If you played a “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” game with this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball final four, you’d probably be able to make a map of the nation’s Division I colleges.
The starting fives of the four remaining teams — 20 players — include 12 players who started their college careers elsewhere. Such is the transfer portal era of college hoops.
North Carolina State, the “Cinderella” of this tournament, has the most patched-together team, with five starters who all transferred in a year or two ago. Alabama has four, UConn two. Purdue is the throwback of the bunch, with just one starting transfer.
With all four teams coming from major conferences, most (but not all) of these transfers came from mid-majors or lower. Wolfpack big man D.J. Burns, one of the breakout stars of the tournament, started his career redshirting at Tennessee in 2018-19 before transferring to Winthrop, where he played three years and then moved back up to the high-majors by transferring again, this time to NC State in 2022. Alabama’s big man, Grant Nelson, came to the Tide after three years at North Dakota State.
While all of these teams used the portal to get here in some way, some more than others, that doesn’t mean they all love the way it works. Answering a question on the portal in a press conference leading up the the Sweet 16, UConn coach Dan Hurley drew a humorous analogy in stating that players shouldn’t play at “four schools in four years.”
“I don’t think that’s healthy for the individual for the long-term 50, 60-year life after their playing career is over because there’s no connection with a university, a coaching staff, a network of alumni that can help create opportunities once basketball is over. So I just think whether it’s a one-time (transfer) … or I don’t know, I don’t like the window being open right now. I just don’t think it’s healthy for somebody to be able to change schools like underwear.”
— Hurley, the coach of the defending champions, is no stranger to the Reilly Center after coaching Rhode Island for six years. Neither is Alabama’s Nate Oats, who came to Tuscaloosa after four years at Buffalo. Neither was exactly a favorite of opposing fans. Remember Oats chirping “be careful what you wish for” on Twitter after his Bulls dismantled the Bonnies in 2018 (Bona fans had chanted “we want UB” days earlier) at the RC? With Hurley, it wasn’t so much a singular incident but his demonstrative nature on the sidelines, capable of erupting on officials, even opposing fans, something that’s continued, maybe even accelerated now that his Huskies are the team to beat in the Big East.
— And while this Final Four is emblematic of the changing face of college sports, full of transfers and big schools able to piece together teams on the fly and no doubt supplemented by NIL money, there’s also something old-school about the composition of these teams: each has a good (or great) center that’s a big part of their offenses, a point UMass coach Frank Martin made on Twitter/X Sunday as NC State-Duke was tipping off:
“So let me see:
-UConn plays thru their center
-Alabama attacks the rim with their centers
-Purdue plays thru their center
-Duke plays thru their center
-NC State plays thru their center
Hmmmmmmm”
Yes, Purdue has the most famous and biggest of them all in 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, an unguardable beast at the college level who dropped 40 on Tennessee Sunday. Burns used his size, refined post moves, finishing and a little mid-range shooting as he overpowered Duke with 29 on Sunday. I have no idea if he can do that to Edey, but I’ll be fascinated to see how he even tries it this Saturday in Arizona.
Alabama’s bigs are more modern prototypical rim-runners, with Nelson and Jarin Stevenson adding the dimension of 3-point shooting. For UConn, Donovan Clingan, who just might have the size to match up with Edey, controlled the rim on offense and defense to help spur on a completely dominant second half on Saturday.
Of course, these teams all have good guards as well. But maybe Martin has a point given the prominence and style of play of these last big men standing.
