As we all endlessly debate and dissect the staff's approach to recruiting and whether are blowing it by not getting desperate for a high school kid and whether they are placing too much emphasis on the transfer portal, a thought occurred to me:
In some respects, getting transfers might give you a bit more long-term roster stability. Young transfers, at least. What I mean is, a high school recruit can come in, have a less-than-productive freshman season - which is probably to be expected in the territory Pitt could be recruiting for this class - and decide to transfer. Now that piece you were hoping to count on for 3 or 4 years is gone.
However, a freshman or sophomore transfer who comes in is kind of tied to your program a little longer. They already used their one-time "free" transfer to come to your school, and while getting a waiver for a second "free" transfer is not unheard of, it's not a guarantee. You're probably going to have that young transfer for a little while. Think of a guy like Ithiel Horton or Nike Sibande; because they already transferred, they are kind of locked in with Pitt a little more than a freshman might be. Or look at Karim Coulibaly; he transfers after his sophomore year and now he's playing 9 minutes per game at St. Bonaventure. That kind of playing time would seem to make him a candidate to transfer, but since he already did transfer, he's more or less tied to St. Bonaventure for awhile - meaning that staff has some time to develop him before he bolts.
Now, I'm not advocating building a whole roster through the transfer portal. I still think Pitt has to create some kind of foundation with high school guys who develop over time (and, ideally, get to a point where they can bring in impact freshmen). But the current environment can make it tough to keep guys long enough for them to develop, and a lot of players are looking for greener pastures before much time has passed at all. At least with transfers, you've got some restrictions to keep them around for a bit.
I don't know what Pitt will do this offseason. My guess - and I've said this a bunch of times - is two transfers and a high school guy. That's just my guess; no one has told me that explicitly and I don't think Pitt has that set as a concrete plan just yet because they don't know exactly how many spots they will have available. I just thought I'd throw that thought out there as something for the ongoing discussion.
In some respects, getting transfers might give you a bit more long-term roster stability. Young transfers, at least. What I mean is, a high school recruit can come in, have a less-than-productive freshman season - which is probably to be expected in the territory Pitt could be recruiting for this class - and decide to transfer. Now that piece you were hoping to count on for 3 or 4 years is gone.
However, a freshman or sophomore transfer who comes in is kind of tied to your program a little longer. They already used their one-time "free" transfer to come to your school, and while getting a waiver for a second "free" transfer is not unheard of, it's not a guarantee. You're probably going to have that young transfer for a little while. Think of a guy like Ithiel Horton or Nike Sibande; because they already transferred, they are kind of locked in with Pitt a little more than a freshman might be. Or look at Karim Coulibaly; he transfers after his sophomore year and now he's playing 9 minutes per game at St. Bonaventure. That kind of playing time would seem to make him a candidate to transfer, but since he already did transfer, he's more or less tied to St. Bonaventure for awhile - meaning that staff has some time to develop him before he bolts.
Now, I'm not advocating building a whole roster through the transfer portal. I still think Pitt has to create some kind of foundation with high school guys who develop over time (and, ideally, get to a point where they can bring in impact freshmen). But the current environment can make it tough to keep guys long enough for them to develop, and a lot of players are looking for greener pastures before much time has passed at all. At least with transfers, you've got some restrictions to keep them around for a bit.
I don't know what Pitt will do this offseason. My guess - and I've said this a bunch of times - is two transfers and a high school guy. That's just my guess; no one has told me that explicitly and I don't think Pitt has that set as a concrete plan just yet because they don't know exactly how many spots they will have available. I just thought I'd throw that thought out there as something for the ongoing discussion.
