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ATLANTA − There are 40 teams still playing Division I college basketball around the country.
Sixteen of them are left in the NCAA tournament, another 16 in 'The Crown Invitational' and eight still in the NIT. Yet that didn't stop the college basketball calendar from turning the page earlier this week with the opening of the transfer portal Monday, when more than 1,000 players have entered.
Michigan basketball has already felt the sting of it − freshman point guard Justin Pippen put his name in the online database the first day it was available after he did not make last week's trip to Denver with the team for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament − and consider head coach Dusty May the latest to disagree with the timing of it all.
"It's certainly a handicap for the teams that are winning," May said earlier this week on the latest episode of the in-house podcast "Defend The Block." "It's the same way in football. Because if you start adding players to your roster now, what does that do to the young guys who are working hard?"
Of course earlier this week, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo had a rant about the portal, which he referred to as "the urinal" which has since gone viral. He shot back at a reporter who asked about how he was handling the balance of his team still playing for everything it's wanted all season while keeping an eye on next year's roster.
“I'm not dealing with it at all," Izzo said. "The only thing that I would deal with is, I don't run players off. So you gotta have spots to pick up transfers. And maybe we'd have one (spot) if everybody came back. Maybe we wouldn't.
"If you don't have spots, why are you doing that? So that I can get somebody better? I can get a better girlfriend, because one I got isn't good enough? I don't know, get a better wife, because the one I got isn't good enough?"
It's curious timing because not only are both teams season's still alive, but the teams are in the same city right now: Atlanta, for the south regional semifinals on Friday at State Farm Arena.
Michigan State tips off first against Ole Miss (7:09 p.m., CBS) as 3½-point favorites before the Wolverines take on 1-seed Auburn as 8½-point underdogs (9:39 p.m., CBS). If each are able to keep their season alive, then it would set up the unthinkable: a head-to-head showdown for a spot in the Final Four.
But much like looking ahead to a potential game isn't perhaps wise, May says the same about looking ahead to a new season when there's so much still going on now. It's not that U-M won't do it − a pair of coaches were focused on Auburn prep while another set was getting a head start on portal research and contacts − but May doesn't like it.
"It's not healthy for your team now for you to be recruiting next year when you don't know what you really need," May continued. "You're just basically stockpiling guys. So it's tough.
"But once again, if you could have a trade-off and there's always a trade-off, I would much rather be playing right now than portal recruiting."
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball's Dusty May doesn't like timing of transfer portal
Continue reading...
Sixteen of them are left in the NCAA tournament, another 16 in 'The Crown Invitational' and eight still in the NIT. Yet that didn't stop the college basketball calendar from turning the page earlier this week with the opening of the transfer portal Monday, when more than 1,000 players have entered.
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Michigan basketball has already felt the sting of it − freshman point guard Justin Pippen put his name in the online database the first day it was available after he did not make last week's trip to Denver with the team for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament − and consider head coach Dusty May the latest to disagree with the timing of it all.
"It's certainly a handicap for the teams that are winning," May said earlier this week on the latest episode of the in-house podcast "Defend The Block." "It's the same way in football. Because if you start adding players to your roster now, what does that do to the young guys who are working hard?"
Of course earlier this week, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo had a rant about the portal, which he referred to as "the urinal" which has since gone viral. He shot back at a reporter who asked about how he was handling the balance of his team still playing for everything it's wanted all season while keeping an eye on next year's roster.
“I'm not dealing with it at all," Izzo said. "The only thing that I would deal with is, I don't run players off. So you gotta have spots to pick up transfers. And maybe we'd have one (spot) if everybody came back. Maybe we wouldn't.
"If you don't have spots, why are you doing that? So that I can get somebody better? I can get a better girlfriend, because one I got isn't good enough? I don't know, get a better wife, because the one I got isn't good enough?"
It's curious timing because not only are both teams season's still alive, but the teams are in the same city right now: Atlanta, for the south regional semifinals on Friday at State Farm Arena.
You must be registered for see images
Michigan State tips off first against Ole Miss (7:09 p.m., CBS) as 3½-point favorites before the Wolverines take on 1-seed Auburn as 8½-point underdogs (9:39 p.m., CBS). If each are able to keep their season alive, then it would set up the unthinkable: a head-to-head showdown for a spot in the Final Four.
But much like looking ahead to a potential game isn't perhaps wise, May says the same about looking ahead to a new season when there's so much still going on now. It's not that U-M won't do it − a pair of coaches were focused on Auburn prep while another set was getting a head start on portal research and contacts − but May doesn't like it.
"It's not healthy for your team now for you to be recruiting next year when you don't know what you really need," May continued. "You're just basically stockpiling guys. So it's tough.
"But once again, if you could have a trade-off and there's always a trade-off, I would much rather be playing right now than portal recruiting."
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball's Dusty May doesn't like timing of transfer portal
Continue reading...
