South Carolina’s coach, Dawn Staley, and I were having a long discussion for an article about recruiting last year when she started talking about the transfer portal: “Recruiting isn’t just for the future. You have to recruit the kids that you still have on your roster. The transfer portal was real and people are jumping in like it’s the swimming pool.”
With about 850 women now in the basketball transfer portal, which allows players to switch schools once without missing a year of competition, Staley’s approach has not softened. On Thursday, she said the portal was “much like social media. It’s the fad. It’s a big old fad that just keeps continuing.”
Staley, who signaled that at least one Gamecock is looking for a new team, suggested the system had gotten out of hand, though she acknowledged it empowered athletes.
“It’s their way of controlling their own destinies, and it’s their way of — I don’t know if it’s an escape, I don’t know what it is,” she said before noting that about a third of her team sits on the bench and sees limited minutes. “But it’s going to happen to all of us. I’m sure we’ll probably have some after this season because if you’re a competitor, you want to play.”
Geno Auriemma, the Connecticut coach, noted the challenges of so many players finding new teams.
“You know those 850 people in the portal? Three hundred of them are not going to find a school to go to because they’re going to realize it’s not the school they just left,” he said. “Just like last year, right? A thousand kids in the portal, 250 of them had no place to go, and the guys that they left don’t want them back.”
But he insisted that he was not bothered if a player exited UConn.
“I don’t care if they leave,” he said. “Players leave all the time. Coaches leave all the time. That’s life.”
One of his offensive anchors, senior guard Christyn Williams, said she had never considered switching schools.
“I knew coming here that it was going to be hard, and Coach wants the best for us, so I just had to grow up and learn how to take constructive criticism in order for me to grow my game and be the best player that I could be,” she said. “I knew things were going to be tough and things were going to be hard, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think I’m experiencing that right now.”
Jeff Walz, the Louisville coach, said there were situations when a transfer was warranted: “You get a lot of players that go into a team from a portal who aren’t a good mix. The chemistry is bad.”
In other instances, he said, players realized they would only get so much time behind a star.
“I think there are a lot of players that will jump into the portal after one year that don’t really have a good grasp of why they’re doing it,” he said. “But then there’s other situations — we’ve had players here — I’ve had some guards that have moved on and had wonderful careers because they were playing behind Asia Durr. And they came into my office and we sat down and talked, and they said, ‘Hey, I just want the opportunity to play more,’ and I totally respect that. It was great for them. I still talk to the kids.”
The portal has paid off for Louisville this year. Emily Engstler, who transferred from Syracuse, has been a star defender for the Cardinals. Last Saturday, she had a season-high 20 points against Tennessee. Two days later, when Louisville played Michigan, she had a season-high 16 rebounds.