Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was asked this week about the NCAA transfer portal. With the one-time transfer exemption offered by the NCAA, the number of players looking to transfer has soared.
Perhaps not surprisingly Reeve – whose first head coaching job was in college at Indiana State — said she didn't like these recent developments much.
"I know this is a little bit of the old school coming out, but I probably share the view of most college coaches, that the idea of not seeing something through would be frowned upon,'' she said. "The idea that you didn't take the time and make your decision for the right reasons, and be committed somewhere. But that sounds a little bit old-fashioned.''
Reeve said she and her staff take a player's transfer history into account when analyzing a draft prospect. Of course a player isn't rejected just because of a transfer – these days that would certainly limit a prospect pool – but they dive into the reasons for the moves.
"We vet very closely, maybe the reasons why it happened,'' Reeve said. "But if they transferred three times I think you really ought to read into that. They have commitment issues. I think you should really read into it.''
Reeve joked that she and her staff have renamed the WNBA waiver wire the transfer portal. "We kind of got a kick out of that. It's our transfer portal," she said.
All that said, Reeve knows that the portal is a way for college coaches to fill immediate needs.
"It's a little bit like free agency,'' she said. "And we know the fun of free agency. If you need help it's a fast way to get better. So it's interesting. I don't like it at all, but it seems like the train has left the station.''
