Eight years before the NCAA introduced the transfer portal amid a growing wave of players flocking to other schools, Fred Hoiberg had a problem.
Hoiberg had just been hired by his alma mater, Iowa State, as the head coach, and he didn't want to wait for a crop of young freshmen to develop into winners. Iowa State had struggled to attract five-star talent in recent years. When Hoiberg arrived in 2010, the Cyclones had produced just two NBA first-round picks in 10 years. Without a strong recruiting pipeline, his options for rapid improvement were limited.