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Weekend Brunch: Transfer Portal levels playing field in SEC

A new offseason means a new weekly column!

Check out below for the first installment of “Weekend Brunch”, a new project that will be published each and every Friday on all the latest happenings in the world of college basketball.

Buon Appetit!

A La Carte

Transfer Portal levels playing field in SEC
For years, college basketball in the SEC was about two programs — Kentucky and Florida.

In fact, whenever the conference came up as a topic on INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL on CBS Sports Network, I would joke to my colleagues in studio that I would wake up and often ask myself “Who is the third team in the SEC”?

Those days are now over.

The entire complexion of the SEC changed when Billy Donovan left Florida for the NBA in 2015 and while other programs like Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, LSU, South Carolina, and Arkansas have all had pockets of success since, the league no longer feels like it has a tier system because of one reason: the transfer portal.

As of Thursday, there were 1,425 names in the transfer portal according to the website verbalcommits.com, mostly as a byproduct of the NCAA’s decision last week to grant all players a one-time transfer exception. 

“These are now the rules of engagement,” one SEC head coach said last week.

35 transfers have already committed to SEC programs. Many of those commitments have been significant.

Mississippi State added two potential all-conference players in Memphis transfer D.J. Jeffries (9.9 points, 5.1 rebounds) and North Carolina transfer Garrison Brooks (10.2 points, 6.9 rebounds), who was the ACC Preseason Player of the Year last season.

Another North Carolina transfer — Walker Kessler — committed to Auburn. Kessler is a former five-star recruit who had 16 points, 12 rebounds, and eight blocks in an ACC Tournament win over Notre Dame in March.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M snagged the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year in Wyoming transfer Marcus Williams (14.8 points, 4.3 assists) and Alabama added a quality rotation piece in Furman transfer Noah Gurley (15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds). Ole Miss secured two potential starters from the ACC in Duke’s Jaemyn Brakefield and Miami’s Nysier Brooks.

Tennessee and LSU added key players from within the conference — which is now allowed in most leagues — as the Vols signed Auburn transfer Justin Powell (11.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists) and the Tigers landed Missouri’s Xavier Pinson (13.6 points). 

Arkansas — who is always as active annually on the transfer market as any program in college basketball — also added three impact players this spring in Miami’s Chris Lykes (15.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists), Pitt’s Au’Diese Toney (14.4 points, 5.9 rebounds), and South Dakota’s Stanley Umude (21.6 points). All three should have a major role in Fayetteville next season for Eric Musselman, who knows how to use transfers as well as anyone, but admits that the climate is changing with immediate eligibility.

“Your team chemistry becomes vital (with immediate eligibility),” Musselman said this week. “When I was the head coach at Nevada, we would always want to have four guys sitting out each year. Those days are over. This is the first time that I’m going to have 13 active players on scholarship.”

With new challenges though also comes new opportunities.

For the past 12 years, it’s been on the rest of the SEC to get older and more experienced in an effort to offset the talent disparity between Kentucky and the rest of the league. According to 247Sports, the Wildcats have had the conference’s first or second-best recruiting class every season since John Calipari was hired in 2009.

As saw last season though, those rankings don’t always equate to on-court success. 

The Wildcats’ 9-16 finish prompted Calipari to go to — you guessed it — the transfer portal to bring in two starting caliber players in Davidson’s Kellan Grady (17.1 points) and West Virginia’s Oscar Tshiebwe (8.5 points, 7.8 rebounds).

Will those additions immediately vault Kentucky back to the top of the SEC standings?

Time will tell, but it’s abundantly clear that the playing field in this league feels more level than it’s felt in an awfully long time.

Six teams from the SEC are currently ranked in the ROTHSTEIN 45. 

Assorted Pastries

  • Tommy Lloyd’s ascension from Gonzaga’s top assistant to Arizona’s head coach is comparable to when Roy Williams went from Dean Smith’s top lieutenant at North Carolina to Kansas’ head coach in 1988. Williams led the Jayhawks to four Final Fours in 15 years in Lawrence. Fans in Tucson will settle for half of that.
  • Villanova will play Syracuse next December in the 2021 Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. The other game of the doubleheader is currently TBD. 
  • 23 of the 30 players that played in the 2021 Final Four were a part of their programs during the 19-20 season. If you want to win at the highest level of college basketball, player retention is a major key.
  • Former Creighton commit TyTy Washington announced this week that he has cut his list to Baylor, Kansas, Arizona, Kentucky, Oregon, and LSU. The 6-3 point guard is a consensus Top-50 prospect in the 2021 class.
  • UMass is quietly beefing up its non-conference schedule. According to a source, the Minutemen will host two Big Ten teams — Penn State and Rutgers — in Amherst next season.

Leftovers: