College hockey fans know what it's like to think this way.
You enjoy a player doing well for your team but in the back of your mind you wonder if he's too good.
If he's too good, after all, he'll leave early. In college hockey, leaving early means he signs a professional contract.
It's become a similar sentiment now for fans of Summit League men's basketball. But instead of a player signing a pro deal, he'll opt to transfer.
Whether you're in favor of the explosion of NCAA men's basketball transfers or against it, the reality has arrived and any reversing of the trend doesn't appear near-and might never be.
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UND basketball fans were the first in the Dakotas to truly feel the impact. After reaching the 2016 NCAA Tournament by way of winning the Big Sky Conference, UND saw center Carson Shanks graduate transfer to Loyola Chicago, point guard Geno Crandall went to Gonzaga and power forward Drick Bernstine jetted off to Washington State.
Transferring had hit the Big Sky Conference harder than the Upper Midwest. It wasn't really a huge trend throughout the Dakotas until this week.
Perhaps the stability of the Division I Dakota programs staved off the transfer trend for a few more years. It felt that way when South Dakota State star Mike Daum came back to the Jackrabbits for his senior season in 2018-19.
Transfers were once an indication of a struggling program or an inadequate coach, but that's really no longer the case.
Look at NDSU and SDSU. The Summit League tournament champion Bison and the Summit League regular season champion Jacks took a hit early this week.
At NDSU, 6-foot-8 post Deng Geu-the Bison's third leading scorer-announced Monday his intention to graduate transfer.
At South Dakota State, where head coach T.J. Otzelberger left this offseason for UNLV, all-Summit guard David Jenkins, Jr., who hit a school record 112 three-pointers last season, announced Monday he'll reopen his recruitment.
At South Dakota, two players have announced decisions to transfer and the Coyotes countered Monday by gaining a commitment from Division II standout Kanon Koster of Nebraska-Kearney.
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According to verbalcommits.com, NCAA Division I has 491 players opting to transfer this season as of midday Tuesday.
The list is growing by the day and surely will affect UND at some point this offseason, although verbalcommits.com doesn't currently list any Fighting Hawks.
With Crandall reaching the Elite Eight for the Zags, Shanks reaching the Final Four with Loyola last year and USD transfer Mike Mooney doing the same with Texas Tech this year, it's obvious the Summit League will be dealing with this issue for years to come.
The good news for coaches is players transfer for different reasons. Some want to go up a level for increased exposure, others want to move down to increase playing time.
Summit League fans have to hope their coaches are scouring that transfer list. They're going to need to recruit from it the way this last week has played out.
