Fifteen days ago the transfer portal for college basketball opened. Since then 1,142 players have entered the portal.

There are approximately 5,000 scholarship players in Division I basketball, meaning a little under 23 percent of Division I players are in the portal. There’s still a month left for players to enter their name into the portal and there very well could be 50% of players in it by May 1.

South Dakota State men’s basketball saw the portal take its two-best players last week in Zeke Mayo and William Kyle III. Mayo committed to Kansas on Monday, returning to his hometown of Lawrence.

This is the second time in the past three seasons that the Jackrabbits have seen at least one player leave to go play at the high-major level.

Unfortunately for SDSU that might be the new reality for years to come. The Jacks don’t have the resources or the money to keep players from moving on.

You can’t blame the players for this. I think if we were all 18-22 years old we would take a six-figure payment and the opportunity to play in the highest level of college basketball. There’s no one to blame except the NCAA, who did a poor job from the start of regulating both the portal and the name, image and likeness rules.

That has led to high-major schools being able to pay as many players as they want and bring in whoever they want. The NCAA has also not been able to stop teams from reaching out to players while the season is going on, meaning both Mayo and Kyle likely heard from teams in the middle of the season, swaying them to put their name in the portal even more.

The Summit League as a whole has taken a hit so far this year. Four of the five players on the All-Summit League First Team this past season that have eligibility remaining have entered the portal. Omaha’s Frankie Fidler will have one year left and North Dakota’s B.J. Omot will have two years remaining.

As much as mid-major programs are hurting from the portal, middle of the pack programs in the high-major conferences are hurting as well. Fifty-one players from Big Ten schools have entered the portal already this offseason.

Minnesota saw three players from Minnesota that were in the same recruiting class enter the portal last week in a span of two days. In total the Gophers have had five players enter the portal and could see a couple more before the window closes.

Wisconsin went 22-14 this season and lost in the Big Ten Tournament championship game. Last week the Badgers leading scorer, AJ Storr, entered the portal. He played one season at Wisconsin after playing his freshman season at St. John’s. The Badgers saw four other players decided to transfer as well.

Nebraska went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014 this season and the eighth time in program history, and the Cornhuskers saw six players enter the portal last week. Granted, none of the players were starters, but that’s still almost half of thier roster.

Now, the portal can work both ways, but a lot of the time it’s the best teams getting better. All four of the teams that will be playing in the Final Four this weekend in Arizona have benefited greatly from the transfer portal.

SDSU has used the portal very little in the three years since the NCAA allowed players to transfer without having to sit out. The Jacks added one transfer in each of the past three seasons and none of them have been starters. To be fair, SDSU hasn’t needed to add a lot of players because Eric Henderson has recruited well during his five-year tenure.

Before this three-year stretch, SDSU saw transfers make a big impact over the five previous seasons. Scott Nagy brought in the likes of Cody Larson, George Marshall, Deondre Parks and Keaton Moffitt. Marshall, Parks and Moffitt helped lead the Jacks to the NCAA Tournament in 2016.

T.J. Otzeleberger brought in Michael Orris, A.J. Hess and Chris Howell to help SDSU make the NCAA Tournament in 2017. Brandon Key played a part in helping the Jacks make the NCAA Tournament in 2018.

Under Eric Henderson the Jacks brought in Douglas Wilson, Charlie Easley and Luke Appel, who helped SDSU get back to the NCAA Tournament in 2022. Wilson and Appel came from Kirkwood Community College in Iowa and Easley was a walk-on at Nebraska.

Henderson will need to look into the portal this offseason as SDSU lost its entire starting five to both graduation and the portal. You never know exactly what you’re going to get out of transfers, but with the track record I just laid out, SDSU should try and follow its previous model of adding players from community colleges, Division II schools, other mid-majors and players at the end of the bench at high-major schools.

It won’t be easy, Henderson and the rest of the coaching staff should feel like they can put together a team that can compete for another Summit League championship next season with the addition of a couple of players out of the portal.