Magoon Gwath returning to SDSU is proof portal recruiting is different -- and Mark Pope has earned patience

Think back to where you were this time last year — April 2, 2024. We were six days removed from John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart sitting down with Keith Farmer and BBN Tonight talking through the future of Kentucky basketball, 12 days removed from the Oakland loss. We were five days away from the first reports of Coach Cal flirting with Arkansas and ultimately deciding to take the job on the night of April 7.

Calipari announced his resignation on April 9, saying the Wildcats needed ‘another voice’ to lead the program. That voice? Mark Pope, who agreed to take the job on April 11 before being announced as head coach on April 12, introductory press conference scheduled for April 14.

From that point, Pope’s first transfer portal commitment would come from Amari Williams on April 21. His final commitment, Jaxson Robinson, would go public with his decision on May 30 — six weeks to put together his debut roster with zero recruiting base or returning talent. He had to re-recruit Travis Perry to Lexington while bringing just one high school pledge with him in Collin Chandler, coming off a two-year mission trip.

The result? A roster capable of tying the all-time college basketball record for top-15 wins with eight while taking the program to its first Sweet 16 since 2019. That was with two season-ending injuries for Robinson and Kerr Kriisa while also navigating Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr jumping in and out of the lineup due to their own lingering injuries. They overcame the odds in historical fashion, a group of fan favorites to set the foundation and standard under Pope in Lexington — not necessarily in terms of the destination (championships are always the expectation), but rather the journey and how players should carry themselves on and off the floor wearing that jersey. As Pope made clear from day one, he wants guys who understand the assignment. This team did.

That brings us to April 2, 2025, fans waking up in panic mode after finding out San Diego State transfer Magoon Gwath — who seemed to be all but a lock on Tuesday as national predictions in favor of Kentucky came rolling in — decided in the late hours of the night to pull his name out of the portal and return to the Aztecs for year two.

It was such a surprise to SDSU folks that they had to clarify that the news was not an April Fools’ joke. Their versatile big man who earned Mountain West Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors had done the unthinkable, turning down a massive pay raise to play for a blue blood in favor of a return to the place that gave him his start as a zero-star newcomer last offseason.

“I knew he wanted to be here with us and knew in his heart that he wanted to be at San Diego State, but he owed it to himself and to his family to see what was out there,” SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher said Tuesday night. “At the end of the day, he was willing to settle for less money. It’s not all about money, as much as people want to say it is. Money is important, of course, but if money was the end-all, be-all, we wouldn’t have a team right now.”

Sounds like Pope found the exact high-character kid he was looking for — and nearly got him — before his heart pulled him back to San Diego. Can it not be that simple?

Let me remind you that nearly 1.7K names hit the portal in the month of March alone. That number is going to continue to grow, doing laps on the 2,025 number of total entries in the 2024 cycle before it officially closes on April 24 — over three weeks from today. There will be several dozen portal targets to freak out about before Pope nails down his final roster in May when factoring in potential draft pieces testing the waters, just as Robinson did last year.

Point being, Gwath is the perfect example of why fans can’t view portal recruiting through the same lens as high school recruiting the way we’ve known it — particularly under John Calipari. Those were relationships starting back in grade school with years to grow together and become family. It’s the DJ Wagners of the world, decades of loyalty ingrained through basketball ties with former players, coaches and prominent shakers and movers in the sport. Those losses were the ones that really rocked your world, dedicating countless hours and financial resources on a single kid, only for them to decide their relationship was better with someone else. It also made those wins that much sweeter, Coach Cal pulling off the late steal after other schools put in years of work to get to the closing table. Maybe the best example was when Mick Cronin was caught yapping about Calipari cheating to land Marquis Teague, only for the former Kentucky coach to respond, “Be appreciative every time I don’t come in and get your guy.”

That’s not what this is.

“It’s like speed dating,” as one Kentucky source put it this week.

Kids are making decisions on a whim, maybe a few Zoom calls and an in-person meeting with NIL steering a lot of those conversations. Is it a system fit? Check. Will my client get paid market value? Not more than another potential option? Next.

It works both ways, this system also allowing schools to quickly sort through targets, swiping left or right like Tinder. If they’re looking to go to the highest bidder with no desire to actually contribute to a winning culture, you can move on like the conversation never happened. Miss on a kid who may be the right fit? You’ve got another thousand-plus to go through for a handful of spots.

There is no reward for filling up your roster first. The two SEC teams competing in the Final Four this weekend in San Antonio, Auburn and Florida, have not added a single portal commitment at this stage. They’re focused on winning the current championship trophy, not the made-up offseason one so many fans are clamoring for their programs to claim — especially, and maybe most of all, Kentucky.

If there is one coach in America that has earned the benefit of the doubt in terms of timely roster construction, it’s the guy who started later with a shorter runway to work with and endless injury obstacles to overcome, only to make history in his first year on the job.

Mark Pope and his staff deserve patience now, a few misses from now, and a few more misses after that. The only thing that matters is what the 15-man group looks like when the players return to campus in June — or at Big Blue Madness, better yet, just in case there are any late reclassifications or international additions later in the process. Either way, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

You can either choose to ride the portal waves or drown underneath them.