Vanderbilt Basketball Player Report Card: Malik Dia

Look, it’s no real secret that I am not the biggest fan of the transfer portal, and a player like Malik Dia is a good place to explain this (because player empowerment, but really, there’s a downside here.)

Dia was a local player from nearby Ensworth, came in as a 6’9”, 240-pound freshman who shot 35.3 percent from three in his limited playing time, which included dropping 14 points on 4-of-5 from three against Kentucky in January when he played a season-high 21 minutes. A decade ago, we would have seen the upside and said “hey, come back and see us in a couple of years.”

These days, though, the necessity of waiting around for a player like Dia to develop is gone. If you want to see how he…