Increasingly in college basketball, cash is king. The money the best players can command in NIL is rapidly approaching some of the dollars that the best coaches make and while many of today’s players are entering the transfer portal to make as much money as possible, there are exceptions.
Duke and Houston are slated to do battle on Saturday at the Final Four in San Antonio. Each team’s attack is bolstered by key transfers — who all told CBS Sports could have made more money at other programs.
While Houston’s LJ Cryer and Milos Uzan along with Duke’s Sion James, Mason Gillis and Maliq Brown are certainly doing quite well financially, each made decisions based on more than just who could show them the most money and those choices have them knocking on the door of a national championship.
“For sure,” said Uzan when asked if he could have made more elsewhere. “Some of the numbers that are out there are crazy.”
However, the junior guard who transferred from Oklahoma had a bigger picture in mind.
“I entered the portal to get better,” Uzan said. “I didn’t really look at it as who is going to pay me the most. I entered to be the best version of myself. I’d seen what coach Sampson does with his point guards here and when I saw what type of love they were showing me it was a no brainer.”
Duke’s fifth-year bully of a guard who transferred from Tulane, James never even expected to get paid in college. Having already played for free, he just wanted a situation to best prepare for the next level and didn’t care about being the highest-paid player or the main man.
“My goals in the portal weren’t necessarily financial,” James said. “When I came into college it was before NIL so I knew that I signed up to play for zero dollars and I didn’t mind playing for nothing, I knew what I signed up for. When I was in the portal it was really about preparing myself for the next level and being able to play in the NBA and I felt like this gave me the best chance.
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“I never cared too much about being the featured player. Obviously, if you sign up to play for a team with Cooper Flagg you know that your role is going to look a little different. That’s not what I ever cared about, I just wanted to find a place where I could be myself, play with other good players and fight for what I want.”
In Brown’s case, a call from Duke when he left Syracuse gave the junior forward a chance to fulfill a childhood dream of playing for the Blue Devils.
“I wasn’t worried about the money situation so going somewhere I was going to make the most money wasn’t what I thought about,” he said.
“Before even going into the portal, Duke was a dream school during my childhood. So going into the portal, my phone was ringing the first couple of days from all the schools but when I first got the call from Duke it was incredible and it wasn’t something I wanted to pass up, so I locked in. I didn’t want to be a prisoner of the moment, so I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision and my family trusted me with my decision.”
Last season, Gillis made the Final Four at Purdue. He wanted to take the next step in his final year, which meant he had to make a tough decision to leave. The financial aspect of his decision was certainly part of his equation, but it was just one of three main factors that mattered most.
“I just told everybody that one, I’m looking to be around a winning program and two I want to be around competitive guys that want to get better every day, go to the NBA and win a national championship,” Gillis said. “The last point was that yes, I know the money is out there and I’ve got a business mind so I’m going to get what I deserve, but that wasn’t my priority.”
When the Cougars and Blue Devils meet on Saturday, nobody will have a greater appreciation of what is on the line and what it means to prioritize winning over cash than Cryer. He was part of Baylor’s national championship team in 2021. He’s an All-Big 12 player and with a title and tons of individual accolades, the guard from Katy, Texas could have made a bundle in the portal. In fact, rumors swirled during the 2023-24 season that he would play his final year at a new program.
Instead, Cryer concluded Kelvin Sampson was the guy for him and they were on the verge of doing something special, so he stayed put and has the opportunity to move one step closer to a second title on Saturday.
“Coach Sampson doesn’t care who you are, from top to bottom, to the coaches, to the players to the managers he’s going to hold you accountable,” Cryer said. “I felt that was something I really needed.
“I just felt like I grew a lot as a player here. I knew the tradition of Houston and how they can get the best out of their players. The grass isn’t always greener at other places and I knew I had it pretty good here.”
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