Marty Gordon
You’ve probably heard a lot of talk lately about this thing called the “transfer portal.” It’s controlled the headlines for college football, and now basketball, for the past year. Several Virginia Tech athletes have entered the portal and never returned to Blacksburg. Others have gotten stuck in the portal and returned to Virginia Tech.
Every time, I hear the words “transfer portal,” I think about the television series Star Trek. Growing up, I watched it on a regular basis, and they always used the words “Beam me up, Scotty.”
Many of the football and basketball players that have entered the portal are waiting to be beamed up – the problem is that the so-called portal is changing college athletics as we know it. And not for the better.
So far, this free agency is drastically affecting the way players move backwards and forwards between schools.
When they don’t get their way, they simply say, “Fine I will just pack my bags and move somewhere else.”
Competition is being thrown out the window. Instead of competing and earning their position, they are moving to another zip code where most of them are being handed the position.
The latest talk has centered around basketball, and already a few Virginia Tech players have entered the portal, but never got beamed up – not yet, at least.
Essentially, the portal is a database of players who are interested in transferring from their current school. The portal is open to every collegiate sport, but the Big Two of basketball and football have captured the headlines.
The NCAA has made it too simple. The athletes need only tell their current school’s compliance department that they would like to be placed in the portal. They don’t even have to tell their coaches.
Once they enter the portal, other schools can contact them.
I call this “free agency.” A “let’s see who can give me a better offer” approach.
The response has been mixed. While I don’t like it, many coaches do.
ESPN reported that one coach called it a positive way to recruit. But it’s recruiting kids that had already committed to play somewhere else.
I guess the next step is who can pay the most for the moving expenses of each athlete. The college athletic horizon has changed, and it will never be the same.
I don’t think the transfer portal is the right way to beam up new recruits.
Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Mike Young, newly arrived from Wofford, has his first commitment, and he didn’t have to go too far to find him. While guard Hunter Cattoor is from Orlando, Florida, he and Young knew each other since Cattoor was a Wofford recruit.
Young has brought several staff members with him to Blacksburg and now a recruit. Meanwhile, former Tech coach Buzz Williams has taken three Hokie recruits to his new school, so why not Young?
Cattoor attended Bishop Moore Academy where he reportedly had 20 offers. According to a press release from Wofford following signing day, Cattoor helped lead Bishop Moore to a 23-5 record as a junior, averaging 14.0 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, and 3.7 assists per game last season.
The question is whether another Wofford recruit, Zac Ervin, who’s been given his release from Wofford will also be following Young to Blacksburg.
Ervin, from Gate City, averaged over 20 points per game for three straight seasons and led his team to the 2018 state championship game, is considering the move.
At least one former Hokie has garnered a lot of attention at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament which featured 64 of the best college seniors from some of the top men’s basketball programs in the country.
Justin Robinson dished out 10 assists and hit the game winner in a game this past weekend.
And, on a local coaching note, former Blacksburg High School football coach Nate Calhoun has a new job. After moving to the Winston-Salem/Greensboro, N.C. area last month, he has now accepted a position on the staff of Grimsley High School near Greensboro.
