Apr. 6—Starting Tuesday, college basketball players will have two weeks to enter their names into the NCAA’s transfer portal, should they wish to do so.
But as of Monday, it looks as if both the Eastern Washington men’s and women’s basketball teams will retain their key players.
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“We feel great about where we are,” EWU men’s associate head coach Ryan Lundgren said on Monday. “The retention we’ve been able to have through the exit meetings is pretty rare with the landscape (now) and the turnover rate a lot of programs have. We just don’t have that with this roster.”
While Lundgren and the men’s basketball staff already needed to replace all but one regular starter, the expected retention of forward Alton Hamilton IV — who scored 13.5 points and grabbed 5.7 rebounds per game last season — is significant.
Lundgren said the Eagles need to fill four or five spots between now and the start of the season and that he and the coaching staff have a busy time ahead as they scour the transfer portal. Keeping players such as Hamilton, Emmett Marquardt (11 starts) and Cole Scherer (12 starts) gives them a nucleus to build around.
“We’ve got our own core of guys … we’re committed to them, and they’re committed to us,” Lundgren said. “We feel really good about where (the roster is) at.”
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The nucleus of Eastern’s women’s basketball team also appears to be intact .
Kourtney Grossman said she is staying at Eastern Washington — and, according to postings on social media, so are most of her eligible teammates.
“I’ve had a really positive experience with the people and the opportunity at Eastern, and I am really enjoying it in Cheney,” the second-team All-Big Sky selection said on Monday. “I am sure there are other options that I could look at, but for me, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
Grossman just completed a 33-game sophomore season in which she set a new Big Sky women’s basketball record with 415 rebounds, 43 more than the record previously set by Idaho State’s Natalie Doma — a Big Sky Hall of Fame selection — across 31 games in 2006-07.
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Grossman’s rebounding total and her per-game average of 12.8 were both the fourth most in the nation this season.
As of Monday, many of Grossman’s teammates had also announced their intentions to remain at Eastern, including forward Jaecy Eggers and guards Elyn Bowers and Caitie Gingras. Assuming none of them change s their mind, Eastern would be positioned to return four starters from last year’s team that finished 15-18 overall and 7-11 in Big Sky play.
“I am super excited about where the program is headed,” Grossman said. “Just because we’re all staying, it doesn’t automatically assume success. But we are excited to keep this group and keep working.”
EWU juniors Bella Hays (9.6 minutes per game) and Brielle Magnuson (6.8) do intend to enter the portal, according to recruiting site on3.com. The majority of the Big Sky Conference’s women’s teams will lose at least three players to the portal, according to on3.com, including Northern Arizona (six), Montana (five), Idaho State (four), Weber State (four), Idaho (three) and Portland State (three).
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At least one player from every other Big Sky men’s basketball team has announced an intention to transfer, according to verbalcommits.com. That includes Big Sky Freshman of the Year Jackson Rasmussen (from Idaho) and three first-team all-league selections: Money Williams (Montana), Tijan Saine Jr. (Weber State) and Jaylin Henderson (Portland State).
Players have until April 21 to enter the transfer portal, with exceptions made later if a player’s program makes a coaching change. Players can remain in the portal after April 21 if they remain uncommitted to a new team.
