Former Rookie of the Year Advises NCAA Players To Avoid Transfer Portal

The NCAA allowed transferred players to play last season because of the COVID-19 crisis. Players who were ready to sit out for a whole season rejoiced as they could continue to play. Fans assumed that it was just a onetime exception and it would go back to normal for future seasons.

But in April 2021, the NCAA tweaked the rules to allow transferred players to directly feature for the team without sitting out. This has resulted in a lot of chaos with a lot of players moving around.

Former NBA Rookie of the Year, Michael Carter-Williams, recently spoke out against this transfer portal. He believes that the players should try to understand their situations more instead of throwing in the towel, or a transfer. He said, “People be like ‘Aw man. I’m not playing,’ They get frustrated. They can’t see past the moment that they’re in. ‘I’m not playing I gotta go somewhere else.'”

“Then they get that stuck in their mind and keep thinking about that until they leave. Kids should sit back and learn from their situation.”

Williams believes that leaving the team in such a manner is an easy way out and player shouldn’t avoid it.

Two main reasons why NCAA players are engaging heavily in transfers

The most common reason for transferring out is game time. Many top prospects join the best teams in the country, but are then surprised when told to play off the bench. They want to be stars immediately, and so the idea of being benched is very repulsive to them. That’s why they take the chance to prove themselves elsewhere and take the transfer.

Devin Askew moved from Kentucky to Texas this off season, whereas Walker Kessler left UNC to join Auburn. Both of them were top prospects who felt they could do better in a bigger role. While Kessler was a bench player who hardly played, Askew started almost every game he played. But that was still not good enough for him.

The other reason why players leave is when they feel that their current team isn’t giving them a good enough stage to showcase their talents. WVU’s Oscar Tshiebwe transferred to Kentucky while Davidson’s Kellan Grady moved to Kentucky as well for his final season. Many players like Grady are choosing to move to bigger colleges for their final season so they can get a bigger stage and also have a leader role.

There is unlikely to be an end for these transfers, so coaches will just have to plan accordingly.

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