Times they be a changin’

My television viewing over recent weekends has been dominated by the NCAA basketball tournaments. The opening week beginning with the playin games in Dayton, Ohio and concluding with a Thursday-Sunday festival of college basketball involving 4 networks is the piece-de-resistance. All the while playing musical counterpoint was the NCAA rendition of the Women’s Basketball Championship. I have always found this to be an absolute basketball banquet. This year did not disappoint.

The strains of One Shining Moment had not yet faded from my memory than I picked up the morning paper and saw a headline proclaiming, “Huskies could be harbinger of new era.” Now I have become so conditioned to seeing grousing about the winners by those who didn’t win I almost didn’t bother reading it. But I did.

I no longer doubt that the transfer portal and Name-Image- Likeness (NIL) is dramatically changing the landscape of college athletics.

The Connecticut Huskies didn’t just win the men’s tournament, they dominated in every game they played. It is reported that after their 2022 exit from the tournament, UConn coach Dan Hurley returned to Storrs, examined his teams and identified their needs. He recruited his own roster to be certain UConn kept the players already on their roster that they needed to keep. Then, he picked up 4 players through the transfer portal that filled the need.

LSU won the Women’s 2023 NCAA National Championship with 9 new players. I understand all 9 were acquired through the portal.

Understand these teams did not rebuild their rosters by recruiting freshmen and developing them as players. Rather they sought proven players on other university rosters.

I have no doubt that these Championship teams played by the rules. These coaching staffs simply understood the new rules and used them to the advantage of their teams. Good for them.

It is a new world out there. Some folks enjoy saying, “It’s the wild west out there.” They aren’t all wrong.

I wondered if the traditional programs were mired in a sea of traditional methodology.

But surely our programs have closely researched the new guidelines and are now prepared. Wait! What’s that? Oral Roberts University’s leading scorer, Max Abmas has entered the transfer portal. Why?

Did I hear what? The Boone twins are on the move? Keylan is moving again after leaving Oklahoma State for Pacific. His twin brother Kalib, a solid 6’9” forward, has announced he has entered the transfer portal. The rumor is they want to play together again. Okay, I get that.

I don’t I like this fluid movement much. How much of my feelings involve my affection of the status quo? I don’t know. I certainly want to acknowledge that over recent years I have developed an aversion to change.

Change requires dealing with the unfamiliar. Think I’ll go to my familiar porch and see how that works out for me.

All change is not growth as all movement is not forward. – Ellen Glascow Hal McBride writes a column, Just Thinkin’, published each week.