Duane Simpkins on how NIL, portal affect American

Duane Simpkins’ American Eagles are in the third First Four matchup, kicking off the Wednesday doubleheader against Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday evening – a 16 vs. 16 game of automatic bids of schools from the ‘one-bid’ leagues a step below even the low-major conferences.

Which, as Simpkins explained to the Junkies on Tuesday, can sometimes mean a player who stands out among the rest can quickly be gobbled up by a bigger program in this era of NIL and the transfer portal.

That said, can the fact that it’s a rarer occurrence at that level of Division I hoops work in the smaller schools’ favor when it comes to some NCAA Tournament matchups?

“I’ve felt that way for the past few years; that’s why Oakland beats Kentucky, you know what I mean?” Simpkins said. “Kentucky was very talented last year, but they were babies, and Oakland had grown men, seniors and a number of fifth-year guys. I can tell you from experience that you can be as good as you want to coming out of high school, but if you’re playing against somebody who’s been through it for three or four years, that’s a big, big difference. If you can get a team that’s connected, they’re older, they’re experienced, they play hard, they play together, you can give yourself a shot against anybody.”

Listen to Simpkins’ entire visit with The Junkies above!