KU’s Flory Bidunga ruined my weekend when he entered the NCAA transfer portal. Then, he made my weekend when he decided to return for the next season. You might be asking yourself, why, if he originally decided to leave based on concerns about the roster (namely that Kansas had zero returning contributors), would he then come back so quickly? The answer is money! By entering the portal, Bidunga has essentially guaranteed himself an extra fat bag of cash, and who could pass that up? The past few years have been an extremely trying time for fans of college basketball, due to the new rules that govern the sport. The new transfer rules that allow athletes to play immediately were the first domino to fall. Followed by the NIL rules that essentially allow colleges to offer players a sum of money, have quickly deteriorated the landscape of college basketball. Players enter the portal on a whim and never take the time to develop, which was KU’s greatest strength for a long time. If NIL existed a decade ago there is every possibility that players like Jalen Wilson, Devonte Graham and Frank Mason all would have left at some point during their careers because of a lack of playing time. The issue extends throughout the whole college basketball world, including down the road to Manhattan, where K-State’s best shooter Brendan Hausen just entered the portal. They also paid Coleman Hawkins a multi-million dollar sum just for him to be mediocre and miss the tournament again. There is no loyalty left at all. Even when KU lost in the past I could still enjoy the tournament because the players were giving their all in every single game, aware that it could be their last at their beloved school. Now that the loyalty is gone it shows. We just had one of the most boring March Madness Tournaments ever. Four number one seeds made the final four, and the biggest Cinderella team was Arkansas, who plays in the SEC. Florida won the national championship led by Walter Clayton Junior (formerly of Iona), and defeated Auburn’s Johni Broome (Morehead State) and Houston’s LJ Cryer (Baylor). The top-tier teams are too good to compete with, and this is how it’s going to be every year, because all the good talent from the smaller teams and the mid-majors will transfer to a contender, and the best teams will continue to reload year after year. There is no fun in continued dominance, that’s why Duke, the Yankees and the Chiefs are hated, people want change. And until the NCAA realizes how their decisions have harmed their sport, nothing will change. College Basketball will just sink further into the overwhelming staleness that defined it this season.
