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Aztecs dive into basketball's transfer portal for players – The San … – The San Diego Union-Tribune
JayDee Luster, the San Diego State assistant coach who doubles as the program’s recruiting coordinator, popped into the media room at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center the day before its Elite Eight game.
“Is there a printer in here?” he asked.
Luster emerged a few minutes later with a thick printout. It had the latest names and contact information from college basketball’s ever-expanding transfer portal.
A week later at the Final Four in Houston, Luster was courtside at NRG Stadium before the team’s open practice, filming individual videos for transfers they were already pursuing. Most days, Luster was on the phone until midnight between helping with game prep for SDSU’s run through the NCAA Tournament.
It’s not just Luster.
“I’m getting ready for the game,” head coach Brian Dutcher said in Houston, “but I made a recruiting call on the way over from the bus because, while we’re sitting here getting ready for the greatest event in the world, there are coaches doing home visits and recruiting for next year’s team. So as focused as I am now, I’ve also got one eye on the future.
“If you don’t do that, you shouldn’t be coaching.”
Their season ended Monday night in Houston, with a 76-59 loss against Connecticut in the national championship game. The team flew home Tuesday. Next season began Wednesday morning, with coaches and players meetings.
For most everyone else, next season began three weeks ago, when the transfer portal opened March 13. Dozens of players already have taken visits and committed to new homes.
The week after losing in last year’s tournament, the entire coaching staff was on a plane to Seattle to have lunch with a prospective transfer named Darrion Trammell. He committed exactly one year ago Wednesday.
A month later, the Aztecs added another transfer, Micah Parrish from Oakland University. A third, Jaedon LeDee, had been on campus for a year after redshirting.
This year? They’re starting later and need at least two transfers, possibly three, maybe more.
The math: They had 12 scholarship players this season, one under the maximum. Aguek Arop, Matt Bradley, Nathan Mensah and Adam Seiko are all out of eligibility, bringing them to eight. There are two incoming freshmen, guard B.J. Davis and forward Miles Heide. That gives them 10, with three available scholarships.
Keshad Johnson has an extra COVID year of eligibility at his disposal, but he is graduating in May and said before the NCAA Tournament he will explore all options: turning pro, staying at SDSU or entering the transfer portal.
Junior Lamont Butler told the Union-Tribune at the Final Four that he may consider provisionally entering the NBA Draft while retaining his college eligibility.
That leaves six expected returnees: Trammell, who has one year left and is on record saying he intends to stay; LeDee, who has already transferred twice and also said he plans to return; Parrish, who has two years left; 6-10 redshirt freshman Demarshay Johnson Jr.; and true freshmen Elijah Saunders and Miles Byrd.
The Aztecs won 32 games and played for the national championship in part because of their experience, with a nine-man rotation consisting of all juniors or seniors (and one sixth-year senior). The question now becomes whether Dutcher sticks with that formula and restocks from the portal, or rolls with younger, unproven players.
“We have a good team coming back,” Dutcher said. “We’re going to be very good next year. I had two freshmen, they’re as good as any freshmen I have had in my program (and) couldn’t get on the floor. They’re going to contribute next year.
“People (next year) are going to say, ‘Why didn’t he play last year?’ Well, we were really good last year.”
The most immediate need is a big with a defensive presence and low-post scoring ability, especially losing Mensah, Arop and possibly Johnson. They’ll also need a pure scorer on the wing to replace Bradley, who led the Aztecs in that department for the past two seasons. And maybe a shooter to stretch defenses like Seiko did after making 45.8 percent of his attempts behind the 3-point arc this season.
The Division I portal has more than 1,300 players, with more entering by the day, even by the hour. Coaches could make home visits or players could make campus visits until last Thursday, when a weeklong dead period started so staffs could attend the Final Four. In-person recruiting reopens Thursday at noon, then closes again Monday for three days during the late signing period for high school players.
SDSU might try to squeeze in a visit this weekend, while juggling plans for Saturday night’s public celebration of the historic season as well as individual player meetings to better assess the state of the roster.
However many reinforcements they need, there will be plenty of options. Just in the Mountain West alone, nearly every team except SDSU has had at least one key player enter the portal and several had multiple departures. That includes 7-foot Will Baker from Nevada, 6-4 Keshon Gilbert from UNLV and 6-8 Josiah Allick from New Mexico.
There are big national names in the portal – Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson, North Carolina’s Caleb Love – but SDSU historically has been less concerned with recruiting stars than shoulder chips, less about celebrity than culture.
“It’s more than just putting in a highlight film and falling in love with someone,” Dutcher said. “It’s digging deeper to find out what they’re about. They have to culturally fit what you are doing. … You don’t have to get every kid in the portal to be successful. You just have to have kids who are about the right things (and) want to win beyond anything else and are willing to sacrifice to do that.
“You have to do your research, your due diligence on any kid you recruit. You don’t want to take someone else’s problem. That’s basically the way to put it.”
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