Thanks to a perfect storm of ingredients, the college basketball transfer portal is putting a fitting chaotic cap on a chaotic 2020-21 season. As of last check, there were over 1,300 names in the portal, or approximately 28% of the allotment of Division I scholarships. Villanova hasn’t been able to escape the tumult unscathed, losing Cole Swider.

The effects of the pandemic season have likely played a role in the unprecedented transfer numbers, and the issue is being exacerbated by the fact that the expectation is that there will be no one-year sit out penalty for transfers this year. Finally, seniors having an extra year of eligibility has been a major factor, either with current seniors looking for a new place to use that extra year or younger players deciding to seek more playing time elsewhere due to a returning senior changing the dynamic of the current roster.

While the sheer number of players in the portal is jarring, Jay Wright believes things will settle down in a few years as players and coaches adjust to the new realities of college basketball, although the path through that transition will be bumpy. “I think it’s what’s best for the players,” Wright said. “It’s gonna make college basketball a little messy for the next couple years. But I think the pandemic has also added to the high numbers this year. And then the first time this is available to everybody without having to sit out I think has excited a lot of people. I think this thing will balance out in the next couple years, but I do think for a couple years it’s gonna be messy.”

The impacts and complications from this mass movement are plentiful, and many fall on the shoulders of coaches. In particular, trying to figure out what is best for each player on their rosters and then trying to understand how all of that fits into what is best for their teams. Each decision by a player has ripple effects, and as those ripple effects start bumping into each other the water gets choppy quickly.

One consequence of all of this is the fact that coaches now have to essentially “re-recruit” their players at the end of each season. “Oh yeah,” Wright said when asked if he felt the need to re-recruit after this season ended. “I think that’s what’s gonna change in college basketball. I think at the end of each season it’s really gonna be like free agency. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. It’s just gonna be, you have to sit down and you have to explain to the guy who’s coming back, who’s not, what’s their role, what’s the roster gonna be like. I think we’ll all get used to it and I think it’ll balance out.”

It's certainly going to be interesting to see how all this shakes out, not only the rest of this offseason but over the next couple of years as well.