Pro sports have their trading deadlines, that frantic few weeks when teams attempt to patch holes, trim payroll and/or unload malcontents before the playoffs commence. Colleges have no such in-season swap meet, but come spring, basketball's transfer flood commences.
CBS Sports' Jeff Goodman has accepted the herculean challenge of charting all Division I transfers, and his list is notable for not only its length but also its breadth.
No level or conference is immune. ACC and Big East. Colonial and Mid-Eastern Athletic. Ivy and Patriot.
Virginia and Virginia Tech. VCU and Old Dominion. North Carolina State and North Carolina Wilmington.
All have lost and/or accepted transfers. Most are pursuing them.
Goodman's list is more than 300 strong and speaks to many forces. Among them:
•The Twitter mentality. We want everything instantly, from news to oatmeal. For college athletes, this includes playing time. Patience is for chumps and if, after a season or two, minutes are minimal, it's transfer time.
•Delusions of grandeur. Every kid and his family thinks he's NBA material. That's because enabling coaches and hangers-on have told them so since elementary school. This fuels the sport's collective impatience.
•Media saturation. With more of us knotheads on the case, fewer transfers go unnoticed or unreported.
So are we at epidemic or crisis numbers when approximately 8 percent of the workforce wants a change of scenery? Probably not.
Besides, many transfers are in the best interests of player and school(s). Some players are unhappy socially or academically; others are caught in the middle of coaching changes or NCAA sanctions beyond their control.
Consider power forward DeShawn Painter, the most productive reserve on N.C. State's Sweet 16 team this season. He wasn't unhappy in Raleigh, but family medical concerns at home in Norfolk prompted him to transfer to ODU for his final college season.
Then there's Alex Oriakhi. He left Connecticut for Missouri because the Huskies are ineligible for the 2013 NCAA tournament due to the program's academic shortcomings.
Virginia lost KT Harrell and James Johnson at midseason, with Harrell eventually landing at Auburn, Johnson at San Diego State. Similarly, Virginia Tech separated with Ty Garland, who transferred to LaSalle.
All three exited over playing time, and all returned to their home roots. Nothing nefarious there.
The Cavaliers and Hokies are hardly alone among their ACC comrades. Eight of the conference's 12 teams have been hit by transfers, hardly a surprise given the league's recent coaching turnover.
College basketball's version of the waiver wire offers many coaches a chance to restock their roster with older, more experienced players. Maryland this week landed Michigan forward Evan Smotrycz, while Virginia and Virginia Tech continue to court possible additions.
Both are interested in forward Anthony Gill, a transfer from South Carolina. Gill visited Virginia last weekend, and his summer league coach told South Carolina's student newspaper, the Daily Gamecock, that Gill will choose between the Cavaliers and Ohio State.
Point guard Dylan Ennis, a Rice transfer, said last week that he's considering Villanova, Cincinnati, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Boston College. The Hokies and Cavaliers are thin at that position for 2013-14, but those who follow recruiting far more closely than I do believe Ennis favors the Big East schools.
Neither Tech nor Virginia has been a haven for Division I transfers.
Hokies coach Seth Greenberg has taken one — Florida transfer Allan Chaney never played for Tech because of a heart ailment — while Tony Bennett has accepted none in three seasons with the Cavaliers.
But given their glaring needs and the scores of transfers searching for new homes, you can't blame them for surveying the market.
David Teel can be reached at 757-247-4636 or by email at dteel@dailypress.com. For more from Teel, read his blog at dailypress.com/sports/teeltime and follow him at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP
