSports.com have been both bad and good. My men’s predictions (which had the University of Houston winning it all) put me at an embarrassing #1,460,280 position.
I don’t know how many people entered, but that’s really bad.
My women’s predictions have been excellent! Heading into Friday night’s Women’s Final Four, I am ranked #3,554.
Somehow, I still have all four teams alive with UConn as my predicted champion.
How many players on the Final Four teams this year are transfers from another school?
While enjoying the action on television, I couldn’t help but notice a significant trend with the majority of the top men’s and women’s college teams. A text from a friend last weekend also noted the same thing. He suggested that I do a little research on this subject.
For the past two weeks of March Madness basketball action, the television announcers have continued to note that a particular player had transferred after playing basketball for one or more years at another university.
With the advent of the NCAA’s transfer portal and the ability to earn significant bonus bucks via the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) cash promotion machine, several teams in this weekend’s Final Four will feature more transfer players seeing playing time than those initially recruited by the program as they came out of high school.
Such as…D.J. Burns and most of the NC State Wolfpack men’s team
The darlings of this year’s March Madness men’s tournament have been North Carolina State. The #11 seeded Wolfpack men’s basketball team had to win five games in five days in the ACC Tournament just to get into the NCAA field. They have added four more wins in the NCAA tournament to reach the Final Four this Saturday.
NC State also features seven of its top eight men’s players who began playing college basketball for another university prior to coming to Raleigh.
The only non-transfer player in the regular rotation for NC State (which I define as someone who plays 15 minutes or more per game) is freshman guard Dennis Parker, Jr. The other seven top players for the Wolfpack are all transfer students from other universities.
My personal favorite March Madness player, big man D.J. Burns of NC State, started college at Tennessee but was redshirted and didn’t play a game in Knoxville. He quickly transferred to Winthrop University (located in Rock Hill, South Carolina) to play basketball for the next three seasons. D.J. Burns had two years of college eligibility left as he transferred to Raleigh to play for NC State.
Who left the NC State team to make room for these incoming transfer players?
That’s a very good question, indeed!
One dirty little secret about college athletics is that the scholarship awarded to each player is subject to being renewed or discontinued by the coaching staff after every season.
Let’s say that our theoretical high school phenom named “Stevie Slamdunk” signed a full scholarship to play basketball and attend Large State University.
After a glorious signing ceremony held at his high school, Stevie strutted into college and quickly learned that he is now competing with many other top recruits and highly touted transfers. He must compete hard just to earn playing time. At the end of the season, there is no guarantee that his much-celebrated scholarship is going to be renewed for a second season.
With the recent advent of the NCAA’s transfer portal, the process is now working two ways.
As soon as this year’s basketball season ends for the college athlete, the player can say, “I want out!” by entering the NCAA’s transfer portal. The amended rules now permit athletes to move to another school in the next semester (instead of sitting out a full year after transferring as in previous decades).
If another school wants to sign an eligible transfer player, a mutually agreeable deal is negotiated. In today’s environment, the deal likely includes a healthy amount of NIL money for the player doing future (wink, wink) work doing commercials, endorsements, and personal appearances.
The player’s former coach and team will now move into action, too. “Stevie Slamdunk” must notify his current school that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal. The coaching staff at Large State University will now begin searching for talented players willing to transfer into their program – if the price is right.
As each college roundball season ends, a growing number of players are waiving their hands (via the NCAA transfer portal) to announce their availability to overtures from another school.
This new form of musical chairs is definitely helping the moving van business.
What happened to all of those NC State players on last year’s roster?
The NC State Wolfpack men’s basketball team from the 2022-23 season had three players (including a walk-on Senior) complete their college eligibility.
Another four basketball players from last year’s NC State team transferred to another school.
Jack Clark – 6’8” guard – transferred to Clemson this year and averaged 4.7 points/game
Ebenezer Dowuona – 6’11” forward – landed at Georgia Tech and scored 1 point/game.
Greg Gant – 6’8” forward – transferred to UNC Asheville and averaged 1.8 points/game
Isaiah Miranda – 7’1” center – moved west to Oklahoma State. However, he played in only three games for the Cowboys this season (averaging 2.7 points/game) and quit the team “to focus on his professional career”.
