My favorite part of college basketball is to see a coach work with players individually and collectively and getting the best out of them. That is why I am a huge Pike fan. Investing time and effort on projects and anyone outside of that year's core has become a fool's errand in the age of the transfer portal. The result skews the game to more athleticism but less development, less strategy. Unglamorous supporting roles and defense suffer, when you can transfer and just do the fun stuff. For good, a Bobby Knight can't terrorize teenagers. For bad, a Bobby Knight can't get young men to work harder than they thought they would ever want to. Ballers who don't shop themselves to the highest bidder are leaving money on the table. Most can't afford to do that.
You can't just put the genie back in the bottle. Politically NIL is here to stay. The truth is that it often just brings above the table what was hidden from view. It encumbers the NCAA with 'restraint of trade' when it tries to reign in transfers' ability to chase the highest dollar. I think there are a couple of fairly extreme measure that would restore the college game to something that would bring coaching back to the fore. The sea change of NIL, Portal requires a dramatic response.
1. Transfers must be admitted to new schools purely on academic basis (without reference to athletics) through the same protocol for any student applying for transfer. Once academically accepted transfers can qualify for scholarships and NIL.
2. Freshman ineligible. This will weed out a significant percentage pf the athletes going to college who do not value the education. They will have better options and the college game will be restored to having real student athletes who actually appreciate the chance to earn a degree.
Changes like one of these would improve the game and produce more players more connected to their schools and coaches more connected to their players.
