Malik Mack began his college basketball career at Harvard before later transferring to Georgetown University.
Photographer: Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire/Getty ImagesSports
Basketball Stars Try a New Path to March Madness — and the NBA
The transfer portal is transforming Ivy League teams into proving grounds for players seeking NCAA tournament titles and pro basketball fame
Harvard University freshman point guard Malik Mack was sitting in his American Capitalism class as a case study in the big business of college basketball was silently unfolding on his phone.
Mack set a Harvard freshman scoring record during the 2023-24 season and won Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and he entered the transfer portal that spring in hopes of landing at a school with a big-time basketball program. Soon, Mack was deluged with texts and calls from coaches eager to recruit him.