Following Bradley’s men’s basketball season, head coach Brian Wardle put his focus onto the next campaign, while hoping to return each of his eligible players. One of the phrases he discussed following the Braves’ quarterfinal loss to Loyola-Chicago at the MVC Tournament was one that would confuse the heck out of John Wooden and Bob Knight: “re-recruiting.”
“You know, it’s crazy because that’s where college basketball is now,” Wardle said.
Wardle was referring to the NCAA college basketball’s transfer portal, introduced in October of 2018, which thousands of players have entered since. The impact of the portal increased further in April 2021, when transfers were no longer required to adhere to the customary rule of sitting out for a year before they could play with their new team.
Players can enter the portal and choose to return to their original school, however that is seldom seen. With over 1,200 men’s players in the portal alone, it now becomes normal for coaches to struggle with keeping a recruiting class together for all four years.
“Yeah, you have to adapt to it,” Wardle said. “Change is inevitable; it’s part of the college basketball landscape now. I think it makes it hard to build programs because, what it’s gotten down to, is you’re building a team year by year.”
How it affects Bradley
A little more than a handful of men’s and women’s basketball players at Bradley entered the portal within the last three weeks: first team All-MVC guard Terry Roberts and Jayson Kent entered on the men’s side, while forwards Abbie Draper, Sierra Morrow and sibling guards Tatum and Sasha Koenig for the women’s.
Kent, who averaged 5.4 points and 2.1 rebounds per game during his two years with the Braves, says the decision to transfer was based on what he felt to be his best interest.
“Deciding to transfer was a tough decision, there was a lot of back and forth,” Kent said. “At the end of the day, it was what’s best for me and what was the best opportunity for me.”
The concept of “what’s best” seems to be a theme for transferred players, as the typical Twitter post screenshotted from a notes app on the phone contains a thank-you to their previous university as well as the possibility of “exploring what else is out there.”
“It’s more of what’s going to help them benefit and what they’re trying to achieve in their life,” Kent said. “Sometimes it might just not be the right fit at that time, so as a student athlete, it’s like what’s going to help me be a better person and a better man and also help me develop to where I want to get to in the future.”
Addressing misconceptions
For the sophomore guard/forward and the 1,000-plus players in the portal, the decision was respected by some fans on social media, but drew the ire of others. One can only imagine how many posts have been made on message boards, comment sections and other outlets complaining that there’s no loyalty in college basketball anymore.
That’s not the case, according to Kent.
“As a fan, I can kind of understand when they say you’re supposed to be committed but it’s different behind closed doors,” Kent said. “It’s different to understand what the student-athlete is going through, how they feel, how they understand the program and stuff like that.”
Wardle, like the other 357 coaches in Division I basketball, understands that the wellbeing of student-athletes is paramount in their minds. Since players no longer need to watch from the sidelines for a year before seeing court action, finding more playing time is another enormous factor for them.
“Especially after two years, you don’t want a man unhappy,” Wardle said. “You want them to be happy and excited about their opportunity and that’s where you have to have tough conversations as a coach.”
Bradley’s roster has seen less changes than some Division I programs, losing only two players to the portal, albeit starters, compared to some programs like LSU and future MVC member Murray State, who essentially have a bare cupboard after nearly every player on each team’s roster hit the transfer market.
Roberts and Kent will not return, nor will graduated seniors Mikey Howell and Ari Boya. Bradley retained senior forward and centerpiece Ja’Shon Henry after the two-time MVC champion announced that he will be using his extra year of eligibility to return. The Braves also received a commitment from junior college point guard James “Pop” Weathers, who averaged 19.5 points, and five rebounds per game at State College of Florida last season.
Wardle talks with each player about their potential outlook for the upcoming season, which can make or break a player’s decision to transfer.
“I think one thing that guys know when they come play for me is I’m very honest,” Wardle said. “I don’t hold back; I want them to know exactly where I stand. I want to know where they stand and so when the season’s over, I think that has to do with what you see their role being next year and what they want as their role. If those roles don’t align or aren’t similar, then the portal is an option for those young men because they can play right away now.”
Kent did not specifically cite playing time as a reason for his decision to transfer, rather saying how he wants to grow as a person and a basketball player. He eschews the concept that a large percentage of players, including himself, transfer because of being unhappy with their surroundings.
“It has nothing to do with ‘Oh, the fans are bad, the community is bad, I hate everything about it,’ that’s not it,” Kent said emphatically. “It’s more of ‘I love the community, I love the fans, I love everybody but what’s in it for me and my goals to achieve in life.”
Family ties and personal dreams
The more one gets to know the Oak Park native, the more they realize how ambitious and well-rounded Kent wants to be in the classroom and professionally.
“For me, [I wanted to play] somewhere where the way I would love to play and the way I grew up playing,” Kent said. “I wanted to go where I could get a little more involved in campus, especially out of season with clubs and building my resumé because it’s not just all basketball for me; I also want to have a life outside of basketball.”
The former Bradley swingman plans to major in sports management at Indiana State and earn his master’s degree in the field before returning to school at some point to earn a doctorate degree in veterinary science and open his own vet clinic.
Family has always been important to Kent, whose parents both played Division I basketball and his sister, Janae, recently committed to LSU.
“They definitely did [have an influence in my decision], but at the end of the day, my parents always told me ‘It’s up to you and where you want to be for the next three years,’” Kent said. “I plan on staying [at Indiana State] as long as I can.”
“We bounced ideas off each other, looked at pros and cons and all that stuff,” Kent said about his sister, as they sought each other’s help in where they will play next season.”
