Mid-major recruiting in flux: Will prep players even be targeted anymore?

Of the 24 players who were part of the 2021 freshman class for eight conference teams, only three remain on league rosters. The few, the proud are Denver’s Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente, Oral Roberts’ Sir Issac Heron and North Dakota’s Brian Matthews.

And that’s barring any late, unknown movement from those players. Plus, there’s still over six months until next season begins.

“I figured it was a big number but when you see it like that, I mean, wow,” said North Dakota State head coach Dave Richman.

The trend is glaring. The 2022 class is heading that way, too, with 16 of 36 players remaining on Summit rosters. Why it’s happening is a direct reflection of the ease of the transfer portal. Broken down, that includes playing time or money players are getting elsewhere.

To be fair, of those 24 Summit freshmen, a few were walk-ons who probably wouldn’t have lasted with or without the portal. Still, with retention of freshmen players so low, will mid-majors like Summit programs at some point reach a philosophy of why even recruit them?

“I think it’s a relevant question for sure,” said UND head coach Paul Sather. “Time will tell. I think there’s still a balance. I think there are still freshmen that can come in and be impactful. I think every situation is so different and unique that it’s kind of hard to generalize it across the board and say (mid-majors) won’t recruit freshmen anymore.”

Richman said there’s certainly an assumption that Division I schools are recruiting fewer freshmen. He said in the recent recruiting trips made by the Bison staff that they sense stress among the prep prospects because of that.

“Everybody stares at the sun and that sun right now is the portal,” Richman said. “That’s hurting opportunities for high school kids.”

One Division I head coach said he’ll try to sign a high school player or two early, but will then focus on landing juniors or seniors in the portal. He also foresees prep schools becoming more popular with Division I programs signing fewer high school seniors.

Conversely, Sather believes there are a lot of high school prospects getting overlooked because of the environment of the transfer portal. Or perhaps high-major programs are telling recruits to go play at the mid-major level, get experience for a couple of years and then come back to them.

Richman said his program will not sway from recruiting high school players. Included in his pitch besides a full scholarship are financial benefits like cost of attendance, Alston payments and a collective that is building.

“I’ll say it, at our level, we need to create those opportunities for those high school kids that they might not have,” Richman said. “We pride ourselves in our development and we’re going to develop them as long as they want to be here for us and at some point and time we don’t provide their happiness, then move on, cut bait.”

Sather said he’s at the point where he’s not shocked by anything. But even he was surprised that only three players remain from the 2021 Summit freshman class.

It puts more pressure on league coaches to keep their teams with some sort of veteran presence, or as Sather said, “You’re trying to stay old.”

The best approach, he said, is continuing to try to find the balance of freshmen recruits and transfers. Winning a Summit title, after all, is difficult with mostly teenagers. Last year, league tournament champion South Dakota State had three seniors, a junior and sophomore — the latter two Zeke Mayo and William Kyle who are now at Kansas and UCLA, respectively.

“We’re in such a different time right now that we’re all trying to navigate through it and figure out as we’re moving forward, what’s the best approach to some of this stuff?” Sather said. “I don’t pretend to know the answer to that or believe I have it figured out. It’s a work in progress.”

What the portal has robbed mid-majors of are the star players who played four seasons with the same program. NDSU’s freshman classes of 2011, 2012 and 2013 combined had five of nine players who remained with the Bison for their entire careers.

But it’s who stayed. Of the three from the 2011 class, guard Lawrence Alexander and center Chris Kading remained while guard Joel Lindberg moved on. In 2012, forwards Kory Brown and Dexter Werner stuck it out while guard Brett VandenBergh did not. In the 2013 class, guard A.J. Jacobson and guard Carlin Dupree hung with it while walk-on guard Zach Checkal checked out.

