TRADING UP?

At the beginning of April, we called attention to the flight from Northern Illinois's men's basketball team.

Xavier Amos, a player with solid Chicago prep credentials, will be suiting up for Wisconsin.

That announcement came one day after Central Arkansas guard Camren Hunter committed to UW. Amos took visits to Virginia and UW.

Amos, 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds, should help fill the void created by the departure of Tyler Wahl, who played five seasons at UW.

Although Wahl was a terrific defender and rebounder and a dependable post presence, his season-high mark for three-point shooting was just 29.4%. Amos can score around the basket, but his No. 1 asset offensively is the ability to shoot from the perimeter.

With the transfer protocols, recruit-redshirt-develop might give way to wait-let-the-mid-majors-develop-transfer.  The effect of that business model on the emergence of those four major conferences irrespective of the NCAA remains to be seen.