Holding Court: Transfer Portal Necessitates Tweak To Carolina Blueprint

The first question brand-new North Carolina basketball coach Hubert Davis fielded at his introductory press conference in April involved the Tar Heels’ style of play.

In his answer, Davis immediately paid homage to UNC’s famously rich tradition, which he experienced as a four-year player (1988-92) under Dean Smith and his long-time aide Bill Guthridge, then again as a nine-year assistant coach (2012-21) for Roy Williams.

“The foundation is set here at Carolina, and it’s a foundation that I believe in,” Davis said. “It’s a foundation that has been tested and tried and proven successful through Coach Smith, Coach Guthridge and Coach Williams. I’ve got no desire, I’ve got no plans, of going away from that foundation, because I believe in it.”

In the same answer, though, Davis quickly made reference to one of the few areas where he simply cannot, and will not, follow in his predecessors’ footsteps.

“We’ve got to get better with the transfer portal,” Davis said.

Throughout Smith’s legendary 36-season tenure in Chapel Hill, he had to adjust to multiple NCAA rules changes, including freshman eligibility, the shot clock and the 3-point shot. During Williams’ 18 years leading the Tar Heels, he had to maneuver through the dramatic rise in early NBA entries, among other modern realities.

From his first day on the job, Davis stepped into at least one coaching reality that would have been unrecognizable to Smith and bombarded Williams only in more recent years.

As Davis’ former ESPN colleague Dick Vitale might say, It’s Transfer City, Baby!

While transfers always have been a part of college basketball, UNC only rarely has capitalized on the concept. Smith developed dozens of All-ACC players, but only one (Bob McAdoo, a junior college product, in 1972) was a transfer. Similarly, Williams focused almost entirely on recruiting the high school ranks, and only one of his many All-ACC players (Cameron Johnson, via Pittsburgh, in 2019) came from the transfer circuit.

With more players than ever making such moves, and a recently approved NCAA rule (basically, every athlete in every sport now is allowed one no-questions-asked transfer with immediate eligibility at his/her new school) eliminating the traditionally required sit-out season for the overwhelming majority of them, it would be coaching malpractice to ignore this quickly changing aspect of the recruiting landscape.

(Photo via Ethan Hyman/News & Observer)

Even compared to recent years, the transfer circuit is absolutely booming. According to NCAA numbers, there were roughly 700 Division I men’s basketball transfers annually in the three-year period from 2017-19. (The NCAA introduced its transfer portal in 2018, and initially there was not a large jump in transfers.) This year’s final number will settle well beyond 1,000, meaning an average of more than three transfers per Division I program and a transfer growth rate of at least 50 percent over just two years ago.

To his credit, near the end of a recruiting cycle in which UNC uncharacteristically failed to sign a single prep All-American, Davis secured one of the most accomplished incoming transfers in the entire ACC.

At least 10 major college transfers will enter the ACC this fall after earning first-, second- or third-team all-conference honors at their previous schools (see accompanying chart), but only Oklahoma forward Brady Manek did so while competing in one of the other top conferences in America. He picked the Tar Heels less than two weeks after Davis’ introductory press conference.

“Brady is the perfect player for what we wanted and what we needed,” Davis said. “We needed a player that had size, but from an offensive standpoint had the versatility to score around the basket with either hand and be just as effective on the perimeter. And that’s what Brady has done for four seasons at Oklahoma.”

A four-year starter on NCAA Tournament-caliber teams (the Sooners made the Big Dance in each of the three years it was played) for recently retired coach Lon Kruger, Manek graduated from Oklahoma as the 14^th-leading scorer in program history. A 6-9, 231-pound stretch forward, he made 235 3-pointers, a number surpassed by only two players (Marcus Paige, Joel Berry) in UNC history.

As a junior, Manek earned third-team All-Big 12 honors. He averaged 31 minutes, 14 points, six rebounds, one assist and one block per game, while shooting 45 percent from the field, 78 percent from the free throw line, and 38 percent on 3-pointers.

Manek left his mark on Big 12 history as the league’s tallest player to make 200 threes and its first to compile 200 threes and 100 blocks. He also became the only Oklahoma player ever to produce a career combination of at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 3-pointers and 100 blocks.

If Davis is going to leave a positive first impression on UNC history in his new capacity as the Tar Heels’ head coach, the transfer portal – and Manek in particular – likely must prove to be a significant part of the process.

David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.

The founding editor and long-time owner of the ACC Sports Journal and ACCSports.com, he also has contributed to the Durham Herald-Sun, ESPN Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Raycom Sports, SiriusXM and most recently The Athletic. From 1999-2020, he also hosted the David Glenn Show, which became the largest sports radio program in the history of the Carolinas, syndicated in more than 300 North Carolina cities and towns, plus parts of South Carolina and Virginia.

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