The Transfer Portal Era - URI’s Mitchell Bros. & Brown’s Gainey Transferring; PC and URI Are Buyers

The Transfer Portal Era - URI’s Mitchell Bros. & Brown’s Gainey Transferring; PC and URI Are Buyers

Can you remember back to the olden days of college basketball when high school students were recruited to play at colleges and universities across the country?

The teams that recruited the best high schoolers were generally pretty good.

Put away your AARP card and listen up. Those days are gone.

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The new way to build your team is to grab some talent from the NCAA transfer portal and bolster the team with upper-classmen transfers.

According to data from VerbalCommits via Sportico, 1,740 men’s basketball players entered the transfer portal this past off-season, with 1,464 successfully finding new schools.

That number is way up from the 942 transfers the previous season. Some of the increase was COVID-driven legibility and transfer changes.

 

RI in Focus

The portal is wide open and here are some of the moves and the names that are already hitting the local teams.

The fabulous Mitchell brothers -- who transferred from the University of Maryland to the University of Rhode Island two years -- are leaving Kingston.

Makhi and Makhel Mitchell entered the transfer portal this week.

Also departing from URI is Antwan Walker — he transferred from Georgetown to URI and now he is off again — transferring to Bryant University.

Brown University’s Jaylon Gainey who completed his eligibility at Brown is now in the portal looking for a grad year.  The 6’9” shot blocker will be a popular one-and-done for some programs. He is the former Ivy League defensive player of the year.

And, former Brown player Desmond Cambridge, who left Brown to attend Nevada three years ago, is back in the portal. He averaged 16 points and 6 rebounds a game for the Wolf Pack.

 

Buyers

With six of Providence College's top players graduating -- the Friars will be looking for significant help from the portal. Cooley has established himself as a great coach for serious players looking to play in a top conference. Cooley loses five starters.

Also, Archie Miller, URI's new coach, finds a thin roster. The departure of the Mitchell brothers, Walker, and graduates makes the rooster smaller and very thin in the frontcourt.