For Wardle, getting to know a player’s family, circumstances and personality is a crucial step in getting players in the door at Bradley. Looking at the statistics of hundreds of players can only tell so much; he eyes something more.
“We call it championship DNA,” Wardle said. “And that’s a lot of phone calls and research on social media and you just try to figure out who that young man is and get as many opinions on them as possible because character is number one. There’s talent everywhere at this level but it’s the intangibles that separate you.”
Logistics of Kent’s and Bradley’s situation
As far as things go on the court, Kent moves to a Sycamores team that finished 4-14 in the MVC and 11-20 overall. However, he was impressed with how head coach Josh Schertz, who led one of the winningest teams in Division II in Lincoln Memorial, cultivated progress in his first year in Terre Haute.
“Coach Schertz is a winner,” Kent said. “He came from a winning program and they develop their players and the way he coaches them expands a player’s IQ. [It’s impressive] looking at the players at Indiana State he’s developed in a matter of a year.”
As if the list of things that Wardle and the coaching staff look at wasn’t long enough, they take into account a player’s efficiency and speculate if it will translate to the mid-major level, the MVC and the Bradley program.
For Wardle and the Braves, they have three scholarships available for the 2022-23 season. Weathers is the only certainty so far, but more of the spring is devoted to scouring the portal compared to years past. According to Wardle, finding another post player to replace the 7-foot-1 Boya as well as a true shooter are near the top of the team’s list of guys they want to bring in.
“You got to do your homework on [players in the portal], you’ve got to know why they’re transferring,” Wardle said. “There’s different reasons for every young man and young woman in the portal. It affects all levels. It affects each level differently.”
The portal has seemed to hit mid-major schools the hardest, with players like Roberts using it as a stepping stone to the Power Five. According to his Twitter page, he has narrowed it down to 10 schools including Memphis, Florida and Texas, among others.
“I do know the portal and transferring can help some young men,” Wardle said. “There are some success stories. Statistics will come out as more years pile up of ‘does it really benefit?’ It’ll be very interesting to see the data on that.”
Money moves?
The transfer portal isn’t the only thing altering the college basketball landscape; the law allowing players to receive compensation for their name, image and likeness (NIL) has created a rabid buzz.
For players transferring to the high-major level like Roberts, NIL is especially a hot topic of consideration.
“From all the transfers I’ve talked to, [NIL] is a factor,” Wardle said. “It depends on the individual of where it stands [on their list of priorities]. The ability to transfer and play right away, along with NIL money, has changed college basketball forever.”
In Kent’s case, however, NIL wasn’t a priority. He believes that, due to more mid-major players having opportunities to sign NIL deals lately, they don’t need to be as proactive in that regard.
“To be honest, I would guess [the effect of it] is very little because no matter where you go, you’re going to attract people to you, especially as an athlete,” Kent said. “NIL will follow you wherever you go.”
With players switching jerseys and signing NIL contracts faster than you can shake a stick at, it’s hard to disagree that college basketball’s offseason parallels free agency in professional hoops. That has upset some college basketball purists and Wardle saw it firsthand.
“This is something new for a lot of the older coaches and when I was at the Final Four, I got to sit with a lot of older coaches and they don’t like it because it’s changing the dynamic of college basketball,” Wardle said. “Hopefully, we can figure out how to find a solution to make it better and a little more realistic for everyone.”
Changing of the guard
From a fan’s perspective, it appears that the days of attaching themselves to a group of players as they progress through the program are slipping away. Simple probability assumes that at least one will transfer before their college career is finished if the current transfer portal trend continues.
Braves fans likely remember seeing young versions of Darrell Brown, Koch Bar and Nate Kennell transform from freshman on one of the youngest teams in Division I to MVC Champions in 2019. On paper, the Braves appear to be one of the favorites to win the conference title next year, but it would come with a roster that, for the most part, has not played a full four years at Bradley.
“That’s the beauty of college basketball is the process of watching young men grow,” Wardle said. “That’s going to be hard to do now. We just have to embrace that we’re building a program year by year.”
When all is said and done, at least one thing is for certain, and that’s that Jayson Kent will be returning to Carver Arena next season when Indiana State comes to Peoria. Kent said his decision to transfer was devoid of any rifts in the program and that he can’t wait to face off against the Braves.
“Coming back to Carver [Arena], where I started my college career, and now being able to play against [Bradley] will be kind of fun; I love those types of environments, you know,” Kent said, grinning. “My teammates were all very supportive and wished me the best of luck.”
Peoria will always hold a special place in Kent’s heart and mind, as he listed quite a few aspects of Bradley and the city that he will miss.
“I’m going to miss the fans and the environment that they brought,” Kent said. “I’m going to miss my friends at Bradley University and shoutout [to] The Fry Spot in Peoria Heights. I’m going to miss that the most because they got some good food.”
What to make of college basketball as a whole
Mixed feelings about the transfer portal abound: Kent believes it should stay, for obvious reasons, Wardle is neutral on the topic and some believe there should be compromise, such as that the one year sit-out rule should be reinstated.
To describe the college basketball landscape currently is nearly impossible. The dust is still setting on March Madness and there are too many questions surrounding the current state, and the future, of the transfer portal. Perhaps more answers will surface by the summer.
One thing is promised though, and it’s that this is no longer the college basketball from Wooden and Knight’s time.
“How the portal and NIL will affect the game, I don’t know,” Wardle said. “We don’t have enough data. When [the portal] is new, everyone gets excited and then you have over 1,200 student-athletes. Will that be the case in eight to 10 years? I don’t know but I think college basketball is still extremely exciting.”
