A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: College basketball fans are looking forward to the men's final four this weekend. While the top seeds in this year's tournament get ready for their semifinal games, most other basketball programs are starting to think about next season. For the Indiana Hoosiers, it means literally starting from scratch after their head coach resigned and all of their players graduated or are planning to transfer. Joining us now to discuss how Indiana is rebuilding their team with a new coach and no players is Zach Osterman, who reports on IU Athletics for The Indianapolis Star. Well, this is the definition, Zach, of a clean slate. So how is the new head coach, Darian DeVries, approaching this challenge?
ZACH OSTERMAN: Yeah, I think this roster turnover has become more manageable in recent years with the escalating phenomenon of player movement and the lessening of transfer rules. And so you were seeing more often, you know, rosters turning over insignificant numbers, sometimes even when there isn't a coaching change. I think DeVries, like any coach, certainly wants to get to a place where, annually, there is more balance, where you're not dependent upon transfers. I think that's certainly what DeVries is going to be focused on is putting his roster back together primarily through transfers.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. So he can reload pretty quickly. Even though he's losing players, he can reload them through this transfer portal. So tell us about the transfer portal, what it does and why it makes it easier for players to move around.
OSTERMAN: So the transfer portal started a few years ago. It's a mechanism to be able to just track transfers a little bit more closely, streamline the process somewhat as the practice of transferring, you know, started to really sort of tick up across all sports. I think what's happened is, especially when it's been sort of coupled to the idea of athlete compensation through name image and likeness rules. The portal has really, I think, come to be sort of inextricably linked to the idea of athlete agency. It has also become, I think, shorthand, just for the era that college athletics is in right now of athletes in all sports being more comfortable transferring from one school to another and, in many cases, I think, looking or at least wanting to examine their market value to see if there's not more money for them to earn somewhere else.
MARTÍNEZ: I was thinking in the Indiana situation, the one thing DeVries can offer a player that maybe other coaches can't is playing time. I mean, he has no players - right? - so someone has to actually dribble the basketball - at least five people have to do it, and maybe someone or a couple of others on the bench. So what kind of a player do you think he'll be looking for?
OSTERMAN: I mean, initially, he's probably going to have to lean more heavily on transfers, especially in, as you talk about there, the positions that are going to command the greatest roles. DeVries has said that his long-term preference is to get to a place where, you know, his roster is a healthier balance of players who have been recruited out of high school, developed for two or three years and then put into larger roles. But short-term, I think you are probably, if you're Indiana looking at a roster that's going to be mostly all new faces.
MARTÍNEZ: It sounds like Indiana's situation, although seemingly on the surface unique, is not maybe going to be as uncommon in the future.
OSTERMAN: This has just become more commonplace, and fans see enough portal successes every year to believe that they shouldn't have that many down years anymore, especially at a place like Indiana that's going to have the name, image and likeness resources and potentially the revenue-sharing dollars to be very competitive in acquiring and keeping talent.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Zach Osterman with The Indianapolis Star. Zach, thanks a lot.
OSTERMAN: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
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