It took roughly 13 minutes of basketball for Duke to unofficially end James Madison’s terrific season, and not a whole lot more than that for JMU coach Mark Byington to leave for his new job after the final – official -- buzzer sounded on that NCAA Tournament second-round game.
Byington, who is headed to the SEC at Vanderbilt, was not alone in moving from the postgame press conference to introduction as a head coach at a major-conference program inside the subsequent 24 hours. Dusty May was Michigan's coach one day after Florida Atlantic lost to Northwestern. Danny Sprinkle left Utah State for Washington. Kyle Smith departed Washington State for his dream job at Stanford.
Coaching searches similar to the episodic drama that enveloped Louisville since the Cards played their final game March 12 no longer are the norm. (The Cardinals reportedly wrapped the search on March 27 with Charleston's Pat Kelsey.) It’s more find your coach, work his agent, wait until his current team runs out of March Madness and then complete the hire. Whether anyone’s actually interviewing anymore – well, it probably happens in some form, but it’s not the ceremony it once was.
And all of this is fine. There’s no reason to object. Each coach gained a significant raise and greater opportunity to succeed. All three of these men advanced their teams in the NCAA Tournament, so there’s no reason to believe they were in any rush to move on.
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It’s just: Why are so many so concerned about the timing of the transfer portal if it’s effectively open for coaches as soon as their seasons are complete?
When the transfer portal for college players opened the day after Selection Sunday, there was so much misery spread about how terrible this was for college basketball. Multiple high major coaches said this, as well as some in the media who cover the sport.
We have seen more than 1,000 players enter the portal already, although only a few have names you would recognize. Some had coaching changes in their program (Dug McDaniel and Tarris Reed of Michigan, Tucker DeVries of Drake) or they perceived their performances warranted a more competitive stage (Malik Mack of Harvard, Ja’Kobi Gillespie of Belmont). It’s hard to imagine anyone who placed their names on the list not hoping for at least some sort of an NIL pay bump.
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Of the 16 coaches still active in the tournament, only five are still at their first Division I coaching positions: Tommy Lloyd of Arizona, Mark Few at Gonzaga, Jon Scheyer at Duke, Hubert Davis of North Carolina and Brian Dutcher of San Diego State. Every other coach took the opportunity to advance his career position: to make more money, to have a greater chance at March success, to live in a preferred area or, in some cases, to preserve employment when the possibility of termination threatened.
We have come to expect this and rarely to lament it. Given how capricious some fans can be about their appreciation of coaches, it would be reckless for them not to consider other, possibly greater opportunities when presented.
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There should be no reason for us to view athletes differently. This is not to say everyone who enters the portal will be delighted with that decision, or its outcome. Anecdotally, we’ve heard in the recent past some players wind up struggling to find a new home, at least at the Division I level. Some will wind up in smaller roles than imagined. That is the risk assumed when one changes circumstances.
But there also might be a Dalton Knecht or Lance Jones or Marcus Domask or Harrison Ingram out there – players who transferred to more prominent programs prior to the 2023-24 season and still are alive in the competition for an NCAA championship.
College athletes have greater freedom and opportunity than ever before. It’s no longer just for the coaches or administrators. There’s no good reason to spin this as a bad thing.
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