My, oh my, how the Summit League basketball teams have changed since the opening of the transfer portal and the end of the season. Reigning conference Player of the Year, Zeke Mayo, Defensive Player of the Year, William Kyle III, and the Sixth Man of the Year have all entered the portal. Of the eleven first and second-team All-Summit League awardees, only two remain on their teams – Jamar Brown (UMKC, first team) and Andrew Morgan (NDSU, second team).
Like all mid-major conferences these days, graduation and the transfer portal are requiring Summit League teams to reinvent themselves on the fly.
At the time of this piece’s publishing (and it’s entirely likely this will have changed by the time you, dear reader, have accessed this article), UMKC heads the Summit with nine players in the portal. Oral Roberts has eight, Omaha has seven, and North Dakota State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State each have five in the portal. St. Thomas and North Dakota each have four and Denver, to this point, looks to be losing just three – Touko Tainamo, Dan Makuna, and Tyson Garff.
At this point, Denver has lost some key contributors to the portal and graduation. Last season, Denver averaged 81.03 points per game, good for 25th in the nation. With the exit of Tommy Bruner (24.0 ppg) to graduation along with Tainamo (15.2) and Garff (3.3) to the portal, Denver will need to replace 52% of their scoring and 32% of their rebounds. However, other Summit League teams will be experiencing this same problem, if not a worse one, trying to rebuild their squads.
Denver has three incoming true freshmen and three openings via the portal. The ultimate Summit League winner in the battle for talent will be the team that can quickly rebuild and peak in the Summit League Tournament. Much like last season, the portal will likely create a more level playing field across the league, and coaching and recruiting will be at a premium. Team defense will also become key as many of the top scorers graduate or are poached by larger programs and more lucrative NIL deals.
Denver should have some unique advantages over their peers, especially when it comes to the portal. Many of the major programs have very capable players who are not receiving the kind of playing time they expected when they committed (i.e., Jaxon Brenchley who transferred to DU from Utah just last year). Such players are likely to see DU as an attractive destination – a quality school in a great metropolitan area. In many cases, these players want to complete their basketball careers and receive a degree from a solid and well-respected academic institution. DU can and should target these players.
As for the three incoming freshmen (we will profile them later this year, closer to the beginning of the 2024-25 season), playing time and school choice are their primary goals. The days of a talented player sitting on the bench for two seasons to get a chance to play full-time are dwindling. In these cases, Denver has an excellent story to give to qualified recruits.
However, many basketball fans are less than enthused with the brave new portal world:
How have the changes in college basketball (unlimited transfers & NIL abuse) affected your level of interest in college basketball (not saying it’s right or wrong, just level of interest):
— Zachary Dosch (@zacharydosch) April 23, 2024
Assuming no more Denver players enter the portal, Denver will have a solid mix of returning players, portal transfers, and incoming freshmen to build on the program’s progress from the past three seasons. However, three to four of these players must make an immediate impact in their first full season in the program if Denver is to show continued progress on the hardwood and finally reach the promised land – the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid.
The basketball portal finally closes next week, on May 1st.
Top photo of Touko Tainamo courtesy of Denver Athletics
Building a hoops program was once an art form – a blend of careful recruiting and selection, four-year player development, and loyalty to schools/coaches. You built it over a course of years/decades…
For DU (and the other Summit league mid-major teams) today, all bets are off, every year. Your best players have left for NIL money or richer programs. You get start each year with freshmen who have never produced at this level, a bunch of mostly average to below-average college leftovers who didn’t go into the portal, strivers arriving from the portal from levels below your program (low level D-I, juco, etc) who are looking to make an impact at a higher level and those major program castoffs from levels above, who didn’t make the grade at the higher level. Mix well and hope something emerges that season, because you likely won’t have your best players after the current season… The whole thing is unsustainable, random and erodes fan interest at our level.
With the portal, DU has become little more than a holding pen/feeder to places like Iowa State, Northwestern, Cleveland State, Penn State, etc.
I feel very bad for Coach Wulbrun, because his job description has changed radically from what he signed on to achieve here. He sold himself as a “builder” to get the job here, and his ability to build is hampered as his best players have all left for other schools, due mostly to NIL money that DU can’t possibly match…
Cleveland State?
That would be Tevin Smith to Cleveland State. There were some rumors that it was NIL $$$ (yes, from Cleveland State) plus a bit closer to his hometown (Chicago). Still, a true head scratcher. He was treated like a king the prior year by the staff. He averaged a paltry 8.1 points coming off knee problems for the Vikings. Not sure I would call the Horizon League a big step-up either. This was one of the strangest moves I have seen by an exiting player.
I agree with many of your points. Unfortunately, basketball (and football) are the canary in the coal mine. With no transfer limits or NIL guidelines, it is only a matter of time until it impacts all sports. For DU, that means hockey, lacrosse and gymnastics – our other sports too. Many are in denial that the landscape is changing forever. Without standardized, federal legislation (currently state-by-state) to rein in some of the madness, mid-majors will become farm teams.
Ultimately, like it our not, the Power Conferences are going their own way. We’ve discussed that before and the ultimate solution is a PI (private school) Athletics Division with common values, priorities and means ($$$). That will happen, it is just a matter of time.
It would be great if DU could get in a conference with an Ivy League model … no athletic scholarships, need-based financial aid only, academics are the priority.
Professionalized college sports ( most schools in the power conferences, although some will not qualify for the rat race and others will choose to leave on their own) will break off from the NCAA. Another division will be schools left out who will still offer athletic scholarships. The other option will be the Ivy or D-III model.
The U.S. is the only country that has their elite athletic programs tied to universities. It’s a crazy model and if we could do a blank sheet exercise we’d never put elite athletics with higher education. The European model (intramural and club sports on campuses, elite athletics with outside private clubs) is a better model. We’re not going to switch to that model as a country, there’s too much money involved for colleges. But we can let the professionalize colleges go off on their own and get back to sports as an extracurricular activity for students with need-based financial aid available.
This would be moving backwards entirely. The Ivy model is extremely unique and not a model to use as an example. Some reasons include prestige/fame and elite academics (these schools will receive an insane amount of applicants regardless of athletic success). You are essentially calling for DU to revert to intramural athletics and get rid of our storied programs.
If I was a prospective athlete looking for programs and this proposed model was in place, DU would not be considered for even a second. The answer to curb transfer portal/NIL issues is to not advocate for club sports. It will take some sort of federal regulation to slow down the monster it has become.
That is the advantage of private schools. They can set up their own rules and regulations. Models like the Big EAST and the West Coast Conference are more likely the members and drivers of a PI conference. The privates could modify scholarship limits, # of sponsored sports, revenue sharing and the development of a network among a host of other things.
This will happen when the power conferences seize the current NCAA basketball tournament and the billion dollars it produces, just like they did with football. That will leave everyone else looking for revenue sources and like-minded institutions.