New Coaches Thriving in College Basketball's Portal Era
In the olden days, it took new coaches years to build a program. Now with an open portal, coaches can find success in year one. Here's what coaches are landing key pieces in the portal.
You may remember just a few years ago, when a new head coach was named, it could take years for them to build a program. The transfer portal was not nearly as relevant, so you had to rely on finding what pieces you could from other schools, JUCOs, DII, and high school. Often times, new head coaches would be duct taping a team together in year one. Now, with a wide-open transfer portal and NIL money, 1st year head coaches don’t have to struggle to put together a competitive team in year one.
Here’s 3 coaches setting themselves up for success in their first season on the job.
Chris Mack - College of Charleston
There’s probably no shock here that Chris Mack is already bringing in a competitive team for Charleston. Here’s a list of the transfers he’s landed thus far:
AJ Smith (Sophomore) - The Citadel
16.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists per game
Ante Brzovic (Junior) - College of Charleston (Entered the portal and came back)
12.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists per game
Derrin Boyd (Senior) - Lipscomb
17.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists
Djordje Curcic (Freshman) - Saint Louis
2.9 points, 0.4 rebounds, 0.5 assists per game
Lazar Djokovic (Freshman) - Xavier
2.8 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game
For comparison, here’s what Mack lost in the portal:
Kobe Rodgers (Junior) - TBD
9.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.3 steals per game
James Scott (Freshman) - Louisville
5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 1.3 blocks per game
Ben Burnham (Junior) - Virginia Tech
11.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game
Reyne Smith (Junior) - Louisville
12.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists per game
Technically 5 players entered the portal after Pat Kelsey headed to Louisville, in which both James Scott and Reyne Smith followed him. However, Mack was able to win over Ante Brzovic.
Looking at the points lost, Mack has replaced all of them with more fire power. Boyd might be a little bit of a question mark because he will be coming off an ACL injury, but when healthy he is one of the best mid-major players in the country.
AJ Smith had some monster games, including a 31 point performance on 12-16 shooting against NC A&T. Against better talent, Smith still performed. He had 15 points and 5 rebounds against future Final Four participants NC State, 18 points, 2 rebounds against the College of Charleston, 27 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist against Wofford, and 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists against UNC Greensboro. Needless to say…AJ Smith is an excellent basketball player.
Djordje Curcic appeared in just 18 games this season for Saint Louis as a freshman, but in those games he shined in just 9.8 minutes on average. He shot 52.8% from the floor and 42.9% from beyond the arc. His best performance came against George Washington where he had to step up in a 96-91 victory thanks to a 9 point, 2 rebound, 5 assist performance on 3-4 shooting from three.
Similar to Curcic, Lazar Djokovic had limited playing time as a Freshman on Xavier. He did appear in 28 games, however, he averaged just 14.4 minutes per game. One of his best performances of the season came against #8 Marquette in the Musketeers’ 86-80 loss. Djokovic posted 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists in 33 minutes. In the last four games of the year (including the NIT), he averaged 6.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2 assists in 32.2 minutes per game. The potential is definitely there for the 6’10 forward from Serbia.
This is a College of Charleston team that went 27-8 last year, and Mack is reloading for what might be an equal or even better season for the Cougars. There was no doubt that when the Cougars named Mack the head coach that they’d win, but I’m not for sure if anyone saw this recruiting coming, especially all of these commits being within a week of each other. Needless to say, this is impressive.
Now, lets be a little fair here to other first year head coaches, “true first year” head coaches in particular. Chris Mack is a well known name, so he has connections in the recruiting world, he carries weight in his name. If you are a first year head coach that was an assistant or a head coach at a JUCO or DII school, obviously it’s going to be a little bit harder for you.