Another player vanished from the NC State 2022-2023 squad with higher aspirations.
Terquavion Smith, a 6’4” shooting guard, averaged 18 points per game during his sophomore season for last year’s Wolfpack team. He entered the 2023 NBA draft but was not selected. Smith eventually signed a free agent contract to play with the Delaware Blue Coats of NBA’s developmental G-League. He has averaged 22 points/game with Delaware and recently was promoted to the team’s NBA affiliate, the Philadelphia 76ers.
In summary, eight former NC State players from last year’s 2022-2023 squad have either completed their eligibility, transferred to another university, or are trying professional basketball.
Their roster spots this season were filled with transfer players and an incoming freshman.
One team in the Women’s Final Four has ZERO transfers among its top players!
Meet the 33-5 UConn Huskies women’s basketball team!
Led by 70-year old Hall-of-Fame Coach Geno Auriemma, the top eight UConn women’s players (defined as averaging more than 15 minutes of playing time per game) were all high school recruits initially signed by the Huskies. They have stayed together at UConn since arriving on campus. Led by All-American guard Paige Bueckers, the Big East Champion Huskies are peaking at the right time at the end of this season.
The UConn women defeated #1 seed USC Monday night to advance into NCAA Women’s Final Four event this week in Cleveland, Ohio. In Friday’s nightcap semifinal game on ESPN, UConn will face the 33-4 Iowa Hawkeyes and women’s all-time scoring champion Caitlyn Clark. Iowa outscored the defending national champion LSU Tigers 94-87 on Monday night to earn their trip to Cleveland.
By the way, Iowa’s top five players in their rotation (including Caitlyn Clark) all joined the team as freshmen and have stayed with the school. Two of the Hawkeyes’ top reserve players are transfers.
Let’s count the transfers – by team – in the Women and Men’s Final Four games
On Friday night, ESPN will present the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Cleveland. The women’s field includes only eight of the top 30 players (26.7%) as transfers.
In the 6PM Central first national semifinal, the 36-0 South Carolina Gamecocks (with just two transfer players among its top nine players) face 31-6 North Carolina State (which features four of its top six players as transfers).
In Friday night’s second semifinal game at 8:30PM, the 33-4 Iowa Hawkeyes (with only two of its top seven players as transfers) plays 33-5 UConn (no transfer players among its top eight).
The women’s championship game will be played on Sunday afternoon (April 7) at 2PM Central and shown on both ABC and ESPN.
This Saturday night in Phoenix, the men will take the stage on TBS with its doubleheader of NCAA Final Four games. The men’s field will show an incredible 57.1% (16 of 28) of its key players as transfers from other schools.
In Saturday’s 5PM Central men’s opening semifinal game, the 33-4 Purdue Boilermakers (with only one transfer among its top six players) will play the surprising 26-11 North Carolina State Wolfpack (which features seven of its top eight players as transfers).
Saturday’s nightcap at 8:30PM will find top seed 35-3 UConn (three of its seven top players are transfers) tackling 25-11 Alabama (with five of its top seven players being transfers).
The men’s championship game will be played on Monday night, April 8. The tip-off will happen at the very unfriendly-for-school kids time of 8:20 PM Central on TBS.
Enjoy the games this weekend!
