CBB has always been concerned about off the court player management.
Recruiting takes up much more fan interest than trades and free agency.
Also, the "in college you watch players for years" is extremely overstated.
You get 3-4 playable years with a player.
Obviously there are exceptions (just like in college with transfers in/out), but NBA teams have players for much longer.
This is besides the point that every aspect of "on court basketball" is better in the NBA than CBB.
The only thing CBB has is "I went to same school as those guys! I sat in the same classroom."
Everyone comes to college basketball for different things.
When I "cut my teeth" on college basketball, as it were, there was very little in the way of player movement. Guys would drop down a level if they were clearly overmatched (or leave if there was a coaching change), but there wasn't much movement between major conference teams... and zero movement within conferences. The "off the court" player management was about picking up HS kids and JUCOs, not shopping from other programs.
Once you had a guy in the program, it was about "coaching them up". It was okay (and normal) for freshmen to see little time and then work their way in as sophomores/juniors. It was expected for bigs to not be ready and to have body control issues (fouls) for the first couple of years. HS recruiting battles were more about potential than immediate expectation of day-one impact.
I liked how you'd generally get a guy for 3-4 years and see them progress over time, become leaders on the team, and help bring the next generation along. There was a level of stability, but also a regular cadence of player turnover to graduation.
We lost a recruiting battle for Troy Murphy to Notre Dame... and there was no expectation he'd ever leave Notre Dame, just that we'd be booing him for 4 years. We lost a recruiting battle for Lance Thomas to Duke and had zero expectation that he'd ever leave the Blue Devils (at that time, Coach K didn't even recruit one-and-dones). We'd know we'd be heckling Khalid El-Amin every year, and that there would be the annual brother battle between Ricky/Jeff Greer. Superstar freshmen were generally a bit of spice added to an already-seasoned roster of upperclassmen. Senior Day mattered as a send-off to guys who'd been warriors in the program for 4 years.
The changes to the transfer rules ended that era. NIL threw gasoline on that fire.
Seeing a guy overperform as a freshman or sophomore used to get me excited for the next 2-3 years.... now it's a matter of whether they'll stay at all, or if we can afford to keep them. If we can't keep at least 6 of our current guys going into next year, I'm probably dropping my season tickets.
Here are the guys to start and finish at Rutgers dating back to Bannon (spending at least 3 years here and ending their careers with graduation, pros, or injury). In 2018, the transfer portal opened. In 2021, the rule was eliminated requiring first-time transfers to redshirt.
2026 -
2025 -
2024 - Palmquist* (transferred out but came back without playing for another team)
2023 - McConnell
2022 - Baker
2021 - Harper
2020 -
2019 -
**Transfer portal opened**
2018 - Williams, Sanders
2017 - Doorson, Batie
2016 - Lewis
2015 - Mack, Jack, Kone
2014 -
2013 - Miller, A. Johnson
2012 -
2011 - Coburn
2010 - N'Diaye
2009 - Inman, Farmer, Griffin
2008 - Joynes
2007 - Hill, Webb, Bailey
2006 - Douby
2005 - Shields, Wiggin
2004 - Lamizana, Axani, Piasecki
2003 - Sherrod, Wright
2002 - Kent, Dabney
2001 - Greer
2000 -
1999 - G. Billet, Hodgson, Johnson
1998 - Clark
