College basketball’s offseason has a free agency feel. Here’s how Villanova is navigating the new world.
Alabama reached the men’s basketball Final Four and had 11 players in the transfer portal as of Friday afternoon. Duke reached the Elite Eight and then watched seven players submit their names to leave the program. Rutgers may have the best incoming recruiting class in its hoops history, but the Scarlet Knights are likely saying goodbye to at least eight players in the portal.
Locally in men’s basketball, the top five scorers at La Salle went into the portal. Temple’s top three scorers and Drexel’s top two, too. St. Joseph’s has seen players exit and arrive. And Penn lost two to an Ivy League rule that doesn’t allow graduate students to play, and another, freshman Tyler Perkins, who left for Villanova after a standout freshman year in part because the Ivy League doesn’t have the name, image, and likeness capabilities to keep him around.