I thought ECU had it bad with some of the players they have had transfer out like Newton that could be playing here this year. I don't know how anyone ever thought that it was a smart plan to build a program with freshmen at ECU, but it was reinforced to see the kind of talent leaving some of the P6's.
Just look at the kind of players ECU assistant Mark Adams had at Texas Tech that are playing elsewhere this season. They were leaving even if he wasn't fired, and Texas Tech is still good because they went in the portal and replaced them.
Terrence Shannon | Illinois | 6-6 | SG
21.4 PPG | 4.0 RPG | 47% FG
Kevin McCullar | Kansas | 6-6 | SG
19.0 PPG | 6.4 RPG | 4.4 APG
Jaylon Tyson | Cal | 6-7 | SF
20.3 PPG | 7.1 RPG | 48.8 FG
Fardaws Aimaq | Cal | 6-11 | C
14.7 PPG | 11.2 RPG | 47% FG
Vladislav Golden | FAU | 7-1 | C
14.4 PPG | 6.5 RPG | 1.5. BPG
Micah Peavy | TCU | 6-7 | SF
11.6 PPG | 5.0 RPG | 48.5% FG
Daniel Batcho | Louisiana Tech | 6-11 | C
14.7 PPG | 10.5 RPG | 2.3 BPG
Nimari Burnett | Michigan | 6-4 | SG
9.5 PPG | 4.3 RPG | 2.5 APG
Chibuzo Agbo | Boise State | 6-7 | SF
14.0 PPG | 4.8 RPG | 40.8% 3PT
Mylik Wilson | Houston | 6-3 | SG
3.9 PPG | 2.8 RPG | 1.0 SPG
Russel Tchewa | Georgia | 7-0 | C
7.6 PPG | 6.6 RPG | 55.6% FG
Tyreek Smith | SMU | 6-7 | PF
8.0 PPG | 5.6 RPG | 61.4% FG
Elijah Fisher | DePaul | 6-6 | SG
9.6 PPG | 1.5 APG | 52% FG
KJ Allen | Portland State | 6-6 | PF
12.3 PPG | 6.8 RPG | 42.9% FG
That's insane talent. Multiple All American's 20ppg, double double guys. It's not just Texas Tech, places like North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee are also on the list as farm schools farming big time talent for the next place.
Another article last year said UNC skipped the NIT to hit the portal hard. UConn was doing transfer portal zoom meetings 2 days before the title game last year. Another article I read was pointing out how freshmen are so much less effective than they were 4 or 5 years ago.
Per KenPom, only six of the top 100 players in offensive rating are freshmen. In the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, that number was 14. Last season, there were only two freshmen in the top 100. Playing time has remained roughly the same since 2020, though in 2019 nine freshmen ranked in KenPom's top 100 players in percentage of minutes played — this season, there are two.
“Can you sign four or five freshmen nowadays in the Big 12? If they don’t play, it’s so easy to transfer,” Porter Moser
"Everybody’s recruiting top-50 guys,” Mark Few said to The Athletic. “Well, they’re still 18, and they’re going against 23-year-olds.”
