SAN ANTONIO — Houston’s stunning upset of Duke on Saturday night can be considered a referendum on the best way to structure a basketball roster in the current era of “unrestricted free agency.”
Duke blew a double-digit lead and the tournament’s biggest star Cooper Flagg missed an inside shot that would have put Duke up by a point in the final seconds. The final score was 70-67, with L.J. Cryer leading the Cougars with 26 points.
The two teams have taken completely different approaches to the unrestricted transfer portal and NIL (name, image, and likeness) opportunities.
How did we get here? In 2021, the NCAA created a new rule allowing players to transfer one time without having to sit out a year. It also allowed players to begin to profit off their own name, and boosters and donors quickly began pooling their resources to use the promise of NIL opportunities as recruiting incentives. Then a court decision in December of 2023 removed the prior portal restrictions. Another court decision months later allowed players to negotiate NIL deals before they even enrolled at a program without fear of retribution from the NCAA.
The resulting landscape: Most top programs now rely heavily on the portal and NIL offers to lure stars and build winning rosters.
This year’s Houston Cougars were no different: they didn’t have one freshman on their starting five. Two of their starters, Milos Uzan and L.J. Cryer were transfers. Emmanuel Sharp, J’Wan Roberts, and Joseph Tugler were all home-grown players, but they’ve got many years of experience between them.
In contrast, Duke relied on freshmen. The Blue Devils had the youngest starting lineup of anyone at the Final Four. This offseason, Duke signed five top freshmen to lead their team, all of whom were named in the ESPN Top 50. The Blue Devils only used the portal to “supplement” their group of two returners and five freshmen, coach Jon Scheyer told reporters this week.
Earlier this week, St. John’s coach Rick Pitino told reporters he was deeply impressed with Duke’s prowess considering it played such a young roster. “It’s very difficult to win with freshmen,” Pitino said.
But on Saturday night, Duke’s fountain of youth couldn’t give the Blue Devils enough life in the NCAA tournament. Houston will face Florida in the national championship on Monday night.
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