According to the apparently-not-failing NY Times more than 1,000 players have entered the NCAA transfer portal, which has been open since Monday.
Jaron Pierre entered. A 6-5 senior guard from Jacksonville University, Pierre led the NCAA in scoring this season at 21.6 points per game, a no-conscience shooter who hit 42 percent from the field and 38 percent from three-point range for the Gamecocks.
Nine players from Virginia opted for the madness that is college basketball's free agency period, placed smack-dab in the middle of the NCAA tournament and the Final Four.
Longtime Cavalier coach Tony Bennett retired this year, prompting an exodus out of Charlottesville that includes leading scorer Isaac McNeely, a 6-4 guard who poured in 14.4 points a game and shot 42 percent beyond the arc., connecting on 81 percent of his free throws.
Already UCLA has snatched superstar guard Donovan Dent from New Mexico, the Mountain West Player of the Year after scoring 20.4 points a game with 6 assists in 2024-25. South Dakota power forward Oscar Cluff, the No. 1 prospect in the portal according to On3 Sports, committed to Purdue on Tuesday.
BREAKING: South Dakota State star transfer PF Oscar Cluff has committed to Purdue🚂
— On3 (@On3sports) April 1, 2025
Cluff is the On3 No. 1 player in the transfer portal.https://t.co/tkBfwKNE1X pic.twitter.com/9pPVFEEE57
On the Women's side, Notre Dame star Olivia Miles entered the portal despite being projected as the No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft this year. According to Evan Sidery, NBA contributor for Forbes Magazine, the top four players in NCAA Women's Basketball averaged $1.1 million in NIL earnings last year: It makes more sense to stay in school.
It's a week where news travels fast and decisions come faster. In Eugene, Kelly Graves and Dana Altman have to get out in front of a rapidly changing, chaotic marketplace. Yesterday Nate Bittle declared for the NBA draft, with the option to return to college basketball.
So far the only portal addition the Ducks have made is Devon Pryor, a 6-7 forward from Texas. He played limited minutes for the Longhorns this season, 3.2 points a game and two rebounds, 18.8% from three. A leaper who ranked No. 209 in his class in 2023, it isn't a needle-moving acquisition.
Last week Altman revealed that he's declined to hire a GM for the basketball program, electing to mine the portal and evaluate his best finds for the 2025 roster himself with the aid of his five assistants.
Altman's earned the right to manage his own portfolio after 15 straight 20-win seasons, but this is a volatile marketplace, more like Bitcoin than utility stocks. With Bittle, Jackson Shelstad and Kwame Evans still mulling their ultimate decisions, he doesn't want to be caught with his neatly creased polyester pants down, like last season when N'Faly Dante was denied an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA after most of the top transfer prizes had already made decisions.
The stakes are high. This season 51 of the 80 starters on the teams in the Sweet 16 started their careers at other schools. Stars and veterans from the portal are driving success in college basketball. A coach has to get busy working, phoning and reviewing tape, or get busy refurbishing a boat in a warm place that has no memory.