Kolpack: Summit League missing 1 award, the all-portal team

Seemingly complete, but not really.

This is 2024. And with that, we give you the Summit League all-Transfer Portal team. To be eligible, a player must have been with a Summit club at least one season before moving on in the nomadic world of college basketball.

The committee of one voting member had no problem coming up with the first team. Four were unanimous selections: Guards Max Abmas (Oral Roberts to Texas) and Andrew Rohde (St. Thomas to Virginia), and forwards Grant Nelson (North Dakota State to Alabama) and Baylor Scheierman (South Dakota State to Creighton) were slam dunks.

The other spot took some debate, but it goes to forward Josiah Allick (Kansas City to Nebraska with a layover at New Mexico). The 6-8 Allick is averaging 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds and has been more impressive than just statistics.

Take these five players, put them on one team and they would be a threat to make a run in the NCAA tournament.

“I know I would like to coach that team,” Bison head coach Dave Richman said with a chuckle. “You know, it is what it is and I don’t think you can have success by looking backwards. Those are tremendous kids by all accounts, they’re obviously very talented basketball players that continue to do very good things on the basketball court. But I know I’m tremendously excited about coaching our group this week in Sioux Falls.”

That would be the Summit tournament, where it’s conceivable No. 9 seed Oral Roberts could win the title. SDSU is the top seed but nobody is all-world like in past years. The portal is one reason. Too many standout players have left.

There are times when University of St. Thomas head men’s basketball coach Johnny Tauer thinks about what could have been. What if Rohde didn’t transfer to Virginia? Most of the coaches in the Summit could lay awake all night wondering what if the transfer portal never existed.

“If I told you I never, ever thought about it, I would be a liar,” Tauer said. “It’s the world we live in. All of us understand it’s the nature of the business, every coach in the conference could probably lament that.”

The 6-6 Rohde burst on the scene last year as a true freshman from Milwaukee averaging 17 points a game. He was one of the more prominent prospects in the portal last year getting some published attention as a possible future NBA draft pick.

He’s not at that level yet with Virginia, but as a sophomore starter is averaging 25 minutes a game.

“Every time I think of that, I’m more proud of how our guys have responded,” Tauer said. “It’s a different world in college basketball but coaching 18- to 23-year-olds is just the best.”

Scheierman has been gone from SDSU for so long (yes, two years of absence seems like a long time now) that he’s probably somewhat forgotten. The Forum has learned this is his last year of college eligibility.

In a COVID basketball record if there ever was one, Scheierman became the first player in NCAA history to reach 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 500 assists and 300 made 3-point field goals. He has a chance to be a player of the year in two leagues: the Summit and the Big East.

Nelson’s year at Alabama has been decent, averaging 11.9 points and 5.5 rebounds. He has two teammates who each have put up more than 100 shots than he has. It remains to be seen if Nelson will declare for the NBA Draft after this season or return for his pandemic year of eligibility.

Certainly, there are honorable mentions for the all-portal team led by Robert Jones, a 6-10 center at Denver last season who transferred to Iowa State. He’s started 27 games and is averaging 8.2 points.

Connor Vanover is an average backup center for the University of Missouri, although the case can be made he went to Oral Roberts last season because of the portal. It hasn’t been a productive season for the 7-5 big guy, who is averaging 4.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in under 12 minutes a game.

Kansas City from last season had two players depart for their final season. Guard Shemarri Allen is a starting guard at Central Florida. RayQuawndis Mitchell started his career in 2018 at the University of Idaho and is on his fifth college team at Penn State. He hasn’t played much, averaging 8.3 minutes off the bench.