Alexander, Kading, Brown, Werner, Dupree and Jacobson all played significant roles in NDSU’s 2015 Summit League tournament title team and a near-upset of Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Those were the days when a player had to sit out a year if he transferred from one Division I school to another. Combined with instant eligibility and the money available with NIL and collectives, mid-major hoops has become a minor league for the Power Four schools. One Division I coach said he wants to recruit four seniors every year.

“They have the ability to buy the players,” Sather said. “I’m not saying they’re doing anything wrong or illegal, I’m just saying they have the ability to go out and buy a roster and not everyone has that ability.”

In several cases, buying Summit players. The University of Nebraska, where NDSU's Andrew Morgan went, is said to have a $3 million yearly collective. Of the six Summit League first-team selections in March, four entered the transfer portal in Kyle and Mayo, UND’s B.J. Omot and Omaha’s Frankie Fidler. One graduated in Denver’s Tommy Bruner while Kansas City’s Jamar Brown appears to be holding steady.

Of the second-team selections besides Morgan, UND’s Tyree Ihenacho is at Wyoming. Two others graduated. Another, ORU's Issac McBride, entered the portal, but came back to the Golden Eagles.

The career of the mid-major player has changed dramatically in a short period of time. The Summit stars of a decade ago for the most part remained at their school for their entire careers.

The University of St. Thomas wasn’t included in the Summit analysis since it started its Division I reclassification in 2021. The Tommies, however, haven’t been immune to the portal losing star guard Andrew Rohde after last season.

“It’s not necessarily what I signed up for,” Richman said. “But I want to be crystal clear in my messaging, too. These are challenging times but we need to embrace these challenging times and we need to adapt.”

At least it appears Summit teams are still bent on recruiting high school players. Last season, SDSU had five true freshmen and UND and USD four each.

Whether that continues remains to be seen. For one, it’s not cheap to hit the recruiting trail nor is it a simple process. Signing one high school letter of intent often means getting a verbal commitment in their junior year and then holding on to them until signing day.

It means plane flights to go see a prospect play, either during the high school season or AAU summer games. It means bringing them in for an official visit. College coaches can do all of that and see it get erased in a 15-minute phone call.

Is all of that worth it?

NDSU lost coveted recruit Isaia Howard from Plattsburg, Missouri, recently. He gave the Bison a verbal commitment last August, signed his letter of intent in November but with the relaxed NCAA rules asked that letter to be rescinded two weeks ago.

The Bison do have three freshmen recruits still on board: guard Andy Stefonowicz from Minnetonka, Minnesota; forward Treyson Anderson from Lincoln, Nebraska; and guard Carson Smith from Bountiful, Utah.

“And do we mix in a junior college prospect in the fall? Absolutely,” Richman said. “Will our bread and butter in the fall still be high school kids? Absolutely.”

Of the Summit schools, Denver and Kansas City appear to be trending toward taking more transfers than preps. The Pioneers have had two true freshmen in each of the last two years and Kansas City two last season after an eight-player freshman class of 2022 has blown up — three still remain.

NDSU had two last season in scholarship player Darik Dissette and walk-on Eli Bradly, but that came one year after the Bison had five true freshmen in 2022-23. Where the portal is changing Richman’s thinking is spring recruiting: if a junior heads into the transfer portal after the season it’s hard to replace him with a freshman from an impact standpoint.

NDSU is bringing in senior forward Jacksen Moni from Northern State, senior guard Masen Miller from Indiana State and junior guard Brennan Watkins from VMI.

Perhaps the next marketable player NDSU has is 6-foot-10 forward Noah Feddersen, who at that size developed a nice outside shooting touch last year in his redshirt freshman season. It used to be commonplace that he would remain at NDSU for five years like that 2004 class of Ben Woodside, Lucas Moorman, Mike Nelson and Brett Winkelman.

“The Beatles,” Richman said.

Sather is hoping Matthews makes his fourth year the best. The 6-10 forward has weathered back injuries but has remained committed to the Hawks.

“He hung in there,” Sather said. “He’s been sticking around. He’s been working hard. He’s a good kid, you want to see him go out and really have some impact in that last year.”