Arizona guard T.J. McConnell takes to the air along the baseline during the Wildcats’ 2015 Pac-12 Tournament game against UCLA. McConnell benefited greatly from transferring to the UA from Duquesne; many others haven’t found as much success.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star 2015

The most overused and confusing term in college sports is “transfer portal.” It really doesn’t apply.

Look up “portal” in the dictionary and it says: “A door, gate, or entrance, especially one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.”

Transferring from school to school in college basketball rarely leads to a palatial setting, unless you are, say, T.J. McConnell, who transferred from lowly Duquesne to Arizona and found himself at the gate to unexpected wealth. McConnell has been paid $11.4 million in the NBA and is to become a free agent at season’s end.

A more fitting term would simply be “free agency,” because that’s what it is.

Perhaps fans of Arizona basketball should dump the term “transfer portal” and use the more positive “T.J. Freeway.”

A record seven UA basketball players have hit the T.J. Freeway since March and all left for the same two reasons:

More playing time.

More shots.

None of the 43 Arizona basketball players to transfer in the 43 years since the Wildcats joined the Pac-10 left because they sought (a) better academic curriculum, (b) a better climate or © better coaching.

They left because they wanted to be The Man.

Arizona made history the last few weeks when, in alphabetical order, James Akinjo, Jemarl Baker, Daniel Batcho, Jordan Brown, Terrell Brown, Tibet Gorener and Ira Lee hit the TJ Freeway.

Akinjo and Jordan Brown became rare double transfers, having arrived from Georgetown and Nevada, respectively. Only one previous Wildcat basketball player, Luke Recker of Indiana, had been a double transfer. Recker wisely left Tucson before playing a game in 2000, bolting for Iowa when he got a look at Gilbert Arenas.

I’m cool with one-time transfers, but twice? C’mon. If that’s the future, it’s untenable. Togetherness would have no place in college hoops.

How many of those 43 shot-seeking Arizona transfers got to the NBA? Two. Leon Wood and Will Bynum.

Wood transferred to Cal State Fullerton in 1981 and played parts of six NBA seasons. He left Arizona because he couldn’t beat out All-Pac-10 guard Joe Nehls. Bynum left Arizona in 2002 because he couldn’t beat out super shooter Salim Stoudamire. Bynum went to Georgia Tech, played in a Final Four and spent eight seasons in the NBA.

Wood and Bynum made it; 41 others did not. That’s a 95.3% failure rate.

Adia Barnes said her parents likely wouldn’t have allowed her to leave the UA as a player; now, the Wildcats’ coach must navigate a transfer portal in which many players opt to leave.

New UA coach Tommy Lloyd doesn’t expect the excessive player movement to subside. “If, right away, they don’t get instant gratification and they don’t play, they’re going to transfer,” he said.

UA women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes is reshuffling her roster after Tara Manumaleuga, Mara Mote and Marta Garcia shipped out last month. Barnes quickly replaced them with three proven Power 5 transfers: Alabama’s Ariyah Copeland, Vanderbilt’s Koi Love and Oregon’s Taylor Chavez.

“I’m looking to add one more,” said Barnes, whose clear target is USC All-Pac-12 point guard Endyia Rogers.

The point is, if you can’t profit working the T.J. Freeway, you can’t play at the highest level of college basketball. Neither Lloyd nor Barnes thinks much will change in the foreseeable future.

Lloyd reluctantly uses the term “renting.”

Said Barnes: “In a year or two, you’ll see more kids in the transfer portal. It’s a tough thing in this generation of instant gratification.”

How times have changed. Barnes said that when she was an All-Pac-10 forward at Arizona in the late-1990s, her parents wouldn’t have let her transfer had her feelings been bruised or she hadn’t met her high expectations.

“They would’ve told me to stick it out,” said Barnes.

Sticking it out is not a thing in college basketball.

Oregon guard Taylor Chavez, right, joined the Wildcats earlier this spring.

Transferring is hardly a new concept. As Fred Snowden’s coaching career ebbed at McKale Center from 1979-82, Leon Wood was joined in the transfer game by George Hawthorne, who transferred to Cal State Fullerton, Michael Zeno, who went to Long Beach State, and Dave Mosebar (Fresno State), Jeff Collins (UNLV) and Kevin Roundfield (Tennessee State).

Of that group, only Collins got any better, averaging 11.2 points per game for Jerry Tarkanian.

Lute Olson had 21 players transfer. Only one, shooting guard Ruben Douglas, benefited much. Douglas, who couldn’t get minutes away from Jason Gardner, bolted for New Mexico and averaged 28 points as a Lobos senior, leading the nation. But even at that, Douglas wasn’t an NBA player.

Olson transfers such as Michael Tait (Clemson) left because Steve Kerr beat him out. Ron Curry, who couldn’t get minutes away from NBA-bound Jud Buechler, transferred to Marquette and averaged 11 points a game. Craig Schmidt, who sat on the bench behind Matt Muehlebach and Matt Othick, left for Valparaiso, where he found his level, averaging 17 points per game.

Nor did Sean Miller’s most high-profile transfers such as MoMo Jones (Iona), Justin Simon (St. John’s) and Craig Victor (LSU). None played an NBA game.

That doesn’t predict a happy ending for those such as Akinjo and Baker, just as leaving Arizona for Boise State hasn’t improved the draft stock of Emmanuel Akot, who started just 10 of 23 games at BSU last season.

College basketball is like a no-limit poker game. The 18-year-old prospects enter college having been assured by travel-team coaches and parents that they are in line for a lot of rainbow gold and pie in the sky.

They take a seat at the table, put up the ante, but when they bump into a full house the way coveted 1991 Arizona prospect Tony Clark did — finding three kings like Sean Rooks, Chris Mills and Bison Dele in his way — they fold and run.

Clark quit after five games, transferring to San Diego State, where, bless him, he discovered that baseball was his true calling. Clark played 15 MLB seasons, earning the nickname “Tony the Tiger,” pocketing $23 million.

Unlike so many UA basketball vagabonds, Clark found a pot of gold on the TJ Freeway.

A week after Arizona fired Sean Miller, the Wildcats found their man to lead the historic men's basketball program in Tommy Lloyd, who spent the last 20 seasons as Gonzaga's top assistant. The Star's Justin Spears, Bruce Pascoe and Alec White analyze the UA's hire, Lloyd's recruiting connections and background, reactions from alumni and fans, Arizona's roster and the program's future with Lloyd taking over.

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Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711