The portal giveth, and the portal taketh.
That’s the best way to describe what we’ve seen — not just over the last few years as the transfer portal has become a central part of college athletics, but even in the last few weeks as the college basketball season winds down.
The portal doesn’t officially open for men’s basketball until Tuesday (April 7th), and Monday (April 6th) for women’s hoops – but that hasn’t stopped players from getting out ahead of it, and both the Iowa and Iowa State women’s basketball teams have been right in the middle of it.
Let’s start with Iowa State — because of the two programs, they’ve drawn the most attention when it comes to portal movement.
As of today (April 2nd), nine players from the Cyclones’ women’s basketball team have announced they are leaving the program. (A tenth, freshman Freya Jensen, has since had a change of heart and reportedly plans to return.) I don’t need to tell you — nine players is a lot. And when that group includes names like Audi Crooks and Addy Brown — two players who have been central to what this team has built the last few seasons — people are going to notice.
Eyebrows are raised. Heads are turned. Interest is piqued.
“What’s going on at Iowa State?”
It’s a question I’ve asked on my show. It’s one you’ve probably asked yourself. It’s being talked about everywhere — social media, bars, barbershops, wherever people are talking sports (and yes, maybe even a water cooler or two if those still exist).
But if you were hoping for clear answers from athletic director Jamie Pollard or anyone else inside Iowa State athletics — you probably came away disappointed.
Pollard, in a six-plus minute video statement, acknowledged the concern surrounding both programs, but largely framed the situation as a reflection of the current landscape in college athletics. He pointed to the transfer portal and NIL as forces that have fundamentally changed roster management, while also expressing confidence in the direction of both the men’s and women’s programs.
What he didn’t do, however, was offer much in the way of specifics.
There was no clear explanation for the volume of departures on the women’s side, and no definitive statement on the long-term outlook for head coach Bill Fennelly. Pollard said Fennelly earned the right to “finish what he started and finish it the right way” and attempted to compare this situation to turnover within the football program when Matt Campbell departed for Penn State – a comparison that doesn’t fully hold up.
In that case, the head coach left, which triggered roster movement. Here, the head coach remains and players are still leaving. Similar on the surface, but fundamentally different.
Overall, Pollard’s message lacked the specificity many in the fanbase were hoping for.
Fennelly put out a statement of his own later Thursday afternoon, saying he was “sad and disappointed” that some of his players were pursuing other opportunities – he wished them the best and pledged to the fans that they would have a team that represented them “The Iowa State Way”.
Look, I fully understand that most of this is handled internally. The real reasons why players leave are rarely made public — unless they choose to share them, and most don’t. What we usually get is the social-media version: the graphic, the thank-you post, the “I’ll always be a (insert team name here)” line.
And sure — there’s truth in that. But when a player is swapping one set of colors for another — and those new colors come with more opportunity, more playing time, a better chance to win, and likely a bigger payday — let’s not pretend it was always an impossible decision.
Meanwhile, while Iowa State has dominated the headlines, they’re not alone in dealing with the realities of the portal.
Over in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes are navigating their own roster turnover. It may not jump off the page in the same way as Iowa State’s situation, but it still matters — and it still shapes what this program will look like moving forward.
As of this writing, three players have announced their intent to leave the Iowa program – the most notable being former five-star recruit Addie Deal.
Deal arrived with sky-high expectations – her recruiting pedigree, her skill set and the belief from some that she could help prevent a drop-off in the post-Caitlin Clark era.
But even highly touted players take time to develop, and while Deal showed flashes throughout the season, she ultimately didn’t do enough to earn consistent minutes.
Some will argue that a player with her profile should have seen the floor more – and there’s a case to be made there – but the primary objective is still winning, and if a player isn’t giving the team its best chance to do that, it’s difficult to justify extended playing time.
Deal isn’t the only player the Hawkeyes will lose to the portal, as both junior Kennise Johnson and sophomore Callie Levin have both announced their intentions to depart Iowa City. If you ask me, it’s tougher to see players like Levin at Iowa and Crooks at Iowa State depart their respective schools, because you could tell how much being a member of that team meant to them. It’s not to say Levin is a bigger loss than Crooks – Crooks has had the more impactful career – but there’s something different about watching a player leave who clearly embraced what it meant to represent the school, the city and the state.
At Iowa State, nine departures — including cornerstone players — create the feeling that something bigger might be happening. At Iowa, the movement feels more in line with what we’ve come to expect: players evaluating their roles, their opportunities, and their future in a system where movement is no longer the exception — it’s the norm.
But make no mistake — whether it’s nine players or just a handful, every departure matters.
Every roster spot is a piece of the puzzle. Every decision — whether it’s staying or leaving — impacts what these teams will be next season.
And that brings us back to where we started:
The portal giveth, and the portal taketh.
For every player that leaves, another will arrive. For every question raised, answers will eventually come — even if they don’t come right away.
That’s the reality of college basketball now.
Stability isn’t guaranteed. Continuity is harder to maintain. And building a roster has become just as much about retention as it is recruitment.
For programs like Iowa and Iowa State, the challenge isn’t just navigating the portal — it’s surviving it, adapting to it, and ultimately finding a way to win because of it, not in spite of it.
Ultimately, the question isn’t why players are leaving – it’s whether programs are prepared for how often they will.
