A two-way window of opportunity

"Transfer portal" sounds like something from a "Star Trek" script. However, college basketball fans know it as the regulated window through which student-athletes pass in order to play for a different school. Significantly, it allows for the transfer to occur without the player having to sit out a year, as the old rules demanded. 

It's part of the NCAA's modern world of college revenue  sports. Naturally, for reasons aplenty, a lot of players have used that recently established window. The window for college basketball next season just opened on March 20. It will close on May 17.

VCU Rams basketball fans know that the transfer portal is a two-way street. It receives. It takes away. 

At this point, going into the 2023-24 season the only players leaving Coach Mike Rhoades team are doing so because they've used up their allotted years of eligibility. They are David Shriver and Brandon Johns. They were both transfer additions who only had one year of eligibility remaining when they arrived. As it happened, both played significant roles on the Rams team that just went 27-8. 

At this writing, VCU has one new player signed to join the team next season. He is a recruit who is finishing prep school this semester -- Tarique Foster, a 6-foot-8 wing.

Thus, as things stand now, VCU's team has one scholarship opening for next season. That spot might be filled by a transfer or another recruit (a true freshman). But before you start searching the Internet for a 6-foot-10 transfer -- a power forward who can shoot 3-pointers -- don't forget, we don't know who might decide to leave (and need to be replaced). 

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Update No 1: VCU's junior guard, Josh Banks, has entered the transfer portal. It remains to be seen where he will land.  

Update No. 2: Often injured junior guard Jarren McAllister has entered the transfer portal.