Dan Hurley on transfer portal: 'It shouldn't be open right now'

UConn basketball head coach Dan Hurley has become the latest college basketball leader to speak against the timing of the NCAA transfer portal.

Speaking Thursday in Brooklyn ahead of the Huskies’ first-round matchup with No. 16 seed Stetson, Hurley emphasized the transfer portal should not be open during the NCAA Tournament, especially during one of the most exciting weeks in the sport. The 45-day portal window opened Monday and will close on May 1.

“It shouldn’t be open right now,” Hurley said. “The fact on Monday, the best week in college basketball, that it’s open, it’s bizarre. It’s led to even more chaos. Listen, if you run a great program and you’re doing things the right way, you serve your players great, it probably doesn’t impact you as much as it impacts others. We’ve been able to hold on to the players that we’ve been desperate to keep and build around those core players on a yearly basis.”

Plenty of coaches in March Madness have been scouting portal talent while preparing for tournament games. As of Thursday afternoon, 735 men’s basketball players have entered the portal. Nearly 450 players entered on Monday alone.

UConn has benefited from the portal, adding Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer last offseason. The guard has started 34 games this season and enters tournament play averaging 14.5 points and 4.5 rebounds shooting 48.8% from the field. Dan Hurley believes players jumping around from school to school only hurts their future, though.

“I just think the timeline of the portal – I don’t know, man,” he said. “I just think it’s bad for kids. Your college you go to, the staff you play for becomes your network for life. The group of people that will help create opportunities for you for the entirety of your life, your support system.

“If you play at four or five schools in four or five years, what type of support system – you’re just kind of a mercenary at that point. You have no base in life.”

Booster-funded NIL collectives can freely negotiate with athletes before they make commitments currently because of a preliminary injunction in the Eastern District of Tennessee. The NCAA also updated its portal memo last week, allowing multi-time transfers this spring to play at a new school in the 2024-25 year without securing a waiver.

What positions cost most in transfer portal?

In college football, quarterbacks, EDGEs and offensive tackles typically earn the most collective dollars. Sources told On3 that big men, specifically centers, are the best comparison to quarterbacks as the top-of-the-line earners with the elite earning over $1 million.

“The most valuable positions are generally productive bigs because there just aren’t that many tall enough people in the world, so having productive bigs are harder to come by,” an agent recently told On3. “I think even backup bigs are hard to come by at the high-major level – guys who can 10 to 15 minutes and produce. There’s just not that many competent, high-major bigs out there. There’s a premium for that.”

Shooters with size are another spot on the hardwood programs will look to identify. Sources told On3 that the price range for point guards varies between $200,000 to $400,000 but always depends on the available funds.

Any athlete who enters the portal is looking to climb up or find a spot that guarantees more playing time. Scouting is more important than ever, sources said, because the top players in the sport leave for the NBA draft after the first season.

“There are a lot of big-time programs looking to get back to relevancy fast and the free agency window is officially open,” a source told On3. “This transfer portal window will be the most intriguing one yet.”