Part two of our interview with Dave Popkin
Dave Popkin on the difficulties faced this past season
Pelzman: This year has been particularly crazy in terms of the transfer market with the first year of the no sit-out rule. Do you think it will calm down next year? Do you think COVID caused a lot of transfers? How do you see the landscape and how do you see Seton Hall fitting in? Obviously, Kevin Willard inspired a lot of loyalty and he did well in the transfer market this time around.
Popkin: I think it will be similar next year because you’re always going to have kids that want to go home, kids that didn’t play enough minutes at their school, (players that had) personality conflicts with the coach. For whatever reason there’s always kids that want to leave and some of them didn’t do it before because they didn’t want to sit out a year.
I think (this type of movement) is here to stay and I think Seton Hall is well-positioned for that. Kevin and his staff are good talent evaluators and now they just have a bigger talent pool that they can evaluate. It seems like they got three really good players in the portal so far (Jamir Harris, Kadary Richmond, Alexis Yetna) and I think there are things yet to be determined in this off-season with so many kids still in the portal.
I think Seton Hall has done fine with the transfer dynamic and if there’s a kid like (Shavar) Reynolds that wants to go to Monmouth and be The Man for a year, then good for him. I don’t begrudge him leaving and if there’s somebody like Harris who wants to play with his brother (JaQuan Harris, a 2022 verbal commit) and wants to play at home, why would you not allow a kid to do that?
So I am bullish on Seton Hall regarding the transfer market.
