I saw a great video a few months ago that really turned the light bulb on for me about portal recruiting. An Okie St. beat reporter was talking about all of the football players leaving coach Gundy's program. He said Gundy used to absolutely detest the transfer portal, but he has just recently had a revelation about the portal that tells him it should be a major part of roster building from now on. Here's why:
1. With portal players, you have some history to judge them on. How did they take to being coached? How did they handle no longer being the superstar or not getting the reps they thought they deserved? So you have less chances of getting a head case on your roster, and you know who is already a head case that you want to avoid;
2. With undergrad portal players, you generally don't have to worry about them transferring out again because they'd have to sit a year if they left again. So the portal players are actually less risky than bringing in a new player.
These are really good points. I think the same rationale applies in WBB recruiting, and even more so b/c of the smaller roster sizes allowed. I'm still all for trying to recruit great talented HS players. But I think we've seen this year what a huge difference it made to have great portal talent and I'm all for keeping it going.
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Last edited: Mar 14, 2023