**********
In case you were interested, here are the players for each team (averaging at least 15 min/game of playing time) and their prior schools:
Women’s Final Four teams:
North Carolina State: https://gopack.com/
Aziaih James – Soph – NC State (1 and 2)
Saniya Rivers – Junior – South Carolina (1) and NC State (2 and 3)
Mimi Collins – Graduate – Tennessee (1), Maryland (2, 3, 4) and NC State (5)
Madison Hayes – Senior – Mississippi State (1) and NC State (2, 3, and 4)
River Baldwin – Graduate – Florida State (1, 2, and 3), and NC State (4, 5)
Zoe Brooks – Freshman – NC State (1)
South Carolina: https://gamecocksonline.com/
Kamilla Cardoso – Senior – Syracuse (1 and 2) and S. Carolina (3 and 4)
MLaysia Fulwiley – Freshman – South Carolina (1)
Te-Hina Paopao – Senior – Oregon (1, 2, and 3) and S. Carolina (4)
Ashlyn Watkins – Soph – South Carolina (1 and 2)
Chloe Kitts – Soph – South Carolina (1 and 2)
Bree Hall – Junior – South Carolina (1, 2, and 3)
Raven Johnson – Soph – South Carolina (1 and 2)
Sania Feagin – Junior – South Carolina (1, 2, and 3)
Tessa Johnson – Freshman – South Carolina (1)
Iowa: https://hawkeyesports.com/
Caitlyn Clark – Senior – Iowa (1, 2, 3, and 4)
Hannah Stuelke – Soph – Iowa (1 and 2)
Kate Martin – Graduate – Iowa (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
Sydney Affolter – Junior – Iowa (1, 2, and 3)
Gabbie Marshall – 5th year Senior – Iowa (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)
Molly Davis – 5th year Senior – Central Michigan (1, 2, and 3) and Iowa (4 and 5)
Kylie Feuerbach – Junior – Iowa State (1) and Iowa (2 and 3)
Connecticut: https://uconnhuskies.com/
Paige Buekers – Junior – UConn (1, 2, and 3)
Aaliyah Edwards – Senior – UConn (1, 2, 3, and 4)
Ashlynn Shade – Freshman – UConn (1)
Azzi Fudd – Junior – UConn (1, 2, and 3)
Aubrey Griffin – Graduate – UConn (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)
KK Arnold – Freshman – UConn (1)
Nika Muhl – Senior – UConn (1, 2, 3, and 4)
Ice Brady – Freshman – UConn (1)
Men’s Final Four teams:
North Carolina State: https://gopack.com/
D.J. Horne – Graduate – Illinois State (1 and 2), Arizona State (3 and 4), and NC State (5)
D.J. Burns, Jr. – Graduate – Tennessee (RS), Winthrop (1, 2, 3), and NC State (4 and 5)
Casey Morsell – Graduate – Virginia (1 and 2), NC State (3, 4, and 5)
Jayden Taylor – Junior – Butler (1 and 2), and NC State (3)
Mohamed Diarra – Junior – Garden City Comm. College (1), Missouri (2), and NC State (3)
Michael O’Connell – Senior – Graduate – Stanford (1, 2, 3) and NC State (4, 5)
Ben Middlebrooks – Junior – Clemson (1 and 2), and NC State (3)
Dennis Parker, Jr. – Freshman – NC State (1)
Purdue: https://purduesports.com/
Zach Edey – Senior – Purdue (1, 2, 3, and 4)
Braden Smith – Soph – Purdue (1 and 2)
Lance Jones – Graduate – Southern Illinois (1, 2, 3, 4) and Purdue (5)
Fletcher Loyer – Soph – Purdue (1 and 2)
Mason Gillis – Senior – Purdue (1, 2, 3, and 4)
Trey Kaufman-Renn – Soph – Purdue (1 and 2)
UConn: https://uconnhuskies.com/
Tristen Newton – Graduate – East Carolina (1, 2, 3) and UConn (4 and 5)
Cam Spencer – Graduate – Loyola Maryland (1, 2, 3), Rutgers (4) and UConn (5)
Alex Karaban – Soph – UConn (1 and 2)
Donovan Clingan – Soph – UConn (1 and 2)
Stephon Castle – Freshman – UConn (1)
Hassan Diarra – Senior – Texas A&M (1 and 2) and UConn (3 and 4)
Samson Johnson – Junior – UConn (1, 2, and 3)
Alabama: https://rolltide.com/
Mark Sears – Senior – Ohio University (1 and 2) and Alabama (3 and 4)
Aaron Estrada – Graduate – St. Peter’s (1), Oregon (2), Hoffstra (3 and 4), and Alabama (5)
Grant Nelson – Senior – North Dakota State (1, 2, and 3) and Alabama (4)
Rylan Griffen – Soph – Alabama (1 and 2)
Latrell Wrightsell, Jr. – Senior – Cal State-Fullerton (1, 2 and 3) and Alabama (4)
Nick Pringle – Senior – Wofford (1), Dodge City Comm. College (2) and Alabama (3 and 4)
Jarin Stevenson – Freshman – Alabama (1)