Rob Lanier - Rice
After a somewhat controversial dismissal at SMU after just two seasons, Lanier was quickly picked up at Rice. He’s wasted no time immediately picking up pieces in the portal:
Kellen Amos (Junior) - Central Connecticut State
11.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game
Trae Broadnax (Junior) - USC Upstate
14.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1 steal per game
Trey Patterson (Junior) - Villanova
Did not play this season
Here’s what Lanier has lost:
Noah Shelby (Sophomore) - TBD
3.9 points, 1 rebounds, 0.8 assists per game
Gabe Warren (Freshman) - TBD
1.4 points, 1.1 rebounds, 0.4 assists per game
Anthony Selden (Junior) - Gardner-Webb
5.5 points, 2.4 rebounds, 0.5 assists per game
Alem Huseinovic (Junior) - TBD
7.8 points, 1.7 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game
Keanu Dawes (Freshman) - Utah
6.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 0.9 assists per game
Camp Wagner (Freshman) - TBD
1.2 points, 0.5 rebounds per game
Andrew Akychie (Sophomore) - TBD
3.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists per game
Cameron Sheffield (Junior) - TBD
Did not play this season
Mekhi Mason (Sophomore) - Washington
14 points, 4 rebounds, 2.8 assists
On the surface here, losing 8 players looks bad, however, just two a couple were key contributors. Their top scorer, Travis Evee, is out of eligibility. Their second leading scorer, Sophomore Mekhi Mason, is transferring to Washington which is a blow to the team. Among the other transfers, if I were an Owls fan, I’d be most upset about losing Keanu Dawes to Utah. As a freshman, he averaged 6.6 points, 4.1 rebounds per game in 23 minutes a game. In the Owl’s 74-71 upset over Memphis, Dawes had 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. Against UAB who would go on to win the AAC tournament and USF who would be the regular season title winner, he posted 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block respectfully.
Despite losing their top two scorers and a freshman with loaded potential, Lanier is already restocking. Kellen Amos had some monster stat lines this season for Central Connecticut, including a 26 point performance against Le Moyne, 2 double-doubles, and double-digit points scored in 20 out of the 31 games he played in.
Trae Broadnax had even more impressive stats, including just 6 games with less than double-digit points out of 30, 46.5 percent shooting from the floor, and a conference average of 15.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1 steal per game.
Trey Patterson is going to be a wait and see kind of player. He was a medical redshirt this season, but coming out of high school he was ranked 55th in the nation and 4th in New Jersey with offers from Villanova, Florida, Indiana, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Cincinnati, UConn, Georgetown, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Memphis, Miami, NC State, Rutgers, Stanford, TCU, Tennessee, UCLA, Wake Forest, Washington, Xavier, and St John’s. Wow. That was a long list. All that to say, obviously he has a ton of potential to be a high-caliber player, so perhaps transferring down will help him unlock that potential, especially after sitting out for a year.
Preston Spradlin - James Madison
This should come at no surprise that our #1 coaching hire thus far is coming in on this list as well. In Spradlin’s first few weeks as James Madison’s head coach, he’s already brought in:
AJ Smith (Sophomore) - Southern Indiana
13.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists per game
Ebenezer Dowuona (Senior) - Georgia Tech
1 point, 1.4 rebound per game
Eddie Ricks III (Freshman) - Morehead State
7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists per game
Justin Taylor (Sophomore) - Syracuse
5 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 assist per game
He’s lost:
Terrence Edwards (Junior) - Louisville
17.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists per game
Raekwon Horton (Junior) - TBD
6.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1.4 steals per game
Jaylen Carey (Freshman) - Vanderbilt
7 points, 4.3 rebounds per game
Quincy Allen (Sophomore) - TBD
3.8 points, 1.4 rebounds per game (8 games)
Hollman Smith (Senior) - TBD (Walk-on)
0.6 points, 0.6 rebounds per game (12 games)
Thus far, just Jaylen Carey has followed Mark Byington to Vanderbilt. I was a little stunned that Terrence Edwards did not, but Pat Kelsey was able to poach him to help load up and rebuild an abysmal Louisville program.
For Spradlin, none of these players may stand out to you, but each are excellent mid-major players. AJ Smith was essentially the leader alongside Jeremiah Hernandez at USI as just a Sophomore nearly averaging a double-double.
Eddie Ricks III was just a freshman on a 26-9 Morehead State team, but emerged as an excellent bench piece.
Justin Taylor averaged 23 minutes in 32 games on a 20-12 Syracuse squad as just a Sophomore.
Dowuona is probably just a shot in the dark. He spent 3 years at NC State then last season at Georgia Tech. He did average 24.5 minutes per game in 31 games in his sophomore season at NC State. However, he only managed to average 4.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, but a nice 1.7 blocks per game.
Spradlin is loading up in year one, all in a matter of just 3 days and he’s still going. While it looked like James Madison might be going into a rebuild year, it appears that the Dukes will be fielding a fully competitive team in the Sun Belt next season.
Use the code “BracketBusters” when checking out at Crow’s Nest Coffee Roasters to receive 10% of your order!