Well, folks, it’s officially time to say the quiet part out loud: transfer portal player rankings are absolutely out of control.
Obviously, this is a case-by-case thing, but something hit the X feed this week that caught my eye, and it refers to a member of one SEC basketball program.
The player in question is Alabama center Noah Williamson, who was projected as a massive pickup at the time of his commitment. After spending three seasons at Bucknell, where he earned Patriot League Player of the Year honors, Williamson joined the Alabama Crimson Tide, and social media was over the moon excited, to say the least.
“Alabama has landed Bucknell center Noah Williamson through the transfer portal,” 247Sports’ Brett Greenberg wrote. “The seven-footer and reigning Patriot League POTY averaged 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds & 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 53.8% from the floor and 31.1% 3PT. MASSIVE pickup.”
Now, that MASSIVE pickup must be producing in a big way for Bama, right? Well, not to throw any shade at the kid, but he’s currently playing just nine minutes per game while averaging 1.2 points and 1.7 rebounds per contest. He earned a consensus four-star portal ranking as the No. 121 available player in the portsal at the time of his commitment.
To clarify, none of this is meant to be a shot at Noah Williamson; he put in the work and was rewarded heavily for it, and is competing on a winning basketball team. This is strictly a message for Big 12 fans to take caution. Portal rankings can be out of whack and way off the mark, or they can be just about spot on. This is just another case study in how what happens during the offseason always looks better until tip-off or kickoff arrives.
